North Shore Views

Archive for June, 2010

Independence Day on the North Shore

This year the weather promises to be absolutely perfect for 4th of July celebrations – sunny, clear and warm (not hot) from now through Sunday. There are lots of fun things going on all up and down the North Shore, and if you’ve got the energy, you can spread your celebration out over three days. As always, Wilmette holds its celebration on July 3rd, while Glenview waits til the 5th. (Thunderstorms are currently in the forecast for Monday, so if you live in Glenview you may want to join the festivities in another town on the 4th, just to be on the safe side.). Also, note that, in Winnetka, the parade begins at 1:00 pm and not 10:00 am, as in previous years.

Evanston

July 4
7:30 pm – Twilight Concert featuring the Palatine Concert Band
9:00 pm – The musical fireworks extravaganza will be launched from Clark Street Beach and can be viewed from any part of the lakefront area east of Downtown Evanston.

Wilmette

July 3
4:00 pm -  Games and rides for children, entertainment, roving performers, and a Tastefest at Gillson Park.
7:30 pm – A traditional concert of patriotic music by the Palatine Concert Band in the Wallace Bowl. It will be preceded by a sneak preview of this summer’s Starlight Theatre musical feature.
9:30 p.m – Fireworks begin. In case of rain, the fireworks will be rescheduled to a later date.

The easiest way to get to and from the Independence Day celebrations in Gillson Park is by using the special Pace shuttle bus service. Motorists may park at Edens Plaza or at the METRA commuter lot. To see a complete listing of events or for additional transportation information see the Wilmette Park District’s website.

Winnetka

July 4
1:00 pm – The celebration begins with Winnetka’s annual parade. (Note the change in time from past years). The parade sets off from the corner of Elm and Glendale Streets, and heads east to the Village Green.
2:00 pm – -A flag-raising ceremony, children’s flag parade, and family races follow the parade on the Green.
6:30 pm -  “Fourth Fest,” featuring food, children’s entertainment, and a pre-fireworks concert at Duke Child’s Field
9:15 pm – Fireworks begin

Northfield

July 4
9:45 am -  Bike parade kicks off from two locations — Somerset and Old Willow or the Ameritech Lot. Both routes end at Willow Park.
10:30 am -  Bike judging, music and amusement rides begin. Family activities include relays, wheelbarrow races, a hula-hoop contest and an egg toss. For more information, go to northfieldparkdistrict.org or call 847-446-4428.

Glencoe

July 4
8:00 am – Fun Run starts at the train station, 724 Green Bay Road
10:00 am – Games in Kalk Park, Park Aveune and Green Bay Road
2:00 pm – Parade
6:30 pm -  Barbecue on the beach with children’s entertainment and music
9:00 pm – Fireworks on the beach
847-835-3050

Glenview

July 5

11:00 am -  Bike Parade starting at the corner of Glenview rd. and Church St.
11:30 am -  Main parade starting from OLPH parking lot and ending at Johns Park.
7:30 pm – Twilight Show with patriotic concert by the North Shore Concert Band. The show’s finale will be fireworks synchronized to patriotic music.
847-724-5670

Highland Park

July 4
11:00 am – Parade in downtown Highland Park
12:00 pm – Fourth Fest at Sunset Woods Park
9:15 pm – Fireworks at Wolters Field on Park Avenue West
847-432-0800

Lake Forest

July 4
6:00 pm – Beer garden with kids activities and live music by Sixteen Candles at Deerpath Community Park
8:00 pm – KC and the Sunshine Band
9:30 pm -  Fireworks sponsored by the Lake Forest Symphony

Tags: 4th of july, Independence Day

Model Railroad Garden at Chicago Botanic Garden

When my son was small he was obsessed with trains. From the time he was a year and a half old until he was about six, trains were the love of his life. He watched Thomas the Tank Engine on TV, he read books about trains, and he accumulated an enormous collection of Thomas wooden trains and track and played with them by the hour. When there wasn’t a train around to play with, he made one. He would attach a line of  toy vehicles to the back of his tricycle and drive his train up and down the sidewalk. We would draw freight trains in chalk on the driveway. When we went out to eat he would create trains out of the sugar and jelly packets on our table. Gradually his obsession subsided and was replaced by other interests, like Pokemon and Nintendo. It makes me a little sad that those days of choo choo mania are gone, especially because I have never again seen my son quite as passionate about anything as he was about trains.

Last weekend we got to relive those train-crazed days when we went on a family outing to the Chicago Botanic Garden. I love the Gardens and could stay there for hours, there is so much to see. But this time, knowing the kids would have a limited attention span, we headed straight to the Model Railroad Garden, which, I figured, would have the best chance of engaging two kids with zero interest in plants and flowers.

It did not disappoint. It’s kind of hard not to smile when you see all of those American landmarks in miniature: the White House, Hollywood, Statue of Liberty, a working Old Faithful geyser, etc. And all surrounded by small scale gardens, vignettes with tiny people and animals and model trains chugging by. The coolest part is that all of the mini-replicas of famous landmark buildings are created out of twigs, acorns, bark, leaves and pebbles. This is the eleventh season for the railroad garden and every year  they add a major new landmark. Last year it was the White House. This year, historic Comiskey Park.

Even my kids, who had moaned and groaned about spending the afternoon at the Botanic Garden, thought the Railroad Garden was pretty cool and enjoyed discovering each new landmark or lifelike vignette as we wound our way through the garden. They finally had to admit that they were glad that we had come. My husband even made noises about how neat it would be to build a garden railroad in our yard. Thank goodness that idea was short-lived.

The Railroad Garden is open through October 31st from 10:00am -8:00 pm (until September 6- after that it closes at 5;00 pm). There’s a $5.00 admission fee for adults and $3.00 for kids. Garden members get a $1.00 off.

If you’re looking for a fun family activity, this one gets a thumbs up. It’ll bring out the kid in anyone.

Tags: Chicago Botanic Garden, Model Railroad Garden

Free Concerts in Plaza del Lago

Every summer Plaza del Lago hosts free concerts on Thursday nights at 6:00pm. Here’s the line-up for 2010:

June 24 – Day Oh (steel drum music)

July 1 – The New Invaders (’60s British Rock)

July 8 – James Saunders & Conjunto (Latin jazz, salsa)

July 15 – Liquid Soul (R&B soul)

July 22 – The Ultimate Maliks (dance music)

July 29 – Big Bang Theory (classics with a jazz twist)

Plaza del Lago is located at 1515 Sheridan Road in Wilmette. You can sit outside at one of the restaurants (Convito Cafe, Starbucks, No Man’s Land) or buy something and take it with you. Convito usually does a BBQ on concert nights and sells brats, dogs, chicken and Italian sausage to concert-goers.

Related articles:

Plaza del Lago

Tags: Plaza del Lago, summer concerts

North Shore Housing Inventory – June 12, 2010

Here’s a snapshot of North Shore housing inventory (single family homes), as of June 12, 2010. Although the number of active listings is 8% higher than it was in April, market time is 9% less and median prices are 1.8% higher, both encouraging signs for  home sellers.

Town	# Active Listings	Avg. List Price	Median List Price	Days on Market
Evanston	253	$706,631	$529,000	189
Wilmette	185	$918,933	$745,000	181
Winnetka	209	$2,128,338	$1,450,000	241
Kenilworth	45	$2,155,496	$2,199,000	341
Glenview	373	$745,177	$609,000	228
Glencoe	132	$1,702,981	$1,299,000	259
Northfield	67	$987,957	$679,500	287
Highland Park	318	$997,325	$604,450	236
Lake Forest	341	$1,910,443	$1,399,000	283
NORTH SHORE	1924	$1,262,758	$841,950	238

Source: MRED- Deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

You can get more North Shore market statistics here.

Tags: North Shore market data

Winnetka Children’s Fair

Every June children from Winnetka and surrounding communities celebrate the end of school with a day at the Winnetka Children’s Fair. For two glorious days, the Village Green is transformed into a magic kingdom of sorts, with rides, games and other activities for preschoolers to preteens. The fair is held the Friday and Saturday after school lets out, this year on June 11-12. A 60 year tradition, the fair is actually a fundraiser for the Winnetka Community Nursery School. It’s run by the school’s forty-strong Board of Directors with the help of hundreds of volunteers from the community. If you live in Winnetka, have friends in Winnetka or your child attends (or has ever attended) Winnetka Community Nursery, you will be tapped for a shift as a volunteer.

I got my first taste of volunteering at the fair the spring after we moved back to the area. We had enrolled our daughter in the Nursery School and my husband was the first-ever male member of the Board. He was tapped to run the hot dog stand, along with another Board member. The first order of business was finding thirty volunteers to take two hour shifts for each of the two days of the fair. Since we had just moved here after being gone for seven years, we didn’t know a ton of people in the area and it seemed that all of the ones we did know had already been asked by someone else to work at their game or booth or ride. He managed to scrounge up most of the volunteers he needed, though I found myself working all eight hours, both days.

I will say that, of all the jobs at the fair, working the hot dog stand is the best. It’s always busy and you get to see everyone you know. You move around a lot and the tasks are varied, so you don’t get bored. And there is a constant supply of food and drink available should you get hungry or thirsty. (I always felt sorry for the people stuck in a booth by themselves baking in the hot sun without anything to eat or drink). And the best part was that the stand was right across the street from the house of our good friends, and they graciously made their bathroom available to us so we didn’t need to use the porta-potties at the fair.

The fair will be held this year on June 11 and 12 from 10:00am to 5:00pm on Winnetka’s Village Green (between Elm and Oak Streets, east of Green Bay Rd.). It’s a great way to kick-off the summer, so if you have children between the ages of 3 and 12, don’t miss it.

Tags: Winnetka Children's Fair

North Shore Market Update – May 2010

The North Shore housing market continues to improve, with May showing positive trends across three key measures: home sales, prices and market time. For the nine markets included in our North Shore total, single family detached home sales were up 42% in May over a year ago. And for the first time in many months, prices also increased, by 14% over last year. Market time decreased 4%, indicating that we are successfully working through the large inventory of homes that have been languishing on the market. The days on market number is still high at 196 days, but it’s looking a whole lot better than it has in some time.

In terms of homes sold, the big winner this month was Glencoe, which increases 333% over last May. Winnetka and Wilmette also had big increases of 150% and 125%, respectively. The only market that did not increase this month was Lake Forest.

Glencoe’s median price increased 77% over last May, driven by the fact that its only three sales in May 2009 were at a very low price point ($435,000), whereas this year the median price of the thirteen homes sold was $770,000. Glenview also had a big jump, from $368,750 last year, to $635,000 this year. Evanston had a modest increase of 9%. The other towns had odest declines.

Several markets showed decreases in time on market of homes sold: Glencoe, Northfield, Wilmette, Evanston, Highland Park and Lake Forest. Winnetka had a big increase in time on market of properties sold. This indicates that homes that had been overpriced finally came down to a realistic level and were able to sell.

North Shore Market Update – May 2010 vs. May 2009 (Source: MRED- Deemed reliable but not guaranteed)

Town	Homes Sold	% Change	Median Price	% Change	Market Time	% Change
Evanston	36	6%	483,000	9%	112	-21%
Wilmette	27	125%	542,003	-3%	140	-26%
Glenview/Golf	35	59%	635,000	72%	266	31%
Northfield	1	0%	1,000,000	-38%	514	-32%
Kenilworth	2	0%	1,317,500	-39%	335	22%
Winnetka	15	150%	952,500	-1%	243	103%
Glencoe	13	333%	770,000	77%	196	-34%
Highland Park	30	20%	445,500	-11%	183	-18%
Lake Forest	17	-6%	595,000	-11%	264	-9%
NORTH SHORE	175	42%	585,000	14%	196	-4%

Tags: North Shore market data, North Shore real estate trends, North Shore sales trends