Lakeview/ Boystown is one of the nicest neighborhoods I'm allowed to just go wondering through in Chicago. It touches the lake and might extend as far west as Western. It starts at in my mind at Fullerton and goes all the way north to Montrose? ( defiantly pass Irving Park) Its soo nice. It is almost like living in a rich little suburb minus the backyards and lack of public transit. I walked pass a number of locally owned businesses and quaint little shops. A strip of it has a night life seen that some would say caters to all the Gays in the city. It has serval queer centers that do attempt to provide Chicago and the surrounding area with resources. It has a couple more community base centers. it has its own Ymca. I even herd it is big enough to take up its own ward (division of the city usually there are 3 or 4 neighborhoods per ward). The Pride Parade is hosted by Boystown every year. Lakeview more or less tolerates it. Every year thousands flock to this place on the last Sunday in June ( which is historically significant for reasons that escape me right now) The Parade people trash the place and a hand full of people get arrested even fewer actually see the inside of a court room. It is a nuisance and if I live there I would hate it too. It also keeps growing I don't think a hundred thousand people can fit along the tiny route. There have been talks of moving it to downtown Chicago where it will have the room it need and the attention of the entire city. I mean right now it is very easy not to know it is happening ( and I kind of like it that way). If it were to be down town it would have even more press, people who took any train would know because they would all be packed, and main parts of the city would be shut down. Nothing gets my attention like city wide traffic jams. As much as it needs to move to have space to grow, and no longer terrorizes the residents it need to stay where it is historically and culturally relevant. Boystown may be white washed and have several issues concerning gender but it is our town and our space. Everywhere else we face far worse forms of persecution. The parade feeds the neighborhood and supports our queer owned businesses. Its where our center that supplies resources to our community is, that's where the community should stay and spend its resources. Now whether the neighborhood is actually being homophobic is debatable. Its a neighborhood with families and young children. The people who attend the parade are less in PG. I wouldn't want my kids to see that so those particular weekends might be the weekends we spend at the different museums of the city. We will need to see this play out see what they say before we go around accusing people of bigotry.
J Skittles
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