A transformation — or rather, an explosion — has taken place among the former factories, wholesale markets and warehouses on the edges of downtown Chicago. This is Chicago’s meatpacking district, known as the West Loop and like its counterpart in NYC, the gritty neighborhood is undergoing a major transformation. On Lake Street, boutiques, restaurants and galleries are sprouting under the elevated train tracks, creating a thriving art and retail market among the meat and produce purveyors. Every few minutes, a train thunders past, but the fashionable denizens pay it no mind. One of the fastest growing neighborhoods, the West Loop ...