Ep. 11: Living in Southport Corridor, Lakeview, Chicago's Boating Scene, & More w/ Keith Levy!
Keith Levy is a former marketing executive for major companies including Anheuser-Busch. Now semi-retired, Keith shares his experiences of living in Chicago's Southport Corridor neighborhood, discussing its vibrant community, local amenities, and why he chose Chicago over other major cities. The episode provides insights into the lifestyle and attractions of the Southport Corridor, the Lakeview neighborhood, and Chicago as a whole reflecting Keith's appreciation for Chicago's diverse, welcoming environment, and its offerings in terms of dining, entertainment, and urban living.
The Living in Chicago Podcast is where I, Jake Lyons, get to interview all kinds of people about the Chicago neighborhoods they live in, work in, and play in. This way, you can learn about the lifestyle pros and cons of various neighborhoods directly from the people who live there (or maybe even learn something new about your own neighborhood!)
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Real Estate in areas discussed:
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Real Estate Quick Start Questionnaire
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Local Businesses Mentioned:
Coda di Volpe
Music Box Theater: Mentioned as a nostalgic place with live organ playing before movies.
Mercury Theater: Noted for hosting live performances.
Note: the following transcript was generated automatically and not checked closely for spelling, grammar, or accuracy
Jake: Hello and welcome to Living in Chicago, the podcast where I get to interview real Chicagoans about the neighborhoods that they live, work and play in. My name is Jake Lyons and in this episode, I will interview Keith Levy who is after a very exceptionally successful business career where he was the head of marketing for Anheuser-Busch among some other well-known companies that we'll get into that I'm sure you've heard of.
He is now at least semi-retired. We'll go ahead and say retired and living in the Southport Corridor neighborhood Chicago, which is if you're unfamiliar with the Southport Corridor neighborhood, it is a subsection of the Lakeview community area slash neighborhood, whatever you want to call it. So it borders some other probably more well-known neighborhoods like Wrigleyville, Boys Town, East Lakeview, which is the furthest over to the lake. So the Southport Corridor neighborhood is west of that. It's the westernmost that you can go pretty much within the Lakeview umbrella before you start getting into other areas like North Center and places like that.
Southport Corridor is named because it is based on the stretch of Southport Avenue between Gray Street and Belmont, which just has tons of really cool trendy restaurants and shops and theaters and just all kinds of other things like that that you can get into. I'm not going to get too into the weeds on all that stuff now. I'm just going to go ahead and let the interview speak for itself. So without further ado, let's get into the interview with Keith Levy so he can tell you what it's like to live in the Southport Corridor neighborhood. All right, very pleased to have Keith Levy on the show. Keith is among the one of the more accomplished business people you could ever meet. Having spent a career in various sea suites and boards of some of the biggest food, beverage, cannabis, even pet food companies out there, most notably perhaps serving as the chief of marketing for Anheuser-Busch for a few years. I think you had a billion-dollar marketing budget, something like that. Just massive stuff. Anheuser-Busch, of course, Budweiser, Bud Light, Stella, perhaps you've heard of them. Most importantly though, just a good dude, good solid dude, Keith Levy. Keith, hey man, how's it going?
Keith: Good, Jay. Thanks for that eloquent and very kind introduction. Sure. Yeah.
Jake: And I don't usually go into a person's resume to start off with things like that, but I guess I wanted to paint a little bit of a picture here just to say, all right, you've done a lot. You can live pretty much anywhere you want to live. You can spend your time in quite a few places. As we talked about beforehand, you're going to be going to your place in Colorado for a little while. You travel a lot. But as far as wanting to have your home base of all the places, why Chicago and even more specifically, why the neighborhood you live in, and maybe you can get into that a little bit. Yeah.
Keith: So we moved to Chicago about seven years ago from St. Louis, which was a much smaller city. And I think a great place to have a family, but it didn't have the energy and excitement that Chicago has. So I had an opportunity to move here through a transfer with the same company that I was working for, which was Mars Incorporated at the time. Sort of jumped at the chance because it was just always a city I enjoyed coming to, to do business in. I always enjoyed eating at restaurants here, the lake, the people.
I don't know. I grew up in the Midwest, but I always tend to gravitate toward the Midwestern people. They just have this sort of welcoming, organic down-to-earth way about them. And I just always fit in better in places like that. I mean, Julie and I, we lived on the in St. Louis and now here for seven years. And we love it.
I don't know. I just, it's, I mean, and I've been to probably 45 different countries and I've been to some of the top tier cities in the world, Dubai, Cape Town, Florence, Barcelona, Moscow, Hong Kong, Beijing, you name it. And I would put Chicago on par with any of those. I mean, I think you can go to toe-to-toe with any of those cities for architectural beauty, diversity, experience, whether that's your foodie, you're in sports, you like the lake, you like, it's just, it has music, it has a lot to offer. So we've thoroughly enjoyed our seven years here and hoping that that's going to be many more years to come. Yeah.
Jake: Yeah. And you, would you consider yourself, you're retired now, mostly retired? Yeah. Yes.
Keith: I might retire, probably, with that stuff. But yeah, I don't go to work every day. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Jake: So Southport corridor specifically, how did you, how did you land on that?
Keith: And so when we first moved here, we had a lot of time to find the house. I think I accepted the job in like October of 2016, maybe even before that, I was kind of September and I wasn't really moving here until January of 17. So we took the opportunity to come up a few times and just get to know the neighborhood. So we looked in places like Lincoln Park, in Old Town, in Wicker Park, in Bucktown, and Lakeview. And we even looked a little bit at, say, in Gold Coast, but we looked at like 51 homes, believe it or not.
There's not that level of inventory out there to choose from, probably today, but there was in 2016 when we were out there, just kicking tires and trying to get the vibe of various neighborhoods. And for whatever reason, we just kept coming back to this kind of Southport corridor area of Lakeview. We liked the sort of proximity to dining, to Wrigley Field, to the lake. There was a kind of a gentrification, I guess, going on here in terms of just a lot of sort of tear down rebuilds. But I also like the fact that there's still like some rental properties, like right next door, we've got a three flat rental, and there's just 21, 23-year-old young people that live there and they come and go, but it's been sort of fun to have that element of just age diversification.
And there's a lot of young families on the block, a lot of super successful people at very young ages and just a very welcoming place. So anyway, after looking at 51 homes, there I think our top three choices were probably within about four blocks. We were all in this area and we landed on the house that we bought here in Lakeview. And we couldn't be happier with the people, with the neighborhood, with the house itself and just all the things I described earlier about why we enjoy Chicago.
Jake: Yeah, that is something that's cool about Southport Corridor. It's like as nice of an area as it is. It's not, because there's definitely some parts of Lincoln Park and the other places you've described where it's just kind of like your millionaire's row and that's that
Keith: and that's the vibe and those are the people you're going to meet. But yeah, there's, again, like as nice as Southport Corridor definitely is, you can experience a lot of different kinds of things, different kinds of people there too. So yeah, I agree with one.
Jake: What are some of your favorite things that keep you around there or that you like to get into with Southport Corridor?
Keith: Yeah, dining, we go to places like Coda de Volpe regularly. We go to places like a little local tavern called Tunes Up the Road. We love to go to both baseball games at Wrigley Field and concerts at Wrigley Field. Just not having to worry about parking and just walking down there and walking back is such an awesome thing. We like the Dog Beach out on the kind of north side of the lake here. And I've probably made about a mile and a half walk from the house here. So we've got a cool retriever that loves to swim and loves to hang out.
That's a fun thing to do. And the Music Box Theater, we live pretty much right behind. And that's just kind of a nostalgic place where before they start the movie, they've got a guy usually under a spotlight live playing in Oregon and like there's not many places where you go to anymore that didn't have that level of just nostalgia and just cool factor. It's different than just going to AMC or landmark theater, right?
Jake: And then even the live theater that's next door to the Mercury Theater, we've been to several live performances there. We actually had a friend of ours, their son became an actor in Chicago and he started probably about three replays that we've seen there. And that's been fun to watch him because we've known him since he's been about 10 years old and now to watch him on stage and just kind of perfecting his craft, if you will. It's really fun.
So those are some of the things we enjoy doing around here. And then just we have a block party every year, usually right after Labor Day, which is BLAST. And that's, we get together with a lot of neighbors, but there's some neighbors we don't see as often and they're almost always at that party. So it's just fun to reconnect with everybody. And all the festivals, I mean, I know you know this because your wife Emma's done quite a few festivals, including the Port Art Fair.
And that those are just great to go with, whether it's a taco fest or an art fair or listen to music, grab something to eat, look at cool, you know, artistic talents that are displayed throughout the summer a couple of times, which is cool. So we do all that stuff. We try and, you know, it's interesting. Like as you know, summertime here is short, but we go after it pretty hard.
So we kind of just soak in as much as we can during that time. And I mean, there's no better place in Chicago in the summer. Just fantastic place. And where we live here, it just has a lot to offer in terms of all those things I described.
Yeah, to hear you, that's the line that I utter a lot. There's no better place in Chicago in the summer. You know, no city can compete with Chicago in the summer. And I think it's nice. It's validating to hear you say that because I think there's a lot more, you know, I've been to, I've been the most of the kind of premier American cities, but certainly not, you know, worldwide or anything. So there's a little bit more authority to it when you say it. Yeah.
Keith: Well, yeah, I mean, we've lived in LA, we've lived in, you know, San Luis, Southern San Diego, and those are all great places. But I would say, Chicago just has a little bit more to offer in a more kind of relaxed, inviting way, particularly than the West Coast.
I find the West Coast to be beautiful geographically with the ocean and the mountains and just the weather, of course, just year round. But I find it a little bit less inviting, let's say, and the people's value sets are just a little bit different. Again, one of the things that just makes me feel at home in the Midwest is people are genuine, you know, they like hanging out at a backyard barbecue. They like just doing some simple things and enjoying what life has to offer here in the city. So that's from my point of comparison, yeah, and every, you know, whatever it is, San Francisco, New York, Miami, those are great places. Yeah, but I don't see myself wanting to live there as much as I wanted to live in Chicago. So it's been a great decision for us at a perfect time in life. Yeah.
Jake: Were you considering any other cities as far as like your home base?
Keith: Yeah, I mean, I think probably rewinding the clock back to like 2011 after I left Anhas de Bush would solve a company in 2008. It was someone of an unpopular acquisition because it was like a big American icon bought by foreign entity and I was a pre-public figure and the company in St. Louis is a relatively small town when it comes to that kind of stuff. And I almost sort of wanted to just go somewhere else just to just turn the page and start fresh somewhere. And then I ended up getting an opportunity to run a division of Mars, which ended up being in St. Louis.
So I turned left when I went on the freeway instead of right. And I stayed there like five and a half years. So I was really looking to go somewhere else. I'd say places were places I was considering at the time were Atlanta. I think it was back to California. There was an opportunity in Columbus, Ohio. I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio.
So that was from their territory to me. There were opportunities in New York, Long Island was another one. And I'm glad none of those actually ended up being the right opportunity for me at the time because I probably wouldn't have made it here if you know how it goes. Sometimes it's like you make a decision and you end up, your life ends up going in a different direction than it ends up going had you done something different.
And so I'm happy about that. But yeah, I've always, it's interesting because Julie is very much kind of reluctant to change. And I would have moved like every three or four years just to see somewhere new to just experiment and say, where do I want to be long term? And I'd say that the one regret in my career was I had a couple of opportunities a little broad, one in London, a couple in Asia, and never did that just out of respect for what she could sort of handle. But yeah, but I mean, just thinking about all those different places, I could probably live in all of them. But I don't know if I'd enjoy them or if they have as much office as Chicago does. Yeah.
Jake: So you just took the pack the bags, it came up 55. That's it.
Keith: Yeah. Five hours. It's about it. Or a very quick flight.
Jake: So that's interesting that your Wrigley time was also in St. Louis because I was picturing that because there is a pretty big Wrigley presence here in Chicago, right? That big place there on the river on Goose Island in Goose Island. Yeah.
Keith: That's where I worked when I came here.
Jake: So yeah, it was actually in St. Louis was it was Royal Canaan, which is a pet food division of Mars. So they didn't really have a Wrigley presence in St. Louis. And Wrigley was a Mars family acquisition in 2008.
Keith: And they always wanted to merge it with their chocolate company to make one in the world's largest confectionary business. But they borrowed several billion dollars to buy the company and more above it, I'm about three billion of the remaining debt. And so we bought him out in October of 16. And then that was part of my role was to help merge those two companies when we came here. And we could do that once we got out from underneath the debt. We could have done it before, but because he owned a percentage of the business, if you brought the chocolate business into the gum and pretty confectionary business, then you de facto be giving him a percentage of that which the family didn't want to do.
So by about how the ability merged with the companies. And so yeah, I worked at Goose Island. There's another reason I think we chose Lakeview was it wasn't too far from there. Like I rode my bike to work every day. And before bikes, I guess we're as popular as they were. I just enjoyed that ride every morning and evening with the exception when it started snowing and I would probably take the red line down to Clyburn stop and then walk a couple blocks over. But yeah, it was another reason sort of the proximity to where I was going to be working at the time. And not too far made up about three and a half, four miles, something like that. Yeah.
Jake: Is that all? Yeah, I guess that is all. Yeah, I guess I think of everything in terms of this how long it takes by car. And I was like, that seems like kind of a kind of a long way from Southwark, Ward, Order, where that Mars building is. But yeah, when you put it, it really is only a couple miles. So I'll bet you were, you probably got there quicker on bike than you would by 100% driving.
Keith: Yeah, like straight up being left on, would that be over Clyburn and then kind of snake my way around it, there's a little bridge on the other side that goes over the river and comes right to the back door of the Mars Wrigley building there.
So yeah, I was definitely, I would drive every now and then kind of a handful of times, I guess I could probably count it, that it drove, but I definitely got there faster on my bike than I would in the car. Yeah.
Jake: Yeah, and I'll ask this real quick just because I don't know, if somebody doesn't know a lot about Chicago, all they know is the headlines they read and things like that, I'll just go ahead and ask them, what's been your experience of your neighborhood, the Southwark corridor, and just Chicago in general from a safety standpoint?
Keith: Yeah, I mean, look for me, we live in a big city with 8.5 million people, I think in a greater Chicago area and typically what ends up happening, you have that level of population and you're going to have big city problems, and I think Chicago definitely has that. I mean, we, you know, in summer's effects, I feel a little bit insulated here where we're at, we have a great neighborhood and people look out for one another, but stuff does happen, so you have to have your urban arm around, particularly late at night if you're out. I think you have to be smart about locking your doors, you know, I unfortunately left my garage door open a couple of times, I've lost a few bicycles, which, you know, I felt prey to just people in the alleys looking for opportunities like that, and I gave them an opportunity, but you know, in general, I, I mean, I grew up in a city in Cleveland, so I kind of know when to, when to put the urban arm around, when I have to, and be aware of my surroundings, so I think Chicago is no different than any other big city where there's going to be that element, and the safest you might feel in a place like Lake View or even if you've got the suburbs in a place like Wheaton or Glencoe, there're going to be problems, you know, I mean, it's just, it goes with the territory battle, but yeah, I think the headlines definitely sort of sensationalize it more than it, than it really is in terms of what real life is like here, you know, certainly it's concentrated in South and Southwest, but it does creep into the, you know, the places like Lincoln Park and Lake View and, you know, the whole coast occasionally, because I think, you know, the criminals know that people around there are probably well off and sometimes a little bit comfortable, and unfortunately they take advantage of that, and you know, I think over the years, I don't, I think the, the city of Chicago is kind of embed and flowed in terms of where the crime rate has gone, and during, during COVID with a lot of sort of the unrest we had in the city was difficult for Chicago and probably we had increased crime levels, but I was reading something today, like just in general, not just in the Chicago area, but nationwide, like homicides are down, and I think some of those, some of those things, you know, you need to be aware of, and I think our, our city politics definitely needs to have a, a stronger just stance against crime, quite frankly, I think it's very, very difficult for a police officer to do the, either job effectively here, sometimes with restrictions they have on them, but, you know, I'm hopeful that that will happen as time goes, goes on here.
It's just, it's too great a city to allow an element of crime to take over, and I think people are smart enough to know that in leadership positions, and you know, we as citizens have to encourage them to continue to do things that both protect us and provide for us and just keep the city a great city and a top tier global city.
Jake: Well said, when are you going to run? You got my vote? Never. That's not, that's not your idea of retirement.
Keith: No, I don't like, you know, I politics is definitely for somebody else. It's, it's interesting. It's like even one of the things that I'm really glad I'm out of the corporate world, because there's a pretty high degree of politics bureaucracy and getting very, you know, large companies and certainly politics is, you know, fraught with that. So, yeah, that's something I like to leave behind now. Yeah.
Jake: I haven't had a chance to get into this with any of my previous guests yet, and I look forward to getting into this with you just so I can really see your face light up. Okay. How would you describe the Chicago boating scene?
Keith: Oh, boy, yeah. See, there you go. Now you're speaking my language here, Jay. So yeah, we have a boat on Lake Michigan down in Burnham Harbor. We love it. I mean, I did a ownership group with Pinnacle Group a few years ago and just got the bug. And then right after that, we bought our own boat. We had our third season coming up on the boat that we have now.
And it's awesome. We have good friends down there that we spent a lot of time with the Harbor River. We took a three week 800 nautical mile trip with another couple under her boat all across Lake Michigan. It's a spectacular boating lake. I mean, the view from the water when you're out there and you're seeing that city light up at night is just incredible. Some of the action on the river going through the locks and having dinner at RPM seafood, coming back on fireworks on a Wednesday or Saturday is incredible. I mean, the lake is chilly, but when you get into mid-part of July through sort of the beginning of September, it's actually kind of refreshing to swim around in there and anchor the boat, swim, party. And yeah, we enjoy, we're probably out on our boat, I don't know, three days a week, probably minimum when we're out taking a trip. So we try to take full advantage of all the stuff that I just described, including taking some trips.
There's only so many days you can just anchor in the playpen. You got to go up to Wisconsin, you got to go across to Michigan, you got to go to Indiana, you got to go down the river, you got to go and do stuff that's fun. But it's, yeah, that's great. We enjoy entertaining. And so we invite our friends to come and share that time with us. And it's just another way of really enjoying Chicago from a very different perspective. And we grew up on Lake Erie, another great lake in the Ohio, Northeast Ohio area.
And it's really cool parts about it. You can go out to the Channel Islands and put Bay, which are not very far, maybe about 45 minute ride if you've got a quick boat. But it doesn't have the skyline. It doesn't have all the things that I think Lake Michigan and the Chicago coastline has to offer. And the harbors are fantastic. Burnover harbor, disable, Belmont. I mean, those are some of the greatest harbors you'll find anywhere. Well-taken care of, beautiful boats, great neighbors.
And yeah, we really enjoy the boating scene. So you, as I said, you're speaking my language there. So that's a question I get. I get answered with a lot of passion and a lot of joy.
Jake: Time for the real estate stats corner presented by me, Jake Lyons, real estate advisor here in Chicago with app properties and my website, the Chicago home source.com. In this, we are of course going to talk about the near west side since that's the neighborhood that we are discussing in this episode. And for these, I'm just going to throw basically three numbers out at you just so you can get a general sense of what real estate is going for in the near west side neighborhood because, you know, what really is a neighborhood without real estate, right?
So I think this is important. Of course I do because I'm a real estate agent, so I might be a little bit biased. But, you know, first number I'm throwing out there is the median sales price for a two-bed condo in the near west side.
So right now, which right now the most recent that I have is December of 2023, which is important to know because these numbers obviously change all the time. But as of right now, the median sales price for a condo in the near west side is $400,000. 50% sold for more, 50% sold for less. That is the median sales price for a two-bed condo in the near west side, $400,000. If you're looking for more of a house, keeping in mind that actual single family houses with three or four or more bedrooms, not super common at all in the near west side, you know, near west side is a little closer to downtown. So it's more dense, more condo heavy, more apartment heavy, but there are some houses in some areas of it.
So, you know, it does, there are a few out there. The median sales price for those right now is $714,250. $714,250 median sales price for a house in the near west side neighborhood. And if you just want to, not just, but if you're looking to rent a two-bed apartment, the median price on that per month right now is basically $3,195. But do keep in mind before you get too much sticker shock on that, and really with all of these, except maybe the house, is that these numbers, most of these numbers are coming from places that transacted closer to downtown in the west loop and Fulton Market area, not necessarily where we are talking about in this episode. The Fulton Market west loop, those places tend to be much more expensive. So if you just go a mile or two west where we are talking about more in this episode, you can expect to probably pay half to two thirds of that. So anyway, that has been the real estate stats corner for more listings or to see what's going on in these neighborhoods or the whole city really.
Go to thechicagohomesource.com, which you can find in the show notes. Yeah, when I'm coming back home to Chicago from wherever I'm coming back from, usually, it's Indianapolis. There's always that little dopamine hit that I get when I see the skyline for the first time. I start seeing the skyline come over the horizon.
And I bet this never gets old. So it's just like, yeah, this city is awesome and I get to live here. I can only imagine, I feel like that would probably be 100X coming in from a long trip like that off of Lake Michigan. You're just out there on the water, nothing around you, and you start seeing the buildings come over the water horizon. That's be amazing.
Keith: It doesn't get old. Yeah, like even when we come in, it's like from a long day out on the water, oftentimes it'll be dark when we come in. Just pulling in the work hard, and heading north and seeing that spectacular skyline in front of you, and then docking the boat. We always dock it with the stern in so we can sit on the bow and just look at the skyline in the city. And yeah, it's spectacular.
I really love it. And I mean, it's funny, we have a neighbor that she always tells her daughter who lives in St. Louis says, whenever you drive here, you get her by with the GPS says, take 55 all the way to the lake, and then drive to Lake if you want a beautiful lake on the north side, beautiful skyline on the south side, and you're going to miss all that if you come up in 1994.
Jake: I mean, honestly, that's probably the better way anyway to get to your neighborhood, but it's probably just depending on traffic, I guess. But yeah, take the scenic route if you can. I agree with that. And all the places you've lived, have you always lived in the city itself, or have you ever been a suburbs guy?
Keith: Yeah, first time we lived in the city was when we were in Chicago, which is always a suburbs. So it's been the opposite of the last place we lived in, we lived on like two and a half acres. We had a pond and a pool and very, very different way of living anywhere we needed to go.
We had to get in the car to go. So it was nice and it was comfortable and blown to a nice country club that was down the road. So all that was great, but it doesn't have the same energy and convenience factor to, I mean, I could hit a nine iron and hit the jewel Osco from here. And I would have had to go in a car, take a 15-minute ride, get to the grocery store, live in St. Louis. So yeah, we've always sort of intentionally lived in the suburbs. And then then we became kind of empty nesters. That's when the city made more sense to us. Although I would tell you that I was having this conversation with the neighbor the other day. We were just, like, what was that Christmas night or, I think it might have been Christmas Eve, just sitting out smoking a cigar in the backyard with, you know, in t-shirts and flip flops, which was crazy. But we were just kind of talking about the whole notion of Osmo Trin thought there. Where was it going with this, Jake?
Jake: Well, the question was the urban versus suburban, basically.
Keith: Yeah, oh yeah. That's, thank you. So, well, we were talking about, he's got little kids. And, you know, I was saying, do you ever get pressure from your wife to move to the suburbs? And he's like, yeah, but I mean, we've sort of decided between the two of us that it's a very intentional choice to live in the city and raise children because they have an opportunity to both, you know, see kind of the good and the bad that the city can have. And just the, the, it teaches them to be, again, like some of the stuff we talk about, we're talking about crime, just aware of your surroundings, knowing that you have to be just alert when you feel like you need to be alert versus, I think sometimes when you raise children in the suburbs, you get this very false sense of security that that is the world. You know, then you take a trip to New York City and get on a subway and you go, oh, this is very different than where I grew up.
Jake: Where you go to, you know, the Michigan district in San Francisco and you say, oh, this is very different than where I grew up. You know, and in actuality, more of the population is probably going to be in those types of places than it is in the places where these families that chose to raise their families. But so I think it's a, it's a, I mean, in my opinion, a good choice, but a bold choice to be a potential, your family in an urban environment. But so we didn't make that bold choice.
We chose the suburbs for many years, but as soon as we felt like we didn't have to live in the suburbs, we wanted to get city to try it. And quite frankly, Jake, we weren't sure, you know, we were going to like it. We didn't know, you know, because you just never done it before.
And what we discovered very quickly was how much we did like it. And, and probably be hard to go back to a more suburban environment. You know, and even we don't hardly drive. I ride my bike, I walk and take the trains. There's a few places that we drive the car. They're a little less convenient. One is the harbor because we're always loading up a bunch of stuff. The other is a church in the West loop, which is a little bit less convenient location for a train. And then anytime we need to go sort of out to the verbs to see friends be about it, the rest of that would become those city dwellers ago.
We're going to stay in this like kind of 10 mile radius. Yeah, I mean, it's just more, it's more dynamic. It's probably, I would assume, more interesting. I mean, I grew up in Indianapolis in the city of Indianapolis, but it's a very, it's Indianapolis is basically a big suburb, you know, like rolling sense of purposes. It has the downtown, but you know, I went down there for like Pacers games and that was about it. So pretty much a suburban existence.
And yeah, I mean, I don't know. I definitely have a lot of, it would be tough to have that decision like to your point earlier, like, okay, how do you, like, it would be tough to look at the suburb life, especially like racing kids and like, you know, you pretty much have like damn near guaranteed comfort, good schools, like safety, all these things are just baked into your existence, you know, in a way that, you know, not to say that it's, you know, 100%, but, you know, you're closer to that than you are with just more variables in the, in the urban setting. But, but yes, like, is that really what you want?
Is that really what's going to benefit you the most in the long term? You know, what's like the, what kind of education are you really kind of, I don't know, starting to trail off my, my, my mindset on that started to trail off a little bit, but you know where I'm going with that though.
Keith: Like, yeah, no, I totally get it. I totally get it. It is a, yeah, I mean, I think the schools are probably going to be better out there choices. I mean, like a lot of the families on our block, there's a couple that, that send their kids to CPS, but you got, I'd say the majority of them, that shows in the private route for whatever reason. I think part of it is just the quality of education some, but it's maybe religious, whether they're Jewish or they're, they're, they're going to Catholic school.
But, you know, I think that's something that's probably more of a, you know, a real difficult decision for people to have said, okay, if I'm going to live in the city, I can have to have the means to be able to do that. Unless, you know, we're here, I mean, Blaine is, you know, I guess that's what kindergarten through eighth grade. I think it's, it's a pretty good school. It's probably one of the better ones in Chicago. So if you're going to live in the city, go to public schools, that's probably one you might choose. But I'd say not, not every neighborhood has that opportunity.
So that's, that's one of the things I think people, people have to decide and, but, you know, we don't, we don't, it doesn't really have any bearing for us at all.
Jake: Yeah, Blaine is definitely a big time magnet for that, for that area. Like just in my role as a real estate agent of help quite a few people, you know, who are raising little kids. And that's always like, Oh, Blaine, yeah, let's move there.
Definitely a big, big attraction for that neighborhood for sure. Yeah, I mean, I know, I think K through eight is a little easier, right? And then once you start getting into high school, that's when it's, that's when it turns into like a lottery system. And it's a whole, a whole ordeal from what I understand. So grateful that we're nowhere near having to experience that yet on my end. But sure, we'll maybe get there at some point. What's the most surprising thing that you've learned about your neighborhood and Chicago? Since you've, since you moved here?
Keith: It's a good question. You know, in some respects, I felt like Chicago would be a later night town, you know, but I places do close relatively, you know, that's in the eye of the older, but relatively early, you know, versus in New York, where, you know, people don't go out to dinner until eight or eight 30, you know, people be six or seven o'clock here in those places.
They're going to be closing by 10. So that surprised me. I don't, I guess, say, sort of assume that it was more like, more like a New Yorker there and that respect, but it's, it's not a huge deal. But that's, that's surprising. Yeah, that's a good one.
Jake: What's a common misconception? And we've, we've, you know, touched on one, I could probably, probably the most obvious one is this, you know, the crime headlines, boogeyman, all that kind of stuff. But yeah, you know, maybe one that's a little beneath the surface of that.
Keith: Yeah, I'd say, because it's a big city and people may compare it to something like New York, I think they feel like Chicago is probably a dirty city. And I find it to be very clean. Number one. And then secondly, I think the use of, of, of green space here is really, really well done. And, you know, those are, those are things that are probably people wouldn't realize how well done and how well kept the city is until you actually come here and spend more time or decide to live here. But yeah, the crime is the other thing I think probably people think that you have to leave your house in a bulletproof vest.
If you're pay attention to what you, what you read and, but yeah, I mean, I think, you know, unfortunately, or fortunately, it's, it's concentrated in some areas and that's where the overwhelming rate of those statistics would be. Sorry, I feel like I got you off there. Oh, no, that's it. Yeah, I think that would be, I think just cleanliness and use of green space. And I think the, you know, I also learned, I guess, on one of those Dumb Decker bus trips one time, like all the different gifts from the various countries, whether it be statues and, you know, in various downtown parks or some of those things are, it has like this global significance for leaders. And probably some of that dates back to the World's Fair in 1893 or something.
But I think that that tradition continued on. So, you know, I think the architectural crews and those, those bus tours are really a wealth of information about the history of Chicago. And a lot of that's pleasantly surprising for me. And just things that I didn't know, having not lived here and having not done those things before. But those are recommendations for anybody that I, that I know that comes to visit or family like, hey, she gonna do that and learn, learn more about this great city because they do a really good job of showcasing and shining light on it. Totally.
Jake: Yeah. The number one thing I recommend everybody, if you have, if you have three hours and three hours only to be in Chicago, don't go, don't go have pizza, don't go have a hot dog, don't do any of that. Don't even go to any museums, do the architecture tour. Yeah. Yeah. Do the remote architecture tour. Yeah.
Keith: I think I would concur with that, that record for sure. Yeah.
Jake: Yeah. The architecture here, the, just the history of the city is endlessly fascinating. There's so much, so much cool stuff about it. And I mean, it's not all good. It's not, obviously it's not all good. There's a lot of, you know, a lot of the history is related to, you know, mob and, you know, all that kind of stuff too. But even that stuff is like, it's at least, it's all interesting, you know.
Keith: I agree. I agree. I think it makes so for great folklore, particularly when it has, when it's grounded in facts. But yeah, I mean, I've grown up a little bit when I have the same element or a pretty good level of that element as well. But I think some of the larger Midwestern industrial cities that sort of went along with it because along with those businesses came unions and unions had leadership that was sketchy to say the least. It's usually grounded in some level of organized crime. And so you find it in places like Cleveland and Chicago and even in Indianapolis and for sure. Yeah.
Jake: That's it. Yeah, that is interesting. I never made that exact connection between the cities that would have kind of, you know, the big union jobs, stuff like that between, but yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah.
Keith: Yeah, I only know that because I have some very good friends among them, their fathers were teamster presidents and had a legacy of just family history and organized crime. And so I learned a lot about just how all that stuff worked and the reality of it, even when I was a kid, like there was a, it's actually a movie about a cult killed the Irishman where a guy named Danny Green, he was blown up in a car bomb, like probably about a mile from my house. I heard the explosion. And so I probably know more than I should about the organized crime and unions and cities.
Jake: Did you see the movie The Irishman a couple of years ago? Yeah. Yeah. Hafa and all that. Yeah. Long movie, but it was good. Yeah. No doubt. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the cleanliness of Chicago, I think, I don't think that's, I don't think I've gotten into that with anybody else yet. That really is something to highlight though, especially compared to the other kind of premier cities, like obviously compared to New York. I mean, New York, I love New York. Like New York is a fantastic, like one of the, some of the best, like, you know, if you're going to spend 48 to 72 hours in a city, like New York's hard to beat, but it really is just a giant garbage can. Like it's just so dirty. Even the nicest parts walking outside of your, you know, $10 million flat to just mountains of trash, literally. And this is kind of crazy. You know, it's every square inch of every sidewalk has gum. I mean, this is unreal. And alleys, you know, who would have known that alleys would make such a big deal or such a big difference?
Keith: 100%. Yeah, that is the key. I mean, New York does the best possible job they can, just kind of try and clean those streets up each night, each morning. But I mean, it's, yeah, it's just always out in front of you. Whereas, yeah, alleys do a good job of hiding it, at least keeping it out of sight. And you know, I think the, I mean, living in a commercial alley here, we kind of butt up to commercial properties. The trash trucks are there pretty much every day. And they take a lot of trash away.
And that can't be said for a lot of cities. You get that one day of trash, and that's pretty much it. And here's the problem is they pick up our trash, but I never really have to worry about that. So there's a job well done by the city sanitation crews, for sure, in the city of Chicago.
Jake: Are there any challenges in your neighborhood, either from the kind of specific Southport corridor part or, you know, expanding out to Lakeview, that that area is facing that, you know, maybe you would, you would, if you had a magic wand, you would say, hey, this could be a little better.
Keith: That's a good question. I'd say, you know, one of the things I don't know how much you can improve it, but it's just, it's a reality of daily life in this area because of really feel is parking, you know, and so you're going to have to deal with traffic and lack of parking on the streets when there's games going on. And there's, you know, whatever, 80 games, right? So that's going to happen. There's music events. And then like we just got done with the sprinkle markets. And so, you know, that, so that that's one of the things that is, you just, you have to go into your eyes open and say, if I'm moving there, that's something I'm going to have to deal with on game days, on concert days, on special event days, on street fairs, art fairs and things of that nature.
Yeah. I don't know if there's a way to really fix that, other than maybe at some point finding ways to build some parking structures or some parking lots. So one thing that really have a lot of here, you have more of that downtown for sure, but you don't have a lot of that about this way. So like I say, it's kind of one of those things you go into your, with your eyes open, even my realtor was quick to say like, you're, you know, your four blocks from Wrigley Field, so you're not right up against it, but you're going to, you're going to have, you're going to have busy times and you're going to have some people that may have been over-served walking down your street games and they're loud and, you know, maybe they'll leave some beer cans at the parkway or whatever. But I don't know. That stuff doesn't bother me. I think it comes, goes with the territory. But it's just something you need to know.
Jake: You're like, I sold beer cans. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Cool. Yeah. Cheers to that. Hey, Keith. Thank you so much for your time and for sharing all your, your experience and wisdom here on the great city of Chicago and neighborhood of Southwark corridor. Yeah, my pleasure, Jake.
Have a great weekend. If you've made it this far and you're still listening, you are truly one of the real ones and I just wanted to take a second to say thank you so much. Really appreciate you giving this podcast a shot.
I hope that you are getting a lot out of it. And if that is the case, please give this podcast a like, a follow, some stars, five if you can, a thumbs up, whatever it is on whatever platform that you're consuming this that will tell that platform that you like this, that you want more of it and that you think others should like this as well. And hey, if you want to be a guest on this show, there's a link in the show notes that will take you to a guest form that you can fill out and we can get the ball rolling from there. So if you live in Chicago and you have some interesting things to say about it, and especially if you have any kind of entrepreneurial or business or creative endeavor that you would like to promote, that's not necessary, but it is encouraged, then let's talk, let's chat. And I would love to have you on the show and let's learn about your neighborhood and teach others about it as well. So I just want to say thank you again. And if you wanted to follow us on some other platforms, we are also on YouTube, we're on Instagram, we're on TikTok, we're gonna be on whatever else you can be on.
I don't know, can you be on LinkedIn? We'll figure that out before I ramble too much. Just wanted to say thank you again. And that's all. Thanks. Bye.
