Thinking About Chicago's Beverly Neighborhood

Back in April of 2009, I visited my old home town of Chicago after a 28-year absence, and in addition to  checking out my old South Side neighborhood of Brainered, I also visited Beverly, the upscale community just to the west of Brainerd. It was originally called Beverly Hills, but the Hills part was dropped for reasons I never knew. The highlight of the community is Longwood Drive, along which is a line of mansions on a tree-covered hill, where executives from the stock yards and other wealthy individuals built their impressive homes. As a child, I was always fascinated by one that looked like a castle that we passed on the way to the Morgen Park Library.  During my visit, I was happy to see that Beverly was still very beautiful and upscale, still well out of my price range after all these years. Sadly, just a few days ago, there was a horrific car-jacking in the neighborhood, as reported on the WGN 9:00 O'Clock News. The suspects were caught, and hopefully this was just a one-time incident, and the neighborhood is still as lovely and peaceful as I remember it. The photograph above, by the way, is the business district just down the hill from Longwood Drive, where the Rock Island coomuter train to the Loop stops, although for some reason they insist on calling it Metra these days. Very weird.