What's the difference between Chicago and its Cook County suburbs? (home, schools)

[pvande55]

Originally Posted by linicx

The City of Chicago is also the County Seat - another kink in the chain. Do the City of Chicago specific zip codes creep into suburbs that share boundaries with the city, for instance, Oak Park?

Downstate the zip usually changes from community to community. For instance Chicago is 602xx, 606xx, and 607xx. Peoria is 616xx. Once you move south of the Peoria area the zip become 626xx and Springfield is 627xx The last two digit are fluid ranging from 01 to 99. If the zip code on the Chicago side of the Oak Park border was 60698, would Oak Park also be 60698 or would be 60699. I'm pretty sure it would the latter as the physical address is assigned every 1/10 mile. It was done this way in rural areas to help 911 callers quickly identify the location for for faster and more accurate EMS dispatch. I am not sure how it is applied in the city the size of Chicago.

Zip codes beginning with "606" with few exceptions, are in the City of Chicago. Suburbs are not so simple, I can think of 18 Cook County communities without their own ZIP code. Telephone area codes strictly follow City limits. Cell phones are a mess, because the signal may bounce off a suburban tower even if you are in the City or vice versa. Even more screwed up between the different suburbs. The cell phone companies are still trying to figure this out. I believe it will be resolved with GPS technology.

[linicx]

If 18 communities do not have their own zip codes, do they share codes? If not how do they get mail?


If the cell phone providers didn't use propriety software they could all roam on all towers, but that would be way easy. If they did that then they would be forced into splendid customer service and top notch phones that will hold up to heavy usage for two years.

[chirack]

Originally Posted by linicx

If 18 communities do not have their own zip codes, do they share codes? If not how do they get mail?


If the cell phone providers didn't use propriety software they could all roam on all towers, but that would be way easy. If they did that then they would be forced into splendid customer service and top notch phones that will hold up to heavy usage for two years.

Probably share the same post offices. Burbs esp. the smaller ones or ones with less need of a service sometimes share police, fire protection, and school districts. It really varies with the burb. Barrington and Hoffman estates for instance share police force (probably due to low crime areas).

Also yes the city does offer the same level of service on all sides even snow removal. Although due to the size of the city when it comes to snow one part can get considerably more snow than the other. The only thing the city of Chicago does unevenly is perhaps police protection in terms of cops on horse,ATV and cops walking...never see that outside of downtown and only once saw a cop on a horse in Lincoln park. However all parts of town have police service. Some parts of town might lose CTA bus service earlier than other or not run all night but they are less dense areas(i.e. heavily used routes run all night).

Even worse school districts can cut between towns in the burbs.(i.e. One burb can have more than one scool district).Another issuse with the burbs is determining who does what sometimes like snow removal since lines are not as clearly drawn. In the City all roads that are not an expressway are cleared by Chicago. IDOT clears the expressways. In the burbs there can be disputes over who does which section of road ect.

[Golden Camel]

Originally Posted by linicx

The City of Chicago is also the County Seat - another kink in the chain. Do the City of Chicago specific zip codes creep into suburbs that share boundaries with the city, for instance, Oak Park?

Downstate the zip usually changes from community to community. For instance Chicago is 602xx, 606xx, and 607xx. Peoria is 616xx. Once you move south of the Peoria area the zip become 626xx and Springfield is 627xx The last two digit are fluid ranging from 01 to 99. If the zip code on the Chicago side of the Oak Park border was 60698, would Oak Park also be 60698 or would be 60699. I'm pretty sure it would the latter as the physical address is assigned every 1/10 mile. It was done this way in rural areas to help 911 callers quickly identify the location for for faster and more accurate EMS dispatch. I am not sure how it is applied in the city the size of Chicago.

602xx has always been Evanston.
603xx has always been Oak Park and River Forest.
Chicago is 606xx.
607 and 608 were unused until a few years ago.
A bunch of suburbs had 606xx zip codes, off the top of my head: Lincolnwood, Niles, Norridge, Cicero, Evergreen Park. The residents of these suburbs were ticked off by this because the zip codes caused insurance companies to rate them with city dwellers, thus increasing their premiums. When the 607 and 608 zip codes opened up, most (all?) of these were given their own zip codes.

A bit of trivia: It wouldn't make sense to limit Chicago suburbs to Cook County, since Chicago itself is located in two counties: Cook and DuPage. Even most Chicago residents don't know about the little bit of DuPage. The 2000 census showed 2 people living in the DuPage section of Chicago, the 2010 census showed none. In 2010, Chicago expanded its reach into DuPage when it annexed three parcels from Bensenville. Two of the three were in DuPage.

[grapico]

Originally Posted by urza216

Unless of course, wealthier people live on this "non major" street.

Generally speaking, density is the main difference between a city neighborhood and a suburban neighborhood. You can say other things but there are two many exceptions.

well ask this then, assuming they aren't tax derived, what is wrong with the wealthy having private company snow plows? On a large scale, how is that any different than me hiring a neighborhood kid to plow my driveway?

[linicx]

Intriguing, and interesting to be sure, for history always is, but I am really only interested in Cook County. Other than size what makes it different than any other suburb?

[chet everett]

If you pay any attention to the way that statewide politicians routinely create "special legislation" for "counties with over 4 million residents" the fact becomes clear that the clout of Cook Co based politicians is routinely used to grant special exemptions in the way it is run vs every other county in Illinois. Many of these exemptions are by themselves not a big deal, and relate to just the historic division of how everything from property transfers to elections are little differnent in Cook Co., but some of the various provisions make it especially burdensome to the various suburbs in term of salestaxes and such have prompted efforts, mostly half hearted, to separate from the county -- Secession Movements in Cook Co.

[chirack]

Originally Posted by grapico

well ask this then, assuming they aren't tax derived, what is wrong with the wealthy having private company snow plows? On a large scale, how is that any different than me hiring a neighborhood kid to plow my driveway?

Ah a street is for public use, your driveway is not. The city does use private plows and things like parking lots are plowed privately by their owners. It is just the street itself the city does.

[urza216]

Burnham, Illinois has a 606xx area code. It is the same area code as the Hegweich neighborhood.

[pvande55]

Originally Posted by chet everett

If you pay any attention to the way that statewide politicians routinely create "special legislation" for "counties with over 4 million residents" the fact becomes clear that the clout of Cook Co based politicians is routinely used to grant special exemptions in the way it is run vs every other county in Illinois. Many of these exemptions are by themselves not a big deal, and relate to just the historic division of how everything from property transfers to elections are little differnent in Cook Co., but some of the various provisions make it especially burdensome to the various suburbs in term of salestaxes and such have prompted efforts, mostly half hearted, to separate from the county -- Secession Movements in Cook Co.

Northernmost townships seceding from Cook County would require Lake County taking it over (unlikely) or forming a new county which would be required by law to offer the same services, such as sheriff and courts, and this would result in an even bigger tax increase.