Illinois

DuPage County, Illinois, USA (North America) – February 2019 —  I grew up in Glendale Heights, Illinois. Glendale Heights is a suburban city near Chicago. I grew up there during the early 2000s and early 2010s. It was a very small town. People who live there are usually not very wealthy. There aren’t too many things about the city that make it stand out from other cities. It was a very diverse town. You could get food from many different nationalities. The town consisted of many people who had just come to America from another country. There was also a lot of fast food places. I moved away from there when I was just about to start high school. There weren’t that many job opportunities there. My parents usually had to commute long distances to their jobs. I remember living about 2 minutes from my elementary school and about 5 minutes from my middle school. My family’s house was in a cul de sac, and I remember putting our basketball hoop in the middle of it and playing basketball in it. I remember my neighbors would always get together with their friends and drink beer. One day they were so drunk that they asked to play basketball with my cousin and I. A lot of people in the town probably thought they were going to end up more successful in life.

Cook County, Illinois, USA (North America) – December 2018 — live in the great city of Chicago. Born and raised here and I could not think of a better city to live in. I met my boyfriend of 15 years here. He also was born and raised here so we have a deep appreciation of Chicago and all things Chicago than many others who consider themselves Chicagoans. I love this city and the great state of Illinois for so many reasons I wouldn’t know where to begin. I think we have everything in this great city. The food is so diverse as well as the people. We have the best pizzas, tacos and everything in between. For northsiders, we have the Cubs and the southsiders have the White Sox baseball teams and the bears when it comes to football. As far, as buildings they attract so much tourism. We have the Willis tower and the Hancock that recently installed the Tilt. Which tourists love to see because the glass actually tilts out from the 94th floor of the Hancock which is something different and feels special to be apart of. As I mentioned before, not only can you enjoy the different ethnic foods but we also have a large population of different people with so many different languages. I heard Mayor Emmanuel Rahn said there were 142 language spoken in the city alone. It is great to go to some type of gathering and you hear someone speaking polish and you turn around and hear someone speaking chinese or you turn your head in another direction and hear spanish, hindi or arabic. Those are only a few of the reasons I am in love with Chicago. I have visited many cities but to me my heart and soul belongs here. This is the city my immigrant dad brought us to and risked his life to give us a better life and to honor him this is the place I will always call home.

Will County, Illinois, USA (North America) – December 2018 — My town is a very small town by the standards set for a suburb of a major city, Chicago. Mokena, Illinois is south and west of Chicago and the town’name means Mud Turtle attributed to the Indians that once lived in that area. Our town is now made up of 20,000 residents so still has a small town feel. When we moved to Mokena in the 70’s it was primarily rural with hints of development to come. Our lot was not suited for well and septic so we needed to wait and get the sewer and water lines put in so we could build our home. We joined our Church which was small and seated only 400 people, now we seat over 1000 at 5 services. The town’s library was in the basement of a Church and there was only two restaurants in town, one a pizza place the other a tavern. What attracted us to the town was the rail transportation into the city at a reasonable cost. Our home was within a mile of the train station so did not necessitate a second car. The kids were in elementary school and one in high school, so we had learned the educational system was excellent. Mokena has great sense of pride, beside being the only town without another town in the United States named Mokena, so we have no twin. In fact every five years we have a town picture taken and all residents are invited to come to the main street and a drone takes a picture of all present from the air to keep as a record of our growth. We went from a small community park to many parks and as a town in the 80’s we build a mud turtle park and all the residents pitched in to build it. Women cooked and served lunch, while men and boys moved dirt, put play ground equipment in place and then planted grass it took one weekend and over 500 people volunteered to work on it. Babysitting was even offered by girl scouts. It was a grat community builder. I love my rural suburban home and plan to stay as long as possible.

DuPage County, Illinois, USA (North America) —  Carol Stream is mostly quiet for a suburban area of Chicago. Schools are good. District HS (Glenbard North) is in the center of CS. Park system is excellent with many parks of varying types; including fishing lakes. Fairly new park district recreation center is very nice (pool, Basketball courts, exercise equipment, rooms for various uses, nice locker rooms). Shopping in CS is adequate, but lots of shopping in nearby areas (Stratford SQ mall is just outside the CS city limits, many other strip malls are very close) 2 golf course 1 or 2 blocks outside city limits. Crime is low or no worse than any other typical suburban area. Police Department and City Hall are building brand new facilities in the center of town. Multiple fire houses are located in the village. Many small restaurants, bars and take out places in town and many others very close by. American Legion Hall located in CS with Friday night bingo. Industrial area has many potential jobs.

Cook County, Illinois, USA – January 2018 — I grew up in the town of Homewood, IL. We moved there in 1989 when I was four years old and I graduated from the high school there in 2003. I really liked living there. It was a safe town so I could ride my bike and walk to school. While there was a very wealthy town next door, Homewood itself was pretty homogeneous. Pretty much everyone was working or middle class. There was a very active park district and large library so I remember being able to try a lot of different sports and activities. I don’t live there now, but I live about 10 miles away. I still bring my kids to the parks there because I have good memories of playing at them as a child. It has changed a little bit, there is a little bit more crime. But it is still mostly a great place to live. I have many childhood friends that have returned there to raise to their families. I will always treasure my memories of growing up there. It was a Mayberry type place to grow up in.

Cook County, Illinois, USA (North America)– January 2018 — My hometown is Des Plaines, Illinois. It’s about 30 minutes from Chicago. It’s not the most ideal place to raise a family due to the crime rate. I grew up with a lot of violent in the neighborhood from gangs and shooting. Drugs were a huge issues as well and many of my friends fell victim to it. I loved living there due to the proximity to Chicago. I was able to easily jump on the L or commuter to get into the city for Cubbie games or Blackhawk games without much of a commute. Chicago is such a great city that I loved being so close, but I hated my hometown. The schools were crap and it was really a gross and dirty place to grow up. I lived on a block with small old falling apart homes. Everyone’s families were struggling to make ends meet and had blue collar jobs. There was a lot of economical issues and it was terrible. I don’t still live there so I’m not sure if it has changed or not. This all happened in the 1990s til early 2000s. I couldnt wait to get out and I haven’t been back.