Scene in Logan Square: Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival

Act Art local

While I’ve covered a variety of store comings and goings and vacancies along Milwaukee Avenue, as Logan Square artist and one of the festival organizers, Victor Montañez, says, “We do  not need to look beyond our community to reinvent our economy,” and this year’s bigger, better Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival should put that idea to the test.

Centered at Logan Square’s square, the festival runs for three days, Friday, July 31, through Sunday, August 2, from noon to 11:00 p.m. each day, and runs for miles up and down Milwaukee Avenue from California Avenue

Holiday shopping around Logan Square

Julejentenes Christmas Bazaar

First stop, the Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church (Minnekirken) at 2614 N. Kedzie for its annual Julejentenes Christmas Bazaar on Saturday, November 22 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The church ladies have been baking up a storm, and on Saturday you can purchase some of their delectable Norwegian cookies and breads and clever crafts. Buy some for your own Thanksgiving feast or to bring as a gift for your Thanksgiving hosts. The ladies also promise stick-to-the-bones pea soup, which should be welcome warmth in this cold weather. The bazaar is a fundraiser for the church, the last remaining Norwegian language church in Chicago.

Gift options surrounding the square

Moving right around Logan Square to the south on Kedzie Avenue, Boulevard Bikes has shiny new and fully functional used bikes and accessories for your cycling friends and family, or give a gift certificate in any amount for your cyclist’s future repair or accessory needs. Lula Café also offers gift cards in any denomination.

Community Book Exchange: Logan Square Branch

Walking by the southeast corner of Logan and Kedzie Boulevards, I was again reminded of one of the things I love about this neighborhood: the Community Book Exchange: Logan Square Branch (though I don’t know of any additional branches yet [Correction:  there is also a Wicker Park Branch]).

If you haven’t seen it, it’s a Chicago Reader newspaper box (mis?)- appropriated and converted by Logan Square resident Ryan Duggan to a free book exchange serving readers in the community since 2006. Don’t worry, the Reader thought enough of it to feature a story on “The Littlest Library” shortly after the box surfaced in its current incarnation.

Have books you no longer want? Place them in the box. Looking for a good read? Go peruse the library shelves (all two of them). My recent perusal uncovered the classic Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Ray Bradbury’s science

Sunrise Fresh Market on Milwaukee Avenue

What’s in a name?

Monday’s Gapers Block: Drive Thru article, “Goya or Bust,” mistakenly referred to Sunrise Fresh Market at 2722 N. Milwaukee Avenue by its old name of Tianguis. Tianguis is still the name on the awning, but it’s been Sunrise Fresh Market — as the banner sign above the awning says — for over a year now.

The article also refers to the store formerly known as Tianguis as a bodega. I suppose that depends on your definition of a bodega. I think of a bodega as the well-stocked corner store in the city. Besides not being literally on a corner, Sunrise is far more than a corner store. Despite folks clamoring for a grocery store in the neighborhood, we have one right on Milwaukee Avenue in