We want to like La Baguette Panaderia, 5712 N Clark St, really we do. This is perhaps the coolest location for a bakery on the North Side, perched at the point where Clark Street and Ashland Avenue meet, in the heart of Edgewater and on the northern edge of Andersonville. We love the facade (half pink, half brick) and the giant bakery sign and even the kitschy wedding cake logo. But as Edgewater week dwindles here at YoChicago, we have to cast our vote in the battle of ethnic bakeries for Swedish Bakery, a few blocks south, at 5348 N Clark St. Admittedly, Swedish Bakery will cost you a little more dough (yeah, so what if we did intend the pun?), but it’s worth it.
Taggers, as you can see from the above photo, also recognize the appeal of this location. Thousands upon thousands of cars stream south past this billboard each day, and we’re guessing the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce probably hasn’t endorsed this particular advertisment for the neighborhood. Media companies make mega bucks from these billboards in our neighborhoods while cluttering streets and sightlines. We’d like to suggest that companies like the one controlling this billboard and training lights on the unsavory symbols scrawled there should be forced to clean up the graffiti within, say, 48 hours of its appearance. “Your ad here” is obnoxious enough. “Your gang here” we don’t need.