Which suburbs are really "own little world"

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by almost3am

I don't know if that is really true, as I live in Naperville about 3 miles from downtown. I bike to the Metra station (or take the bus). We are .5 mile from a Walgreens, 1 mile from 2 grocery stores, we walk to our daughters school (which has a park), walkable to restaurants...

There are exceptions. But for a large majority of people I do not think getting on without a car in Naperville is very practical. Not to mention, as far as I know, the buses do not run very late and some may not run on weekends. So if you have to do something during those times you are SOL.

What about in winter? You do that mile walk to the grocery store?

[cubssoxfan]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

I would switch out Des Plaines and say Buffalo Grove,Mount Prospect,Arlington Heights,and Palatine are all pretty much the same place.

Des Plaines has a much more humble and working class back round than the other towns.

Agreed, to a certain extent except for Buffalo Grove. Except for Prairie Grove, don't see much old town 100+ year history the way I do in the other 3 near the downtowns and train stations. I think AH has more of the older homes from its history as Dunton than the other towns. I think Des Plaines fits in better than AH in this aspect. From a per capita and socio-economic standpoint Buffalo Grove does especially south of Lake Cook Rd.

[almost3am]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

There are exceptions. But for a large majority of people I do not think getting on without a car in Naperville is very practical. Not to mention, as far as I know, the buses do not run very late and some may not run on weekends. So if you have to do something during those times you are SOL.

What about in winter? You do that mile walk to the grocery store?

Yeah, winter definitely makes it tougher and I believe you are right that buses don't run too late, maybe only 8PM-ish. A cab would likely be required at times, especially in the winter. So, yes, for a majority of people, Naperville is not great for walkability-only, but it is really good for only having to drive very short trips...at least north of 75th St, which I am much more familiar with.

My wife just called, she was getting gas for the car, and she said, "I can't remember the last time I got gas..."

[FleeTheRustBelt]

Originally Posted by urza216

Awesome. Park Forest got shouts out from someone who isn't even a southsider.

That said, Park Forest isn't its own little world.. Maybe from a historical perspective, you could ague it is but not in the past ten, twenty or thirty years.

Growing up in Park Forest, I found myself attending public schools in nearby towns. Recently, I bagged groceries at Orchard Fresh Market from day one till the day the business went under. I'm talking about the grocery store that opened up in Park Forest. After years of having no grocery store, I worked at the only one in town. It went out of business. Residents don't buy groceries locally. They go to other towns. Park Forest is the epitome of a bedroom community with a damn-near empty downtown and no one even cares because they live right next to many shopping options on Lincoln Highway..

Own little world? Not at all. Park Forest would be a better town if a was a little bit more of a SELF-SUSTAINING world. But that ain't gonna happen.

When I was a little kid, Park Forest had THREE supermarkets. Garofalo's where the Family Video is now on Sauk Trail, Jewel where Orchard Fresh Market was, and Dominick's in Norwood Plaza. Park Forest was originally designed so people could take the train to Chicago for work and come home to all the suburban amenities they needed. That hasn't really been the case since the Plaza/Centre/downtown started struggling about 30 years ago.

[dacas1]

Homer Glen - "Community and Nature in Harmony" What other community do you know of where you can see a riding stable from the window of a Chili's?

[davidgnichols]

I am interested in a particular kind of park space, which is predominantly surrounded by housing with limited (pedestrian) access to the street. I was in Schaumburg three years ago and had a chance to see a lot of these kinds of spaces in that suburb - I believe they were planned that way because the area was marshy or prone to flooding but I'm not sure. I'm visiting the US in the second half of next year to look at some of these spaces in various American suburbs and towns to see what works and what doesn't - with the intention of ultimately writing a book about these 'internal reserves'. Has anyone on this thread experienced this kind of park space, say for instance at Schaumburg? Advantages/ disadvantages?