Chicago sidewalk bears

While taking walks around the Chicago neighborhoods Edison Park and Norwood Park, a few years ago I started noticing cartoon bears spray-painted on street corners here and there. As I walked different routes, I spotted more and more of them. Started taking photos in November 2023, and started mapping them in June 2025.

Have found 187 total sidewalk bears so far. Here are 173 from Edison Park, Norwood Park, and Norridge (mouse over a marker to see the intersection^[1]):

One day in early July 2026, walked around Irving Park and Albany Park for an hour and spotted 14 more^[3]:

There are five colors of stenciled sidewalk bear in the area. Dark red bears — middle right section of the first map — were apparently the original set^[2], all getting quite faded:

(Don’t know if they’re the same batch as the two lone dark-red sidewalk bears at Bryn Mawr & Chester and Bryn Mawr & Oakview, for now the ones farthest west on the map.)

Green bears, the first ones I noticed, were already there late 2023:

Blue bears appeared early 2025:

(A Google Street View scene from August 2024 shows a green bear but not a blue bear across the street from it.)

Brighter red bears appeared first half of January 2026, and then a new batch first half of April 2026:

First spotted some faded yellow (dirty white?) bears in March 2026 — bottom left of top map — but they look like they’ve been there a while:

(Apple Maps “Look Around” shows some of the yellow ones in scenes labeled May 2024, and Google Street View shows them August 2024.)

No idea who’s painting these or how they pick the boundaries of where to place them. (Apart from the green bears and the red ones added April 2026, the different colors seem to be in distinct areas.) They all also seem to be in Chicago: none jump out after crossing Canfield Ave. into Park Ridge or Milwaukee Ave. into Niles. (Many of the yellow ones are in Norridge, still part of Chicago.) The 2023 Reddit thread mentions some in the South Loop, but I haven’t made it over there.

June 2026 update: New Reddit r/chicago thread with bear maps showing a few dozen close to Midway, plus descriptions of several isolated bears farther north and much farther south. Thread also mentions orange and purple sidewalk bears, colors I haven’t seen yet.

June 2026 update 2: Walked outside to find a bear spray-painted on a piece of wood, tied to a traffic-signal pole, with a handwritten message on the back (“#SCARYBEAR”)!

(If the artist/owner reads this: I’m honored, and thanks for the best laugh in a long time! I’m holding on to the portable bear so I can enjoy it. If you want it back or want it displayed outside, you apparently know how to reach me.)

Fun facts (or facts, anyway):

• Shortest-lived sidewalk bear was a red one on northwest corner of Olmsted & Oshkosh (across from Moretti’s, across from Metra tracks): First spotted mid-April 2026, gone without a trace mid-June 2026.
• Runners-up:
  • Northeast corner of Northwest Hwy & Overhill Ave: First spotted mid-February 2026, corner torn up mid-May 2026.
  • Next was a red bear at Olcott & Estes, spotted February 2026 and mostly washed off early June 2026.
  • Ditto red bear at Otsego & Oxford: spotted early January 2026, washed or scraped off (?!) early June 2026.
• Closest three bears of different colors, near Devon & Overhill and Olympia & Oneida:
  
• Yellow bear on south side of Foster across from Farragut seems to be the only one in the middle of a block, not on a corner:
  
  
• (Though the green bear by the bus shelter at Harlem & Avondale, across the street from Brandy’s, is unusually far from the corner.)
• Red bear at Olmsted & Olympia seems to be the only one not right by an ADA-compliant curb ramp, or at least a low curb:
  
  
• In the area shown on the top map, Devon Ave. has the most bear stencils (13), followed by Harlem Ave. (12). Though as of early July 2026, the red bear at Devon & Harlem is mostly washed away.

1. Don’t know which street to list first when describing an intersection: east–west then north–south, larger street then smaller, or what? ↩
2. There’s a Reddit r/chicago thread from August 2023 that mentions both red and blue bears. Many of the red ones mentioned in the thread comments are gone — along with a few on the map above — apparently from sidewalk/curb construction. The blue ones mentioned in the 2023 thread must be from a different neighborhood, since the blue ones here weren’t around until late 2024 or early 2025.
   
   See also the June 2026 thread with maps and photos. Some of those bears look brand new, some (esp. Randolph & Clinton, by Ogilvie Transportation Center) almost faded away. ↩
3. Illegible map of the whole collection so far: ↩
   
   
   

Geo data sources
Wolfram Knowledgebase (https://www.wolfram.com/)
OpenStreetMap contributors (https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright)

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