That’s right, and I’m not kidding. The homes located in the block between 6751 North Ionia and 6797 North Ionia (on the north side of the street), just south of Edgebrook Towers, are actually part of the Village of Skokie. Even though that stretch of the map would indicate that these homes are actually part of Chicago’s Edgebrook neighborhood. But they’re not. Take a look at this map:

6751-6797 N Ionia Skokie

Do the parcels in the red box look like they’re part of Skokie? They sure don’t. You would think that they’re part of Edgebrook. But they’re not. Click on the map below:

6751-6797 N Ionia

The above map is courtesy of GIS Consortium, a group of local communities working together to develop cost-effective solutions for geographic information systems and related technologies. The map above clearly shows that the block in question is part of the Village of Skokie (PIN number redacted to protect the innocent). Good to know, next time you’re house hunting in the neighborhood, as an employee of the City of Chicago.

Hat tip to Jeff Manuel, President of the Edgebrook Community Association, who discussed this topic briefly with me, this morning.

If you happen to live in North Edgebrook, or Wildwood, you may have noticed that just a couple of days before the last Thanksgiving holidays, airplanes headed for a landing at Chicago’s O’Hare airport were flying right over Touhy Ave. It seemed strange to me at the time, because aircraft approaching the airport from the east typically line up over the I 90 expressway in two rows to land at runways 9R/27L (north of the terminals) and 10/28 (south of the terminals). This would all happen well south of Wildwood and North Edgebrook, although we would be able to see these planes on their final approach, from our homes. It turns out that just before Thanksgiving, a new runway dubbed 9L/27R was opened at O’Hare by the City of Chicago. This runway is located north of and parallel to runway 9R/27L, and is the recipient of all landing airplanes that you see flying over your homes in Wildwood and North Edgebrook.

The noise, in my opinion, is somewhat bearable, although sometimes air traffic controllers squeeze in big jumbo aircraft diagonally into the landing path which then leaves me standing in my driveway, staring at a 747 jet passing right over my house. Those are the moments when I rediscover religion, and pray that the roaming flock of seagulls having lunch in the Costco parking lot behind my residence decides to stay down a little while longer (visions of a US Air jet in the Hudson River resurface). Incidentally, this tight threading of aircraft into the landing path also reminds me of the movie “Pushing Tin“.

Our neighbors over in Edison Park, on the other hand, are miserable. And so are their neighbors to the west in Park Ridge, because they can almost touch the planes’ landing gear, standing in their back yards. Imagine the noise. And of course, we’re all affected by the jet exhaust pollution. Btw, Matt Tooley, an Edison Park resident, and operator of the “Stop O’Hare Airport Expansion” blog has asked me to let you know about O’Hare Residents for Environmental Safety and Trust (ORD-REST), “a community action group focused on finding solutions to the effects of new and increased noise and environmental pollution in the established, historic residential communities bordering Chicago O’Hare International Airport”. Check it out.

Meanwhile, check out the short video clip that I shot from my backyard. Matt has a few video clips of his own, from Edison Park.

I’ve been checking on this Google feature every few weeks, since Google introduced Street View for Chicago, back in October of last year. But strangely, Street View was not in service for 60646, nor for various other Chicago neighborhoods. Since I work with maps (and especially Google maps) quite a bit, today I pulled up the 60646 map, and there it was: the Street View widget. These are a few examples of what you can see on Google Street View:

How does one obtain pictures from Google Street View? Navigate to Google maps, and search for an address or for a zip code. If the map that Google returns shows a box in the upper right hand corner that reads Street View, click on that box.

The roads on the map turn into a blue outline which means that they are captured for Street View. Now, click anywhere on the blue outlines and Google will present a picture of that particular location. It is interesting to note that the pictures themselves are interactive to the extent that one can navigate the roadway by clicking on the embedded direction arrows. Enjoy searching.

Image courtesy: Google Maps

Your dilemma was foreseeable: You and your family have outgrown your 2-bedroom condo in one of Chicago’s hip neighborhoods, the congestion around you has reached epic proportions (two errands on a Saturday morning equal an investment of 90 minutes of your time), and your condo board just approved a gigantic special assessment.

After much research and many open-house Sundays, you’ve decided to move to Edgebrook. Good for you! And now you’re wondering how you can run 11 errands (instead of two) in 90 minutes, on a Saturday morning, and be back home in time to catch college football on TV. Easy-peasy, and I’ll show you how to do it.

When you live in Edgebrook (or in Sauganash, for that matter), you are actually very likely to do the bulk of your shopping at two shopping centers in Niles and in Skokie: Pointe Plaza shopping Center (PP), north of Touhy Ave., and across from Village Crossing Mall (VC), south of Touhy Ave. The dividing line between Niles and Skokie here is Central Ave. Which means that if you’re shopping at VC, the western part of the mall is located in Niles, and the eastern part of the mall is located in Skokie. PP is located entirely in Niles, as it doesn’t spread out east past Central Ave. There is another important shopping center in Niles that is home of two big box stores, Target and Costco. This mall is located at the intersection of Touhy Ave. and Melvina Ave. Click on the map below to see your options in detail, although a number of small retail outlets that do business in the two above mentioned shopping centers are not captured on the map. I didn’t want to take all the fun out of your “tour de discovery”. Later on next week, I’ll add more info to this map about shopping opportunities in downtown Edgebrook.