Here in the Chicago area there's a little community called Evanston that is quickly turning into gleaming new city with plenty to do.  Bordered to the south by the city of Chicago, Evanston sits right on Lake Michigan.  Evanston has been transforming from a quiet little residential suburb into a bustling, activity-filled, pedestrian paradise.  With plenty of beachfront parks, fantastic access to public transportation, tons of restaurants, and loads of unique shops, Evanston has a lot to offer its residents and visitors to the community.  Evanston also happens to be the home of the Big Ten University's Northwestern Wildcats.

Many like living in Evanston, because like Chicago you don't need to own a car to get around.   Many people living in Evanston today work in downtown Chicago and get there by taking one of the two available train lines.  There's the Metrarail and the CTA's Purple line.  Both will get you to downtown Chicago during rush hour in about 30 minutes or less.  So the commute is nice and easy.

I take my family there quite often to have dinner and see a movie or play.  We like it, because there's always a lot of people downtown enjoying everything that Evanston has to offer.  Every time we go there we always discover a new restaurant or new shop that we didn't notice before. 

If you're a believer in preserving the small Mom & Pop shops, it won't take you very long to discover that Evanston believes the same thing.  Evanston seems to have the foresight and understands that in order to preserve the small shops; there needs to be people living nearby.  Hence, there are some exciting new developments going on in downtown Evanston.

Here are a few that I've come across recently that might be worth considering if you are in the market for a new home. 

http://www.grandbendatgreenbay.com/ 

http://www.winthropclub.com/ 

http://www.siennaevanston.com/

http://prairiecentralevanston.com/

There are plenty of other developments happening in Evanston, which I'll add over time.

Here's a link to another information site.  http://www.evanstonnow.com