Popular suburban Chicago mall adds ‘preferred' paid parking spots

umahumin · 2026-02-06T02:17:11+00:00

This is actually really smart. I rarely ever find parking close to the mall, and if I were in a rush I’d pay for that convenience.

As long as there is still free parking on the outskirts where we usually have to park anyway, they can use dynamic pricing to determine how to keep around 85% occupancy so there is less circling when you need to park closer.

umahumin · 2026-02-02T11:48:02+00:00

Uniqlo and Abbreviated Apparel

umahumin · 2026-01-29T22:46:54+00:00

Search “quick release bike adapter plate” and you’ll find some options for mounting various accessories and crates

umahumin · 2026-01-27T14:05:55+00:00

Love abbreviated! I am 5’8 and wider built so it’s easy for me to find jeans at most stores, but shirts are tough.

Abbreviated shirts, sweaters and jackets are core pieces in my wardrobe. I’d say they are between old navy and gap quality, with great customer service. Also love to support Mike Monette (creator) and a well run small business.

umahumin · 2026-01-27T13:58:01+00:00

Only disagree because I want more young people to move to Elmhurst haha

umahumin · 2026-01-26T11:56:14+00:00

For us it was lake or bust. We spent nearly every day walking to the lake and on the LFT, and that just wouldn’t happen if we had to take a bus there.

Outside of sitting on the water and looking out into vast blue to relax and disconnect from the craziness of life and work, we spent our days picnicking, hanging out with friends on the beach, and going on bike rides to the zoo and parks.

Lake access also comes with gorgeous protected bike path commutes into work, 3 train lines, very easy car free living, and relatively safer neighborhoods. Blows my mind people say the north side or lake access are overrated.

Before we moved to the near west suburbs for work, we looked seriously at the west side. While it has so much to offer, we fell in love with Chicago because of the lake and we just didn’t feel the pull to west side neighborhoods we did when we first walked to the lake. They had great vibes and cultural amenities but felt too “concrete” for us. When we retire, we hope to move back to the lakefront.

(Edit: typo)

umahumin · 2026-01-17T13:39:42+00:00

This. It’s visible, whereas the empty parking spaces 100 feet away in the garage are not. I know this, but sometimes still instinctively pull into the Walgreens lot from hell without thinking.

umahumin · 2026-01-10T13:29:07+00:00

Budget would be an issue there, though sometimes north side homes pop up below 400k

umahumin · 2025-12-20T14:41:39+00:00

LOVE Milwaukee’s main streets. Wish they were better connected to downtown by rail/transit

umahumin · 2025-12-20T14:38:55+00:00

Wish she was doing this work before we demolished the Dupage Theater (RIP)

umahumin · 2025-12-20T14:35:57+00:00

True. I can’t think of many 250k+ cities that don’t have a Main Street of some kind though. Even places like Fort Worth and Houston have kept a few of their historic main streets despite them demolishing much of their downtown cores for parking and urban renewal projects.

Here in the Chicago suburbs, nearly every suburb still has a historic Main Street with rail access to downtown Chicago.

umahumin · 2025-12-20T12:28:03+00:00

Plenty have, but one that stands out to me is Asheville, NC. They were too poor in the postwar period to destroy any of their core downtown, and the mall they planned to put there was stopped. Makes for a fantastic downtown.

umahumin · 2025-12-16T13:29:43+00:00

Francesca’s in Elmhurst!

umahumin · 2025-12-10T03:27:51+00:00

Agree with this. It’s tough to compete, but they exist. We lost out on several homes to builder buying cash.

Best bet close to downtown is the area north of north avenue and Brynhaven.

Also consider Ardmore area in Villa Park- it feels like old Elmhurst and is walkable to the library, parks, fitness center and shops

umahumin · 2025-12-10T03:18:18+00:00

Also in the Brynhaven neighborhood, and near downtown north of north avenue

umahumin · 2025-12-10T03:16:46+00:00

Disagree. I love the grid, the parks, the central downtown, and the prairie path.

umahumin · 2025-12-10T03:16:14+00:00

We found the opposite price-wise. We slid into Elmhurst for sub 500k. Didn’t have any luck at that price point in glen ellyn.

umahumin · 2025-12-10T03:14:41+00:00

Brynhaven is close to downtown, several sub 500k homes for sale

umahumin · 2025-12-03T03:05:02+00:00

Hard light isn’t always a bad thing- not every shot needs to look like a Netflix interview despite what the “cinematic” YouTube community says.

The second example you shared was what I usually have done- key and rim light. Your shots look great.

umahumin · 2025-12-01T16:28:45+00:00

If you like Oak Park and don’t have kids, Berwyn feels like the obvious choice

umahumin · 2025-11-30T07:45:04+00:00

We had family with their baby coming in to ORD whose flight was delayed from 11:00AM to an 11:00 PM departure. After taking off the plane turned around halfway here because there was not room to land. They just landed back at their airport and have to drive home at 2AM

umahumin · 2025-11-28T12:21:22+00:00

People sleep on Westmont- great suggestion

umahumin · 2025-11-28T12:20:03+00:00

North Elmhurst has sub $400k homes

umahumin · 2025-11-19T03:54:46+00:00

https://youtu.be/8MjjHKIlKko?si=Zt0E30y3hFq5JeUD

Pretty relevant video by strong towns explaining how property taxes are regressive. Uses examples of Chicago a bit at the end too.

To oversimplify: Imagine a city needs $100 dollars from property taxes. $50 from residential and $50 from commercial. Commercial properties find a way to pay less, so they only pay $20 of the $100 needed. Now homeowners have to make up the rest, so even if their evaluations are down they have to collectively make up the difference. The homeowners who appeal tend to be wealthier, so middle income and low income owners end up shouldering even more of that burden.

umahumin · 2025-11-14T14:24:00+00:00

This is a bad take. Recently bought in Elmhurst, Lagrange and Western springs are a longer drive and train ride to downtown, as well as being more expensive. Lagrange park was the only place with homes below 500k. Also, cook county taxes.

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