Favorite Chicago park (Avon, Newark, Norwood: price, mall, safe)

[Chicagoisthebest]

Master jay, The crippen is slightly older and the Clarke house was moved three times.

[nana053]

Originally Posted by Master Jay

nana053, it is a great nomination for parks along the lake. Some of my greatest memories were wading in Lake Michigan on a hot summer day when tbe water was perfectly warm!

Do you have an inland favorite park?

Not really unless you count the ones in Evanston where I lived. We rarely went to inland city parks as we stuck around home, except that I walked down the lakefront every weekend. I did take the kids to Indian Boundary Park when the little zoo was there.

[Master Jay]

Chicagoisthebest, I'm putting my faith in your report! Do you agree, also, so far, that per contributors' responses, Chicago top 3 favorite parks is something like:

Portage

Norwood

Indian Boundary

Does that seem right? I know a couple of other repeated nominations were Gompers, Humboldt, Lincoln and Jackson.

[Master Jay]

nana053, not even a park out of West Ridge and/or Rogers Park, then???

Well, you let us know. Either way, thank you for contributing on this post!

Think Springtime in Evanston, then!! The snow is approaching!

[Chicagoisthebest]

Master jay, Also a lot of people like humboldt park.

[Master Jay]

Chicagoisthebest, yes, Humboldt Park was mentioned a lot! Good call!!

[wjj]

Originally Posted by ChicagoMeO

they have some apartments available in Norwood Park tho!

I happen to discover there is an Old Norwood Park and the regular Norwood Park. looks like 2 different neighborhoods.

There are several areas in greater Norwood Park. Some of the neighborhoods now have sub-names in addition to Norwood Park (e.g., Union Ridge, Big Oaks, East Norwood Park, Old Norwood Park, etc.) but when I grew up there, it was all just called Norwood Park. In fact I didn't even know the neighborhood names existed until about 15 years ago when I looked up the house I grew up in online and it said that it was in the Union Ridge neighborhood of Norwood Park. Who knew! The Northwest Expressway (now known as the Kennedy Expressway) which opened in 1960 cut right through the middle of Norwood Park and about a block of homes between the old and newer Norwood Park were demolished. As a little kid, watching all the big machinery doing demo and then construction kept me occupied for a couple of years. We were easily entertained back then. Before the construction, there was a smooth transition from what is now called Old Norwood Park and Taft HS to the newer areas to the south that were built on what were mostly dairy farms and a golf course (I grew up in one of those 1950s brick raised ranch houses my parents bought new). You can still see what little is left of that transition starting at Gregory and going south to Balmoral. The Kennedy getting built changed quite a bit in that area but fortunately, it was routed around the cool old homes west of Natoma and north of Bryn Mawr. The expressway planners were able to thread the needle between Union Ridge Cemetery (the oldest continuously used cemetery in Chicago) and historic Norwood Park which has some of the oldest houses in Chicago.

[Master Jay]

wjj. Thank you for the trip down memory lane. I have enjoyed driving as well as riding my bicycle through all parts of the Norwood Park area.

What a sight it must have been to see the expressway construction!

[wjj]

Originally Posted by Master Jay

wjj. Thank you for the trip down memory lane. I have enjoyed driving as well as riding my bicycle through all parts of the Norwood Park area.

What a sight it must have been to see the expressway construction!

I was small back then, but I remember our next door neighbor teens taking us on their bikes down in the big pit and through the huge pipes that were laying there waiting to be installed. Probably would be considered child abuse/neglect today, but we had a blast. Kids today really don't get to have fun any more. Everything is structured and if your parents wander out of the structure, someone will threaten to prosecute them. I was a free range kid (as were my friends) and had a great time (and stayed out of trouble), but today, it's just not possible. It is a real shame.

[nana053]

Originally Posted by wjj

I was small back then, but I remember our next door neighbor teens taking us on their bikes down in the big pit and through the huge pipes that were laying there waiting to be installed. Probably would be considered child abuse/neglect today, but we had a blast. Kids today really don't get to have fun any more. Everything is structured and if your parents wander out of the structure, someone will threaten to prosecute them. I was a free range kid (as were my friends) and had a great time (and stayed out of trouble), but today, it's just not possible. It is a real shame.

Free Range parenting laws are being passed in some states

https://www.freerangekids.com/lets-p...-laws-in-2021/

Let’s hope that 2021 is the year several states pass Reasonable Childhood Independence / Free-Range Parenting bills, as Utah did in 2018. Right now, it’s looking good in Idaho, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas and possibly Nebraska.

This year in Colorado a Democrat and a Republican co-sponsored a Reasonable Childhood Independence bill. The two women were friends and had wanted to sponsor a bill together for years —this was the first one they agreed on! It sailed through the house unanimously and was a week away from probable passage in the Senate when the pandemic shut the legislature down. We are hopeful that it will be resurrected this coming year.

In the meantime, here’s the first-of-its-kind map of all 50 states’ child neglect laws that Let Grow commissioned. As you can see, many of the laws are so open-ended and vague that parents are left unsure of whether they can trust their kids with some independence or not.

https://letgrow.org/resources/state-policy-maps/