Wow, you weren't kidding about the relative density between those areas. I'd consider Oak Park dense compared to most suburbs, just not as dense as some neighborhoods in Chicago. I'm most familiar with the north side neighborhoods and had those kind of lots in mind, with their near non-existent front yards, with front steps right off the sidewalk, and virtually no front driveways.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9405345,-87.6750174,3a,75y,2...

My old stomping grounds. I lived in Lakeview (incl. this block) for a long time.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9403868,-87.6590203,3a,75y,3...

Apartment building on Pine Grove in Lakeview for me and then a beautiful old two flat in Ravenswood. My rent in Pine Grove in 1999 was $400 I think for a two room apartment.

Haha my wife lived on Pine Grove and I lived a couple blocks from that spot in Lakeview. Small world.

To compare, a residential neighborhood a fifth the population of oak park, mostly pre-war and what a German would consider as "urban":

wiki, use translator: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wichlinghausen-S%C3%BCd Maps overview with borders highlighted: https://maps.app.goo.gl/fvr34T8JbLEVQLAF8 Street view of a normal street there; though I recommend 3D view for a better understanding: https://maps.app.goo.gl/QXEGChFvHciAq8Va8?g_st=ac

This is btw. 2.9x as dense as Oak Park, IL.

Yes, I agree, Oak Park could be a lot denser; that's what I'm working on.

> Most of the streetscapes that jump to mind about Chicago, if you don't live here, are places people basically don't live.

Note that 41k live in the Loop and 27k live in Jefferson Park.

Maybe if you sample by area, places look more suburban than stereotypical cities, but by population, lots of people live in the dense parts.

100k in the Near North Side, which I think is basically a “downtown” streetscape.

And of course many in the in-between density neighborhoods (eg 71k in Logan Square).

Source:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_areas_in_Chicago

Small world, my wife and I literally just moved to Beverly not far from there. This area is a bit of liminal space between city and suburbs (or at least my definition of them) and it can vary quite a bit block to block. I'm walking distance to a grocery store, the Metra, coffee shops, restaurants, parks, etc., which is unfortunately more than many areas of Chicago can say.

I moved from a denser part of Bridgeport, so it definitely has been an adjustment (particularly in variety). But even some areas of Bridgeport, which is much closer to downtown, had pockets that are equivalently walkable to where I'm at now, or maybe even less so. Anyone surprised to see SFHs and front yards in Chicago probably hasn't ventured far out of downtown/a handful of North Side neighborhoods.