A very interesting article about Evanston and transit oriented suburbs (Chicago: real estate, 2015)

[asliarun]

Came across a very interesting article about Evanston and how it made a bold experiment to reinvent itself - and move from a traditional car based suburb to a more densely packed transit oriented suburb.

Now it looks like Chicago is also trying to adopt the same model.

What Works Evanston: The Suburb That Tried To Kill the Car - POLITICO Magazine

[chet everett]

Still lots of catching up to do --

Chicago ... and its population has increased by 15,000, ... the city lost 100,000 citizens each decade from 1980 to 2010, while suburban Chicago grew by nearly 2 million people.

What Works Evanston: The Suburb That Tried To Kill the Car - POLITICO Magazine

[Avondalist]

I would take whatever "Tiger Beat on the Potomac" says with a grain of salt. For one, anyone who says Evanston is transit friendly has never waited for the red line connection at Howard in January .

That said, Evanston is blessed with existing transit connections and has made smart moves to develop accordingly. I would hardly say the city is moving towards being car-free, though, as you still need a car to go to Target and get laundry detergent and other essentials, go to the grocery store for food, etc. Many students I knew there did just that since the walkability of Evanston, especially on the north side of the Northwestern campus away from the downtown, leaves a lot to be desired for those wishing to be car-free. It's nowhere near as walkable as the DePaul campus, for example.

Evanston has always had a bustling downtown in its own right, and I never considered it a car-dependent suburb, like even Skokie is.

I recently checked up on the crime stats for Evanston and it has shown big improvements since the turn of the century. There is also a budding startup ecosystem coming out of Northwestern. Lots of factors are coming together to improve Evanston. Urban planning is contributing but is not the whole story.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by Avondalist

I would take whatever "Tiger Beat on the Potomac" says with a grain of salt. For one, anyone who says Evanston is transit friendly has never waited for the red line connection at Howard in January .

That said, Evanston is blessed with existing transit connections and has made smart moves to develop accordingly. I would hardly say the city is moving towards being car-free, though, as you still need a car to go to Target and get laundry detergent and other essentials, go to the grocery store for food, etc. Many students I knew there did just that since the walkability of Evanston, especially on the north side of the Northwestern campus away from the downtown, leaves a lot to be desired for those wishing to be car-free. It's nowhere near as walkable as the DePaul campus, for example.

Evanston has always had a bustling downtown in its own right, and I never considered it a car-dependent suburb, like even Skokie is.

I recently checked up on the crime stats for Evanston and it has shown big improvements since the turn of the century. There is also a budding startup ecosystem coming out of Northwestern. Lots of factors are coming together to improve Evanston. Urban planning is contributing but is not the whole story.

The other "piece of the puzzle" is the out of whack market for rentals in pretty much every part of Evanston. It is no secret that folks who are landlords to either the students or visiting faculty of NU do not share much with the "income equality" rhetoric of "fair housing warriors" -- Will 'inclusion' kill new housing development? | Evanston Now

[asliarun]

Originally Posted by Avondalist

That said, Evanston is blessed with existing transit connections and has made smart moves to develop accordingly. I would hardly say the city is moving towards being car-free, though, as you still need a car to go to Target and get laundry detergent and other essentials, go to the grocery store for food, etc. Many students I knew there did just that since the walkability of Evanston, especially on the north side of the Northwestern campus away from the downtown, leaves a lot to be desired for those wishing to be car-free. It's nowhere near as walkable as the DePaul campus, for example.

You're right of course. I shared the article not so much to hype up Evanston but instead to share the unique strategy and thought process of city planners. While Evanston always had good connectivity with downtown Chicago (although connectivity to suburbs is horrible), it is the first town I know of that has tried to make it an advantage instead of becoming yet another suburb with a "walkable core".

I am not a real estate person but the changes in zoning laws and research they did to downsize parking allotments - i found quite interesting. And having the population density allows a few things that just cannot be achieved in a spread out suburb. Once the population reaches a certain threshold, I feel that it starts becoming a feedback loop - more people want to move to downtown which means more houses get built, and more restaurants and businesses want to open up. I guess this is how downtowns became downtowns in big cities, but it is interesting to see a suburb reinvent itself this way.

While the outer parts of Evanston are not walkable to downtown shops and restaurants and businesses, they are still bikable. Another important thing is that this walkability does not eliminate cars, but reduces the emphasis and need for cars. So families easily live with 1 car, instead of 2 or 3 in a suburb.

And I personally know of many working professionals, single and couples, not just students, who either do not have a car at all or have a small car for Target/Sams Club runs etc. And the ones that do not have cars use Zipcar and Uber *a lot*.

And that's the other thing about millennials and the younger gen. With smartphone apps that give you train/bus timings and walking directions in seconds, and services like Uber that give you access to a cab anywhere/anytime you want, the real *need* for a car is actually reducing a great deal. At least in areas with high population density.

For what it is worth, if one lives West of the tracks, between Dempster and Northwestern (core Evanston downtown), you have walking access to literally everything. Jewel Osco, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, CVS, movies, doctors and dentists, 50+ good quality restaurants and bars and bakeries at various price points,
quality butcher, theater, live music, karaoke, phone companies, furniture and home goods stores (World Market, Affordable Portables), hardware store (Ace's), microbreweries and so on. For day to day stuff, and for weekend entertainment, Evanston downtown mostly covers everything. And many restuarants and bars are genuinely good - Boltwood, La Principal, Found, Farmhouse, Bat 17, Smylie's, Bangers and Lace - and literally a few dozen more.

Again, more than anything, I shared the article because I was wondering if more cities and towns (especially satellite towns like Evanston) will try to refashion themselves into the cities that existed pre-car-era. To me, it is undeniable that New York is what it is because of mainly its population density. And even Chicago downtown is probably looking to reinvent itself similarly.

[oakparkdude]

Oak Park is on a similar trajectory, albeit from a much smaller base, and despite some strong pushback from some residents.