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Old 07-22-2011, 02:31 PM
 
2,059 posts, read 5,738,404 times
Reputation: 1685

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It drives me insane too - we only lived in cities until 3 years ago so it's been a real adjustment for us.

Most of what I've read about the subject seems to indicate that suburban homeowners feel sidewalks invite the homeless and drug addicted to roam around their properties. Ridiculous, but that's how they want it.
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Old 07-22-2011, 02:51 PM
 
14,801 posts, read 17,622,969 times
Reputation: 9246
Another reason not to live in a suburb
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Old 07-22-2011, 04:27 PM
 
Location: South Chicagoland
4,112 posts, read 9,040,296 times
Reputation: 2084
Not all suburbs are anti-pedestrian. Not everywhere in the city is it hard as hell to find a parking spot either.
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Old 07-22-2011, 05:06 PM
 
Location: Chicago, IL SouthWest Suburbs
3,522 posts, read 6,085,215 times
Reputation: 6130
Ha

that does make you kind of wonder , lets outlaw all the bad food from local mcdonalds, wendys and your other cheap and fast type restaurants
ban choclate milk from a menu at your school along with your pizza in the snack line and chips

same time local community or zoning board would discourage permitting sidewalks that actually promote some type of physical activity
go figure

typical political BS

kind of off subject but makes you wonder what is wrong with this country anymore
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Old 07-22-2011, 05:19 PM
 
1,478 posts, read 2,406,056 times
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I think what the OP describes is not a Chicago thing so much as it is a neighborhoods designed between 1950 and 1985 or so thing all over the country.

Larger lots, all hail automobile, no need for anyone to walk anywhere mindset. Older suburbs don't have this, and those built in the last 15-20 yrs seem to have moved away from this as well. It just so happens that a huge chunk of Chicago's were built when pedestrian concerns were largely ignored.

As far as the Metra Stop outside of employment thing goes: keep in mind
a) most of these commuters are downtown bound, not the other way around, and
b) the stops are generally old rail depot stops located in older town centers which contain a nice retail strip surrounded by nicer/historic housing. This isn't the type of stuff you want to tear down to make way for a mid-rise office building.
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Old 07-22-2011, 05:32 PM
 
12,999 posts, read 18,851,211 times
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They are not all anti pedestrian. Where sidewalks are lacking it is usually the fault of IDOT, which often lets highway contracts without sidewalks.
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Old 07-22-2011, 05:55 PM
 
Location: Greenville, SC
6,219 posts, read 5,919,433 times
Reputation: 12160
The reasons for no sidewalks in the suburbs (cost cutting, increased dependency on cars in suburban sprawl) go back to the post-WW2 decades; here is an interesting article from the Trib:

Suburbs See Sidewalks As Strands In Social Fabric - Chicago Tribune

When I was a kid in the 1950s, there were sidewalks in the town I grew up in ... but many of the newer suburbs didn't have them. This isn't a recent phenomenon, and I'm skeptical that it has anything to do with keeping "those people" out.
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Old 07-22-2011, 07:47 PM
 
Location: Chicago, IL SouthWest Suburbs
3,522 posts, read 6,085,215 times
Reputation: 6130
Yeah I see the date line is 1990
hared to imagine 21 years ago!
My god I am getting old
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Old 07-22-2011, 07:59 PM
 
Location: KC Area
345 posts, read 830,830 times
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I think most suburbs are not pedestrian friendly. Not many at least.
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Old 07-22-2011, 08:23 PM
 
Location: Logan Square
21 posts, read 35,467 times
Reputation: 14
I was born and raised in major cities (Moscow, Chicago). This was one of the most bizarre things I noticed when me and my family moved to the suburbs. Places like Skokie, Oak Park, and Cicero are perfectly fine when it comes to sidewalks, while Wheeling and Arlington Heights are almost oblivious to the problem. Furthermore, they have all small streets link up to a major road (like Hintz or Dundee), without shortcuts through neighborhoods, so you're forced to take major streets everywhere (rush hour or not). I've read that locals do not want traffic going past their houses (which is also bizarre as we live in one of the most populous counties in the US).
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