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Video: Watch our full interview with Alderperson Tom Tunney The hard cost of opening your business every day means you have to get close to 100%,” Tunney said. Honestly most businesses cannot operate successfully or profitably with 50% capacity, it doesn’t work. The news that the city will fully open next Thursday is welcome in the neighborhood, said Alderperson Tom Tunney who represents the 44th Ward, which includes Northalsted. “ is kind of a badge of honor right now.” Shawn Hazen, marketing and promotions manager, says the first weekend with the dance floor reopen went well. Many bars opened their dance floors at the end of May to people who are fully vaccinated, including Roscoe’s Tavern. Meanwhile, the Northalsted Business Alliance and the local Special Service Area tried to help mitigate the cost of the equipment necessary to operate during the pandemic, like outdoor heaters and air filtration.
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Some bars began serving food to be able to stay open under city and state guidelines. Like businesses across the city, many on Halsted Street had to pivot over the past year.
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While a few businesses have relocated, none have closed due to the pandemic, Alen said. “I hope they’ve had a change of heart and are reexamining how they perpetuate bigotry in their own businesses and making it a welcoming space for all intersections of queer identity.” “I hope is reflected inside of the businesses of the Northalsted Business Alliance,” Camp said. It’s what we’ve pushed before we used the name Boystown and what we’re going to use after we used the name Boystown.”Ĭamp said this is a great “symbolic first step,” but would like to see further efforts to improve diversity and inclusion in the neighborhood. “Northalsted is what we’ve always been called. “Internationally the name Boystown is still gonna mean this neighborhood, even locally Boystown is still gonna mean this neighborhood,” Alen said. Lake Alen, the acting executive director of the Northalsted Business Alliance, said the organization only recently began promoting the area as “Boystown,” before it used “Northalsted,” which he said is the name of the geographical area.Īlen said the area will still likely be known to many a “Boystown,” but that the Alliance will continue to market it as Northalsted. Since the petition, the Northalsted Business Alliance - the chamber of commerce - switched its marketing of the area from “Boystown” to “Northalsted.” The same year some called for a boycott of the store Beatnix after it sold a Confederate flag vest. In 2019, Progress Bar faced backlash after trying to ban rap music. “Even though it is historically a tongue and cheek nickname that was passed on, it encourages a lot of sexist, transphobic, even racist behavior in the neighborhood perpetuated by business owners,” said Camp, who is also a podcast producer.Ĭamp mentioned instances of racism and discrimination in the neighborhood, both from business establishments and patrons. Last summer, local nonbinary activist Devlyn Camp led a petition for the Northalsted Business Alliance to stop marketing it as “Boystown.” Over the last year there has been a push to drop the neighborhood’s “Boystown” nickname for something more inclusive.
CHICAGO GAY BAR BANS RAP SERIES
Interactive map: More from our community reporting series That’s not without a host of struggles the community has faced over the last year of the pandemic and civil unrest. The neighborhood, located in the Lakeview community area, is known as the center of LGBTQ life in Chicago, and has just started to recover the vibrant character that made it famous.