Dupage county lacks character (Chicago, Naperville: middle-class, sale, house)

[cdrobert]

Anyone else agree. My parents said when i was born at central dupage hospital in the early 80s wheaton was a corn field. dupage county seems to me like nothing but various decades of sprawl as farmland slowly got eaten up.north and northwest suburbs have way more character

[Paxtonian]

I assure you it was getting built up last time I was there in 1979.

[jimboshanz]

As a dupage county native I have to defend it. I think Glen Ellyn stands up to any town in the Chicagoland area. Beautiful downtown, tree lined streets, great schools, real sense of community. Anyone else care to defend it. (ELMHURST AND LOMBARD ARE ALSO GREAT TOWNS)

[Drover]

Honest to Christ, can we please stop it with these "let's stir sh*t up" threads? They almost inevitably lead to meltdowns, deleted posts, suspension of accounts, et cetera, and don't really serve much other purpose.

[j33]

This argument about suburbs is as old as the hills. As a 11+ year city dweller and an 18+ year suburb dweller, I have firmly come to the conclusion that it is simply 'different strokes for different folks' and that 'character' is in the eye of the beholder. I get equally annoyed with the 'anti-city' and 'anti-suburb' arguments. And they all begin to sound the same 'the suburbs lack character' 'the city is cramped and dangerous' 'only money grubbing soccer moms live in the burbs' 'only yuppies and criminals live in the city' ... can't we all just get along?

We need to come together and focus on what is really important. Like making fun of the Green Bay Packers or something

[reppin_the_847]

Seriously dude, each place has its pro's & cons. DuPage certainly has its gems, and I'm sure Glen Ellyn is a wonderful town like another poster mentioned. Whether Naperville, Chicago, Libertyville, Glenview, Downers Grove, etc. (notice these are all in different parts of the metro area), each place has its pro's & cons and like you said it's different strokes for different folks. We need to stop bashing parts of it, it won't bring Chicagoland anywhere. We need the Lincoln Parks & Lakeviews (to attract young talent) just like we need the Naperville's (get a nice house with acreage, a nice downtown and an express Metra train to downtown) and the Skokie's (great town for diverse immigrants) and the Winnetka's (old money North Shore town with an easy commute to Chicago & New Trier HS). In the end as long as all these areas are doing well, the Chicagoland area only stands to gain. On that note, go Bears!

Originally Posted by j33

This argument about suburbs is as old as the hills. As a 11+ year city dweller and an 18+ year suburb dweller, I have firmly come to the conclusion that it is simply 'different strokes for different folks' and that 'character' is in the eye of the beholder. I get equally annoyed with the 'anti-city' and 'anti-suburb' arguments. And they all begin to sound the same 'the suburbs lack character' 'the city is cramped and dangerous' 'only money grubbing soccer moms live in the burbs' 'only yuppies and criminals live in the city' ... can't we all just get along?

We need to come together and focus on what is really important. Like making fun of the Green Bay Packers or something

[cdrobert]

Originally Posted by jimboshanz

As a dupage county native I have to defend it. I think Glen Ellyn stands up to any town in the Chicagoland area. Beautiful downtown, tree lined streets, great schools, real sense of community. Anyone else care to defend it. (ELMHURST AND LOMBARD ARE ALSO GREAT TOWNS)

i grew up in glen ellyn, went to park view and glen crest. i remember i started middle school there was a fuss about weather or not to put a gap down town. All the old timers(who have since died off in the past decade) made a fuss because they thought a youth orientated spot down town would ruin the charm. Low and behold no one goes to down town glen ellyn unless they are going to an antique or craft shop and everyone goes to down town naperville.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by cdrobert

Anyone else agree. My parents said when i was born at central dupage hospital in the early 80s wheaton was a corn field. dupage county seems to me like nothing but various decades of sprawl as farmland slowly got eaten up.north and northwest suburbs have way more character

I actually think Wheaton is quite charming. The downtown is nice with Metra, nice parking garages, wine rooms, ice cream parlors, candy stores, Chinese/Italian/Irish/Vietnamese restaurants, fountains, art stores, bike shop, etc. Heck, theyve even added a new Gino's East down there. Yes, there is sprawl, but Wheaton is an old town with gorgeous homes on nice lots, tree lined streets, great schools (Wheaton College nameably). As a whole, DuPage has grown up fast, and some of it is tasteless, but on a whole I think the whole county is quite nice!

[OakBrookMom]

When I was down at U of I my friends from the North Shore always referred to my county as corn county which I always took offense to, I don't think most of them had ever seen Hinsdale, Wheaton or Glen Elynn to name a few. I remember the pickets of the playboy magazines at the 7-11 and the heated debate about allowing the sale of alcohol (until that passed there wasn't a decent restaurant in Wheaton because they couldn't serve a nice glass of wine with dinner). But I think the struggles helped the growth in Wheaton especially since it helped the downtown embrace a bit of culinary diversity - if you would have wrote that the new millenium would bring a tapas restaurant to Wheaton when I was in 8th grade at St. Mikes doing time capsules I would have said you were out of your mind! And have you seen CDH lately, it is incredible. My dad was a past president of CDH and very proud of how CDH has evolved. Sometimes change can be good.

[TheTimidBlueBars]

DuPage County has almost a million people, so it's impossible to be too generalizing. There are certainly older, more historic or otherwise interesting towns there.

I do agree with the general sentiment that most of DuPage is just mindless upper-middle-class sprawl, but the same could be said of Will, Lake, or north/northwest Cook, for example. I was in Glenview the other day and (no offense to any residents) almost felt physically sick from how sterile and vanilla everything looked.