Chicago is one of the biggest cities in the United States and has many suburbs within the big city but which place is a hotbed for people to live? What suburbs are people picking to live in and still be a part of the big city of Chicago? One suburb of choosing is Skokie, a suburb north of the city of Chicago, but why are people really choosing Skokie to call home?
Skokie’s name comes from a Potawatomi word for “marsh” and was founded in 1888. It borders many suburbs like, Wilmette, Morton Grove, Lincolnwood, Niles, and Evanston, and its only 16 miles north of Downtown Chicago.
“I like living in Skokie because of the proximity to the city, I don’t feel that disconnected to the city being in Skokie that’s the first thing I really enjoy about it.,” said Abe Lang resident of Skokie.
“I really like the city of Skokie, I like the fact that it’s close to the city of Chicago,” said Kirk Gliebe current resident and a religious leader of a synagogue in Skokie.
It is one of the most diverse suburbs as well with Jewish, African American, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern descent living in unison. “Its diverse in terms of the community, it’s got a little bit of everything in terms of the people who live here where you’re talking about their ethnic background, religious background, their economic background situation and people that have money and people who don’t have any money. You have apartments and mansions,” said Glibe.
It also had great school systems that some people have tried to even lie about where they lived just to go to the schools in Skokie.“I moved to Skokie because I was living in West Rogers Park a suburb of Chicago and my wife and I wanted to move up here because the schools are better in Skokie,” said Gliebe. “There is also a lot of Jewish kids in the schools, which is something we like and the education quality was tremendous.”
Skokie also features several of forms of entertainment to offer as well. It has the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, the Skokie Theater, two malls, the Westfield Old Orchard mall and Village Crossing mall with a theater in both, plus the Skokie North Shore Sculpture Park. Other Services the suburb offers is weekly refuse collection, a highly engineered Storm and sidewalk snow plowing, the nationally acclaimed Skokie Park District, and the superb Skokie Public Library.
“The services are really good, not only do they plow the streets they plow the sidewalks collect our garbage twice a week instead of once a week. Even though I only have one time of week worth of garbage,” said Gliebe. “The police determent is generally pretty respectful and good while the city government is responsible and responsive to issues, its well run, and it’s a very well run city.”
“It easy to navigate, streets are generally plowed during the winter time and it’s not dangerous so to speak, safety is a pro of Skokie,” said Lang.
“Skokie has a few different types of restaurants that I really enjoy; Kabul House is one and its Afghani and has very good food, Skokie has unique stuff that others don’t,” said Lang. Skokie also with that diversity has all kinds of ethnic restaurants: Kabul House, Siunik, Tub Tim Thai, De-Jred fine Jamaican Cuisine, Yolo Mexican Eatery, Slice of Life, Taboun etc.
Kosher restaurants, synagogues, kosher stores or stores with kosher food and Jewish shops as well. “I like the Jewish community here; it’s easy to get kosher products and there are lots of synagogues around, you’re not the only one celebrating them like how it was in North Carolina for me, I was the only one celebrating the Jewish holiday, now it’s like the whole community is,” said Stephen Arnold a Skokie resident and employee at the UPS Store in Skokie.
“Skokie is a very livable city and I would recommend people moving to Skokie, absolutely!” said Gliebe.