Corrupt, rude city
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1/7/2007
Evanston is a city that has a deceptive facade. Although you see all these towering condos and yuppie restaurants and stores, Evanston is actually a horrible place to live if you're not a said yuppie or if you're African American. Like most of NorthSide Chicago, Evanston is full of jerks, which is fine by me unless this jerkishness extends to the city officials itself. Evanston PD in particular is full of huge a-holes who rather than taming down violence in the bad areas of Evanston are content to issue parking tickets 24/7. You will not find a city of Evanston's size so rabidly devoted to issuing parking tickets; it's their number one hobby. Lastly, EPD is notoriously racist towards blacks; I'm not even black and I've noticed this. In additon, homelessness gets worse every year and if you're a university student (Northwestern is to the north next to lake) expect to be hounded by rude city denizens. Because the university charter says Evanston cannot collect property taxes from NU, Evanstonians have decided to use this as a reason to be rude jerks and take out their frustrations on students. Oh yeah, living is costly here too because Evanston by the lake is very very yuppie (whole Foods, LA Fitness, Cereality, Pier 1 Imports abound). The weather here is typical Midwest, very cold in winter and very hot during summer. The lake is beautiful during spring and summer but the bane of your existence otherwise thanks to the lake effect. All in all, there's no reason to live in evanston, the school system is lagging for NorthSide Chicagoland, it's costly, no place to park, and the city routinely ignores the poorer, black neighborhoods. It's best to live further north if you have the money or live in Chicago where you atleast have cultural options, etc.
Rohan | Evanston, IL