Lincoln Park is very upscale. Its not near the hood at all. So this is very strange. While 3:30 am seems like nobody would be around, its not really true. That part of the city is pretty dense. People go to bars and clubbing. There is no black neighborhood around Lincoln Park. So, this would be people going to the lake front from a few miles away. And its not just going there on the L. There is no L stop near the lake. These people went out of their way to go to a place they don’t live without easy transportation. Maybe the weather has got them going to the cool lake front. And maybe there was something criminal going on with so many women being shot in this story. It could be prostitution or drugs.
There are a very few that stretch out to 4:00 am, but none in Lincoln Park. I remember the Green Mill, up north on Broadway, being the one for late nights. The Clark Street bus was the only N/S CTA connection.
It was deliberate. The people who live on the Gold Coast and along Lincoln Park West didn't want the proles there. In fact, all the tunnels under the Howard El viaduct, which was built back a century ago, are 11 feet, since Chicago trams were double decker, and the blue collar types would have to walk sometimes as much as a mile to get to the Lake.