Is Evanston or Skokie best for us? (activity, location)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Evanston is a city with haves and haves not's.(In other words the real world) It Borders Willmette to North and Chicago to South and resembes each depending on what part you of Evanston you live in. Evanston Township High School is is only public HS in a very diverse town, but I is also one of the top 100 HS's in in the State. I grew up in small section of Skokie that is on the border and attendes Evanston schools. I graduated ETHS in 1992 and loved. After My first child was born my wife I bought House in north Evanston, so you know where I stand
We lived in Evanston for many years and I raised my two children there. The schools are excellent especially for kids who are gifted - my son was a brilliant math-science student and completed AP Chemistry, AP Physics and AP Biology as well as BC Calculus and multivariable calculus by his senior year. He also had great honors courses in his less preferred subjects. He went to Washington University at St. Louis and is now a Chemical Engineer with a masters from Northwestern. My daughter completed AB calculus, but did not do the honors science program. She did complete AP English and AP history and because of the great drama program, she was accepted to Carnegie Mellon to major in technical theater.
One of the great things about the schools was the diversity of programs *and* the diversity of the student body. My children played with kids from all over the world because there were so many graduate students with kids at Northwestern. My son had a best friend in elementary school who came from Sweden. My dd had friends from the Phillipines, Haiti, Japan, Russia, Korea, France and many other countries. For my artistic dd, there were honors art classes, a dance group that won competitions and many other great programs not offered in other schools. I can't say how many cuts they have made though since my kids are in their 30s now.
Evanston has 4 vital downtown areas. The main one has many restaurants of various ethnicities. There are also many festivals in the summer including an upscale art festival on Davis Street and a more crafty festival in the Main Street area. And there is the Lakefront Art Festival as well featuring mainly African Arts.
Northwestern adds to the cultural ambiance with many free events as well and the Lakefront bike paths and walking paths are also a plus.
I miss Evanston a lot. We moved south to be in the same town as my grandchildren, but we just do NOT have the wonderful *town* here that I was used to.
Getting downtown from Evanston is pretty easy on either the *el* or the Metra line. Depending on where in Evanston you live, you can be close to one or the other. Also note - we lived in southeast Evanston when my kids were young in apartments on Hinman Avenue. The neighborhood there was quite nice and many of the people were young professionals with children.
Evanston has many nice parks and playgrounds for younger children. Lincoln School was excellent when we lived in that area. My dil was in Skevanston and went to Timberridge which was also good. My kids went to Orrington School in North Evanston because that was where we bought our house.
We lived in Skokie after we retired and while it is a nice town, it is NOT as vibrant as Evanston. The Skokie Public Library though is fantastic and the park district there is great. There are many festivals in Skokie Park District. The public library also has various cultural programs in their auditorium.
They're both great but if you're Jewish or Ukrainian - Skokie's the place to go. lol
Evanston is very upscale and and has a great public school system. My cousins lived there all their life and were very pleased.
With this economy, you could easily snag a beautiful condo in the Lincoln Park area for a low cost. I live on the Northside and my parents are buying a $600,000 condo in Lincoln Park for less than $250,000. This is also very upscale living and making a real estate investment in Lincoln Park is very smart. Lincoln Park is also the only part of the city that has a rising real estate market in the economy.
Anyone who says Evanston has "ghetto parts" obviously doesn't know what they're talking about. Evanston is a very upscale community that is very family oriented. You might want to look in the Wheaton and Naperville areas, they're also very upscale.
They're both great but if you're Jewish or Ukrainian - Skokie's the place to go. lol
Evanston is very upscale and and has a great public school system. My cousins lived there all their life and were very pleased.
With this economy, you could easily snag a beautiful condo in the Lincoln Park area for a low cost. I live on the Northside and my parents are buying a $600,000 condo in Lincoln Park for less than $250,000. This is also very upscale living and making a real estate investment in Lincoln Park is very smart. Lincoln Park is also the only part of the city that has a rising real estate market in the economy.
Anyone who says Evanston has "ghetto parts" obviously doesn't know what they're talking about. Evanston is a very upscale community that is very family oriented. You might want to look in the Wheaton and Naperville areas, they're also very upscale.
Maybe not Ghetto, but it does have its rougher neighborhoods. It's not all solidly upper middle class to wealthy like Wilmette, Winnetka and Glencoe.
OK. I'm a long time Evanstonphile. It's a special place. No place in Chicagoland can meld city with suburb as Evanston, with Oak Park an arguably not that close second.
I'd choose Evanston over Skokie in a heartbeat.
That said, these two side by side cities with similiar populations do have things in common. And, in that sense, I'd have to say the links are grower stronger.
Skokie is far more diverse than its post-WWII era when Chicago's far North Side Jewish population pushed northward into Lincolnwood and more so to Skokie, vast areas plotted before the war but no developed in large scale till after.
Skokie today is far more United Nations and far less Tel Aviv. The cross section is enormous. Also, Skokie's density has changed as well. Like Evanston, condos have bloomed and boomed in various parts of town, albeit without the density of such in DT Evanston in comparison to DT Skokie. Indeed, Skokie has nothing similiar to the condo strips that dominate Central St and Chicago Ave in Evanston.
Downtown Skokie, as noted, is well in the shaddow to DT Evanston. Of course the reasons for that is changing; it won't make a difference for someone moving in now, but in a few years its will.
For downtown Skokie, as differs from most high profile suburbs, lacks rapid transit or commuter rail. It is those links with Chicago that make not only DT Evanston but its counter parts in Highland Park, Oak Park, Arl Hts, Des Pl, Pk Ridge, etc., meccas for condos and stores that Skokie isn't.
The change is a new CTA yellow (Skokie Swift) station on Oakton that will serve downtown Skokie.
I'd choose Evanston over Skokie with no thought. Evanston has character and sense of place; Skokie has far less, but its own urbanization does give it a buzz that further out suburbs do not have.
If you're coming from LA, then you will be pleasantly surprised that Chicagoland public schools still hold their own against those who choose private education. Communities take pride in their schools.
That said, both ETHS and the Evanston elementary schools have their problems. Then again, as noted earlier, THIS IS A DIFFERENT ERA. Back in the day when I went to ETHS, it was a place apart in the North Shore and arguably throughout the north and northwest suburbs as well:
ETHS was diverse. Well, kinda. It had black kids who strangely enough were only about 10-20% of the school when I went there. But that 10-20% made Evanston High different from all those other high schools, unless you got so far north you were out of suburbia and in Waukegan. But we were diverse for the time, but the press pounced on any hint of racial friction at the school and blew it up beyond proporation.
Flash forward to today: Evanston, once apart, now looks like so many other suburbs in the area insofar as the vast majority of them have become a true mix of people of all races. And that shows up in school age population far sooner than it does it the community demographics.
So no matter where you go....Evanston, Skokie, Wilmette, wherever....society's structure has changed (as it has from Santa Monica to Cambridge) and social ills of an economy in decline and a nation not very good at taking care of business are everywhere. Evanston just doesn't stand out anymore. And thankfully so: a diverse nation is on the road to putting race behind us as the absurd divide it is.
Anyone who says Evanston has "ghetto parts" obviously doesn't know what they're talking about.
From this comment, I'd say you don't know what you're talking about. There are a few pockets in Evanston that share a lot of characteristics with a "ghetto", including poverty, crime, gangs, boarded up buildings, etc. You'd have to be pretty unfamiliar with Evanston to make such a comment.
I live in Skokie but it sounds like from what you are describing you are looking for Evanston. Vibrant scene, lots of educated people (not that there aren't educated folks in Skokie). One thing I wanted to point out is that you'll probably be taking the El rather than the Metra if your wife works on East Wacker, unless she's willing to make the 20 minute walk across the Loop (or her company has a bus). But both Metra and El are a little more convenient if you live in Evanston. Skokie is a more affordable option, with easy access to Evanston and racial diversity, but I wouldn't call it "lively". I"m happy with the schools, though.
We lived in both Evanston and Skokie. I like the vibe in Evanston and I liked the fact that in Evanston, I could walk to the Lake and Bike along the lake and not have to worry about traffic. I also liked the convenience of the "el" and the Metra. Both were within easy walking distance of my home. However, I lived in Northeast Evanston and while the city itself is diverse, our neighborhood was pretty lily white. I actually transferred my dd to the school across town in junior high because of the *rich* kid mentality where kids she had played with forever were cutting her for not having swatch watches and guess jeans. That was some time ago and I cannot speak to that vibe now. But the school I transferred her to on the southeast side had a much more diverse population including lots of immigrants and she was much happier there. The high school was not a big problem, only the middle school at the time.
In Skokie, our neighborhood was actually much more diverse. We had Indian, Pakistani, African American, Mexican, Russian Jewish and many other people as neighbors. The schools are good, but I can't say what the middle schools and high schools are really like because my kids did not go there and my grandkids were only toddlers when we lived there. The parks were no where near as populated so taking my granddaughter to the park did not necessarily mean there would be kids to play with in our neighborhood. In Evanston, we found lots of kids out in the various parks. I could walk to a few things in Skokie, but not as much. The Library in Skokie is much better than Evanston's for kids though. The Park District also has many activities to offer and is comparable to Evanston's Park district with one thing that stood out for us in the winter - the Exploratorium was inexpensive and great for kids in the winter time because it was an indoor play place with tons of things for kids from 2 to 6.
I really appreciate nana053 remembrances of how things used to be Evanston and Skokie, as well as the more current reports of edsg25. While I am familiar with both kinds of reports, as well as both towns, I am also struck by the fact that many of the same things could be said for basically every town in the region.
Not too many years ago playgrounds did literally swarm with kids in most towns, now even towns with allegedly high percentages of kids the playgrounds are less well used-- some kids are at daycare, othes are taking dance or tae kwando, some are planted in front of a TV.
Once upon a time it was unheard of to see folks from some the same the countries listed, but now there are not only professors, but professionals, and even the 'regular Joes' from all those countires and more in basically every town. Just as self selected groups of Italians or Germans or Poles living in certain neighborhoods has pretty much become a footnote to history so to is it extremely unlikey to find a town that is not 'diverse'...
What is true is that the resources that underprepared students require make the offerings of schools with large numbers of underprivileged necessarily constrained. The correlation between the performance of schools that can focus enrichment is very strong to those towns that have higher household incomes...
In Skokie, our neighborhood was actually much more diverse. We had Indian, Pakistani, African American, Mexican, Russian Jewish and many other people as neighbors.
if there is a more diverse suburb of Chicago than Skokie, I don't have a clue what it is (although I do believe that when it comes to high schools, no suburban high school is as diverse as Maine East...but it draws from different towns....Niles, Pk Ridge; when it comes to an actual town, I think Skokie is it)
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
