The Home Front

Defaced Wacker House (above) By Don DeBat Old Town’s famed Wacker House, once a pristine landmark at 1838 N. Lincoln Park West, is undergoing a tragic and unthinkable “remuddling” that has totally defaced the “Mona Lisa” of Chicago’s rare surviving Victorian-era properties. Like the 1950 movie, “Sunset Boulevard,” starring Gloria Swanson, today—the once classically beautiful, but aging star—is no longer ready for her close up. In fact, developer and beer baron Frederick Wacke

By Don DeBat Chicago’s North Side home buyers will continue to pay more, and should “act quickly” this summer to grab their share of the American Dream. That’s the advice of 26-year veteran Baird & Warner real estate broker May Jo Nathan, author of the “Chicago North Side Market Report.” The exclusive survey analyzed 2nd quarter April through June of 2026 single-family home and attached townhome and condominium sales in nine neighborhoods—Edgewater, Lake View, Lincoln Park, L

New bike lane installed on Archer avenue in front of The Pants Box (above) By Don DeBat Chicago was once known as a “city that works.” It was a transportation-oriented hub, but now is run by clout-happy, Democratic-Socialist politicians who appear to be kissing the bicycle lobby’s sprocket. City Hall has erected concrete barriers and roadway-blockers on key arterial streets all over the city’s transportation grid in favor of privileged bike paths. The bike-crazy trend really

By Don DeBat The slow-moving, on-going creep of gentrification in Chicago neighborhoods can be disruptive to apartment renters who are being priced out of their long-term family digs. Gentrification can be disruptive, but it is not always a dirty word. Real estate experts say the current problem of gentrification isn’t severe enough to warrant radical remedies that would end up hurting the people the fixes are meant to help. Affordable housing advocates complain that gentrifi

By Don DeBat Critics sometimes refer to former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot as “Mayor Lighthead.” Now, one example of that joke has washed ashore like a dead alewife at Bally’s casino on the banks of the Chicago River at Halsted St. and Chicago Ave. Some five years ago, Chicago entered into a so-called “Host Community Agreement” (HCA) with the gaming company Bally’s, the city’s choice as the operator of the first Chicago casino. Soo Kim, Chairman, Bally's Corp. (left) In