The "Boroughs" of your city (Chicago, Evanston: houses, neighborhood)

[chitown2pa]

Here is a conversation starter. I have searched all over online (SSP, SSC, CD) and nobody seems to have talked about this before. Now, NYC has Boroughs, because it is huge and has annexed many of what used to be independent counties and townships over its history. This is my question: if your city had "boroughs," what would they be? Feel free to use your own rationalization, but please give your reasoning. Should be interesting.

For Chicago, I would say that ours would be: North Side (everything north of River North all the way to Rogers Park and west to O'Hare), South Side (South Loop down to the IL/IN Border (including the "East Side" neighborhood), West Side (Greektown/West Loop all the way out to Garfield Park and the border with Oak Park, and Downtown (the Loop, River North, Printers Row, Gold Coast, etc).

[jdiddy]

Well, that's pretty much how everyone divides it up now. So yeah, makes sense.

[Damage Control Freak]

Technically a borough is an adminstrative division. In Chicago there's the comunity areas and different wards, however they're not even remotely similar to the boroughs of NYC. So I'd say there's simply nothing like it in Chicago. To call the North Side a "borough" just to make an analogy is really stretching the word borough towards the point of being meaningless.

[pittsteelerfan]

Originally Posted by Damage Control Freak

Technically a borough is an adminstrative division. In Chicago there's the comunity areas and different wards, however they're not even remotely similar to the boroughs of NYC. So I'd say there's simply nothing like it in Chicago. To call the North Side a "borough" just to make an analogy is really stretching the word borough towards the point of being meaningless.

I completely agree. Making Evanston a borough would be a better example.

[coldwine]

Christ, sometimes it seems like every city block is its own "fiefdom" in Chicago.

[chitown2pa]

Originally Posted by pittsteelerfan

I completely agree. Making Evanston a borough would be a better example.

There's a thought. Not too far-fetched, either, when you consider that Hyde Park used to be its own entity. Ditto for Pullman and the O'Hare neighborhood (which, incidentally, will be expanding this year thanks to the inevitable airport extension. Does anyone know if this means more suburbs annexed to Chicago? Whose houses are going to be paved for this?)

[west lawn kid]

Chicago is too small to really have boroughs, Cook county and its townships would be a better fit

[pittsteelerfan]

Originally Posted by west lawn kid

Chicago is too small to really have boroughs, Cook county and its townships would be a better fit

That's completely inaccurate. Pittsburgh is much smaller than Chicago, and it has boroughs.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by pittsteelerfan

That's completely inaccurate. Pittsburgh is much smaller than Chicago, and it has boroughs.

We keep going over this, and we'll keep going over it until you get it through your head. Pittsburgh does not have boroughs in the same way that NYC does. "Borough" is nothing more than a form of incorporation in Pennsylvania. The boroughs near Pittsburgh are politically independent municipalities (in other words, suburbs) that are not sub-units of the city the way NYC's boroughs are. Their designation as "borough" also has nothing to do with their proximity to Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania has boroughs all over the state, including in the middle of nowhere. Read the Pennsylvania Borough Code if you're still confused.

The closest thing Pittsburgh has to NYC-style boroughs is official neighborhood designations, similar to Chicago's official community areas in that their only real function is to serve as census tracts.

[pittsteelerfan]

Originally Posted by Drover

We keep going over this, and we'll keep going over it until you get it through your head. Pittsburgh does not have boroughs in the same way that NYC does. "Borough" is nothing more than a form of incorporation in Pennsylvania. The boroughs near Pittsburgh are politically independent municipalities (in other words, suburbs) that are not sub-units of the city the way NYC's boroughs are. Their designation as "borough" also has nothing to do with their proximity to Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania has boroughs all over the state, including in the middle of nowhere. Read the Pennsylvania Borough Code if you're still confused.

The closest thing Pittsburgh has to NYC-style boroughs is official neighborhood designations, similar to Chicago's official community areas in that their only real function is to serve as census tracts.

My point was NOT to COMPARE Pittsburgh with NYC, but to say that a smaller city can have them! Pittsburgh's boroughs might get annexed into the city of Pittsburgh in the very near future (there's been talk of it already).

I find it funny, that you lived in Pittsburgh, and you're trying to tell someone who was BORN and RAISED there about it.................