The Womack Family

We've been @ 320 W. Maple Ave. going on 9 years.  My son was 3 and my daughter 8 when we first moved in.  We couldn't believe our good fortune at finding a house like this in a neighborhood like this with so much character.  There's just so much to look at and take in.  We love being surrounded by Victorians, both elaborate and simpler Victorian farmhouses, like our own.  The day we moved in, my daughter must have ridden her bike around our property, non-stop, 100 times.  (She was staking her claim, in her own way.)
 
Everything is convenient - schools, downtown, library, church, ballparks, train.  And, of course, the schools are good.  My daughter, who is graduating next year, has only known Libertyville public schools.
 
Indirectly, I think the neighborhood infrastructure has helped us raise our kids.  Part of this is about the safety of the larger community, but some of it comes from the stability of the neighborhood.  People tend to stay because this is NOT a cookie-cutter neighborhood.  That also helps make for a safer community.  When our kids were small, we didn't worry nonstop about them when they were out, playing in the neighborhood.  We still call it "Mayberry."  These kinds of places just don't exist any more.
 
Also, because the lots are smaller and flats are mixed with single family homes, I think there is more chance of there being more kids in the neighborhood.  That's important when you're raising kids.  It keeps them from being bored and helps shift the burden of entertainment away from the parents. 
 
My son and our next door neighbor's daughter are like brother and sister.  Last weekend, she was bat mitzvahed.  Our son, Christian, played a central role in the weekend celebration, even though Christian is a Christian.  That's because he is this girl's oldest friend, and one of her closest friends.  These kids grew up in each other's houses.  I'm guessing Christians and Jews don't have a lot of chance to get together and comfortable like this, and this neighborhood helped make that happen. Our neighborhood helps support diversity of people, because it is architecturally diverse - not cookie-cutter.
 
Now, as my kids have grown older, especially with my son and his friends, we find our home is a gathering place.  Kids stop by -- because we're central we find we're a point of departure. (One of my daughter's high school friends parks in our driveway because we're close to school and parking is jammed at the school.)  Kids also stop by because they like being in an interesting part of town and because they can use our house as a base to further explore downtown with its library, and Cook Park, the theater, and Starbucks.  Again, all of this helps my wife and I, in daily, micro ways, to raise our children as socially aware and experienced people. We don't have to chauffeur them everywhere and artificially support their experiences - the world comes to them or is easily accessible to them.  Not to be underrated these days, we're all, as a family, less sedentary because we can easily walk to so many destinations.
 
My wife's teaching colleagues also love to congregate at our home, as does our extended family.  They love to come because of the charm of our home and the street.  On warmer days, people love to sit out on our deck and take in the neighborhood charm, and know they are close to town with its amenities, but they also enjoy the parade of passersby.  And again, because the homes and accompanying lots are smaller, there is more intensity/interesting experience of the neighbors.  I fear if the Village lets Maple become a dead street, all of that will be affected - for the worse.
 
We want the neighborhood to get more lively - not less.  We're very concerned that  fewer homes and more institutional church space (including parking) that is only active a limited amount of time during the week will begin to make evenings and large parts of the weekend less lively, even dead.  People are not attracted to these kinds of neighborhoods, and will move elsewhere, if they are able.  And then, all of the above starts to go away. . .

Comments

[Lisa Young]

Michael -- so much of what you talk about is why we moved to this street. With two very young children (a toddler and infant) we hope that they'll find friends on the street and be able to walk to the library or to go to the movies with friends when they're older.

There's no scheduling a play date with a parking lot and I bet it won't be the "house" with the best Halloween candy.

[Barry]

Saving Maple should include a 3-Way stop at the corner of Maple and Brainerd.

[Jill]

We also love walking everywhere we possibly can in downtown Libertyville. Somehow we always end up walking to Mickey Finn's in the middle of a huge snowstorm--it's more of a reward that way walking into their cozy atmosphere!