Living in Rogers Park, Chicago

Howard station sits at the literal end of the line, the shared terminal for the Red, Purple, and Yellow Lines and the northernmost stop most Chicago Transit Authority riders ever see, its role as a transfer point and bus hub bringing steady foot traffic and idling buses to the blocks immediately around it. Loyola University's Lake Shore campus, with its Art Deco Mundelein Center and lakefront chapel, occupies a stretch of shoreline near the neighborhood's southern edge, while Devon Avenue carries one of the city's most varied restaurant strips, plates of biryani and kabobs sitting a few doors down from Nepali and Thai kitchens. Loyola Beach and the lakefront beyond it give residents direct lake access without the crowds that build up farther south, and courtyard apartment buildings — many built in the early twentieth century for the university's overflow of students and staff — keep rents lower than almost anywhere else along the water.

Devon Avenue smells different block by block — cardamom and fried dough near the South Asian groceries, char and lemongrass closer to the Thai kitchens — a sensory marker of how far a short walk can stretch across cuisines.