Bucktown Named One Of Yelp's Best Places For New Business

CHICAGO, IL — Bucktown has made it onto a Yelp Local Economic Outlook program report that analyzed where small businesses in the United States have the best chance of success. The report rounded up a list of 50 neighborhoods across the country, which also included four other Chicago neighborhoods: Lincoln Park (No. 15), Andersonville (No. 26), Near North Side (No. 28), and West Lawn (No. 47).

"We’ve analyzed business quantity and quality at the local level, found the characteristics of businesses that protect them from having to shut their doors, and identified the community forces that create a fertile marketplace for new businesses to get off the ground," stated the report.

Any neighborhood in the country was eligible, as long as it had at least 200 reviewed businesses on Yelp in its main categories, such as Restaurants, Beauty Services, Shopping, Health, etc.

The study looked at the change in economic opportunity compared to the same time period last year, so neighborhoods with many businesses didn't necessarily make the cut.

The report found that Yelp data provided more detailed information than data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau, which have traditionally been used to understand local economies.

Chicago was ranked No. 38 among big cities in the study. The report found that some of the country’s most expensive cities to live in, such as New York, San Francisco and Boston, are among the toughest for new businesses, which face high costs in rent and wages. All three of those cities ranked below Chicago.

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