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West Ridge
West Ridge
	— Community area —
Community Area 02 - West Ridge
	Streetmap
	Location within the city of Chicago
	Coordinates: 42°00′N 87°41.4′W / 42°N 87.69°WCoordinates: 42°00′N 87°41.4′W / 42°N 87.69°W
Country	United States
State	Illinois
County	Cook
City	Chicago
Neighborhoods	List Golden Ghetto; Nortown; Peterson Park; Rosehill; West Ridge; West Rogers Park
	Area
- Total	3.5 sq mi (9.14 km2)
	Population (2000)
- Total	73,199
- Density	20,742.3/sq mi (8,008.6/km2)
	population up 11.97% from 1990
	Demographics
- White	49.7%
- Black	6.78%
- Hispanic	15.5%
- Asian	22.3%
- Other	5.65%
Time zone	CST (UTC-6)
- Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
ZIP Codes	60645 and parts of 60659
Median income	$41,144
	Source: U.S. Census, Record Information Services

West Ridge is one of 77 well-defined Chicago community areas. It is a middle class neighborhood located on the far North Side of the City of Chicago. It is located in the 50th Ward. Also historically called North Town, it is bordered on the north by Howard Street, on the east by Ridge Boulevard, Western Avenue, and Ravenswood Avenue, the south by Bryn Mawr Avenue and Peterson Avenue, and on the west by Kedzie Avenue and the North Shore channel of the Chicago River. At one time joined with neighboring Rogers Park, it separated in the 1890's over a conflict concerning park districts (known as the Cabbage War.)

Devon Avenue

Today West Ridge is one of Chicago's better off communities, filled with thriving multi-ethnic culture lining Devon Avenue, historic mansions lining Ridge and Lunt Avenues, cultural institutions such as St. Scholastica Academy and one of the highest per capita incomes on the Northside of Chicago. It is represented in City Council by Alderman Bernard Stone.

It is home to the Midwest's largest Hasidic community, as well as other Jewish, Irish American, German-American, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Assyrian, Russian, and Korean immigrant communities.

[edit] Golden Ghetto

The Golden Ghetto is bounded on the north by Warren Park and Pratt Avenue and on the south by Peterson Avenue. It acquired its name from the thriving Jewish community there from about 1930 to the mid-1970s. That community began to drift into the suburbs in the 1960s, and the neighborhood began to be home to South Asians and Russian Jews from about that time.

The heyday of the area is the topic of Adam Langer's Crossing California, told from the perspective of the second-generation residents during their middle school and teenage years.