Living in River North, Gold Coast & Streeterville: a neighborhood guide

OfficiallyRiver North, the Gold Coast and Streeterville are all neighborhoods inside the Near North Side, community area 8, with the Magnificent Mile, Old Town’s south blocks and Goose Island. All 77 community areas on one interactive map.

The lay of the land

Three names, one community area. River North, west of Michigan Avenue, turned its warehouses into the gallery district of the 1980s and then into lofts, restaurants and towers; the Merchandise Mart, so big it once held its own zip code, anchors it on the river. The Gold Coast, north of Oak Street, keeps the mansions and rowhouses of the 1880s along Astor Street, a City landmark district. Streeterville, east of Michigan, stands on sand and fill that a colorful squatter named George Streeter once claimed as his own district; today it holds Northwestern’s downtown campus and hospital, Navy Pier, and some of the tallest apartment buildings in the city.

The 1869 Water Tower and its pumping station, survivors of the Great Fire, still hold the center at Michigan and Chicago.

What living here is like

Everything is close because everything is up: groceries, gyms and dry cleaners live on the ground floors of the buildings themselves, the Riverwalk and the lakefront trail are the front yard, and a car is optional in a way it is almost nowhere else in Chicago. The trade is noise and pace; a quiet block here means a high floor, not a side street.

• Oak Street Beach sits at the Gold Coast’s front door, and Ohio Street Beach at Streeterville’s.
• The Museum of Contemporary Art faces the Water Tower across its plaza.
• Wells Street carries River North’s restaurant row; the Mart’s riverfront face lights up as art after dark.

The housing stock

This is condo and co-op country: timber-loft conversions and glass high-rises in River North, vintage co-ops and boutique elevator buildings on the Gold Coast, full-amenity towers in Streeterville, and a thin, prized layer of rowhouses on the landmark blocks. Buying vertical is its own craft, assessments, reserves, rental caps and board rules move value as much as the view does, so read our buyers FAQ on assessments and bring the rent vs. buy calculator; for many people here, renting a year first is the smart move.

Getting around

Two L lines, the downtown bus grid, the water taxi in season, and walking distance to the Loop itself. Drivers keep a garage space and use Lake Shore Drive or the Ohio feeder; most residents let the neighborhood’s density do the driving instead.

Guides worth reading before you tour here

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