Chicago's suburban sectors (Buffalo Grove, Glenview, Rock Island: insurance, neighborhood, to live)

[King of Kensington]

What do the North, Northwest, West, South and Southwest suburbs include?

Does the I-294 serve as the "boundary" between North and NW suburbs? Is North Avenue the dividing line between the NW and "proper" western suburbs?

[chet everett]

I tend to rely on the rail lines -- the UP-W & Bnsf serve western burbs, UP-NW line northwest burbs, SW service for southwest burbs, etc...

Rock Island is mostly south burbs, till it curves SW after Oak Forest....

Heritage Corridor is classic SW side / burbs...

Northcentral service is kind of NW ... MD-W line is mostly west, but curves NW...

[pvande55]

Yes, the Netra lines are the spine of suburban regions; as downtown Chicago is a good place to work and play. But they don't form the boundary. And of course the stations serve large areas. For example, before the NCS, people from Buffalo Grove drove to Northwest line stations (and still do on weekends). Many years ago the phone company issued directories for each region, but they were, of course, based on where the boundaries of phone exchanges lied.

I'm going to try my hand at this. Milwaukee Avenue from the city limits up to Lincolnshire, then US Route 45 to Antioch, is the boundary between North and Northwest. IL 19, Irving Park Rd, is the boundary between Northwest and west. Plainfield Rd and Boughton Rd is the boundary between West and southwest. Finally, Rt 45 (again!) is the boundary between Southwest and south.

[fusillirob1983]

Originally Posted by King of Kensington

What do the North, Northwest, West, South and Southwest suburbs include?

Does the I-294 serve as the "boundary" between North and NW suburbs? Is North Avenue the dividing line between the NW and "proper" western suburbs?

I agree with this to an extent.
South: east of I-57
Southwest: between I-55 and I-57, although I'd consider all of Plainfield southwest
North: east of I-294, although I could reason that Park Ridge and Niles are northwest
Northwest: I'd say either between Rt 20 and I-294 or I-90 and I-294
West: between Rt. 20 and I-55 or I-90 and I-255

[WildWestDude]

Don't forget the NW Indiana suburbs and the stateline should be the obvious dividing line

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by King of Kensington

What do the North, Northwest, West, South and Southwest suburbs include?

Does the I-294 serve as the "boundary" between North and NW suburbs? Is North Avenue the dividing line between the NW and "proper" western suburbs?

I would say a portion of I-294 works well in the divide: Glenview and Northbrook are north suburban while Mt. Propsect and Wheeling are northwest.

But when it comes to the stretch south of that, I-294 doesn't work that well. Park Ridge may be, for the most part, east of I-294, but it is a northwest, not north suburb. Tri-State going north from Lake Cook (where it is 94) continues the divide between Deerfield (north) and Buffalo Grove (northwest).

going north into Lake County where Tri-State goes from being 294 to 94, the divide works fairly well in the southern section in that Deerfield is definitely north suburban and Buffalo Grove is definitely northwest suburban.

[King of Kensington]

What are the main differences between these sectors?

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by King of Kensington

What are the main differences between these sectors?

If you have a job that is NW you'll probably want to live out that way, ditto for jobs in the other parts of the region. If you work in the Loop the relatively good rail transit from most any part of the region gives you more flexibility.

[King of Kensington]

From what I understand, north is generally the most prestigious, and is traditionally WASP and Jewish. Northwest and west are more "white ethnic" (ie Polish and Italian), south suburbs are working class and African American.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by King of Kensington

From what I understand, north is generally the most prestigious, and is traditionally WASP and Jewish. Northwest and west are more "white ethnic" (ie Polish and Italian), south suburbs are working class and African American.

The relative number of any "ethnic" group in the suburbs or even most parts of Chicago varies considerably -- there are really only a handful of spots where there is a very high concentration of first generation Polish immigrants and the distribution of folks who trace their roots back to Italy, Ireland or any other European country is quite wide. What is not uncommon is for more recent immigrants, of modest means, to cluster together close to others from their country. The degree to which these groups remain rooted to the centers or worship, stores, and other cultural organizations varies considerably.

The pockets of immigrants from Poland in Chicago's Belmont-Cragin neighborhood represent only a fraction of the whole region's total "ethnic heritage" which can be found in literally every part of the region as the assimilate for better jobs and such.

The folks who've grown in wealth, prestige and political strength in areas like the Western Suburbs running along the BNSF and UP-W lines would very much give a "run for the money" to any such groups in the North Suburbs.

In fact as generations of immigrants from India, Hong Kong/ China and the greater Pacific Rim have done well in careers like Pharma/Health Care and filled in-demand roles for technology roles there is a decidedly more cosmopolitan feel to all the affluent suburbs and that is most notable in areas that once did have a traditional group of well off residents / political representatives that were non-ethnic...

The bigger story is really that as consolidation and business upheaval has roiled once robust firms in sectors included cell-phones/communications, retail, and even financial services / insurance there has been a massive pull-back in the farther out NW suburbs. The interesting thing is that with recent shifts in need for some smaller scale industrial activity the more mature and frankly less speculative mix of largely family owned manufacturing has seen an uptick in parts of DuPage Co, with a nice boost in labor participation rates especially among the less educated folks that are hurting badly in Chicago and its dysfunctional areas...