UChicago Immediate Neighborhood in Hyde Park

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
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<p>Yeah, as snipersas said, there are no normal convenience stores near campus, which is, really, pretty unfortunate. Compare this to, say, UPenn, where there is a 7-11, a CVS, and a couple other convenience stores (called Wawas) right on campus. Or, look at Columbia, which I believe has a couple Duane Reade convenience stores right nearby.</p>

<p>Again, I’m sorry if my posts come out as negative about Hyde Park. For a college town, though, amongst peer urban schools, it really does fall toward the end of the pack (unless you love college bookstores, in which case it’s easily toward the top of the pack).</p>

<p>The best way to describe Hyde Park is that it’s easier to get a tomb on Nietzsche than a reasonably priced tooth brush.</p>

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<p>“Tome” on Nietzche, right? And . . . you’re right about that. But I think you are maybe a little wrong about the vibrancy of student life there. If you measure vibrancy by the number of people at frat parties and the intensity of their binge drinking, or by the absence of kids in the library, then maybe it’s less vibrant at Chicago. But if you look at the number of student-produced plays, musical performances, dance, art shows, films, or the parties that aren’t at frat houses and may not be as loud, or trips to the Ari Institute, the symphony, the Lyric Opera, Steppenwolf, the Joffrey, the Empty Bottle, or most critically the rate at which boys meet girls, boys meet boys, girls meet girls, with all the sequellae, and of course unique things like Scav Hunt or Kuvia . . . then I think it’s pretty darn vibrant.</p>

<p>Eddi – I don’t think Chicago students use Washington Park much, or for that matter cross College Grove Ave. on foot very often. Part of the reason for that is that they have an even larger park that essentially runs through the middle of campus – the Midway – that they use all the time, not to mention the sensationally beautiful park that extends along the Lake Michigan shore, which also gets used.</p>

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<p>eddi- Post #2 by JHS in response to your question was the most honest, non-biased answer that I have read regarding this topic. My D is a current student at Chicago and she couldn’t be happier. I must point out that she was very methodical and deliberate in what she wanted in a college environment, and she was accepted to several other top tier peer schools located in different types of surrounding communities. When it came time to decide it all boiled down to the U of Chicago for her. She is approaching the final quarter of her first year and is so happy with her decision. She goes off campus for study breaks with classmates. A group of housemates have attended the Chicago symphony, a gallery opening at a downtown museum, and shopped at vintage stores on the North side. She has visited a friend or two at other Chicago area college campuses. She has not had any trouble getting around and feels pretty safe on public transportation.
Honestly, for her, the primary decision on choosing a college was the kind of education and opportunities that would be afforded to her. Next it was the types of things that were available in the city she would call home for four years. She loves walking to the neighborhood bookstores, Leona’s, and the Thai restaurants in Hyde Park. Also DOC films and the Logan Center have become her second home. There is the Du Sable Museum in Washington Park. She went with a friend to see an exhibit there and said it was very interesting. Students spend a lot of time studying but they still manage to have fun if they plan their time accordingly. She says there is always something to do in Hyde Park, if you seek out the opportunities and aren’t always looking for a big party.</p>

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<p>JHS - Hah! I meant tome, but hey, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to have a Nietzsche tomb in Hyde Park too…</p>

<p>Also, in terms of measuring vibrancy of student life (vis a vis our peer urban schools), I still have my doubts. I certainly think this has improved, but I also stand by my earlier statements - that student life at UChicago is probably still more muted than at peer schools.</p>

<p>In terms of number, there are certainly a wide range of student plays, productions, publications, ways to get involved, etc. on campus. The big difference, I think, though, is that UChicago students are still defined primarily by their academic pursuits, and all the student life based stuff - the sports teams, dance clubs, etc. are ancillary to that.</p>

<p>Contrast that to what you find at Yale or Harvard or Brown - where extracurriculars can really define a student’s experience. Consequently, as students are pouring more into their respective activities, the quality and atmosphere surrounding these activities just kind of amplifies. Some students at these schools are really defined by their time with the Whiffenpoofs or whatever, and UChicago doesn’t really have anything that comes close to that.</p>

<p>Finally, until UChicago (now with a student body size comparable to all of its peers) gets a daily student newspaper, I’m going to have my doubts. It’s still crazy to me that, on a campus with 5500 students, you can’t find enough people to support a daily campus publication.</p>

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<p>The new amenities popping up around Hyde Park, by the way, are a welcome addition, but are still… well, muted. I just had dinner with a friend of mine who went to the new Harper Theater. When I asked about her experience there, she said “it’s nice to have it in the area but… it’s just very Hyde Park.”</p>

<p>When I asked more about that, she said that it was a cute place, with a nice little coffee shop in the movie theater itself, but it’s a bit more of an “artsy” movie theater, and the viewing rooms are kind of small. For anyone who wants to watch a summer blockbuster, the best option is the 30-40 minute door-to-door trek downtown to watch at a large cinema. </p>

<p>Same sentiment about the new hotel - it’s great that it’s being built, but it’s a sort of small, muted hotel. No one is going to confuse it for the Omni in New Haven or the big Sheraton in West Philly. </p>

<p>Again, I’m really not sure why this is the case. Revitalization has occurred, but extremely slowly and with ho-hum results. The neighborhood is still sort of sleepy with insufficient access to basic amenities (like the inability to get a reasonably priced tooth brush, or very few late-night dining options for students right near campus. Yes, hungry students could walk 1.5 miles to Clarkes for a late night snack, but that seems unsatisfactory to me - just like it doesn’t make sense to walk 1.5 miles to get a decent priced tooth brush.)</p>

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<p>Cue 7, I’m not sure what you mean by your repeated references to not being able to get a toothbrush anywhere nearby or the lack of a convenience store. The bookstore sells toothbrushes, and so does the convenience store that’s located in the South Camus dorm. (Just in case someone suddenly runs out of toothbrushes…)</p>

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<p>It was one of the best, most comprehensive, most honest, least biased answers that I have read on any topic on College Confidential, ever.</p>

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<p>Rlmmail:</p>

<p>I meant a reasonably priced tooth brush (as one example of a larger problem - the campus convenience stores, from what I remember, were considerably overpriced. The bookstore was too).</p>

<p>Say you live in South and want to make a CVS run because you don’t want to deal with the significant upcharging at the campus convenience stores. What are your options? </p>

<p>Similarly, say you live in South, it’s midnight on a Tuesday, and you’re hungry. This isn’t an unusual scenario for a college student. Where do you go?</p>

<p>For both scenarios at UPenn, for example, I can think of many, many options. </p>

<p>Let me know what you think.</p>

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<p>Cue7, I think toothbrushes are a bad example. Most kids bring a couple from home, or grab a couple at the Walgreens or CVS in Hyde Park, or at a nearby Target at the beginning of the year, and they’re all set.</p>

<p>As for midnight snacks at South, there is also a Subway Sandwiches in South as well. I’m not sure what time they close, but around Midnight or 1:00 AM is a good guess.</p>

<p>But if someone in South wants a midnight haircut, tanning salon, or a mani/pedi, I suppose they’re really screwed. ;-)</p>

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<p>We have a good friend at UC now. She lives in an apt. on the southern border of campus and hears gunshots… and seems totally unfazed by it. Englewood is directly south of campus and not a good neighborhood. She came from an affluent Chgo. suburb so… I guess they adjust. I dont think the kids can be naive there is all. Obamas house is close by and Hyde Park itself is affluent and safe.</p>

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<p>I feel that the picture Cue7 painted is quite accurate. Yes, I have seen enough college campuses and to be honest, Walla Walla WA (home of Whitman college) feels more vibrant than Hyde Park.</p>

<p>As I have said earlier, I have no regrets sending my son to uchicago. He is getting a good education and feels quite safe. (What is there to worry when they have the largest private army outside of Vatican?)</p>

<p>Coffee shops and book stores don’t make up for poor dining choices. There are only a couple of Thai places and Rajun Cajun if you want something that is not bland. Pathetic at best.</p>

<p>Treasure Island is the only thing that resembles a grocery store and is a long walk away. Going to city every Saturday is an expensive and time consuming affair.</p>

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<p>Rlmmail:</p>

<p>Fair enough - toothbrushes may be a poor example. Say a student wants to go to CVS for whatever items a student might need from this type of store - toiletries, snacks, shampoo, whatever. </p>

<p>Outside of the expensive campus store options, what options do these students have?</p>

<p>To follow up on my point about late night dining, isn’t it a little strange that, for an area with thousands of students, there aren’t really any late-night dining options very near campus (outside of one little subway that I think closes at 10:30pm)?</p>

<p>Again, I went to UChicago and I enjoyed my time there, but the lack of some seemingly basic college town amenities is still a head-scratcher for me. </p>

<p>It points to the fact that the UChicago area is still not for everyone. I stand by my statement that it’s easier to get an arcane book than it is to get (not expensive) basic convenience store items. That says something about the community.</p>

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<p>Oh, come on! Treasure Island doesn’t “resemble” a grocery store. It’s a grocery store. And it’s a long walk away only if your definition of “long” is “more than half a mile”. (OK, it might be a whole mile from South Campus or BJ.) It’s actually quite convenient for lots of the students living off campus . . . who buy a heck of a lot more groceries than the ones with meal plans.</p>

<p>53rd Street has some decent, cheap restaurants, too. One of my kids really loved Valois, and Harold’s seems to be popular. I had OK normal (not Chicago) pizza once someplace on 53rd. Also, the nondescript French pastry shop on 55th is actually really, really good.</p>

<p>But, yeah, Hyde Park turned my kids into cooks. And the rest of Chicago turned them into foodies.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, Cue7 is right that Penn has done an incredible job of making its campus area interesting and exciting for students. And it WAS a job – a long, slow development effort driven by the university. I lived near Penn for about a decade, mostly in the 80s, and it wasn’t a lot more vibrant than Hyde Park is right now. (Except it had the very first Urban Outfitters – what a great store that was!) Today, the only issue is that maybe it’s too upscale. Someone at the University of Chicago should investigate the concept of the food truck.</p>

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<p>JHS:</p>

<p>I don’t think it’s just U. Penn. If you look at many other urban universities, basic amenities are often found closer to campus. There is a big Walgreens maybe a half mile away from Yale’s campus, and Brown students can go to a large mall for shopping, movies, etc. Brown’s main drag, Thayer St., also feels quite different from any major thoroughfare right near the UChicago campus. </p>

<p>Hyde Park has these amenities too, but, for whatever reason, they are extremely spread out and tend to be farther away from campus. If you want to go to CVS from South, you can, but it’ll be a 25 minute walk, often through bitter cold. Similarly, if you want a late night diner, you can now go to Clarke’s, but it’s a half hour trek.</p>

<p>My issue with Hyde Park now is that these amenities aren’t opening up nearer to campus and the students who would make use of them. As with student life generally, it feels like UChicago is a decade behind many of its peer urban schools (like Penn). Combine this with the lack of density in shops/restaurants, and the entire neighborhood feels much sleepier. </p>

<p>Again, it’s nearly unparalleled for bookstores. For other amenities/feel, though, it’s toward the bottom of the pack.</p>

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<p>Excellent thread.</p>

<p>JHS, for what it’s worth, I did see a food truck stationed on S. Ellis during the day right across from the admission office building near the B&N UChicago Bookstore when I visited the campus last year. It’s not clear to me if the food truck makes its route to that location on a regular basis; but it’s reasonable to assume it would not be there in late night hours for any hungry Chicago students.</p>

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<p>There are several food trucks that park in Hyde Park, on Ellis, during lunch - this location gets the college crowd and the hospital crowd. My son just told me that he had Indian food today from a truck there, and a couple of weeks ago, he had Cornish pasties from another truck.</p>

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<p>Are those trucks also available at 1:00 a.m. on Saturday? Or any other viable options for students at that time?</p>

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<p>Cue7, I’ve often had the same question about Hyde Park and wondered why there are less of what you call “basic college town amenities” there, but sometimes I think it may have quite a bit to do with my assumptions about “basic college town amenities.” When I hear that phrase, I think of a “college town” I am somewhat familiar with: Gainesville, FL. The UF campus is extremely large, and there are a lot of students there. At two places in particular, there are massive commercial and food strips that border on the campus, one of them (Archer Rd.) features every kind of food and retail chain imaginable. However, it is also possible to be on campus and a good two miles away from either of these two locations. Further, these businesses are there to serve the town, the region, and a university population that is much larger than that of UChicago.</p>

<p>Then I think of another kind of “college town” I’m very familiar with: Boston and Cambridge. Harvard Square has lots of shops and restaurants, but I’m not sure if any of them are open at midnight. They are very close walking distance from Harvard Yard (across the street in fact), but not all parts of the greater Harvard campus. Prices in Harvard Square are artificially high, but not a whole lot worse than Boston in general. The nearest regular grocery stores I can think of is in Porter Square, which is about two miles away. Maybe the one on Beacon St. in Somerville is a little closer to some parts of campus, but not by much.</p>

<p>MIT has Kendall Square at one end of a VERY long stretch along Memorial Dr. And Kendall Square really doesn’t have a lot in terms of retail. I’ve worked there for several years, and it’s pretty boring in this regard. I’d rate it better than Hyde Park in terms of dining but not much else, and it’s easily possible to walk 1 to 2 miles to get to what you need. I can’t think of a single grocery store in the area. Maybe there’s one in Central Square (a long walk), but offhand I can’t think of one.</p>

<p>Then there’s Boston University, which occupies an incredibly long stretch (2-3 miles?) from Kenmore Square to the Allton-Brighton line along Commonwealth Ave. The nearest grocery store I can think of is back several blocks behind Fenway Park, which makes it at least a three-quarter mile walk even if you happen to live toward the Kenmore Square edge of campus. There are some drugstores in Kenmore Square, as well as at other points along the way (there’s a CVS immediately across from the central part of campus). There are some restaurants and fast food places around Kenmore Square, but there probably wouldn’t be much if there didn’t also happen to be a major league baseball stadium there. But there is little else other than campus buildings throughout the stretch of the campus: a music store, a tire store, a comedy club. It’s easily possible to do the kind of walking you complain about for Hyde Park just to get from your dorm to your classes or an administration office. (Although there is also the above ground T along Comm. Ave. if you’re willing to spend the money all the time or buy a monthly pass.)</p>

<p>I guess my thought is that the image conjured by “basic college town amenities” seems to conjure large public university towns (like Gainesvile, FL), and that there are a lot of local differences (especially) when you get into urban settings. And still more when you get into LACs (check out Davidson, NC, for example!). And even in places like Gainesville, you can be long distances from the commercial strips. Moreover, is easy access to big box stores and chain restaurants really the Ne plus ultra of college amenities? Further, plenty of urban, private universities (like MIT) really aren’t much better than UChicago in this regard.</p>

<p>I certainly agree with you that Hyde Park isn’t for everyone, but that’s a truism that applies to <em>every</em> university or college out there, so it doesn’t really say much. Yeah, Hyde Park certainly leaves something to be desired in terms of dining and stores, but in contrast to you, I’m just more inclined to shrug and ask “So what?” As far as I’m concerned, it’s just one less distraction from the more important purposes of college.</p>

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<p>I just visited last Friday-Saturday and I saw a bunch of food trucks around selling all sorts of stuff. Also, I felt completely safe around campus. UChicago spreads pretty far and as far as I can tell anywhere you might want to go to is well within the safety of the school. My hosts and I went to a frat party at night and UC security is posted at like every block … Now, I’m 6 4 and have been around big cities relatively frequently but I’m not a big bulky guy and so if anyone reading this is considering counting UChicago out because of its surroundings, I would advise against it.</p>

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<p>rlmmail:</p>

<p>Sure, we can search first for a running definition of “basic college amenities” and what a “college town” should look like. At least for me, though, I don’t think of a sleepy residential neighborhood with lots of bookstores. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Hyde Park, and I liked going to all the different bookstores, but it’s only from spending considerable time around Penn, Brown, and Yale, that gives me a better sense of what UChicago lacks.</p>

<p>In thinking about a college town, I’d consider most carefully what’s important to young adults, in their very late teens and early 20s, along with a graduate population made up mostly of folks in their mid-to-late 20s. For these groups, here’s what seems to be important (in no hierarchical order):</p>

<p>1.) A range of cheap to mid-priced dining options (from chains to bar/informal places)</p>

<p>2.) Good late night dining options</p>

<p>3.) Easy access to some basic retail (maybe a few basic clothing stores)</p>

<p>4.) Lots of coffee options</p>

<p>5.) Bars/nightlife scene - young people tend to be more interested in this than, say, those in their 30s and 40s.</p>

<p>Outside of the coffee, UChicago literally has none of this near campus. There are a couple bars (Jimmys, the Pub), but everything is spread out. </p>

<p>The best way I’d describe Hyde Park is kind of sleepy and spread out. Nothing in Hyde Park matches the more frenetic pace of Thayer St. in Providence, or even just the steady foot traffic along the restaurants on Chapel St. in New Haven. 57th st. in Hyde Park is perfectly nice, very peaceful, but not exactly what I’d call a “high activity” zone. </p>

<p>UChicago just doesn’t have any of the amenities - be it strips of big box stores and food chains, or rows of bars and restaurants in a condensed space - that I’ve seen anywhere else. It’s somewhat peculiar. It doesn’t feel as “locked in” as Yale but, at the same time, somehow feels sleepier than colleges in less urban areas (like Princeton). There’s virtually no retail to speak of around campus (whereas there’s a Gap, an Ann Taylor, an Urban Outfitters, etc. right on Penn’s campus), and certainly no stretch of bars or a “party” street.</p>

<p>Also, I don’t know Cambridge well, but I just did a search for late night restaurants, and I pulled up nearly a dozen on a google search that are open past 11pm.</p>

<p>It’s just kind of strange.</p>