West Chesterfield, on Chicago’s south side, is one of those places where the grass is greener — and manicured to near-putting-green standards.
The grass is greener in West Chesterfield, in part, because it’s a neighborhood where people take obvious pride in the appearance of their community. In part it’s greener because housing prices (and property taxes) are low enough that residents have some green left over to spend on the landscaping. You can still find a 3 bedroom, bath-and-a-half single family on what’s said to be an oversized lot in the $150s, and even late 90s new construction at the Chatham Club can be had for well under $300K. Property taxes come in around 1% of the selling price — eat your guts out over that, hapless lakefront condo dwellers.
It’s less than a mile to the new Chatham Village Square, which has a Target and a Walgreen’s.
The Chesterfield Community Council, which lays claim to this part of Chatham, touts this as an “African-American neighborhood.” Open-housing groups somehow don’t get as exercised about that claim as they would if it were made by Edison Park residents, and we suggest you don’t either.
West Chesterfield is partially within the Chatham neighborhood and partially within Roseland, Community Areas 44 and 49, respectively, of the 77 on the city’s official list. West Chesterfield spans the area from 95th St north to 87th St, and from King Dr (400 E) west to the Dan Ryan Expy, in ZIP code 60619.
View YoChicago’s West Chesterfield photos at Flickr, or see them as a slideshow. And, if you have a few hours to while away, you can sample nearly 5,000 YoChicago images of nearly 100 neighborhoods at Flickr.