Ranking Chicago's North Shore Suburbs by Prominence/Name Recognition (Evanston: condos, crime)

[wjj]

Originally Posted by edsg25

I definitely disagree. Evanston has developed a wonderful reputation. Indeed Evanston is vastly different from the era of 1970s and 1980s.

And let me get this straight.....the North Shore once stretched through New Trier Twp and then made a huge jump over Highland Park to start up again in Lake Forest? Seriously? Why on earth would Highland Park not have been considered North Shore? How was it indistinguishable from the communities to the south and to the north as one worked one's way up the lakefront? SERIOUSLY???????

Yes...seriously!! In the 60s, 70s I don't think many would have considered Highland Park to be in the same league as Lake Forest to the north or Winnetka and Kenilworth to the south. Sort of like Highwood is today. Just kinda skipped over from being considered North Shore despite being between Highland Park and Lake Forest. Maybe someday Highwood will make the grade and be perceived (and again, we are talking about perceptions here) to be on the same level as Highland Park or Lake Forest. Who knows. Maybe when this thread is resurrected in 2046, Highwood will be on par with Kenilworth and contemporary posters will wonder why it was not considered "North Shore" all along. The OP was asking about perceptions of prestige. That is all I am talking about. Past and present.

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by wjj

Yes...seriously!! In the 60s, 70s I don't think many would have considered Highland Park to be in the same league as Lake Forest to the north or Winnetka and Kenilworth to the south. Sort of like Highwood is today. Just kinda skipped over from being considered North Shore despite being between Highland Park and Lake Forest. Maybe someday Highwood will make the grade and be perceived (and again, we are talking about perceptions here) to be on the same level as Highland Park or Lake Forest. Who knows. Maybe when this thread is resurrected in 2046, Highwood will be on par with Kenilworth and contemporary posters will wonder why it was not considered "North Shore" all along. The OP was asking about perceptions of prestige. That is all I am talking about. Past and present.

ROFLOL. Apparently you never rode down Sheridan road from lake cook up to lk forest Even in the 50s and 60s. What you are talking about is pure BS. Now you are equating highland park with highwood

Your comment deserves just one observation: SERIOUSLY????????

Yes, I do suppose there were those in the 1950s and 1960s who would have questioned highland park's creds as a north shore suburb. I'm sure they could have come up with six good reasons for thinking as such. You know, the same number of points on a star

[wjj]

Originally Posted by edsg25

Yes, I do suppose there were those in the 1950s and 1960s who would have questioned highland park's creds as a north shore suburb. I'm sure they could have come up with six good reasons for thinking as such. You know, the same number of points on a star

Truly a pathetic comment. Nothing more to say to you. Have a great close-minded day.

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by wjj

Truly a pathetic comment. Nothing more to say to you. Have a great close-minded day.

who's being ridiculous? do you seriously believe there weren't people on the North Shore who didn't consider Highland Park part of them because the "right" type of people didn't live there. They did. This Jewish guy well knows that anti-semitism clearly affected people's perceptions....so you tell me why my comment is pathetic. Are you suggesting that that attitude wasn't there? seriously? Kenilworth was totally restricted. Geez, man, I had an uncle who couldn't guy a condo in the Plaza del Lago area in Wilmette because he was Jewish. You really think this didn't exist??? I'd say your attitude is as close-minded as it gets.

There was never a question of which towns were part of the North Shore. certainly not by the original poster who listed them all (with the omission of Lake Bluff). Read any definition of the North Shore and will list the 8 towns from Evanston to Lake Bluff. Highwood has never been included. The North Shore was never about places entering or leaving based on status...it is a locale.

You show no evidence that you even know where Highland Park is. Are you seriously trying to tell me that the Highland Park lakefront is not loaded with the same type of exclusive high end property that is virtually the same as the other suburbs along the shore? Where do you get such nonsense from? How is the quality and type of residence built in Highland Park differ in any way from what you find in Winnetka or Glencoe?

So let me say this....I have noting more to say to you. You don't know you're talking about.

[Paige65]

An interesting excerpt from a book I have (Creating Chicago's North Shore by Michael Ebner):

"To an uninitiated eye these attractive villages stretching along the lake from the city limits... look very much alike, abut, oh, the differences really. Analysis of Chicago's Social Register for the 1910 season underscores this assessment. Among 466 persons along the North Shore listed on this index of the socially prominent, nearly nine of every ten (86.4 percent) resided in one of four places: Evanston (142), Lake Forest (109), Winnetka (103) and Highland Park (67). Also notable was the case of Kenilworth, the youngest of the communities in this network: it placed 26 persons on the register, exceeding Glencoe (14) and Wilmette (5). One community, Lake Bluff, placed no one on the register; the nearby city of Waukegan accounted for three."

[Beardown91737]

Keeping the name recognition part in mind as well...

Kenilworth
Lake Forest
Winnetka
Highland Park
Northbrook
Lake Bluff
Wilmette
Glencoe
Bannockburn
Deerfield
Glenview
Evanston
Northfield
Golf
Highwood

[jvr789]

I didn't grow up in the Chicago region but have been here for the past 10+ years. The ones that stick out in my mind as premiere are:


-Kenilworth
-Winnetka
-Highland Park


Evanston has very strong name recognition but sort of seems different than the "North Shore" suburbs above in that it is much more urban and has its own identity rather than being more of a residential suburb.

[asliarun]

Originally Posted by jvr789

Evanston has very strong name recognition but sort of seems different than the "North Shore" suburbs above in that it is much more urban and has its own identity rather than being more of a residential suburb.

To add, besides being a college town, Evanston is also the only Northshore burb that has real diversity. Besides the parts of Wilmette that neighbor Evanston and Skokie, aka Wilmetto. By diversity, I mean racial diversity, multi-culturalism, multiple ethnicities and religions, and economic diversity. I am not saying it is a shining example (although Evanston has been making significant efforts to truly embrace the idea of being multi-cultural), but in the context of Chicago and especially Northshore's monoculture, it is a better example than most. Another thing that makes Evanston different is that population density is significantly higher than any other Northshore suburb, and Evanston is really more of a hybrid between true downtown and true suburbia.

OP's point was about desirability. To that, I wanted to make this point as desirability is also subjective. If you do not fit the traditional Northshore mold but still want to be in Northshore, you will likely find Evanston (and Southwest Wilmette) a lot more desirable than just about any other Northshore suburb.

[wavver024]

Taking all into account I would update as follows:

1. Winnetka
2. Lake Forest
3. Wilmette = North Evanston
4. Highland Park
5. Kenilworth
6. Glencoe

[Careless]

Originally Posted by edsg25

When the subject comes down to ranking North Shore suburbs based on prominence and name recognition, to be honest I cannot understand why Evanston wouldn't be #1 on the list. No North Shore suburb comes close to it on either count.

In name recognition, it's pretty obviously number one by the simple fact that it is home to a top 20 global university (ok, Northwestern is #25 this year) with a major college athletic program.

But as long as they're sending their kids to ETHS, well, north Evanston won't be in the same league.

Btw, is ETHS still spending as much money as New Trier despite having 75% as many students?