Hip Chicago Hood Now Historic, Too

Skinny jeans and berets don't offer half the legit hipster cred of living in a historic district- especially a newly created historic district like Chicago's East Village. Kudos to the existing residents for the good sense and taste to move into this neighborhood before it was "discovered."

And kudos to the city for marking the East Village as a landmark district so that it won't be dismantled by an influx of luxury condos and other development of a kind that robs neighborhoods of their unique flavor.

The East Village's pedigree? It was constructed for and by working-class German immigrants and has remained a popular destination for subsequent newly arrived ethnic groups.

Today the East Village has a mix of socioeconomic groups and ethnicities and is an increasingly popular place to live (hipster evidence notwithstanding). Here are three great rentals in the East Village neighborhood, which is bordered on the north by Division, south by Grand, east by Ashland and west by Damen.