what's good in the suburbs? (Elgin, Crystal Lake: houses, neighborhoods, living in)

[PhillyPhan]

what is really specialo about the suburbs? my cousins, aunts and uncles live in the suburbs of chicago. i live near philadelphia and i am used to the different suburbs and neighborhoods. all the towns have their own little feel, but when i visit my family all of the towns look identical. some of my relatives live in naperville, naperville is different because it has it's own feel and downtown. but my other relatives live in frankfurt about an hour away. the towns like mokena and the others all have the same stores, the same building decorations and the same neighborhoods which i sometimes get lost in. i'll admit that some of the shopping is good, but i mean if you go through different towns but they all have the same layouts, you'd get a headache if you weren't used to it. so why do these suburbs keep poping up like a wild fire?

[rgb123]

those are all south suburbs....things in the north, northwest, and west are quite different. Up here in lake county we are much less big boxy and the houses have more character and there are small downtowns.

I dont have much time to go into it really...but I do get annoyed when people talk about the suburbs as if they are all the same cookie cutter type places with automatons living in them.

I prefer the north because we have state parks, some topography, and the area has character in general. I am not big on naperville. But, basically the suburbs have a lot to offer for those who are not into living directly in the city....and we have metra, which is great.

[Steve-o]

Id have to agree with rgb23... all the burbs out here in the west all have different styles, which is why I love them. There are a few that are kinda similar (Crystal Lake and Algonquin come to mine), but most are as different as can be. For example: Elgin, Bartlett, Wayne and St. Charles all butt up to one another, but there are no similarities between those towns whatsoever. Even the 3 towns that are neighbors and straddle the Fox River (Geneva, St. Charles and Batavia) are like night and day. The south suburbs are quite similar, maybe thats where you were?