Family-oriented and middle-class, this Northwest Side community boasts a work ethic as unshakeable as the brick bungalows lining its residential streets, and a character as well grounded and unpretentious as the rail yards abutting its southern border.

Belmont Cragin has always been a place where nouvelle cuisine would stand no chance against a meat-and-potatoes eatery, and where people would rather place their faith in tried-and-true values than hot trends. That's still the case today, even if first-generation Polish and second-generation Hispanics have replaced the Greeks, Italians and Germans of earlier decades.

Poland native Gene Luszcz has greeted residents at Gene's Sausage Shop for 36 years, the last 22 of them at its present location, 5330 W. Belmont Ave. While serving imported sausage, pierogis and candies, Luszcz has had plenty of opportunity to size up the clientele.

"It's still a solid neighborhood," he said. "They're good, hard-working people. They go to work, they keep up their property, they take care of the neighborhood. They're regular people."

Bordered on the north by Belmont, the east by Cicero Avenue, the south by Grand Avenue and the west by the railroad tracks west of Narragansett Avenue, Belmont Cragin is perhaps best known for the Belmont-Central shopping district at its northern perimeter.

For decades a vibrant commercial area, Belmont Central was once a place where small merchants like Gene's Sausage Shop and Jack Robbins Clothes of Distinction coexisted alongside huge retailers like Polk Brothers and Goldblatt's. 

What the area lacks in the diversity of home styles, it makes up in solid construction and value. Chicago-style straight-front and octagonal bungalows from the 1920s dominate the residential streets, while a number of Queen Annes are found in the neighborhood west of Central and Fullerton Avenues, said Larry Lynch, broker/manager of Century 21 Beaulieu Real Estate. The area is also notable for an abundance of small apartment buildings, with two-flats mid-block and four-, six- and eight-flats on corners.

The bungalows are priced from $200,000 to $250,000, depending on whether they offer three or four bedrooms and finished basements, Lynch said. The Queen Annes fall into the upper end of that range, and the two-flats go for about $300,000 to $350,000.

On the other end of the age spectrum, good quality schools, notably Steinmetz High School, St. Patrick High School for Boys and Notre Dame High School for Girls, continue to convince young parents to plant their roots in this city community rather than the suburbs.

"It's a family-oriented residential neighborhood," Suty said. "People who live here don't feel they have to move out when they start having kids. Or they very often move here with the idea of having families."