Junk car removal in North Lawndale

North Lawndale has the city’s largest concentration of greystones, according to Wikipedia’s North Lawndale article, along with the two-flats that fill most blocks. It’s also one of our simplest drives: south on Kedzie Avenue for two and a half miles and you’re in the middle of it.

Shape and boundaries

The community area is hemmed in by railroad lines on three sides and extends north to within a few blocks of the Eisenhower. Cicero is on the west, across the city limit. Douglass Park sits on the east side. East Garfield Park and West Garfield Park are north, the Near West Side and Pilsen are east, and Little Village is south.

People use three or four names inside it:

• Lawndale: the original name, from the 1870 developer Millard and Decker.
• K-Town: the blocks between Pulaski Road and Cicero Avenue, where the streets are Karlov, Keeler, Kedvale, Kildare, Kostner and so on. The K-Town Historic District, roughly Cullerton Street to Cermak Road between Pulaski and Kostner, was listed in 2010.
• Homan Square: the former Sears headquarters site, rebuilt from 1988 on with mixed-income housing; the old Sears tower reopened in 2015 as the Nichols Tower.
• Douglass Park: the area around the 162-acre park, with Mount Sinai Hospital next to it at 15th and California.

ZIP codes

Per the city’s ZIP boundary files, about three quarters of North Lawndale, most of it south of Roosevelt Road, is 60623. The northern strip is 60624 west of Kedzie and 60612 east of it, and the east edge by California Avenue and the park is 60608.

The route from Chicago Avenue

From 2727 W Chicago Ave: half a mile west to Kedzie, about 2.5 miles south, then west on 16th Street. Roughly 3.9 road miles. Douglass Park is about 3.3 miles via Sacramento, Madison, California and Ogden Avenue, the old portage trail that became the Southwest Plank Road. Pulaski Road, which locals once fought to keep as Crawford Avenue, is the main road through K-Town.

The Pink Line runs through with stops at Kedzie, Central Park, Pulaski and Kostner, and drivers use the Otis Grant Collins Post Office at 2302 S Pulaski, North Lawndale College Prep and Farragut Career Academy as markers.

Greystones, two-flats and alleys

Housing here is old and mostly multi-unit. About 28% of homes are two-flats, a third are three- and four-unit buildings, and only 13% are single-family houses, per CMAP. The median building dates to 1936, and about three quarters of households rent.

That means narrow lots, gangways, back pads and garages off the alley. Several side streets are residential permit zones, such as blocks of St. Louis Avenue, Albany Avenue and Hamlin Avenue in the 24th Ward. A car with expired plates on one of those blocks attracts tickets on two counts.

City rules that apply

• Winter Overnight Parking Ban: Kedzie Avenue, 3 to 7 a.m. from December 1 to April 1 (city page).
• Two-inch snow routes: Kedzie, Pulaski, California, 16th Street and Roosevelt Road clear once 2 inches falls.
• Abandoned and dilapidated vehicles: § 9-80-110 of the Municipal Code covers cars that can’t be driven or haven’t moved for more than 7 days, and the city’s abandoned vehicle page adds that a car left without state plates can qualify after two days.

Paperwork first

Sometimes it’s the paperwork, not the engine, that keeps a car stuck. If there’s still a loan or title loan on yours, read selling a car with a lien in Illinois. If the title is lost, see selling a car without a title. Crash damage is covered under wrecked and totaled cars. Cicero is just west if the car is across the city line.