An edgy sort of energy pervades the neighborhood. It's hard for Riverwest to sit still. The characters are constantly changing, but constant is a proud urbanism, an openness to currents outside the mainstream. Some Riverwest residents have PhDs and others have GEDs. Some are cashing pension checks and others are nursing newborns. The neighborhood has Buddhists and Baptists, activists and pacifists, T'ai Chi and chai tea, hipsters and the homeless, echoes of the Old World and stirrings of the New Age. The only thing it might have a shortage of is Republicans--and you could probably find a few if you looked hard enough.