The West Side is one of the three major geographical "sides" of the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The others are the North Side and South Side. The West Side contains communities that are of historical and cultural importance to the history and development of Chicago. On the flag of Chicago, the West Side is represented by the central white stripe.
The West Side has gone through many transitions in its ethnic and socioeconomic makeup due to its historic role as a gateway for immigrants and migrants as well as its role for funneling poorer African-American residents away from the wealthier lakeside neighborhoods and central business district. Historically the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 started on the West Side before consuming much of the then city, and Jane Addams of Hull House brought international attention to the West Side in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At the same time, some of Chicago's grandest parks and boulevards were laid out on the West Side. Today, the West Side consists of large mixed communities of middle class, working class, and low-income African American, Puerto Rican, and Mexican residents; some small communities of blue-collar, lower middle class and middle class white residents of historically Polish, Italian, Czech, Russian Jewish, and Greek, descent; and newer communities of middle-class, upper-middle class, and wealthy white residents created by gentrification. Major shifts continue to happen due to forces such as rapid gentrification, selective corporate investments, and unequal distribution of city resources.
There are a range of services available on the West Side, especially educational, cultural, and medical institutions. The University of Illinois at Chicago is Near West Side, and further west the United Center, home to the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks. One of the nation's largest urban medical districts, the Illinois Medical District, is on the West Side. Three of Chicago's largest parks, along with much of the city's boulevard system, are in this part of the city: Humboldt Park, Garfield Park, and Douglass Park. The West Side is very accessible by the interstate and public transportation via the Chicago Transit Authority's many bus routes, the Chicago 'L', the Metra commuter rail, and the Eisenhower Expressway. Additionally, Cook County Jail, the United States' largest single site jail, and the Homan Square facility, maintained by the Chicago Police Department, are both on the West Side.
Boundaries
As with the other sides of the city, there is no consensus as to the exact boundaries of the West Side. The city's annexation of land beyond the original western border at Wood Street gave way to the development of the West Side. The city legislature added more land in 1869 through the annexation of West Town area, and the rest of the area was absorbed in 1899 through the annexation of the Austin area. Before the 1909 re-numbering of Chicago's street addresses, all addresses west of the Chicago River were designated as "west," but this changed with the establishment of the address numbering system Chicago uses today. Madison Street is designated as the north–south axis and State Street as the east–west axis, but State Street is not included in and geographically very distant from the West Side.
The most commonly referenced borders by officials that are assigned to the West Side are North Avenue to the north and 31st Street to the south. The western border is where the edge of the city meets the western suburbs of Oak Park and Cicero. These two suburbs border the communities of Austin, Lawndale, and Little Village. The eastern border is often the most disputed border by residents, real estate brokers, and city officials. While some will claim Western Avenue is the eastern border, those in the communities east of Western Avenue such as West Town, the Near West Side, and Pilsen have more historical and cultural ties to the West Side and the central, inner city area more so than to the North Side or South Side. In certain texts, the communities within West Town and Pilsen are grouped together as the Near Northwest Side and Near Southwest Side respectively. Therefore, using the Chicago River as an eastern border of the West Side becomes suitable. Regardless of how the boundaries are defined, the West Side is the smallest in area of the three sections of the city, with an area of approximately 34.7 square miles.
Community areas and neighborhoods
According to the city's official division of its 77 community areas, nine community areas compose the West Side: West Town, the Near West Side, the Lower West Side, Humboldt Park, East Garfield Park, West Garfield Park, North Lawndale, South Lawndale, and Austin. Within these community areas are smaller neighborhoods, some of which match the community area's name and boundaries, and some of which do not use the community area's name at all. The three main community areas that do not match their colloquial neighborhood names are the Lower West Side, which is widely known as Pilsen; North Lawndale, which is simply known as Lawndale; and South Lawndale, which is widely known as Little Village.
Neighborhoods within these community areas include East Ukrainian Village, Ukrainian Village, Noble Square, Pulaski Park, The Patch, and Wicker Park within West Town; Fifth City within East Garfield Park; Heart of Chicago within the Lower West Side; The Island within Austin; University Village, Greektown, Little Italy, and Tri-Taylor within the Near West Side; Homan Square and K-Town within North Lawndale; Marshall Square within South Lawndale; and West Humboldt Park within Humboldt Park.
Demographics
A majority of the West Side's Black residents live in the Near West Side, Garfield Park, Austin, Lawndale, and the southern portion of Humboldt Park. As demographic maps from the 2010 U.S. census show, the Black community on the West Side is bordered to the north and to the south by Latino residents. On the north and moving northwest are mostly Puerto Rican and other Latino residents living in the communities of West Town and Humboldt Park, and to the south are primarily Mexican residents living in the communities of Pilsen and Little Village. The gentrifying areas of West Town, the Near West Side, and Pilsen are seeing large influxes of mostly middle-class white residents, thus concentrating the West Side's white population much closer to the downtown area. Other white populations of the West Side include the neighborhood of Galewood in the northern part of the Austin community area as well as the small Polish patches and Eastern European areas remaining in parts of West Town, such as Ukrainian Village.
According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the West Side has a total of 480,687 residents, making it the least populated of the three main sections of the city. However, its population density is very high at 13,852 residents per square mile. In 2010, 44% of residents were non-Hispanic Black, 34% were Latino or Hispanic, and 17% were non-Hispanic white. 3% of residents were of Asian ancestry, mostly residing in the Near West Side in the University Village neighborhood near the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Illinois Medical District. 2% of residents were of Native American descent, multiracial backgrounds, or other origins. Increasing foreclosures and gentrification have driven many of the poorer residents, mostly Black and Latino, toward other parts of the city, particularly the South Side and Northwest Side, as well as lower-income suburbs like Cicero and Berwyn, decreasing the population in certain areas of the West Side.
In 2023, the community areas that make up the west side had a population of 476,628 people. 109,636 or 23.00 percent were White, 159,883 or 33.54 percent were Hispanic or Latino (of Any Race), 173,616 or 36.43 percent were Black, 20,362 or 4.27 percent were Asian, and 13,131 or 2.75 percent identified as other.
Population density and income demographics Community Area Population Density Per Capita Income Households Below Poverty Level West Town 17,972/sq. mile $39,596 15.7% Near West Side 09,653/sq. mile $41,488 21.6% Lower West Side 12,227/sq. mile $15,467 27.2% Humboldt Park 15,626/sq. mile $13,391 32.6% East Garfield Park 10,636/sq. mile $13,596 39.7% West Garfield Park 13,910/sq. mile $10,951 40.3% North Lawndale 11,187/sq. mile $12,548 38.6% South Lawndale 17,269/sq. mile $10,697 28.1% Austin 13,783/sq. mile $15,920 27.0% Chicago 11,844/sq. mile $27,148 18.7%
History Previously, the area was home to indigenous populations including the Cahokian, Potawatomi, Sauk, and Miami. Through legal trickery, the Treaty of Chicago, U.S. government officials were able to obtain land around Lake Michigan.
1830s to late 19th century
When Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1834, settlers only lived as far west as Jefferson Street or Halsted Street, less than a half mile west of the Chicago River. Land plotters and wealthier newcomers were more interested in developing land north and south of the original settlement because this land was adjacent to Lake Michigan. As the central business district grew, retail stores set up shop along Lake Street, connecting the central business district with the slower-developing western part of the city. As Lake Street became a bustling thoroughfare throughout the 1840s and 1850s, wealthier residents decided to establish an affluent community on the West Side that could be a retreat from the bustling city center. This was the impetus for the creation of Union Park. As the 1860s came, less affluent residents replaced the wealthier families around Union Park and increased immigration from Europe transformed the Near West Side into an ethnically diverse area. Chicago's first Black community along Kinzie Street and Lake Street became adjacent to an Irish community by the river, as well as German, French, Czech, and Bohemian communities. Polish immigrants settled further north along the river in West Town to work at factories and on the railroad.
The area was transformed by the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, which made 300,000 residents of the city homeless. The resulting migration toward other parts of the city created very densely populated and overcrowded areas on the Near West Side. Most of the Czech and Bohemian residents moved south establishing the neighborhood of Pilsen, named after the city of Plzeň in the Czech Republic. The fire also began migration into the Lawndale neighborhood, which had advertised itself as a residential suburb with fireproof apartment buildings.