Why doesn't Chicago have any super-dense suburbs?

[chitown202020]

joliet, aurora, and elgin dense suburbs. imo

[Curly Q. Bobalink]

Isn't the question self-explanatory? I mean, the reasons people moved to (created) the suburbs to begin with, is they were trying to get away from the density of the city, right? To not have to fight for street parking in the winter, to have yards and driveways and places for their kids to play somewhere other than the sidewalk and street, to decrease the density of traffic, etc..

Obviously, the poster who brought up the point about other cities having less open area to expand into is well taken. Chicagoland was pretty much wide-open, and probably why it spreads over such a large area - kind of like Dallas, right? But bottom line, if I viewed density as desirable, I'd just move back into the city, I wouldn't have to try and build a suburb to mimic it. After two months in lockdown, I'd like to own at least an acre going forward, maybe more, I'm on a "minimal" inner-ring suburban lot in my opinion (1/6 acre), I'd absolutely hate to live on less.

[fusillirob1983]

Originally Posted by chitown202020

joliet, aurora, and elgin dense suburbs. imo

I haven't spent much time in Elgin, but in Joliet and Aurora at least, once you're not in the older part of town, they're not very dense. I would guess being generous, they average out to be as dense as suburbs that border Chicago's city limits. The western part of Joliet is indistinguishable from Plainfield and Shorewood. Basically the entirety of Aurora that feeds into District 204 is indistinguishable from the western half of Naperville.

[CCrest182]

Originally Posted by chitown202020

joliet, aurora, and elgin dense suburbs. imo

All three of those suburbs' recent growth, has pretty much entirely been due to sprawl.

That said, I do think all three of these cities have tons of potential for downtown growth in the future. All three are not in Cook county, all three have Metra train access, connecting it to the inner suburbs and city, and there is a historic layout/template there. I could see all three of Aurora, Elgin, and Joliet having an urban revolution in the future, hopefully.

[civis]

Originally Posted by TheTimidBlueBars

I've been reading down the list of the most densely populated municipalities in the US, and I'm surprised that you don't find a single Chicago suburb until 37th on the list: Stone Park has 15,378.2 people per square mile, and that's only because of its small geographic area that excludes non-residential areas - it doesn't feel any denser than the surrounding neighborhoods of suburbs like Melrose Park and Northlake. The other suburbs on the list are, in descending order, Cicero, Berwyn, Elmwood Park, Oak Park, and Harwood Heights - all reasonably compact places, but not on the level of many incorporated places in the NYC area.

And it's not only NYC, but Miami, Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and even Los Angeles and Louisville (widely known for being pretty sprawling areas) have suburbs that are denser than Chicago's densest suburbs. Why is it that there aren't any towns on, say, the north or west sides that are heavily built up with apartment complexes and reach densities like 20 or 30 thousand per square mile? Just statistical coincidence, or does it have something to do with zoning, or the towns being populated too slowly over time with immigrants to allow for the massive overbuilding you find in much of the inner NYC area? Or is it that geographically tiny towns (which represent much of the upper reaches of this list) have tended to be annexed by the city itself, whereas this doesn't happen as much in most major cities?

Thank God we don't. But I'd say most Chicago suburbs are pretty densely populated, even in areas where SFHs dominate, and it's due to tiny lot sizes. I wish we could be even more spread out.

High population density almost always means bad air and water quality, crime, noise, traffic jams and so on.

[mas23]

Most suburbs are quite a distance from the city's core so they won't benefit from any residual density from being near downtown.

Also because theres not a natural barrier( ie, mountain range, or a body of water) which means you can build out instead of up.