58
JUNE2015
AMERICANWAY
youcangohome again, but thathomewillnever
be the same and, if toomuch timepasses, you justmight
become terriblydisoriented.This thoughthitmeasaCTA
busdepositedmeonDevonAvenue, inChicago’sWestRidge
neighborhood, alsocalledWestRogersPark.
FarfromMillenniumParkandNavyPier,DevonAvenue,
onthenorthwestedgeofthecity,wasoncemydowntown;my
MagnificentMile.From1968untilIgraduatedfromMather
HighSchool in1973,myentire lifeplayedoutonDevon.We
ateslicesat Il-FornoPizzeria, boughtourschool clothesat
Crawford’sDepartment Storeand, atRosen’sDrugs, Ihad
my very first job, delivering prescriptions on ahuge red,
one-speedbike, circa theIndustrialRevolution.
Atthattime,DevonteemedwithEasternEuropeanbak-
eries anddeliswhereEnglishwas broken, not spoken. I
was oneof the lone goyim (non-Jews), in aneighborhood
of almost all Jews, but that didnot stopme from taking
the same religious holidays off frompublic school asmy
yarmulke-wearing friends.
As IrvingCutlerwrote in
TheEncyclopediaofChicago
,
Jewish familiesbegan leavingneighborhoodson thesouth
andwest sides ofChicago afterWorldWar II for “higher-
statusWestRogersPark(WestRidge)onthefarNorthSide.
Theendofthe20thcentury,WestRogersParkhademerged
as the largestJewishcommunity in thecity.”
Today,onDevonAvenue, thatJewishshtetl,orneighbor-
hood,hasmostlyvanished,replacedbyamore-diversebusi-
nessmix.AsIwalkdownthestreettryingtomatchmemoryto
thepresent,IpassAwamiBazaar;PakSweets;Tel-AvivKosher
Bakery; PatelBrothersgrocery, PatelCaféandPatelHand-
icrafts; theCroatianCulturalCenter ofChicago; Pakistan
Fashion;RajJewels; IslamicBooks&Things;Tiffin;Hema’s
Kitchen;KolTuvKosherFoods;andRobert’sFishMarket.
If there is a two-wordphrase that describes theoppo-
site of gentrification, it is
DevonAvenue
. Approximately
half of theneighborhood’s residentswereborn
inanothercountry.Youwillhardlyfindafamiliar
chainbusinessonDevon, but you canbuya cup
ofmasalatea,awarm loafofchallahorryebread,
handmadeoutfitsforyourentireIndianwedding
partyandminiatureHindutempleswiththeele-
phantdeityGanesh inside.Youcangovegetarian,
SusanPatel of
PatelHandicrafts
