Countrified 3 - Suburbified

Above: A view of the 2007 Champaign-Urbana July 4 Parade. In any Independence Day parade, nothing beats the marching guard.

YESTERDAY, I flicked on the television, and one of my classic TV favorites, The Dick Van Dyke Show, was showing. In the episode, I saw that Mr. Petrie, portrayed by Van Dyke, was having an absolute hard time trying to write the story of his life into a biography. Soon surrounded by broken furniture, and a mound of crumpled up paper, he was just so distracted by being isolated from the real world to write his story that he just gave up.

As much as I get distracted, I have keep the story going. To begin, I’m going to take you a few weeks back.

July 4 Weekend: When I was in High School, my congresswoman, was a big help to me, allowing me to volunteer in her local office for my AP Government class and helping me to learn about the ins and outs of congress when I was part of the Presidential Classroom program in Washington, D.C., during the summer of 2002. In return, I help her out every year – provided I’m not in Dominica – I usually parade with her in her congressional district.

However, it wasn’t exactly the best day for a parade, with cloudy skies and light drizzle to light rain (there really isn’t much of a difference to me). In our attire, we were ready to hit the road, awaiting deployment from the gates and onto the main street. Soon, the policemen at the end waved his hands, and our feet started marching.

We then made the turn around the corner and started our route.

A warm feeling of community started to take over me. Even on this cold, dreary day, the streets were lined with people of all races and ages, a lot waving American flags and looking upon the marchers ahead of us with a multitude of smiles. At a moment, I did have to start looking up to wonder if I really am in the suburbs. I never expected the suburbs to have a community-like feel, but at least Hinsdale, the suburb I was marching in, certainly presented itself with one. Walking in the parade surrounded me with an astounding sense of community.

I had felt that a lot of suburban communities have lost their character, with large mass-built subdivisions, with houses that have similar facades and colors and streetlamps that you could probably find on one of the nearby expressways. Nearby businesses would be pushed into strip malls, and all of them could be classified either as a “chain” or a “big box” retailer.

HOWEVER… when we turned our second corner, right into downtown, I started to look at things differently. Many of the commuter suburbs of the western Chicago area have a downtown that surround the commuter/cargo rail line that pass right through it. With the recent trend towards bringing businesses back into the downtown areas in many smaller communities in the nation, a renewed vintage feeling has been instilled in many of them. And here in Hinsdale, the feeling of a small city downtown was preserved, while allowing businesses (such as the Gap or Starbucks) to niche themselves. Wide sidewalks, lots of foliage, and vintage streetlamps really set the scene for a relaxing time for some daytime shopping, or even a classy dinner.

So, in the race about where I should live in the future, suburbia finally hits the ball into far left field for a double. The recent "Downtown Revival" occuring in suburbs across the nation is saving a suburb from becoming just another "suburb." It's true: I enjoy that feeling of being in a small town, but also with the services and the sophistication provides. Perhaps living in a suburb that values its own identity would do the trick.

That’s a critical part of an area I want to live in: it has to have its own charm and character that makes everyday not just another ordinary day.