Match a northen suburb to a western suburb (Chicago, Naperville: neighborhoods, good schools)

[fusillirob1983]

Originally Posted by TheTimidBlueBars

Not bad. If we can throw in the south suburbs too:

Evanston/Oak Park = Homewood
Wilmette/River Forest = Flossmoor
Waukegan/Aurora = Joliet
North Chicago/Maywood = Harvey
Rosemont/Oak Brook = ...maybe Tinley Park or Orland Park?
Skokie/Forest Park = Oak Lawn
Harwood Heights/Berwyn = Blue Island?

Some of these are quite a bit of a stretch. I'm not too familiar with the commercial areas of Homewood and Flossmoor off the top of my head, but in general the housing is much newer in those towns than Evanston, Oak Park and River Forest.


I don't think I could compare Rosemont too much of anything else in the area. It's almost all commercial with a small residential area, CTA access a convention center and lots of hotels and some restaurants. At best it's comparable to Oak Brook or the area of Schaumburg surrounding Woodfield/Streets of Woodfield.


Orland is tough to pin down as comparable to one suburb. There's higher end housing similar to Oak Brook in some very spread out subdivisions (i.e. lots of land on the lots), yet there's also split level subdivisions from the 60s and 70s that resemble parts of Oak Lawn or the southern portion of Downers Grove or Darien. The retail looks more like the section of Lombard along Butterfield if I want to be really specific. From a retail standpoint it also resembles Rt. 59 straddling the Naperville/Aurora border. It's tough to compare Tinley, but it's definitely not similar to Rosemont or Oak Brook. It doesn't have the high end housing to Oak Brook and has no mall, and no spread out subdivisions.


Harwood Heights/Norridge is similar to Evergreen Park. Similar school districts, housing, location with respect to Chicago (other than the fact that Harwood Heights/Norridge is an enclave and Evergreen is surrounded on 3 of 4 sides), the retail is laid out similarly, in general follow the grid system, and all have no Metra or CTA line in town. I'd have a hard time finding many better suburban comparisons in the Chicago area, actually.


Berwyn is somewhat similar to Blue Island - older housing, bungalows, Metra stop.


Skokie and Oak Lawn is a good comparison, other than by the mall in Skokie. Forest Park is too different in terms of housing (much older vs. most of Oak Lawn or Skokie), layout of town, far too small in size. 95th Street going through downtown Oak Lawn (3 lanes each direction) and around the train feels pretty different than Madison St in Forest Park (1 lane each direction plus parking lane).

[pvande55]

True, Rosemont is rather unique. It is a suburb of OHare, but without the industry and freight forwarding warehouses. It encouraged hotels and convention business to attract travelers. There is nothing similar near Midway. Bedford Park could have been but has gone purely industrial.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by pvande55

True, Rosemont is rather unique. It is a suburb of OHare, but without the industry and freight forwarding warehouses. It encouraged hotels and convention business to attract travelers. There is nothing similar near Midway. Bedford Park could have been but has gone purely industrial.

The things that shaped the direction of the SW side are pretty clear to see in hindsight -- factors like racial unrest, massive shifts in employment patterns, and a splintering of political priorities still constrain the economic and socio-demographics of not just the city itself but much of the whole region.

Unlike the parts of Chicago on the West Side that rapidly were scared by race riots in the 60s the sorts of struggles that went along with racial shifts on the SW side were slower. Much of that had to do with the somewhat more modern developments that really followed a pattern of tract home building that is more similar to the inner ring suburbs than the older style build-out of parts of the city that were well established in the WWII era. The kinds of activities that dominated the employment on the SW side really trace back to airplane motor construction -- Ford City Complex Has A Past Most Don’t Remember | Chief Engineer . In some ways that model still dominates even the large scale production of automobiles such as is considered "state of the art" for companies like Tesla -- https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-giga...res-expansion/

Of course the thing that really brought the idea of "endlessly spread out factories and farther flung suburbs" to a screeching halt was the 70s oil crisis -- https://www.marketplace.org/2016/05/...conomic-policy . All those SW side bungalows with nice two car+ garages behind them were a response to what folks thought they'd be doing: driving everywhere. That did not pan out. In terms of the airline industry, that once also was booming at Midway, the oil crisis forced airlines to rethink their whole model of who /what would make for a profitable operation -- it was not the relatively small plane with high levels of service that would survive but the much larger flight that could pack in more passengers as well as handle high value cargo. That future was clearly at ORD. Midway became a ghost town as O'Hare boomed. In about a decade MDW went from "Worlds Busiest Airport" in terms of both passengers and flights to literally having more private pilots with Cessna-class planes than scheduled flights as ORD took the busiest crown with the combined "super hub" model that routed both destination and connecting travelers into Daley's crown jewel of patronage and Federal largess. As far as it concerned the relatively small numbers of folks who may have lived and work near Midway they were more than happy to buy newer homes in the rapidly expanding suburbs NW of Chicago, with the promise of a fresh start, good schools, and shiny new shopping malls like Randhurst, Golf-Mill, and Woodfield.

Eventually firms like Southwest Airlines realized there was a market for the new "road warrior" class of flier as well as a whole new market of travelers that would gladly trade long drives or bus rides for budget service. Southwest triggered a whole new way of thinking of air travel and arguably forced all the other airlines to up their game with "loyalty programs". The boom in offering "premium" type services extended to the airline partners who include the many hotels that were themselves in a kind of "arms race" to build airport / convention hotels. The legacy of THAT is largely why all the ORD / Rosemont hotels include giant meeting facilities. Of course the fact that downtown Chicago was dominated not just be outrageously priced union labor at McCormick place, more than mere "grittiness" but actual peep shows and other things that convention goers would find increasingly out of step with the evolving equality of the workplace...

To the credit of CTA bosses (and the largess of congressional fixers like Rostenkowski...) the orange line did link MDW to the Loop and provide legitimate benefits to the city mostly through the expenditures of Federal mass transit dollars(which was really sparked by the oil crisis and a rethinking of how efficiency of transit regarding fuel outweighed the constant road building of the prior policies...) . That era, of Federal spending on transit is unlikely to be repeated.

SO... It is not so much that Bedford Park did not want to be Rosemont as the sorts of investment that happened around ORD were largely not possible at land-locked MDW.

[WilmaWildcat]

Bedford Park also has that incredible rail yard, so it would be a huge opportunity cost not to use it for manufacturing.

[westburbsil]

Some good comparisons. IMO there are no comparison to Naperville. Yes it has a lot of ugly sprawl, but there is no downtown as vibrant in the burbs as Naperville. You add in good schools and transportation, Naperville has many good things going for it and again the downtown is unmatched in Chicagoland.

[Blubb]

So I live in the north suburbs, and I have visited all over for different things. Libertyville is not like Vernon Hills at all. Libertyville has a old vintage look but vernon hills is all modern with a lot of construction. Naperville is nothing like either of the two. Waukegan/Gurnee are not that similar to Aurora. I believe they have a different feel for each of them. Also you have a lot of time on your hands to do this matching thing! Also, the list isn’t that acurate.....also...I am not trying to be rude I am just curious....have you been to the west or north suburbs?(both of them).Or did you just look up pictures and search up different suburb names because the pictures online are sort of inaccurate now because all the suburbs are changing and a lot of times the pictures look different than the suburb. Just saying.....

[Chicagoisthebest]

Match a northern to a western suburb
Des plaines = Mel rose park
Winnetka = hins dale
Glencoe = Clarendon hills
Park ridge = elmhurst
Evanston = oak park
Lake forest = river forest
Wheeling = carol stream
Skokie = forest park
Lincolnwood = Itasca
Niles = Addison
Glen view = glen Ellyn
North brook = oak brook
wilmette = western springs
Norridge = rosselle
Hardwood heights = Lombard

[Chicagoisthebest]

Originally Posted by ToriaT

Some good guesses here. But.. Northbrook and Wheaton are nothing alike...not on target. Skokie is more modern built in the fifties and sixties and does not resemble Berwyn/Forest Park which are more like areas in the city. Schaumburg and Naperville not similar...Naperville much bigger and nicer and more upscale. Vernon Hills Oak brook nothing alike.

MIllenialUrbanist is off target.....the original poster a little more on target.

Naperville is like Palatine

[Chicagoisthebest]

Originally Posted by TheTimidBlueBars

Not bad. If we can throw in the south suburbs too:

Evanston/Oak Park = Homewood
Wilmette/River Forest = Flossmoor
Waukegan/Aurora = Joliet
North Chicago/Maywood = Harvey
Rosemont/Oak Brook = ...maybe Tinley Park or Orland Park?
Skokie/Forest Park = Oak Lawn
Harwood Heights/Berwyn = Blue Island?

Hardwood heights is northing like Berwyn and blue island hardwood heights is nicer and demographics are way different

[MillennialUrbanist]

Explanations/comments are shown in blue.

Originally Posted by Chicagoisthebest

Match a northern to a western suburb
Des plaines = Mel rose park - not quite; Des Plaines has gotten nicer lately, while Melrose Park is sketchy
Winnetka = hins dale - good match
Glencoe = Clarendon hills - good match, except for religion: Jewish vs. mainline Protestant
Park ridge = elmhurst - good match
Evanston = oak park - perfect match in every way!
Lake forest = river forest - not quite: Lake Forest is old money, while River Forest is merely middle class
Wheeling = carol stream - good match: both are red-headed stepchildren of neighboring suburbs
Skokie = forest park - good match
Lincolnwood = Itasca - not a match: Lincolnwood is upper-middle class, Itasca is lower-middle class
Niles = Addison - a stretch, but can work, although Addison has higher crime
Glen view = glen Ellyn - OK match, although Glen Ellyn has a more suburban layout
North brook = oak brook - not quite: Northbrook has a grid layout, Oak Brook is blatantly suburban
wilmette = western springs - a good match: both are second-tier to a neighboring suburb
Norridge = rosselle - not even close, due to Norride being an Chicago enclave
Hardwood heights = Lombard - not even close, due to Harwood Heights being a Chicago enclave