You know, I was hoping today for an update on the AIC expansion. Thanks, Hydrogen... fantastic shot.
I don't know if anyone caught this, but the penultimate 2007 issue of the Economist featured an article about the state of low-cost housing in the U.S. and used none other than Chicago as an example of the changing nature of the "debate" surrounding it, citing, specifically, Highland Park as a community with the right idea.
I remember a year or so back Pioneer Press putting out an article about how HP has led the way in the north and northwestern suburbs in this area. Having grown up there while much this went underway, I can attest firsthand to this fact. For all the derision incurred by the North Shore -- not all of it unwarranted, mind you -- it really is an exemplary community with a strong dedication to the public good.
As an original streetcar suburb, the city was planned favorably to a denser/more urban lifestyle: the downtown is a vibrant place that supplies more than retail and good restaurants, and it's contiguous with Highwood which, as far as suburbs go, is super dense (6,552.1 per sq mi, 2,530 per km²) and highly urbanized (almost everything is within walking distance). Between the two cities (Highwood is an enclave within Highland Park), there are five Metra stops (six during Ravinia season).
Under the plans, Highland Park has increased high-density united in and around the downtown area. (There's been a general upswing in condo and townhouse development over the past 5+ years, actually.)
Anyway, it's worth a read.
http://www.economist.com/world/na/di...ry_id=10259069
Quote:
Dec 6th 2007 | LAKE FOREST
From The Economist print edition
The debate over affordable housing in America's suburbs
CHICAGO'S northern suburbs are among America's most idyllic. None is grander than Lake Forest, where the average home costs over $1m. But the suburb, by definition unaffordable, is building something unusual: affordable housing. A new development in Lake Forest will include a few cheaper homes, as required by a new town ordinance.
The debate over low-cost housing has moved well beyond the inner city. America's suburbs have changed. No longer the province of the affluent and the middle-class, they are home to an increasing share of new immigrants and poor (in 2005 the suburban poor outnumbered their urban counterparts). This new reality, combined with a growing distaste for ever-extending sprawl, long commutes, traffic jams and the pollution they bring, is driving efforts to build cheaper housing nearer to jobs in existing suburbs. The subprime mortgage mess has driven the trend, too...
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