First, Food.
SAM: My brain thrives on variety and today, my heart is filled because of the variety of food we ate and activities we did as a family!
Daniel and I took the CTA route to Chinatown. We had planned to take the 35 bus to the red line but due to a delay, we got ourselves some extra exercise by walking along 35th Street to the Red Line station. I relished the opportunity to step into Daniel’s interest and passion. He is a city boy and when we are riding public transit, Daniel is in his natural habitat. Click below to watch our journey on Daniel’s YouTube channel!
We cashed in our rain check from Christmas day and had our family’s belated Christmas progressive dinner prior to our library visit, sharing one or two dishes in each place.
The first restaurant we visited was Daifuku Ramen. We ordered a side of Edamame and a bowl of Karaage Ramen to share. The pork curry broth was so flavorful and was a perfect complement to the cold, rainy weather we had today. We went at the perfect time – by the time we walked out the doors, the restaurant was fully packed with customers.
We then hopped over to one of our favorite Hong Kong style restaurants, Ken Kee Restaurant and shared a bowl of Fish Fillet Crispy Chow Mein.
We completed our progressive lunch at Saint Anna Bakery, where the boys each got an egg tart and Ben and I split an egg tart and a raisin danish. The danish brought me back to my childhood because I alternated between that and a pineapple bun as an after school snack in Hong Kong.
NATHAN: The egg tart was very yummy! You all NEED to try the egg tarts!
To the library!
BEN: CPL has had a presence in Chinatown since the early 1970s, operating out of several storefronts. The current branch building, a custom $19m design/build project completed in 2015, incorporates Feng Shui design principles, a large atrium is intended to evoke a traditional Chinese courtyard, and a living, green roof! A large-scale mural by CJ Hungerman, Universal Transverse Immigration Proclamation, adorns the upper level.
Children’s librarian Neil told us that the branch receives large amounts of foot traffic from tourists looking for a bathroom (hard to come by in Chinatown!) and seeking information about the neighborhood – a CPL fact sheet he gave us lists this branch as the busiest in the entire system, though Neil said today it is closer to the 3rd busiest. He also shared that the branch is a popular after school hangout for teens who come straight over from schools in easy walking distance (including Sam’s own Haines!). The branch is well-equipped to host this crowd, with a large community meeting room on the first floor and a YOUmedia lab.
Interestingly, Chicago’s Chinatown didn’t start in the Cermak/Wentworth region of Armour Square where it stands today. Early Chinese settlement in Chicago in the last decades of the 1800s centered around Clark Street between Harrison and Van Buren. Economic, social, and political developments (notably, anti-Chinese racism fueled by the Chinese Exclusion Act) pushed the community south starting in 1912.
What about transit?
DANIEL: The Chinatown branch has lots of transit, and lots of other future opportunities. The library has access to the CTA Cermak-Chinatown Red line station, and bus route 62 and, on weekdays, 24. Metra’s closest station to the library is 18th Street on the Metra Electric Line, which is about 1 mile from the library. I can’t seem to find a Pace stop near this branch, so for those suburbanites, Metra is your best bet.
As for future opportunities, there are quite a few. By the way, these are all my opinions, so don’t take this as stuff that’s actually happening. First, a CTA Orange line stop at Wentworth would break an almost 2 mile gap from Halsted station to Roosevelt Station. Next, I would add a station to the Metra Rock Island Line at Archer Avenue.This would increase ridership, and maybe encourage some development around the station. Last but not least, the CTA should extend the CTA route #22 to the library, bringing people to the Chinatown neighborhood. So that’s all for now, but I will give a rating.
CTA Bus: ✅
CTA Train: ✅
Metra: ✅
Pace: ❌
Parking: ❌
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