Can bike shop deserts bloom on Chicago's South Side?

By John Greenfield

Photos by Allison Williams

Pedaling down Halsted Street into Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, I smell the unmistakable aroma of Harold’s Chicken as I pass an outpost of the South Side chain whose logo features a chef chasing a rooster with a hatchet. After an SUV speeds by me blasting hip-hop, I pull up to John’s Hardware and Bicycle Shop and admire the old-fashioned painted sign, featuring John Stallworth’s smiling, bearded face and his no-nonsense slogan, “If we don’t have it you don’t need it.”