Talk to the residents and business people of Bridgeport and you will hear a number of opinions on what makes the community tick.
“This has been and still is a very diversified place,” says Grazina “Geena” Biciunas-Santoski, 48, owner of the Healthy Food Restaurant, 3236 S. Halsted St. Biciunas-Santoski has been working at the bustling Lithuanian restaurant since her parents bought it in 1960.
“You’ll find people here from all walks of life-from blue-collar workers to top city administrators,” Biciunas-Santoski adds. “And you’ll find numerous cultures, each with its own identity. We’re a melting pot that’s not really melting. I guess we’re more of a vegetable soup.”
Just down the street from Biciunas-Santoski’s restaurant, shopowner Brian Martinez says Bridgeport is a place where people “are happy.”
“Our crime is low, we’re close to downtown, and neighbors work with each other,” says Martinez, 28. He and his wife, Tina, 27, opened Sweet Temptations, a candy and party-favors store at 3362 S. Halsted St., in November.
“When kids our age get married and want to settle down, many of them stay in the neighborhood instead of moving to the suburbs,” Martinez says. “They like it here.”
“This is a typical Chicago neighborhood in that it’s multi-ethnic and still has many family ties,” says Ald. Patrick Huels, 43, of the 11th Ward, which encompasses Bridgeport.
“For example, I live at 32nd Street, my brother lives at 35th Street and my parents live on 37th Street,” adds Huels, who is a lifelong Bridgeport resident.
In fact, it’s not uncommon to see families living just down the hall from each other, Huels says. “Buildings are often sold within families. And families often share the same building, living in the different apartments. It’s not that they have to do that, but (they) prefer to do that. They want to be there for each other.”
“If you have a problem, people will try to help you out,” says Stanley “Gabby” Gapshis, who has lived all of his 79 years in Bridgeport. “There are a lot of longtime friendships in this community-the roots run deep.”
“This is a very close-knit neighborhood,” says John Wilkinson, president of the recently formed South Loop Chamber of Commerce, which covers businesses on Halsted Street from 3100 north to 3900 south.
“Everybody knows everyone else. People stay in this neighborhood although they could afford to live on the North Shore. Homes are well-maintained and paid for. In fact, I’m willing to bet that less than 25 percent of the homeowners in this neighborhood have mortgages.”
The neighborhood has been having a quiet boom in recent years. Gleaming, new Comiskey Park, 333 W. 35th St., opened in 1991, and rows of new homes have gone up in the last few years, many with price tags of more than $200,000.
“The neighborhood is definitely on a tremendous upswing,” Wilkinson says.
Bridgeport is changing in other ways, residents say. In the last decade, residents of European descent-primarily the Irish-have been joined by Hispanics and African Americans, in almost equal numbers, and Asian Americans, the fastest-growing group.
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But much remains the same in the neighborhood, which is home to 30,000 people. For example, many of its churches and taverns stand where they have for decades, and a few have been there for more than 100 years.
Bridgeport is still a strongly political neighborhood, one that produced two of Chicago’s more well-known mayors, the late Richard J. Daley and his son, Richard M. Daley. Richard J. Daley lived in Bridgeport all his life, and his widow still lives in their Lowe Avenue bungalow. Richard M. Daley lives a few blocks away; he also is a lifelong resident.
The neighborhood also has been home to past mayors Michael A. Bilandic, Martin H. Kennelly and Edward J. Kelly and to numerous other high-ranking city staffers.
The community is still fiercely Democratic, with one of the city’s highest voter turnouts.
“There’s a certain amount of charm here because of the political influence that gets people to work together,” Wilkinson says. “That’s been the feeling here for years and years.”
Bridgeport’s history dates to the 1830s, when the first white settlers began building small homes along the South Branch of the Chicago River. They were followed by thousands of Irish immigrants who came to build the Illinois & Michigan Canal.
Construction began in 1836 and ended in 1848. Running from Bridgeport through Lockport and on to the La Salle-Peru area, the 96-mile canal linked Chicago and the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River.
The neighborhood’s name came from the low bridge on the river that was built in the 1840s. Barges coming down the waterway had to be unloaded and reloaded to allow them to pass under the bridge.
When the canal was completed, Bridgeport became the northeastern terminal for the waterway. Tons of produce, wares and tools passed through on the canal each month.
In 1863, Bridgeport was populous and prosperous enough to be annexed by the city of Chicago. Soon after, it became an industrial hub with the stockyards and meatpacking houses to its south, a limestone quarry at 29th and Halsted Streets, accompanying brickyards and a steel mill.
Within a few decades, little of Bridgeport’s economy depended on the canal. At the turn of the century, traffic on the canal had decreased because of the railroads. Its demise was hastened when the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which connects the Illinois and Chicago Rivers, was built on an almost parallel route.
The Sanitary and Ship Canal was constructed to reverse the flow of the Chicago River: The practice of dumping waste into the Chicago River-and ultimately Lake Michigan, which was also used for drinking water-was causing a growing number of typhoid and cholera deaths.
Except during a New Deal conservation program in the 1930s, the Illinois & Michigan Canal became a dumping ground where it flowed through the neighborhood. In the 1950s and ’60s, sections of the canal in Bridgeport were covered by the construction of the Stevenson Expressway.
The industry of the early 20th Century provided plenty of work, and thousands of European immigrants packed Bridgeport’s streets. The Irish were joined by Lithuanians, Poles, Italians, Germans and Croatians. By 1920, there were more than 60,000 people in the bustling community, and most worked a short walk from their homes.
In the years following World War II, as industry fled the city, Bridgeport benefited from another industry: politics. With Bridgeport mayors controlling the city from 1933 to 1978, the community became Chicago’s political center. Hundreds of city workers lived there, and presidents visited its streets.
But the flight of industry, especially the closing of the stockyards in the early 1970s, curtailed growth. By 1960, the population had dropped to 41,500; the next decade, it was down to about 35,000; and by the ’70 census, it had dropped to just less than 31,000.
In the last few years, however, Bridgeport has seen some growth, especially in housing. In just about every vacant corner of the community, new homes have been popping up.
There are several catalysts to this mini-housing boom, says Perry Lau, a managing partner with Richland Group Enterprises, which has built more than 100 homes in Bridgeport in the last few years.
“I believe people have realized that Bridgeport real estate is a substantial value, especially when compared to the North Side,” he says. “Plus, it is centrally located and is just a few minutes from downtown via car or via public transportation.”
Another catalyst is that just to the north, Chinatown is bursting at its seams, bringing an influx of Asian Americans to Bridgeport. As many as 80 percent of his new buyers are Asian-American, Lau says.
“Their parents may live in Chinatown, and they want to be close to their parents,” Lau says, “but housing in Chinatown is very limited. Bridgeport can offer bigger lots and newer homes.”
“Bridgeport does not have the hustle and bustle of Chinatown,” says Sinda Yung, who moved into Bridgeport in September with her father, grandmother and cousin. “Things are a bit more quiet here, a bit more peaceful. We enjoy that.”
The new housing has caused the value of existing housing to rise, Wilkinson says. The average home value in 1980, according to U.S. Census figures, was a little less than $30,000. In 1990, it had increased to about $69,000. “I believe that the home values here are increasing 20 to 25 percent each year,” Wilkinson says.
With housing values increasing, he says, the chamber is hoping to bolster the neighborhood’s retail and industrial businesses. “We’d like to clean up old and vacant buildings along Halsted and bring in new developers,” he says.
Wilkinson believes that Bridgeport’s location and stable residential base will lure new businesses. “We have new people coming into the neighborhood who have disposable incomes that they would like to spend locally,” he says.
The community also has an enterprise zone, which rewards development with tax credits.
Although Bridgeport long has been fully developed, Lau, Huels and Wilkinson say there are enough vacant structures that can be knocked down to make room for redevelopment for several years.
“There are antiquated industrial areas that could be converted into residential and commercial space,” Lau says. “I’m confident Bridgeport will continue to grow.”
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While growth seems inevitable, Huels and others believe that home prices eventually will stabilize, keeping them affordable for the next generation.
“I don’t believe we’ll ever get as fashionable or trendy as Lincoln Park because of the more traditional values here,” he says. “This is not that type of neighborhood and never will be.”
“This is a solid place,” restaurateur Biciunas-Santoski says. “It’s a neighborhood with deep roots. Everything here has an identity. Nothing is made up-it’s all real.”