A Suburb That Tried to Murder a Car

[Andrea Jenkins]

Evanston, Illinois, the structure for the city planning picked a target in which they planned to eliminate; the car. 

The article written by Mark Peterson, highlights how many citizens have everything that they could possibly need at just a few blocks away. Whether it's a place to eat that night, dry cleaners, gym, or places for entertainment, the use of the automobile is not needed. In fact, it is heavily discouraged. What makes this town so interesting is that it is not your typical city, but rather the town of Evanston is a suburb. 

"And the whole point of the suburbs, reinforced by decades of local zoning laws and developers’ plans for a car-centric lifestyle, was that you weren’t supposed to live on top of your neighbor, that there was supposed to be plenty of parking everywhere you went and that you weren’t supposed to walk anywhere. 

But Evanston had a different idea: What if a suburban downtown became a place where pedestrians ruled and cars were actively discouraged? As it turns out, what looks like normal urban gentrification actually marks the success of one of the most revolutionary suburbs in America. And its approach to development is fast becoming a model across the region—a model even embraced by its urban neighbor to the south, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Evanston, Chicago and their neighbors all now want to attract more people like Tyler Hauck, 27, who pays $2,200 a month for his 1½ bedroom apartment, which he says is “definitely a high-end” building close to one of the region’s transit lines. “On the neighborhood list serve, people say things like ‘You’re paying all this money and you don’t have room for a car?’” (Peterson)

 http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/10/evanston-illinois-wh...

This idea for a suburb seemed strange to so many, but was accomplished by the way they structured the city planning. Things like:

• TOD planning.
• Cutting down on sprawl.
• Creating a culture that seeks to cut down on car use.

The community of Evanston is as interesting as the structure of its planning. Because of this new take on targeting the automobile, they have seen great result and a more thriving city.