Getting set to tour Austin at Columbus Park
The Austin Community Area is the most populated and one of the largest by area of Chicago’s 77 different Community Areas. It has a fascinating history integral to Chicago’s own. Austin’s resulting built environment is like testimony about the passing years, and the comings and goings of different groups populating its streets and homes. Pedaling through the community gives one an opportunity to witness architectural styles of great variance. Queen Anne, Gothic, Prairie, Arts and Craft, Italianate, Georgian, Art Deco and other revival styles all co-exist. Time, disinvestment, preservation, decay, grand wealth and startling poverty co-exist as well. We first toured the area in 2009 with a big group of riders, 150 plus and to date, our largest ride ever. In the intervening years, we’ve come back to the area for three additional tours before this Saturday’s visit back and it remains one of my favorite tours.
One of the goals of the Chicago Neighborhood Bike Tours is to introduce anyone that is interested in the Chicago beyond our immediate horizons. I’d like to take you to places you haven’t been. Sometimes that means to new parts of the city and sometimes it means showing you things you’ve never seen in places you’ve been a hundred times. I want people to experience the great stories of our city and its suburbs, see the architectural beauty of its past and learn how it passed time, and why things are the way they are. In Austin, we are given so many different views, so many different time periods and such a varying narrative of the populations, that it becomes one of the most intriguing and important stories of our city.
Join us on Saturday for a bike ride on Chicago’s West Side Community, Austin.
Tour of Austin
Saturday April 25, 2015 @ 11:00 am
Columbus Park @ 500 South Central Avenue in Chicago