900 Block Of Belmont Looking West 1994

©2013. Mike Priorie. All Rights Reserved.

I started hanging out in the Belmont and Clark area (known as Lake View) around 1989. I was into the whole New Wave/Post-Punk scene and would go to a teen night club called Medusa’s which was about two blocks from where this photo was taken. Across the street from here is a Dunk in Donuts which was affectionately known as Punk-in Donuts due to the crowds of teen Punk Rockers who would congregate there when Medusa’s let out.

When this photo was taken in ’94, the area had gentrified immensely. Medusa’s was gone (It became a Real Estate office) and Kokomo’s Caffe was soon to be history. Slowly the grit and the bad ass charm that was Belmont and Clark of the eighties was becoming more upscale with the influx of Yuppies moving there. Rents in the area doubled by the end of the decade. It looks so different today, but occasionally I’ll catch a fragment of something that harkens to the days of my youth when black was the only color I ever wore.