"You can buy anything you want to in Hyde Park, as long as it's a book"

The title comes from an old post over on the Volokh Conspiracy by then-Hyde-Park-resident Jacob T. Levy which. That post discusses the lack of commerce in Hyde Park, the neighborhood where the University of Chicago is located and my new home. There are no clothes

However, compared to University Circle in Cleveland, the area around my undergraduate university, Hyde Park seems near bursting with stores and restaurants. True, there are no clothing stores here, but there is an Office Depot, drug stores, and a decent grocery store. There's a very nice liquor store. There are a large variety of restaurants, though certainly not a restaurant of every cuisine one might desire, and very little in the way of upscale restaurants. There's Thai, Chinese, Jamaican, Korean, Japanese, and much more, all within walking distance. And let's not forget the bookstores: Hyde Park boasts some incredible book stores, including what is supposed to be one of the best academic bookstores in the world.

Levy also writes "[t]he area around the U of C looks nothing like the area around any other American residential college or university I know of." Mr. Levy has apparently never visited Case Western Reserve Univeristy.

University Circle in Cleveland, home of Case Western Reserve University, offers even an even greater shortage of food and retails outlets. The nearby CVS closed before I began my freshman year. The only grocery store within a reasonable distance from the main student housing area is a small store that specializes in health foods and natural foods. For food, there's Mexican, takeout Chinese, Middle-Eastern, Pizza, and Italian (though there was quite a lot of choice in Italian, as Cleveland's Little Italy is a brief 5-minute walk away.

Retail shopping is even more limited. There is a grocery store about a mile from the main quad and two miles from the dormitory area. Coventry (probably 1.5 miles from the main quad, and 2.5 miles from the student dorms), offers a drug store, bookstores, CD stores, and a plethora of restaurants. Beyond that, I don't know of anything that the students might realistically walk to.

So far, I'm very happy with the area. It may be because it does offer much more in goods and services than the area around CWRU did, and, had I come to Hyde Park from a college in a better location, I would feel let down by the lack of shopping here. While the majority of 1Ls (first year law students) here at the University of Chicago live in Hyde Park, I believe that the majority of 2Ls and 3Ls live in places north, in the hipper, more upscale neighborhoods. I'm not so sure that I will do the same when I am a 2L or 3L, as I'm as yet unconvinced that having more retail, eating, and drinking options is worth the daily trek to and from school that forces you to commute through downtown Chicago.

Orientation starts on Tuesday.