Madison Avenue.
For those not from Chicago this is the border, the line in the sand, the do not cross. This unassuming street running through the loop is what separates Chicagoland's north and south (which doesn't include the loop, those in the loop south of Madison are still "in the loop").
I grew up in Chicagoland's north side and have spent a good deal of time in the south side..
Vic, appreciate your post.
My dad was from the North Side. My mother was from the South Side.
After I got out of the Army in '71, I used to drive down to Wrigley. Park the cycle on Sheffield. Get a beer at the bar at the corner of Waveland and Sheffield. (I think, at that time, it was called Ray's Bleacher Bar.)
Behind the bar, running from floor to ceiling, they had a copy of
Mike Royko's column on how if you were a Cubs fan you couldn't ever truly be friends with anyone that was a Sox fan.
At times, you could get beer for a quarter and admission to the center field bleachers was a dollar or so... While the Andy Frain ushers wouldn't let you bring in bottles or cans, they always let my
wine skin slide. If it rained, you could retreat under the scoreboard. (There were days when there would only be a dozen, or so, of us in the center field bleachers.) If you got paranoid, you could climb up on one of the concrete fence supports along side the bleachers and check the cycle parked on Sheffield.
Didn't play baseball growing up. But I did play soccer. Played on a field next to the old
Comiskey Park. Played on the old
Stagg Field at U of Chicago. Played in
Grant Park. Played on the junior team for the
Slovaks that practised at
Rockne Stadium.
Whether of not the North Side parents in the OP are judging the risk of playing on the south side appropriately, it is apparent that, over time, something has been lost.
The fact that the North Side parents have a fear of letting their children play a baseball game on the South Side is significant in itself. That is, the perception of fear is a real fact.
While likely, I wouldn't share their perception of the risk, I am sympathetic to them. What has happened to that city is a shame...
Uno