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In fact, Ravenswood and Portage Park have much in common. They are both neighborhoods with good housing stock and quickly escalating property values. Both Ravenswood and Portage Park are adjacent to other neighborhoods with some new commercial development–Lincoln Square in the case of Ravenswood and Old Irving in the case of Portage Park. Neither Ravenswood nor Portage Park, however, has its own nice stores, trendy coffee shops, or yuppie restaurants.
There are, of course, some differences between Ravenswood and Portage Park. Ravenswood has an alderman with a penchant for self-promotion and a well-publicized group of bubbling activists. In my opinion, Ravenswood’s and Lincoln Square’s local activists have done more in the last year to increase property values with their hyperbolic warnings of gentrification than real estate agents could have done in ten years. Thanks to these activists’ efforts, both reporters and potential home buyers have serious misconceptions of Ravenswood.
Ravenswood
