Glen Ellyn vs Elmhurst: least/most like the North Shore? (Chicago: houses, neighborhood)

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by NorCal Dude

Actually the term has been around since the 1950's, well before south was built. My understanding is it had lots of mold and required constant renovations. The term was coined by students who went there, and their parents.

But since you are obviously not from there and thus not a local, I will give you a free pass on your lack of historical knowledge of the area.

Obviously the butt hurt of some one from San Leandaro ought to be ignored. I will give you a double dog free pass on your rudeness and lack of sanity.

No doubt the pride that students and parents have in the highest performing school in D87 would cause them to give it a nickname of derision especially when it is was booming with an influx of young families in the post war era


The FACTS clearly show that when the facility was constructed the site and design were chosen to be a very scenic / impressive presence, something that is still true today -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenbar...ool#Facilities

[NorCal Dude]

Originally Posted by chet everett

Obviously the butt hurt of some one from San Leandaro ought to be ignored. I will give you a double dog free pass on your rudeness and lack of sanity.

No doubt the pride that students and parents have in the highest performing school in D87 would cause them to give it a nickname of derision especially when it is was booming with an influx of young families in the post war era


The FACTS clearly show that when the facility was constructed the site and design were chosen to be a very scenic / impressive presence, something that is still true today -- Glenbard West High School - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lol butt hurt? Way to use california slang from twenty years ago. Sorry but the first rime I heard west referred to as dump on the hump was from an alumn who graduated from there in the 1950's. Again, it has nothing to do with people from glenbard south.

But again since you're NOT from glen ellyn.....

[Lookout Kid]

I think the "Dump on the Hump" nickname is hilarious, even though I live within the attendance boundaries for West and my kids will probably end up going there. Yes, people still use it. I think it's one of the most charming high school settings anywhere in Chicagoland, with the castle-like campus on a hill overlooking a lake. But I don't have to climb all of those stairs or suffer through classes with no air conditioning.

South has actually had slightly better academic performance than West in recent years, but it is also less diverse. Either way, I'm sure the people living in the large newer homes in Maryknoll Estates and some of the other newer subdivisions south of Roosevelt are just as snobby as people living in the older expensive neighborhoods north of Roosevelt.

Now, if there's anyone we can all thumb our noses at, north and south Glen Ellynites, it's the unincorporated Glen Ellyn folks. Trailer trash, all of 'em. Amiright? Who's with me? No? Okay, fine.

[NorCal Dude]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

I think the "Dump on the Hump" nickname is hilarious, even though I live within the attendance boundaries for West and my kids will probably end up going there. Yes, people still use it. I think it's one of the most charming high school settings anywhere in Chicagoland, with the castle-like campus on a hill overlooking a lake. But I don't have to climb all of those stairs or suffer through classes with no air conditioning.

South has actually had slightly better academic performance than West in recent years, but it is also less diverse. Either way, I'm sure the people living in the large newer homes in Maryknoll Estates and some of the other newer subdivisions south of Roosevelt are just as snobby as people living in the older expensive neighborhoods north of Roosevelt.

Now, if there's anyone we can all thumb our noses at, north and south Glen Ellynites, it's the unincorporated Glen Ellyn folks. Trailer trash, all of 'em. Amiright? Who's with me? No? Okay, fine.

South kids have less money for drugs than west kids, so the test scores don't surprise me. But no doubt about it, south of roosevelt was more blue collar-middle class back then and the kids south of roosevelt tended to be tougher (broken homes, lower incomes, etc)

I drive on roosevelt now and see trader joes, starbucks, all this crap, like wtf. They were right, when panera bread openend in the late 90's - yuppies came out of the woodwork.

Gone are the days of glen ellyn depicted in the movie 'lucas'.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by NorCal Dude

Gone are the days of glen ellyn depicted in the movie 'lucas'.

I don't know, that Glen Ellyn looked pretty "yuppie" to me in that movie, with the nice homes, tennis practice, and white-bread school. I mean, wasn't the main character only living in the town because he was the son of a gardener?

Either way, Glen Ellyn is just a nicer suburb of Chicago, and it has what most of the other nicer suburbs of Chicago have. If you map the Trader Joe's locations in the metro area, they are generally placed in towns just like Glen Ellyn.

[NorCal Dude]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

I don't know, that Glen Ellyn looked pretty "yuppie" to me in that movie, with the nice homes, tennis practice, and white-bread school. I mean, wasn't the main character only living in the town because he was the son of a gardener?

Either way, Glen Ellyn is just a nicer suburb of Chicago, and it has what most of the other nicer suburbs of Chicago have. If you map the Trader Joe's locations in the metro area, they are generally placed in towns just like Glen Ellyn.

Don't get me wrong, its always been nicer. But it wasn't range rover suburbia then. The library at one time was so pitiful that folks prefered the wheaton library. We could not afford a fire department, so it was all volunteer firefighters. I don't know about tennis practice, our side of town was sand lot, bmx, and street skateboarding. Tennis sounds like something that went on up north, where the wasps lived.

[reppin_the_847]

I know that these aren't apples to apples comparisons (the west suburbs aren't the North Shore), but if anything Glen Ellyn would be kind of like Lake Forest, but the newer West Lake Forest section particularly. It also has some similarities to communities just to the west of Lake Forest such as Lincolnshire, Libertyville & Long Grove with its newer & spacier lots. Elmhurst on the other hand with its higher density and proximity to the city would remind me more of say Wilmette, especially the western section of Wilmette a little bit removed from the lake. Like Wilmette, it tends to have smaller lots, and there's a good amount of teardown action going on in Elmhurst (not sure if this is also the case in Wilmette, but I know it happens in other affordable inner-ring North Suburbs such as Skokie & Morton Grove).

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by reppin_the_847

I know that these aren't apples to apples comparisons (the west suburbs aren't the North Shore), but if anything Glen Ellyn would be kind of like Lake Forest, but the newer West Lake Forest section particularly. It also has some similarities to communities just to the west of Lake Forest such as Lincolnshire, Libertyville & Long Grove with its newer & spacier lots.

You must have Glen Ellyn confused with another town. The character of Glen Ellyn is defined by older homes on smaller lots, mostly dating from the late 1800's through the 1920's. There are plenty of tear downs, but for the most part the Village feels like an older North Shore town closer to the lake. More so than Elmhurst, I would argue (though Elmhurst has a larger, more developed downtown area). The housing stock in the heart of Glen Ellyn is much more similar to Wilmette than Lake Forest. And Glen Ellyn is quite a bit more hilly than either.

South of Roosevelt Road, Glen Ellyn has the larger lots and post-war homes, as well as on the far north "unincorporated fringe" off of St. Charles. But these areas by no means define the character of the village, and most people think of the older areas of of the village when they think of Glen Ellyn.

[reppin_the_847]

I guess I stand corrected then. I don't know some of the west burbs nearly as well as I know the North Shore and the other north & northwest suburbs, but I'm sure you're right. In the North Shore, I feel like the density increases dramatically once you hit Highland Park and head south all the way going towards the city. Essentially, I think Highland Park's downtown & surrounding area is a bit older & denser (more like Wilmette or Evanston even) compared to Lake Forest's downtown. But yeah I stand corrected on my description of Glen Ellyn then. Perhaps I should edit my previous post, lol.

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

You must have Glen Ellyn confused with another town. The character of Glen Ellyn is defined by older homes on smaller lots, mostly dating from the late 1800's through the 1920's. There are plenty of tear downs, but for the most part the Village feels like an older North Shore town closer to the lake. More so than Elmhurst, I would argue (though Elmhurst has a larger, more developed downtown area). The housing stock in the heart of Glen Ellyn is much more similar to Wilmette than Lake Forest. And Glen Ellyn is quite a bit more hilly than either.

South of Roosevelt Road, Glen Ellyn has the larger lots and post-war homes, as well as on the far north "unincorporated fringe" off of St. Charles. But these areas by no means define the character of the village, and most people think of the older areas of of the village when they think of Glen Ellyn.

[NoKnoll]

Please avoid Maryknoll Estates in Glen Ellyn at ALL COSTS. My family lived there for just under 5 years, but it seemed like an eternity. Nice homes, but the residents very much needed to get over themselves. We left there convinced there was a gigantic container of “magical” Kool-Aid somewhere within Maryknoll that its homeowners were drinking from, either by choice or force. We were never able to find the container and, had we, would not have sipped from it anyway.

In all seriousness, Maryknoll just had a really strange and unwelcoming vibe. At least as of a couple years ago, it featured a mix of empty-nesters and younger families that may as well have lived in Beverly Hills based on their elitist, snobbish attitudes. Ironic because, at least last time I checked, it was located on the "less desired" side of Roosevelt Road and within spitting distance of dwellings that could have been Section 8 housing, and perhaps were. Not that it's ever okay to consider yourself "better" than others, but with Maryknoll this mindset was especially puzzling.

The Maryknoll Estates "community" is eerily quiet, even on the nicest of days. No one does their own yardwork (they are far too important for such menial tasks) and you almost never see families/kids outside. Kids on bikes? Lemonade stands? Ha...hilarious. There are empty parks and pathways galore within Maryknoll. And when you do run into someone walking on a path, try saying 'hello' and see what kind of a response you get. More than likely, you’ll find yourself checking your reflection to see if you grew a second head at some point along the walk. Sure, they did have organized block parties, Easter egg hunts, etc....but those only served to remind you - in a more formal setting - how weird the place really is.

As you can probably tell, the scars left from my time in Maryknoll have not completely healed, even though it’s been a while and we've since moved on to a better place that actually feels like it’s part of a real neighborhood. But if this rant serves to steer even one family considering it as their home away from it as a viable option, I'll be a few steps further along in my recovery.

If you're looking for a neighborhood, with some degree of authenticity and a "true" (i.e. not forced) sense of community, Maryknoll is NOT for you (unless it went through some major cultural transformation in the last couple of years…doubt it!). On the other hand, if you want to go outside each day feeling like you just stepped on to the set of The Twilight Zone or The Day After, Maryknoll may be your utopia.