Chicago excursions are, for the most part, a pain. Up to an hour and a half on the El both ways, depending on whether or not the Purple Line Express is running, ensnares at least three hours of Loop-bound students’ time.
Given the distance between Evanston and Northwestern’s selling pitch (Chicago), it’s not surprising that out of the 7,986 undergraduate students on the Evanston campus, 7,495 students reported living in Evanston this year, according to the Office of the Registrar.
The other 491 students, however, either named their hometown on university paperwork or have chosen to live somewhere else in Chicagoland — the Loop, Edgewater, Wicker Park. In the college world of waking up 15 minutes before class and booking it halfway across campus, even living in Rogers Park may seem like too much of a hassle. For some, though, it’s worth the trouble.
Lauren Villegas. Rogers Park. The double life.
Weinberg senior Lauren Villegas claims that she gives some of the best tours of Northwestern. As co-coordinator of the NU Tour Guides, she has a right to say so.
She became a tour guide during her sophomore year, just as she moved off-campus to an apartment on Church and Ridge, later bringing her car from Los Angeles for more independence.
And it progressed from there.
She climbed the ladder and became the co-coordinator. Simultaneously, she distanced herself from campus even more, moving to Rogers Park. She disliked being confined to college and a college town, although she knows almost everything about our campus. She knows that University Hall is made out of limestone from the same quarry as the Water Tower Place. She knows that Frank Lloyd Wright likened the library to “a dead pig on its back with its feet in the air,” as she recounted.
But still, Northwestern and Evanston were just too small and suburban for Villegas.
“Nothing stays open in Evanston,” Villegas said. “Everything closes by like nine. Even CVS closes at 10. That’s ridiculous. I mean, coming from a big city, that was a shocker for me. Not being able to get pancakes at 3 a.m.? Unacceptable.”
Now Villegas lives in a neighborhood featuring a late night Mexican restaurant — Taqueria Los Portales — and a “little Mexican grocery store,” also known as Morse Fruit and Meat Market. She may know more about campus than the average Northwesterner, but she doesn’t want to be one.
“I didn’t like being a student, if that makes sense,” Villegas said. “Being a college student was very mundane and monotonous. I’m much happier living outside the college community and just being a person — going out and meeting people, instead of just staying within this little bubble and not meeting anybody new.”
Villegas’s social life has become obviously less Northwestern-centric. She frequents not the Keg or frat houses, but all of Chicago including casual Rogers Park bars with $2 pitcher specials and low-key regulars. One of Villegas’s regular hangouts is the Heartland Café — part restaurant, part bar, and part “communist book store,” as Villegas calls it. “It’s the oldest hippie café in the world.”
Rogers Park’s proximity to the inner city also gives her more access to people in Chicago. Living there makes it much easier for her to be a part of Teatro Luna, a Latina theater group based in Chicago. However, her Northwestern friends rarely visit, despite the fact that she only lives some 20 minutes down the El.
“My boyfriend’s friends who live in Wicker Park — which is an hour away from us — they come visit us,” Villegas said. “It’s way further for them, but they do it because they’re used to it. It’s funny because it’s like, if your whole life is within a six-block radius, then suddenly two miles seems, like, so far.”
Zac Farley. River North. The newcomer.
Too many people of similar interests are not meant to congregate together. At least, not for Weinberg transfer Zac Farley, who had a problem with living in a dorm at the California Institute of the Arts.
“It’s a school where you have 1,200 people, and 600 of them live on campus,” Farley said. “You’re living with 600 people who all happen to be under the age of 22 and all happen to be fascinated with the arts and all happen to have this one interest.”
“You have the same classes, you have the same interests,” Farley said, “which is great for a second, but you’re always the same, which was problematic.”
So when Farley decided to get out of Los Angeles, he got an apartment with two high school friends in Chicago, where he had previously lived. After a year in the workforce, Farley transferred to Northwestern last fall. Although he could have moved to Evanston, he decided to stay in the city where he is not limited to Northwestern social circles.
“The idea of meeting or running into someone in the street — they might go to Northwestern or they might be doing something completely different — that’s more exciting,” said Farley, who recently moved into an apartment west of the Loop.
“Living in Evanston, just because it’s close to the school I go to — that’s just not the way I like to think of myself as functioning,” Farley said. “I like my school to adapt to my living.”
Farley’s “living” involves spontaneous visits to museums and random rentals from a Eurocentric DVD place on Fullerton. He’ll hit up Devon Avenue to satisfy his Indian food obsession and Flo Cafe & Bar on Chicago for some good margaritas. But he doesn’t know much about Evanston places such as Kafein and J.K. Sweets. He doesn’t know much about Northwestern’s campus and social circles either.
“I have my life where I have friends and people I spend time with, the things I do,” Farley said, “and then school, which is where I go to study these things that interest me. Compared to dorms, where it’s like my life is going to school.”
Benjamin Haas. Wicker Park. The city slicker.
Benjamin Haas knows everything about Chicago public transportation: The CTA bus tracker is his best friend, the Metra is underrated and its ticket collectors occasionally skip passengers during rush hour.
Moving directly into Chicago when he transferred to Northwestern, the former Oberlin student currently lives on the edge of Wicker Park, in the same building as his best friend from high school.
“When I first moved here, I knew nobody at Northwestern,” Haas said. “It’s pretty daunting. Why live in a town where you don’t know anyone?”
The New Yorker, who took the subway every day to his high school, claims that his commute to Northwestern is “never a 20-minute train ride.” On nice days, he’ll even bike up to Evanston. Either way, it still takes a considerably longer time to get to class than the average Northwesterner.
“Yes, it is easier to have a class at 9:30 and just roll out of bed and go to class. That is easier,” Haas said. “But then on Thursday evening, I’m in a town with nothing to do.”
Haas chose to live in the city because of the options and diversity that are not provided by Evanston. For him, staying in Evanston would be just like staying at Oberlin.
“When you go to a restaurant here [Evanston], it’s all catered for college students. In Evanston, there’s a set of places to do things,” Haas said. “In Chicago, you have a set of places to rotate, but then there’s this Thursday night you go to a friend’s house and it’s like, ‘Let’s go to that place.’ You get a feel for different things.”
Haas heads out to Chicago bars, grabs Polish food a couple of blocks from his apartment, and ventures all throughout Chicago. There is no typical night.
Living in the city also gives Haas more personal space, allowing him to walk around without seeing someone he knows or someone he has to stop to talk to, unlike the typical college town.
“You cannot be anonymous [in Evanston],” Haas said. “You cannot go a day without seeing people . . . you can’t just go a day with just doing your own thing . . . live in your own world, and sometimes you need that.”
The independence provided by living away from campus culture, completely isolated in a sense, is more like real life for Haas.
“You know that sense of freedom you got when you first moved into a dorm room?” Haas said. “When you’re completely living on your own — it’s brilliant.”