Where do tree hugging, vegetarian liberals belong in north Chicago? (Evanston: rent, middle school)

[jaynetarzana]

Originally Posted by Anthera

Its like Lake Bluff, but more sprawling, and with chain stores. There's nothing wrong with Glenview, but in many ways its more conservative than the NS suburbs. The other places you've looked, Evanston, LB, HP, LF all have some interesting and unique qualities (as well as beaches), but Glenview is sort of generic suburbia.

I figured as much. I'm almost relieved not to have to add another area to my search.

[Nysee53]

Uggh, Fort Sheridan is probably the worst residential development I have ever seen. If I wanted to live on an army base, I would have joined the army. It is surrounded by an electric fence, and as soon as you exit Fort Sheridan you are in a sketchy area.

[Paige65]

Originally Posted by Anthera

Nysee is 100% correct!

It's hard to keep track with all of them (the movies)! I just knew that most of it was filmed in HP because a handful of my friends were in high school living in HP during the filming, and a few were extras.

[cohdane]

Paige65-- GLAD YOU CHIMED IN!

Most reliable source of info for Highland Park I've encountered. We also are hoping for Ravinia-- although the size yard we want is proving tricky to find.

FYI Ravinia had an Earth Festival in the spring. And a farmer's market every Wednesday. They also had a neighborhood association at one point-- not sure how active it is now-- that showed me there was an "activist" streak there somewhere.

If you get back up that way and happen to drive down Beech Street, look out over the ravine at the bridge. You'll see a really neat mid-century modern that was used in Ferris Bueller's day off-- for the Ferrarri falling out of the garage scene.

[Nysee53]

East Glenview and the areas near where Helen Brach lived are very old, very North Shore, and very expensive. You wont see your neighbors there, they are mostly large estates. Downtown Glenview is very nice and very walkable. The Glen is an example of some typical surburby area, but it is very walkable: to Attea Middle School, The Glen Town Center, Metra Station, Golf Courses, Parks, etc. In the Glen every unit is within a 10 minute walk of a park. That is how it was designed. The Glen used to be Glenview NAS. You might also look at Golf. It has Glenview Schools. It is centered around a Metra Station. It is a 5 minute drive to I-94, Old Orchard Mall, and Downtown Glenview. Golf is pretty expensive, and looks a bit like Ravinia.

[jaynetarzana]

Originally Posted by Nysee53

Uggh, Fort Sheridan is probably the worst residential development I have ever seen. If I wanted to live on an army base, I would have joined the army. It is surrounded by an electric fence, and as soon as you exit Fort Sheridan you are in a sketchy area.

We actually love the housing. The loft condos are great and we love the fact that they turned an army base into residential housing. Even though everything looks the same on the outside, we just love the look of all of that yellow brick for some reason. It just looks so organized and perfect. Something about that comforts me. We just don't think it would be ideal for our family and the monthly HOA dues are ridiculous. We don't mind the Highwood area at all since we're from California so it feels a bit like home.

[Nysee53]

I would definitely suggest you take a look at Glenview and Golf, you might find a neighborhood and a place you like. It is also more convenient to the city. There is more space between houses than HP or Wilmette.

[Paige65]

Originally Posted by jaynetarzana

Thanks Paige65,

I certainly haven't formed any solid opinions about HP yet so no worries there. I'm just information gathering at this point. What I saw of Ravinia today, I really liked. There were actually a few mid century modern style houses that I really liked, but I was told by my realtor that they would be way out of my price range. BTW, she lives in Fort Sheridan and knows HP almost better than any other north shore burb. I agree that being able to walk to everything increases your quality of life considerably. We are trying the one car (hybrid of course) household thing right now so it would be nice if I didn't "need" a car everyday. Being able to hear the music from Ravinia during the summer sounds really nice too.

I'm glad the realtor you have is familiar with the area. That's very important! We lived here for 12 years with one car. You'll be happy to know that there are many Prius drivers in the neighborhood and I'm beginning to see a few Smart cars. Wish I could drive one of those but I commute on the interstate a couple of days per week and I would feel nervous in such a small vehicle.

Again, good luck to you. What's holding you back on the LB house, price only?

[cohdane]

Last thing-- ask your realtor if 845 Yale Lane sold or if it just was pulled off the market. There's still a picture, but no listing, on Trulia. It was a cute 1956 mid-century house right across from Sunset Park.

I never saw "sold" data for it, so maybe....

[jaynetarzana]

Originally Posted by cohdane

FYI Ravinia had an Earth Festival in the spring. And a farmer's market every Wednesday. They also had a neighborhood association at one point-- not sure how active it is now-- that showed me there was an "activist" streak there somewhere. If you get back up that way and happen to drive down Beech Street, look out over the ravine at the bridge. You'll see a really neat mid-century modern that was used in Ferris Bueller's day off-- for the Ferrarri falling out of the garage scene.

Ravinia keeps sounding better and better all of the time. I'm going to get back over there in the next few days.

I figured we'd spend the 4th in Lake Bluff so we can really see the residents there. I just can't figure that place out. It seems like it is too conservative, but I haven't written it off yet because we love that house. I wrote down the names of two political candidates that I saw signs for in the community and I just looked them up, one was Dem the other was Rep. My gut is telling me that it might be a Stepford Wives scene there. I just don't know. It seems too good to be true. A bumper sticker I saw there summed it up best: "I don't live in the real world, I live in Lake Bluff!" For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how that could be a good thing!!!