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150 Greatest Places in IL Riverside!!!

(19 posts)

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  1. KimJ
    Member

    There is a collection of books at Borders in Oak Park.

    1.
    Berwyn (IL) (Images of America) by Douglas Deuchler (Paperback - April 20, 2005)
    Buy new: $19.99 $14.99 28 Used & new from $11.50
    In Stock
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping.

    2.
    Cicero Revisited (IL) (Images of America) by Douglas Deuchler (Paperback - Sep 25, 2006)
    Buy new: $19.99 $13.59 24 Used & new from $12.85
    Get it by Tuesday, April. 3, if you order in the next 19 hours and 47 minutes.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping.

    3.
    Maywood (IL) (Images of America) by Douglas Deuchler (Paperback - Aug 4, 2004)
    Buy new: $19.99 $13.59 13 Used & new from $12.73
    Get it by Tuesday, April. 3, if you order in the next 19 hours and 32 minutes.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping.

    4.
    Oak Park (IL) (Postcard History Series) by Douglas Deuchler (Paperback - Aug 11, 2003)
    Buy new: $19.99 $13.59 25 Used & new from $12.45
    Get it by Tuesday, April. 3, if you order in the next 19 hours and 32 minutes.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping.

    As usual, nothing on Riverside. (anybody know Douglas Deuchler?)
    and
    I was last weekend at the Architecture Foundation Shop on Michigan Ave.
    Boy that place is bustling, crazy busy.
    There were dozens and dozens of brochures from varying local communities.
    Again, nothing on Riverside.

    Posted Sunday Apr 1, 2007 21:46 #

  2. spatny
    Member

    Hear that EDC?

    Posted Sunday Apr 1, 2007 22:12 #

  3. ChrisHajer
    Member

    In Crain's last week, there was a list of the top tourist attractions in Chicago: http://tinyurl.com/39ccgx

    1. Navy Pier: 8,775,000 visitors
    2. Chicago Trolley & Double Decker Co: 3,003,500 visitors
    3. Lincoln Park Zoo: 3,000,000 visitors
    4. Millenium Park: 3,000,000 visitors
    5. Six Flags Great America: 2,604,000 visitors
    6. Brookfield Zoo: 1,890,047 visitors
    7. Sears Tower Skydeck: 1,300,000 visitors
    8. Hancock Observatory: 586,574 visitors

    There were more in the print edition: that's all that is shown online.

    --Chris

    Posted Sunday Apr 1, 2007 23:12 #

  4. KimJ
    Member

    Very intersting link up there.
    What is really amazing is the revenue column. Where available, the Brookfield Zoo is a HUGE $$$ maker compared to Lincoln Park Zoo and Navy Pier.
    Those tourist dollars are sooo close....

    Posted Sunday Apr 1, 2007 23:21 #

  5. MikeT
    Member

    The entries below can link to Riverside somewhat easily...

    # Millenium Park: 3,000,000 visitors - short metra / car ride down the expressway

    # Brookfield Zoo: 1,890,047 visitors - adjacent to this

    # Sears Tower Skydeck: 1,300,000 visitor - short metra / car ride down the expressway

    an aside:
    # Chicago Trolley & Double Decker Co: 3,003,500 visitors

    COMMENT - I believe this outfit was created by a Riversider (and maybe sold since); maybe we can get more this outfit to come out here as they do with the holiday walk.

    Posted Monday Apr 2, 2007 00:11 #

  6. ChrisHajer
    Member

    KimJ - I thought about the dollars too. Then I remembered that Lincoln Park Zoo is free, and the people visiting Navy Pier are just visiting and walking around in a lot of cases. Also, Navy Pier was a huge attraction for people living in Chicago: 70% of the Navy Pier visitors were from Chicagoland (40% from Chicago, 30% from the suburbs.)

    http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?article_id=27492

    Posted Monday Apr 2, 2007 09:16 #

  7. Flight
    Member

    Kim you are right about the book.

    Riverside usually only mentions a passing note or chapter in a book about something else. Chris Stach in the Landmark has done a lot of research on Riverside.

    Olmsted is the most important thing in regards to Riverside but there are so many other interesting things to add going back to Indian encampments by the River and being so near the Chicago Portage. Jenney, Wright, the Coonley's and their estate. Many, many more great things and great people. It should merit at least a few more pages than Maywood or Berwyn.

    Posted Monday Apr 2, 2007 09:38 #

  8. spatny
    Member

    The Portage is one of the most important sites in America, because it is where the Continental Divide is at it's low point - indeed in old days at high water the runoff would flow in both directions out of Mud Lake - east thru the Grteat Lakes and the St. Lawrence to the Atlantic and west and south via the rivers to the Mississippi and the Gulf. It is the reason Chicago was founded where it was - the mouth of the Chicago River that fed from Mud Lake - and why it grew - the canals that linked it to the west, and made possible the reversal of the stream to keep the Lake clean. The FPD is doing a good job with developing the Portage monumnet site and linking it to the Zoo and the Salt Creek Bike Trail, but when they came and asked about having the trail come over the Swinging Bridge and thru Riverside they were told no. People here talk about wanting visitors to come here but really don't do very little to bring them here or cater to them when they are here. Of course, Riverside is tiny. Put 100 people in Longcommon and it is no longer a tranquil place of rest. Put 100 people in the Swan Pond and or in Indian Gardens or on Scottswood Common and it's much the same. The attitude seems to be - send us some money but don't come here to recreate yourself. And maybe (blasphemy to say it) that's the way the vast majority feels. Nobody wants to live in a Carmel where surfers show up on Ocean Avenue and park their vans in front of your view and put speakers on the roof and blast away - and you pay the taxes. This town is schizo - always has been. People here like being a Landmark Village, being off the beaten track, having the advantage of peace and quiet and tranquility (relative, anyway, to our surroundings) and a large number understand that it can be easily lost and don't want to jeopardize what they have. And that is very understandable.

    In Oak Park - in good weather and on weekends, you see literally hundreds of people walking around looking at the Wright homes. A large portion of those people are seriously interested and well behaved and follow the guidelines about staying out on the sidewalk and not bothering the inhabitants. A crowd drafted from the Zoo might be quite different. You know how it is when you go in the food store, and some mothers let their kids run wild while others are under parental control. It's a little of that. Plus, most of the Zoo visitors, because of the size of that venue, have had enough when they finish therea , and aren't looking for more walking and schlepping of kids. Easily, the archi-tourists from Oak Park are the easiest to deal with and most desireable for our little space. Having them drive around and view our best homes, maybe stop in town to visit the library/Swan Pond/Water Tower/Museum/Grumpy's is about the best we can get, and maybe, the most we should strive for.

    Posted Monday Apr 2, 2007 11:40 #

  9. MikeT
    Member

    One of the benefits Riverside would get from zoo traffic, bike path traffic, ramped-up archi-tours, is increased exposure. Increased exposure can have positive benefits down the line: now that they have seen this nice place - and know now that it even exists - the zoo traffic people may want to come out here to tour / bike as a separate outing; they may also want to come and live here when they are looking for a place to live.

    Further, the people who would come back for a tour and to live here would be people who GET RIVERSIDE. Those are good people to attract here, and they are worth a lot. Like Wilkins, Spatny, KimJ, Tim, and a host of others, we would value their Riverside SPIRIT as much, or more, as whatever taxes that they would pay to the Village.

    So benefits might not be measured in direct dollars, but more in 'sense', as in 'perceiving Riverside'.

    .
    .
    The more I think about this, it is interesting that the Village is measuring value more by mere dollars brought in and not by how much Riverside is keeping to its nature.

    Posted Monday Apr 2, 2007 16:35 #

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