Uptown.

Uptown grew up in the 1920s as Chicago's entertainment capital. The Aragon Ballroom, the Riviera Theatre, the Green Mill, and the great Uptown Theatre drew crowds from across the city — and the Green Mill still swings nightly as one of the country's oldest continuously operating jazz clubs, home of the long-running Uptown Poetry Slam.

Today Uptown pairs that history with extraordinary diversity. The Argyle corridor's "Little Saigon" is a destination for Vietnamese, Cambodian, Chinese, and Ethiopian food; the neighborhood anchors a deep network of social-service and affordable-housing institutions; and the lakefront brings beaches, parks, and open space to the ward's eastern edge. A wave of new investment is bringing the entertainment district roaring back.