Lincoln Park apartments are a real status symbol, for the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago just about has it all -- beachfront, bike paths, park space, a college campus (DePaul), museums, a zoo, dining and entertainment galore, and all manner of national and locally-owned shops and boutiques. It's a city in a city, with the hard edge of urban living dialed down dramatically. Students and young professionals are ubiquitous, but there's also an abundance of families with children and empty-nesters, typically of the more affluent variety. Chicago is always more fun in the summer, and summer in Lincoln Park is always the most fun in Chicago.

The neighborhood is awash in refurbished brownstones, lofts, three and four-story condominiums, luxurious single family homes, and the occasional high-rise. There are several shopping districts, and public transportation is a cinch. Buses cover most of the territory, and the Red Line, Brown Line, and Purple Line are accessible via the Fullerton and Armitage el stops. Off the main thoroughfares, the streets are narrow, shady, quaint, and secluded.

Lincoln Park apartments near Sheffield and Armitage are right smack in the heart of the neighborhood, and the el stop there might be the best place in Chicago to get off the train hungry. Tapas at Cafe Ba Ba Reeba, Tex-Mex at the Twisted Lizard, Greek at the Athenian Room, sushi at Sai Cafe, Chinese at Dee's, culinary godliness at Charlie Trotter's, and dozens upon dozens of other choices. Then there's Lincoln Avenue, densely packed with bars and nightclubs that you can get carded if you're not walking fast enough. For the grungier residents, Clark street is the place to be, with its low-rent pizzerias, burger joints, coffee shops, record stores (real vinyl), creperies, and one-off retailers.

The shopping in Lincoln Park is tastemaker approved, with indie clothing and shoe boutiques on Armitage and a popular strip of stores on Halsted (including Lululemon and Club Monaco).

After a fine Lincoln Park dinner, get tickets for whatever’s happening at Second City, Steppenwolf Theatre, the Biograph or, for a dose of the real Chicago blues, Kingston Mines.

Incidentally, history buffs will be pleased to know that the St. Valentine's Day massacre, where seven mobsters were iced in a bloody hail of gunfire that marked the country's first foray into grisly gangland killings, was a Lincoln Park event. Also in the ‘hood, the feds cut down heartthrob bank robber John Dillinger as he fled into an alley near the Biograph Theater.

There’s a reason people want to live here: Lincoln Park apartments are some of the finest in Chicago.