Chicago is made up of more than 70 distinctive neighborhoods, so we're never surprised when a corner of our city lands on a national publication's list of coolest nabes in the country. But when a Chicago 'hood is named one of the world's best? Now you've got our attention. According to Forbes, Pilsen is one of the 12 coolest neighborhoods on the planet, a statement we can happily corroborate.
There's no scientific data at play here; the author simply tapped industry travel experts for top places to explore. The hot tip on Pilsen came from Melissa Biggs Bradley, the founder of Indagare, a membership-based luxury travel company. Here's what she had to say about the South Side destination:
“Featuring streets lined with hip galleries and walls decorated with colorful murals dating from the 1970s, the Pilsen neighborhood on Chicago’s Lower West Side is a nest of cutting-edge culture and art. It’s been fostered by successive waves of Eastern European and Mexican immigrants, in addition to local artists and students, who have molded this fascinating area over the past century and a half. At the National Museum of Mexican Art, the 10,000-piece collection showcases the work of Mexican and Mexican-American artists. And there are a growing number of performance venues, art studios and trendy bars like the popular Punch House."