Since 2013, South Side Weekly’s Best of the South Side (BoSS) has celebrated the people, places and events that make the South Side an indelible vibe, a cherished destination, and most importantly, home sweet home.
Of Chicago’s 77 community areas, we count 45 as being on the South Side. Those areas contain more than 100 distinct neighborhoods, depending on who you ask. As of 2023, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning estimates that just over 1 million people live in these communities.
In this year’s BoSS, we’re also engaging change and evolution in the region, as well as its history. Recent reports from the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy (IRRPP)— a University of Illinois-Chicago collaborative that promotes and coordinates research on racial and ethnic justice in the U.S.—provide critical information about how the South Side is changing, particularly in comparison to the rest of the city…