North Lawndale Ride
This is a new ride incorporating new bicycle features as of 2015 and old synagogues now being used as African American churches. It was inspired by Irv Cutler's tour of the West Side given by bus sponsored by the Jewish United Fund and members of the African American community.
We start by enjoying car free Cortland St east of the bridge under re-construction. Then we climb up to the new 606 Bloomingdale Trail. We exit at Damen and go south on the Hipster Highway, a.k.a. Milwaukee Ave. taking in the sight of boutiques, restaurants and bars packed tightly together. Next we go east on Kinzie St. which is Chicago's first separated bike path.
We turn south and go past Merchandise Mart and cross the river on the bridge which sported the first Kathy Plates ever and has been refurbished since.
We head to Wells & Lake where the first ever Jewish religious services were held. It's now a Dunkin' Donuts. Coffee anybody? I like their coffee.
Next we visit the Federal Plaza where there is a plaque describing the first Chicago synagogue. Naturally, it's been torn down. But the plaque is there and I have a photo.
A visit to the original Maxwell street Market and we'll point out the current Maxwell Street Market. Get your watch battery changed for only $5.00. I know the guy who shows up in all kinds of weather. There's also a guy who sells cheap bungie cords. And M Weinberg Hosiery at the end of the street where I worked during my days as an underpaid secretary.
We'll cut through the UIC campus, passing a heliport on the way. See the former JPI (Jewish Peoples Institute) and come to a full stop in front of the Stone Baptist Church where Chicago Jewish History expert Irv Cutler will talk about the history of the Jewish Community in Chicago. He's the author of a fine book on the subject and is interviewed in Geoffrey Baer's WTTW Tour of Jewish Chicago.
We'll go inside the Stone Baptist Church, one of those churches which still has Hebrew lettering in the stone facade. Bishop Derrick Fitzpatrick welcomes us as he did the bus load of Jews and African Americans who did this tour a few months ago.
We'll see a few more synagogues turned churches on Independence Blvd and a former Weinstein Funeral Chapel now being used as another place of prayer on Roosevelt Road.
A glimpse of the original Sears Tower and we can stop at Garfield Park Conservatory if you wish. Or stop at the Center for Green Technology and then proceed north on Sacramento and continue along the same boulevards traversed in the Boulevard Lakefront Tour a few weeks previously.
Ending up where we started in Lincoln Park makes the distance exactly 22.2 miles at a pace about 10-14mph and you are all invited to hang out in my back yard for a while.
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