Suburb count (Chicago, Niles, Zion: moving, beach, metro)

[cdc3217]

Originally Posted by Steve-o

We're in the 230's now.

Ah I'm a day late and a suburb (or four score) short.

[summer22]

This is a fun topic!


Whats our smallest and largest suburb?


We could define a Chicago suburb as anywhere that Jewel or Dominicks will build or maintain a store. I think that would take us into Kenosha... definitely to Route 47 because I read about new Jewel stores in Elburn and Yorkville... and as far south as Crown Point and as far east as Michigan City!

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by summer22

This is a fun topic!


Whats our smallest and largest suburb?


We could define a Chicago suburb as anywhere that Jewel or Dominicks will build or maintain a store. I think that would take us into Kenosha... definitely to Route 47 because I read about new Jewel stores in Elburn and Yorkville... and as far south as Crown Point and as far east as Michigan City!

Smallest burb would be Golf. Never heard of it? Most people have not.

2000 census:
451 people
Land area .4 of a mile

[summer22]

Originally Posted by HockeyFan

Do people think the high number of suburbs is a good or bad thing? Do people like having greater input (politically, etc.) in a small community of 10,000, or would things get done easier in a suburb of 100,000 or 200,000? It would seem the tax base isn't there to get things done in a smaller place -- things like entertainment venues, downtowns, etc. would seem to suffer.

In SoCal, there's far fewer suburbs -- most suburbs are designed to be in the 100,000 range at buildout, although there are exceptions that get quite a bit larger.

Toronto is the opposite extreme from Chicago, with a suburb of almost 700,000 people in Mississauga.

That's interesting about the urban planning in other parts of the country.

I love picking up the paper in my community of 12,000 and reading about the town board meetings... personally I feel good when I read that on the micro level (zoning changes, PUD ordinances, municipal operations) that our governing body is taking the time to find out about an issue, and make a decision based on the facts that are there. It's kind of cool (in a geeky way) to watch the governmental process and witness firsthand how every zoning and staffing decision is made in our town. There's no mystery about it, even the number of gallons the sewer plant processes is published every month. And if I wanted to plan a subdivision or project in town, I reasonably understand how I would go about getting approvals for it.

For me its such a huge contrast from growing up in Chicago's 13th ward, where you never knew why a decision was made or how anything happened. It was like living in the dark. Decisions happened, people accepted it, and it did not feel like there was representation, decisions were so far removed from people. The mire of bureaucracy was quite strong and most people feared or were completely ignorant of the decision-making bodies and didn't really know where decisions affecting them were made. Very disempowering as a young person to grow up in an environment where even the adults feel powerless.

I probably appreciate small town/suburb life only because I saw how things work in the opposite situation.

[summer22]

Ha, cool town.
Golf, IL

[gardener34]

Forest view, next to stickney has to be one of the smallest too.

[DMH532]

Oh and what about McCook over there.

[studedude]

Originally Posted by summer22

This is a fun topic!


Whats our smallest and largest suburb?


We could define a Chicago suburb as anywhere that Jewel or Dominicks will build or maintain a store. I think that would take us into Kenosha... definitely to Route 47 because I read about new Jewel stores in Elburn and Yorkville... and as far south as Crown Point and as far east as Michigan City!

Jewel sold all of their Wisc stores early last year

[toonces93]

HOw about Golf? (tiny North shore town)

[toonces93]

Oops, sorry, missed it.