Video Gaming in Chicago's 26th Ward — bars, licensing, status

History

Chicago annexed Humboldt Park in 1869, the year its park took the name of the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. Danish and Norwegian families moved in during the 1880s and 1890s, and by 1900 the Danish community stretched along North Avenue from Damen to Pulaski. Germans raised a statue of Humboldt in the park in 1892, and Poles added one of Thaddeus Kosciuszko at its entrance in 1904. Jens Jensen, a Danish immigrant who rose to chief landscape architect, extended the park's lagoon into a winding prairie river.

Chicago annexed Hermosa, a community defined by railroad tracks and embankments, in 1889, the same year it took in the rest of Logan Square. Hermosa grew fast only after streetcar lines extended along North, Armitage and Fullerton avenues in 1907, and by 1942 bungalows and two-flats predominated. Puerto Ricans moved into Humboldt Park from West Town and points east, and Division Street, known as La División, has anchored their settlement since the 1960s.

The area today

Ald. Jessica Fuentes represents the 26th Ward from a ward office at 2511 W. Division St. Block Club Chicago reported that Fuentes won a first term with 54.4 percent of the vote against two challengers, succeeding Ald. Roberto Maldonado, who held the seat 13 years. On March 12, 2026, the City Council's License and Consumer Protection Committee voted down an ordinance the alderperson proposed to bar video slot and poker machines from the ward.

The ward is anchored by Humboldt Park and runs through parts of West Town, Logan Square, Hermosa and Belmont Cragin. The park has historic lagoons, a boathouse and a fieldhouse, and its stables now house the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture. Paseo Boricua, also called Barrio Borikén, is a half-mile stretch of Division Street marked at each end by a flag sculpture arching over the road.

Bars and restaurants here

On Division Street, the Puerto Rican Cultural Center describes family-owned restaurants serving mofongo, arroz con gandules and pasteles along Paseo Boricua, and the Division Street Business Development Association works for the growth of the stretch west of Western Avenue. Fiesta Boricua is an annual festival there, and the park hosts a Latin Jazz Festival, a Puerto Rican Festival and sports tournaments. North Avenue is another commercial corridor: initial plans for the stretch between Kedzie and Kostner avenues, a City project that began in 2023 and spans the 26th, 36th and 37th wards, include wider sidewalks, upgraded crosswalks and new streetlights.