Originally Posted by 01rangerxl
Originally Posted by Virtus_Probi
I had some friends in Streamwood back when I lived in the NW Suburbs of the Chicagoland Area. Not an especially nice place, but probably preferable to Elgin (where I lived).
My wife commuted to work on Barrington Road and it was an unholy mess...she was crawling in traffic one day when some kid in a Jeep zipped down the shoulder to get around as many people as he could and then crashed into her as he tried to force his way back onto the road. At the station, she heard one cop tell another "she wouldn't let him in"...sometimes cops are just as bad as the horrible drivers. Wouldn't let a guy driving illegally down the shoulder in...unbelievable. That kid got in trouble so much that he had a bond card...
Looks very suburban sprawl on Google Maps, vinyl siding and strip malls for miles. Not knocking it, I live in the same thing.
The Explorer was sold new at Wickstrom Ford in Barrington. I don't think it was in the area very long though, it's as rust free as it gets. No rust anywhere and never rustproofed.
Yep, that Explorer did not live long in the Chicagoland Area if it is not a rust bucket by now...unless it was a winter garage queen!
Streamwood just looked a little more run down than most towns near it, like Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates (just Hoffman if you lived around there), and Barrington...but, as far as I know, it didn't suffer from drive by shootings and other gang activity like Elgin. We lived in newer construction that was sort of in a ring around Elgin, but cutting through "downtown" was pretty dicey...I went to a gym that was across town from my house and people could cut me off, try to run me off the road, flip me off, and throw stuff at my car and I would just wave and say "Have a nice day!" Too much chance of somebody with a gun being the driver ticking me off...
I knew we had made a mistake picking our house when I drove through the center of town one day and saw a bar called something like "Barley And Hops" with people passed out all over the sidewalk in front of it. Yikes!!