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Revision as of 15:50, 4 November 2005 by Dpbsmith (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)North Lawndale (also known simply as "Lawndale") is a community area located on the west side of Chicago, Illinois.
K-Town
K-Town is a nickname for an area in North Lawndale in which many street names (Keystone Ave., Karlov Ave., Kedvale Ave., Keeler Ave., Klldare Ave., Kostner Ave.) begin with the letter K. The pattern is an historical relic of a 1913 street naming proposal in which streets were to be systematically named according to their distance from the Illinois-Indiana border; K, the eleventh letter, was to be assigned to streets within the eleventh mile, counting west from the state line. K-Town is one of the few places where the plan was actually implemented.
John W. Fountain (2005) writes:
- K-Town is a city within a city, a fifteen-minute drive from downtown Chicago's skyscrapers... I used to joke that the "K" stood for "kill." I was only half-joking... it had developed a reputation for being one of the rougher places in the city.... K-Town is where my grandfather... and all the other black folk that flocked to the West Side during the mid- to late-1950s bought proud brick houses on tree-lined streets with crackless cement sidewalks....
References
- John W. Fountain (2005): True Vine: A Young Black Man's Journey of Faith, Hope, and Clarity." Public Affairs, ISBN 1586482858
| Community Area 29 - North Lawndale Chicago Community Area 29 - North Lawndale Location within the city of Chicago | ||
| Latitude Longitude |
41°51.6′N 87°42.6′W / 41.8600°N 87.7100°W / 41.8600; -87.7100 | |
| Neighborhoods |
| |
| ZIP Code | parts of 60608, 60623 and 60624 | |
| Area | 8.29 km² (3.20 mi²) | |
| Population (2000) Density |
41,768 (down 11.69% from 1990) 5,039.6 /km² | |
| Demographics | White Black Hispanic Asian Other |
0.92% 93.8% 4.54% 0.13% 0.65% |
| Median income | $18,342 | |
| Source: U.S. Census, Record Information Services | ||
External links
- Chicago Park District
- K-Town, entry in the Chicago Historical Society's Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago
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