@Cue7 Thank you!! I do agree that UChicago should stay D3, however, IMO, they would be competitive in non-rev D1 sports. The academic profile will draw top student athletes immediately. Unfortunately, you probably need to have a revenue producer like basketball, to get the budgets close to neutral.
@JBStillFlying - I was in HP about a year ago. Seems like there was lots of neighborhood development (especially around 53rd), but I’m unclear about student use of new spaces. It’s why I asked what other posters (maybe current students?) would like to see developed for the student population.
I’m also curious to see if the social spaces have changed (or proliferated). As I recall, for many years, the Reg (yep, the Reg), dorm events, frats, and apt parties formed the bulk of on-campus social life. Have other venues come on the scene? Is attendance at athletic events now more part of the social fabric?
I don’t know.
Whether D1 or D3, it would be nice if the UChicago games were televised. I’d watch for sure! Do they even televise D3 sports?
@Cue7 - Don’t forget the pub in the basement of Ida Noyes!! Spent quite a bit of time there in my “youth” . . .
The newer retail on 53rd is usually crawling with students, especially on a weekend night, but you might mean college students specifically, whereas I’ve seen a mix of college and grad students milling around that area. Very different from when grad students dominated the landscape, particularly north of 55th. My D lives near 53d and makes use of all the retail in the area but also the JO on 61st and Cottage.
Kimbark Liquor gets its usual line-up of frat bros and their cases of beer. Some things never change.
It’d be great to get indoor mini-golf in Hyde Park. That’s always fun and there are a couple of great places for that elsewhere in the city. There’s bowling now on 55th but only a few lanes. Not sure HP will ever be like Lincoln Park in terms of nearby “fun” but then it doesn’t have LP rents either.
My two college kids in HP seem to like the social scene but both are pretty tight with their respective houses and enjoy campus events (including theatrical performances). I don’t think they have a lot of leisure time but my son also manages to get off campus at least semi-regularly and has even ventured into Bronzeville for dinner (something I never would have thought of doing). Last summer two of my kids were planning to do some late night “Movie in the Park” thing that my husband and I were extremely nervous about because that area wasn’t exactly on our list of “go to” areas when we lived there. Anyway, I’m not sure the young people feel quite as claustrophic as undergraduates as I did living in the area as a grad student - and I had a car!! With their “free” (NB: not free - it’s on the tuition bill every quarter) CTA pass they go all over the place. Did you have that in your day?
@JBStillFlying no “free” CTA pass in my day, although I recall the CTA being extremely affordable. We used it pretty often (1-2 times a week?) to explore the city.
And yes, the pub in Ida Noyes, of course, is a great gathering spot!
Mini-golf could be fun, I suppose. I wonder what else could spruce up life for the undergrads, in particular. A comedy club? Sports bar? Subsidizing restaurant dinners on Saturday nights (when the dining hall is closed)?
The U. is investing a lot of resources into undergrad life. I’m curious if there are any innovative ideas coming down the pike. (The “free” CTA pass is nice, but, as you said, not really free.)
The “free” CTA pass is a little over $300 per academic year, according to the tuition statement. Definitely less than a regular Ventra card, as my D found out this summer when she had to pay the regular fare.
My kids have attended dinners out with their houses and I think there’s money in the house budget for that (but it also might vary by house or event). If kids like comedy clubs, there are several up on the north side; living in HP didn’t keep us away from those, and Second City is equally inconvenient to the NU kids as well. I’ve noticed a variety of students from all over the city attending things all over the city. I don’t think one needs to feel they are “stuck” in Hyde Park 
Indoor mini-golf is a hoot! There was/is one near Gleacher that a bunch of us used to go to. Goose Island brewery had one as well. We were of drinking age in those days so always ordered from the bar (as did everyone else).
I recall many opportunities to get out and have fun in and around HP during the Bad old Days, even when the community was relatively isolated on the south side (it just doesn’t have that “feel” anymore given the lakefront development from the Loop southward). We had Checkerboard up in Oakland neighborhood; they later relocated to HP but unfortunately had to close. Violent Femmes came to campus at one point. Lascivious Costume Ball was in full “swing” until the mid-80’s when the Admin shut it down. Doc Films and Harper Theater provided plenty of close-to-home film entertainment. Jimmy’s was - and is - a favorite hang out and now you can get over to Insomnia Cookies when they finally kick you out of there.
Jackson Park is the only 18-hole golf course in the city. I never hit 57th street beach in my day but my kids have been over there several times. Court Theatre, Logan and other venues have a decent schedule of events to attend plus there are plenty of other talks and debates that bring out a good crowd (as mentioned on other threads). And for the museum-oriented, there’s MSI, OI, Smart and DuSable (not to mention whatever exhibit is going on over at Logan).
I was in HP a few weeks ago for a music performance and didn’t notice anyone moping around looking for something to do (ok it was a Sunday night so maybe everyone was headed over to the Reg? After hitting the restaurants . . . ). HP is a lot more crowded than it was 25 years ago. What I’ve noticed is that students continue to find ways to occupy their free time, and it’s easier to be able to do this locally than it used to be.
There might be plenty of young people who just prefer the nightlife of the North side and need to be near that constantly - for those people, there are several other universities throughout the city to consider. But HP seems to attract a good number who really like the feel of the neighborhood and the people there. By any objective measure we’ve all seen that to be the case.
@JBStillFlying - bringing this back around, do undergrad students nowadays go to more of the athletic events? Is that something to do on a saturday or sunday afternoon? It strikes me that many of Chicago’s teams are very good now (soccer, tennis, w basketball, etc.)
Also, I think HP feels a lot less “sleepy” than in years past. Of course, there are a lot more undergrads to frequent restaurants, bars, etc. Roughly 7000 18-22 yos frequent the area on friday and saturday nights, either looking for things to do in HP or beyond. Even more than that, more people are calling hyde park home - there are definitely more high rises, amenities, etc. around nowadays.
Subsidized CTA is definitely a nice perk.
It’d be interesting to hear what others think of athletics/social life at Chicago nowadays, for undergrads.
^ Not sure about attendance at athletic events but maybe someone with ties to a team can weigh in. My own kids just laugh when I ask them but they might not be the most representative of who’s showing up there these days. 
The sight lines of the entire city - not just HP - have really changed in recent years. Lots of new high rises!
Perhaps as Woodlawn continues to regentrify restaurants and clubs and sports bars will move into the area. Plenty of room for them!
As far as my son is aware, none of the residents of his House go to any athletic events. They are making a big push to encourage people to go support two new House members who are on one of the teams - I saw the posters when I was there - so when he’s home at Christmas I’ll see if that worked to get some of them to go to watch a game. Hanging out in his dorm, the talk was about going to the plays, music, theatre, a capella groups and things like that. Sports didn’t come up once. Granted, he’s in BJ, so I’m guessing few athletes put BJ as one of their choices for housing since it’s relatively far from Ratner and mostly singles.
None of the students I talked to showed much enthusiasm for the HP food or social activities, either, though. More of a “we’ll eat there if we’re too busy to go elsewhere” but no real excitement about how fun/good it is. They seem to use those CTA cards (and Uber sometimes) to head out into Chicago, from Chinatown to downtown.
There was talk of the lack of good quality ethnic food and variety, so allowing places for popup food halls or something similar that encourages a variety of providers that don’t have to shell out for a fixed location could facilitate more variety.
@milee30 - yeah, in my day, all the “cool stuff” was outside Hyde Park. There’s been a lot of development around HP, but I don’t get the sense it’s really a sought-after college hangout place. I sort of wish it had the cache of other areas, but even as a neighborhood, it’s nothing like what’s around the Us at Chapel Hill or Ann Arbor or Austin.
As a thought experiment, what’s needed to make more “cool stuff” in HP? To make it a bit more of a destination? It’s rare for people from other parts of the city to come to Hyde Park - certainly nothing like the traffic found on the north side, downtown, chinatown, etc.
@cue7 - wouldn’t the presence of the university be the “destination”? Why do students need more “cool stuff” in Hyde Park? Students might prefer the relatively quiet and low-key atmosphere because it helps them remain focused on their studies. They go out into other parts of the city to get their “cool stuff.”
From what I can observe, the college might be larger and more diverse, but the undergrads - even the outgoing vivacious ones - are still pretty nerdy. That might just be the culture of the place.
^ Still, maybe a particularly difficult Escape Room or two would be a great idea. Students can be hired as programmers.
@JBStillFlying - why would it be nice if HP had more “cool stuff”? Purely because of convenience. HP was sleepier in my day, but I think the 60-90 minutes of commuting (round trip), when time is a precious commodity for students to get to the “cool stuff” got old.
These are champagne problems, but it always puzzled me that Hyde Park didn’t really even have a row of bars for an easy night out. Yes, there are specific places on campus, like the Pub or Jimmy’s, but we’re similar in size (total) to the U. of Miami or Vanderbilt or Georgetown, but the amenities surrounding campus are quite different.
I still don’t know if I’d characterize Chicago and Hyde Park as having a vibrant night life (or even daytime life?) scene. And, with 15-20k students in the area, that’s surprising, no?
I don’t know if this has much to do with the academic nature of the school. Yes, it may mean students don’t go out 4-5 nights a week, but even in my day, most students take Friday and Saturday nights completely off (unless it’s finals time). Sometimes thursdays too.
^ @Cue7 but wouldn’t the “lack of cool stuff” be due to lack of demand? What makes you think that chain and other business owners aren’t on top of where best to locate?
Would be surprised if most kids take three nights off per week. Many are involved in other things that eat up free time such as part time work or EC’s/RSO’s/athletics. Both my kids had at least one course with three midterms each so they really needed to stay on top of their academic work.
@JBStillFlying - how many nights a week would your kids take off a week? Unless it’s finals, two nights off (fri and sat) seems fairly standard - even at Chicago.
And, yes, maybe lack of demand explains the lack of of stuff. But it’s strange - I just did a quick google view, on 55th by North, it looks like Jimmys is still the only bar nearby.
Between Max and North, there are probably close to 2K 18-22 yos in a 4 block radius. But, there are few late night restaurants, bars, etc. that I can see in that area. That 55th area seems like a prime location, but it looks as barren as I remember it.
It’s just disappointing that, 20+ years removed, the way @milee30 described Hyde Park (“None of the students I talked to showed much enthusiasm for the HP food or social activities, either, though.”) resembles exactly my memory of the place. It was fine, had some great bookstores, but not particularly memorable.
IMO, it needs both more interesting offerings (food and bar) and higher quality offerings. Most of the things in HP check a box rather than provide a craveable experience. Pizza? Yes, check. Chicken? Yes, check. Italian? Yes, check. But none of them are particularly high quality a few are interesting. It’s odd, but for being in such a big city and with such a somewhat captive audience of students and faculty, the area around UChicago has fewer food offerings than most tiny commuter towns and the overall quality is lower.
To be a draw you either need an interesting place or high quality, preferably both. And “high quality” doesn’t necessarily mean expensive. The favorite dumpling place in Chinatown is very reasonably priced but the food is excellent quality. My favorite local Korean place is more of a workingman’s dive place, but that grandma cooking fresh delicacies in the back means that food is excellent quality. Our best local seafood place is right on the water and you eat at picnic tables outside, but the fish is so fresh it literally just came off the boat. My favorite local bar is a weird place that doesn’t have a marked door, you go in through an alley and the owner makes all sorts of weird concoctions based on what he’s into lately - not upscale but very interesting. Experiences like that draw people from afar, not a Giordano’s location that’s known for being one of the lowest quality of the chain. Heck, there wasn’t even a really funky fun 24 hour breakfast place and I though that was darn near a requirement for a college area.
That was why I mentioned if UChicago had the ability to offer facilities that would encourage aspiring chefs to come do pop up restaurants, it might be able to attract an interesting cross section of cuisines and hopefully better quality than what HP offers now.
@milee30 - those are great points! Again, it’s disappointing that there doesn’t seem to be more innovative stuff right by campus. In Hyde Park broadly, I agree, there are more places that check boxes (mediocre movie theater? Harper Theater - check. Generic restaurant/music venue with mediocre reviews? The Promontory - check. Middling indian place? Rajun Cajun - check.) But even closer to campus - where are the places you can stumble to at 3am on a Saturday? Or heck, 11pm on a Saturday?
I remember the Med had good food and was fun, and Valois and Salonica were solid greasy spoon joints, but besides those places and the bookstores, what draws people to Hyde Park hangouts?
Having aspiring chefs do pop up restaurants (Maybe friday or saturday night markets on the midway?) sounds awesome! Again, literally the only innovative/different social thing I’ve heard of in Hyde Park has been the Hearth student-run dining clubs.
https://www.chicagomaroon.com/2013/06/04/under-the-table/
And, that was all student-generated.
Besides that, it’s been fairly generic development - some new restaurants, new hotels, new high rises. Nice, no doubt, but nothing that gives college social life a big shot in the arm.
@Cue7 my D takes one night off a week. My son just completed his first quarter but pretty sure it’s the same. I don’t believe their academic-work schedule is at all unusual. Maybe it’s just a more studios group of kids in these more recent years.
Not sure how it is today, but most of us would BYOB to the restaurants when we ate out. Some higher-end establishments such as Nella have entered HP as well and I noticed students eating and drinking there last time I was in town. Looked more like a date location than a ‘hang-out.’
My guess is that most of the drinking and socializing for the undergrads goes on in the dorms, frats, Pub, Jimmy’s, and the Cove. A new brewpub called Jolly Pumpkin on 52nd and Harper has opened but don’t know much about it: https://www.jollypumpkin.com/jp/brewery-Chicago-Hyde-Park
I recall the grad departments - at least the social sciences - would have their Friday afternoon TG’s which everyone pretty much attended (because free beer) - then we’d all go out to eat bringing more beer with us. So we had plenty of eating, drinking and socializing. Various departments took over the Pub on certain nights of the week as well. The grad students I met who were undergraduates were totally attuned to this routine so I guess I assumed it was normal for them as well, although maybe some more ‘youth’ oriented opportunities should be available specifically to the college crowd. A preference for the dorm after first year has only been recent, and the 2-year residency requirement is brand new. So maybe there will be more places opening up on 57th or 55th in the future.
House of Tiki was also around in my day but closed down. It was delightfully cheesy but also expensive (for me, anyway):
https://www.chibarproject.com/Memoriam/Ciral’s/Ciral’s.htm
@milee30 - There is Promontory in addition to Nella but it looks expensive. Quality in HP is better than it used to be but still lags the more foodie areas on the North side. Used to be that you could usually get Harold’s till 2 am or when the chicken ran out., and then Valois opens at 5:30. So there is a 3.5 hour stretch w/o available food. Wondering if owners are worried about armed robberies or something?
When I moved to Chicago it was dullsville for food (having come from CA, I really found that to be a bummer). We were delighted when the chefs started opening up some seriously good restaurants. However, anecdotally, we have still found that UChicago’s finest are more interested in working than good eating. Some things never change. That could well be the main reason why Rick Bayless hasn’t moved into HP. Maybe it will change given the student demographics at the College or if more business and law students move back into HP as opposed to South Loop.
@JBStillFlying - taking only one night off a week is intense. If most Chicago students are doing that, then yes, it explains why there’s not much night life around even the larger dorms. Maybe things indeed have gotten more intense since my time there. Studying six nights a week over the course of a 10 week quarter, and only taking one night off a week to go out to dinner or grab a drink with friends is demanding indeed.
I realize the schedule must ebb and flow over a quarter for your kids, but if the average is one night off a week, again, kudos to their diligence as 18 - 22 yos.
As I recall, my typical quarter went something like this:
Weeks 1- 3: do something purely social 2-3 nights a week (e.g., go to Wed bar review at a frat [in my 1st yr], or hang out somewhere on wed or thurs, something on friday night [go out for coffee or explore somewhere], and then maybe an apt. party or go downtown saturday to a museum, show, dinner, etc.)
Weeks 4 - 7 (midterms): do something purely social 1-2 nights a week (depending on the midterm schedule)
Weeks 8-9 (post-midterms/pre finals): go out 2 nights a week (by “out” i mean dinner, music event, primarily as mini-celebrations after mid terms.)
Weeks 10-11 (finals): 0-1 times a week, depending on finals schedule (typically, a group of us would then hang out/go out for a night or two after finals had ended)
Again, maybe it’s different now, but significant studying/working on most Fridays and Saturdays (outside of finals) was pretty rare. Even midterms were usually spread out between weeks 4 - 7, so I don’t recall spending a lot of 6-days-in-a-row studying periods.
Further, I didn’t see my schedule as particularly anomalous - it seemed perfectly reasonable (and not frivolous) to put the books to the side on Friday and Saturday nights.
Oh, there’s one other innovative social activity I’ve seen at Chicago - the midnight debates:
https://news.uchicago.edu/story/clock-nears-midnight-students-get-philosophical
It seems like there is clearly appetite for social/curious stuff like this - not sure why the College doesn’t capitalize more on this energy.
But it’s a self-reinforcing circle. Honestly, if I was a student living in the HP area, I’d probably skip most dining out and work, too. There’s just not much there that’s tempting or “worth” the hassle, expense, etc. Most of the food there is of the shrug-I-guess-if-I’m-eating-out-I’ll-eat-this variety rather than the OMG, this stuff is so awesome I crave it, you guys wanna meet me there variety. Great college towns always have a variety of fun, funky, good quality (not necessarily fine dining, just good quality) places that people are drawn to. HP seriously lacks that along with a selection of decent ethnics foods that seem standard in most places now.
Going back to the examples listed a few posts ago, when DS and I visited UMichigan we ate more interesting and higher quality food in those two days than I have in all my visits to HP combined. And that was just stumbling around Ann Arbor on foot and trying things that looked interesting vs HP where son is a student and even with that local knowledge still struggles to find decent spots to eat when I visit.
If HP did have the usual college town selection of fun, funky, good quality places then fewer students would choose working over eating. Right now, the eating just isn’t tempting enough.