When Did We Stop Belonging Somewhere? I’m sitting in what used to be my favorite dive bar, watching a woman take seventeen photos of her artisanal grilled cheese before taking a single bite. The bartender, who I’ve known for three years, just asked if I wanted to “curate my drinking experience” with their new cocktail …
Month: March 2026
The Night Everything Clicked You know that feeling when you walk into a party and immediately sense something electric in the air? That’s exactly what happened at the third annual Riverside Arts Walk last Saturday night. I’ve covered dozens of these community art events over the years, and most follow the same predictable rhythm. Polite …
The Workshop Explosion Started Three Months Ago In January, there were maybe two pottery studios offering weekend classes in our neighborhood. Today I counted seven different ceramics workshops within a twelve-block radius, plus four jewelry-making studios, three woodworking spaces, and something called a “fiber arts collective” that just opened where the old dry cleaner used …
The Mural That Broke My Heart Last week I watched a crew install the most gorgeous 40-foot mural on the side of what used to be Martinez Grocery. The artist, whose wheat-paste work I’ve been following since she started hitting walls in the warehouse district three years ago, finally got her big commissioned piece. Bright …
The Woman Behind the Magic You probably never heard Maria Santos’ name in the papers, but if you lived anywhere near Pilsen in the last fifteen years, you felt her impact. She was the kind of community organizer who showed up before the meetings started to make sure there was decent coffee, who remembered your …
Before the Microphone You know that feeling when you’re watching someone right before they change everything? I got that exact sensation three months ago, standing in the back of the Riverside Community Center while Carmen Reyes adjusted the microphone for what would become the most important town hall our neighborhood has seen in decades. The …
When Green Spaces Become Gated Communities I’ve been watching the community garden movement bloom across our city for the past five years, and honestly? It’s complicated in ways nobody wants to talk about. Sure, the Instagram posts are gorgeous. Rows of heirloom tomatoes catching golden hour light, kids discovering where carrots come from, neighbors sharing …
The Empty Corner Where Stories Lived You know that feeling when you turn onto a familiar street and something’s just… wrong? Not catastrophically wrong, just quietly off. The rhythm’s broken. That’s what hit me walking down Clement Street last Tuesday, passing the corner where Rosario’s Deli used to anchor the block with its hand-painted sign …
Following the Trail of Handmade Signs You know that feeling when you’re walking the same route you’ve taken a hundred times, and suddenly you notice something that makes you stop mid-step? Last Tuesday, it was a hand-painted sign tucked behind a chain-link fence that read “Kombucha Mama’s Experimental Batches – Ring Bell for Samples.” The …
The Green Gentrification Engine Let’s talk about that beautiful community garden that just sprouted up three blocks from the new artisanal donut shop. You know the one – with the hand-painted signs in three languages and the Instagram-ready raised beds. It’s gorgeous, productive, and according to everyone involved, a triumph of grassroots organizing. But here’s …