Chicago Suburbs

Over the past two weeks, I have spent more time in the Chicago suburbs than in any time of my life. As such, I found some of the preconceived notions to be true (never ending, cookie-cutter, etc.). On the other hand, there were pockets of beauty, bounty and unusual artificiality so I felt compelled to write about it.

To begin, I looked into where and what a suburb is, relative to Chicago. Here is one take on it, from station WGN in Chicago in a July 18, 2018 article on the station's website:

We asked Josh Ellis at the Metropolitan Planning Council to help us figure this out. His answer: it's complicated...

"I think of a suburb primarily as a residential community where during the day the majority of that working population leaves the community to go somewhere else to work," Ellis said. "Historically that somewhere else would have been the heart of the downtown of some city... but these days you can work in so many places in our region."
So a suburb is a place where people live, send their kids to school, and maybe do their shopping, but they don't work there. By that definition there are many suburbs in the area shown above, but some communities just don't fit in. There are independent, economically-independent cities. Smaller, rural communities may also get along on their own with few ties to Chicago.

First was my work trip to Rosemont for a conference. One advantage about staying and attending the conference in Rosemont was that it was pretty close for me as I was driving in from Madison. Although I didn't get the thrill of staying in downtown Chicago, I also didn't get the headache of driving into the city. 

Rosemont, from my experience, is delineated by a water tower with a giant rose on it, and a very new entertainment complex area that features a giant bowling alley, comedy club, indoor skydiving facility, restaurants, and a German beer hall that I think could fit 500 people, all surrounding a mini park covered with turf grass. It sounds odd, but it seems to work - people everywhere in the main area seemed to be enjoying themselves. In the evening, there was a country cover band concert and kids were playing soccer alongside the park. There was definitely a family-friendly vibe.

Aurora came a couple of weeks later, when Jeff played in the Master's Ultimate Frisbee Tournament, and I picked up John from a camp over in the neighboring suburb of Lisle. Aurora featured a massive recreation park, the Stuart Sports Complex, which had abundant parking and well-situated porta-potties. The area we saw sported lots of business park buildings coupled with townhouse complexes. The local food options in Aurora did not disappoint - big shout outs to Taco Madre and Yamada Sushi & Poke for their respectively delicious tacos and impeccably plated and delicious sushi. Both were unassuming restaurants in strip malls...I think those are often the most inspired places to grab a delicious local bite to eat.

Spirit Circle

Naperville was my biggest surprise. Jeff found not one, but two Chicago deep dish pizza places in downtown Naperville. Having been to this burb before, my only memory was neighborhood after neighborhood of giant houses and strip malls. However, this time we entered an old-fashioned downtown area loaded with people out and about, on foot. After we approached a hilly area (what?) and crossed over a small river (what??), we ended up having a good dinner at a faster-service pizza place because all the deep dish spots had a 40+ minute wait. Apparently Chicago folks enjoy their pies and it's not just a tourist thing. Then, we followed the people and sounds of music to an outdoor concert venue featuring a local symphony orchestra. It was lovely and homey, like stepping back in time. I couldn't get over how many people were out and about enjoying the evening.

...oh what a beautiful day....

Oakbrook has a mall. A really, really big mall, helpfully titled Oakbrook Mall. It only looked like a mass of parking garages, but once we crossed a pedestrian bridge and entered the internal part of the indoor/outdoor mall, it was glorious. All the best stores. A fun and unusual food court (donuts). Another mini-park with turf grass (is this a Chicago 'burb thing?) that was teeming with kids having a great time. A Tesla dealership (?). I usually don't like shopping, and malls can make me a little crazy, but the three of us all had a good time checking out some selected stores and watching kids who were watching the fountain. I would travel back to Oakbrook just to visit this mall and Nordstrom’s. 

Mall turfgrass park - cute!

Skokie - this suburb popped up on my radar because I heard on the radio that they had the "Taste of Korea" Chicago Festival going on the weekend we were there, and of course it was in a mall. I wanted to go, but to get there it was a 1 hour 15 minute drive away and we were all too tired after each day's activities to drive that far for dinner and a festival. Still, it was intriguing and something I would be interested in for the future.

Naperville gelato