Эванстон: Университет, кино және көліктің қаласы

Founded in 1855, Evanston is home to Northwestern University. Located along Lake Michigan, Northwestern's campus spans 240 acres with an estimated 250 buildings. Since 1908, Kellogg School of Management as well as Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary (1853) have institutions, of which both share the campus with Northwestern.

Evanston's variety of housing and commercial districts, combined with easy access to Chicago, make it a popular filming location. Evanston as of December 2008 is listed as a filming location for 65 different films, notably those of John Hughes. Much of the 1984 film Sixteen Candles was filmed in and around Evanston, the 1988 movie She's Having a Baby, as was the 1989 film Uncle Buck, the 1993 film Dennis the Menace, and the 1997 film Home Alone 3. A number of scenes from the 1986 Garry Marshall film Nothing in Common were filmed on the Northwestern University campus and Evanston's lakeshore. Although not filmed there, the 2004 film Mean Girls is set in the Chicago suburbs, and makes several references to the area. The movie's screenwriter and co star, Tina Fey, had worked at the Evanston YMCA when starting her comedy career. In the 2003 film Cheaper by the Dozen, the family moves to Evanston. Additionally, the baseball movie Rookie of the Year, featuring Gary Busey and Thomas Ian Nicholas, was partially shot at Haven Middle School. The 2015 ABC Family reality series Becoming Us was filmed in Evanston. In The Princess Bride, according to IMDb, the screenplay says that the boy and his grandfather live in Evanston. This was also stated by Mandy Patinkin in a behind the scenes interview. The story's author, William Goldman, was born in Chicago and grew up in Highland Park a little more than ten miles north of Evanston.

Evanston's growth occurred largely because of its accessibility from Chicago by rail. The Northwestern founders did not finalize their commitment to siting the university there until they were assured the Chicago & Milwaukee Railway line would run there. C&M trains began stopping in Evanston in 1855. Evanston later experienced rapid growth as one of the first streetcar suburbs. The North Shore Line, the interurban railroad that gave the area its nickname, ran through Evanston and continued to Waukegan and Milwaukee. The city is still connected to Chicago by rail transit. The CTA's Purple Line, part of the Chicago 'L' system, runs through Evanston. From its terminal at Howard in Chicago, the line heads north to the South Boulevard, Main, Dempster, Davis, Foster, Noyes, and Central stations, before terminating at the Linden station in Wilmette. Metra's Union Pacific North Line also serves Evanston, with stations at Main Street, Davis Street and Central Street, the first two being adjacent to Purple Line stations. The CTA's Yellow Line also runs through the city, though it does not stop there. Evanston is served by six CTA bus routes as well as four Pace bus routes. Automobile routes from Chicago to Evanston include Lake Shore Drive, the Edens Expressway (I 94), and McCormick Boulevard, although the first two of those do not extend to Evanston itself and require driving through Rogers Park (via Sheridan Road or Ridge Avenue) and Skokie, respectively. The main routes from the north are the Edens, Green Bay Road, and Sheridan Road. Active modes of transportation include miles of sidewalks and bicycle lanes.

A perennial debate in Evanston is the issue of Northwestern University's status as a tax exempt institution. In the founding charter of Northwestern University, signed in 1851, the state granted the school an exemption from paying property taxes, and unlike other well off private universities with statutory exemptions, it provides its own police services, but not firefighter/paramedic services. It pays water, sewer, communications, real property transfer taxes, and building permit fees, but not property taxes. Northwestern does not make Payments in Lieu of Taxes for the real estate it removes from property tax rolls. Its backers, like former Evanston mayor and Northwestern alumna Lorraine H. Morton, contend that the benefits of having an elite research institution justify Northwestern's tax status. These supporters highlight the fact that Northwestern University is the largest employer in Evanston, and that its students and faculty constitute a large consumer base for Evanston businesses. This controversy was revived in 2003 when the university purchased an eight story office building downtown, removing it from the tax rolls. An advisory referendum put on the April elections ballot, dubbed by supporters as a "Fair Share Initiative", received a majority, but was not passed into ordinance by the City Council. During the tenure of Elizabeth Tisdahl as mayor, relationships between the university and Evanston improved. Upon arriving at Northwestern in 2009 president Morton O. Schapiro forged a strong working relationship with Tisdahl; in 2015, the two announced that Northwestern would begin to donate $1 million annually to benefit city services and programs.

Early after its founding, because of its strong Methodist influence, and its attempt to impose moral rigor, Evanston was called "Heavenston". In the early 20th century Evanston was called "The City of Churches". The varied works of numerous prominent architects, and many prominent mansions, especially near the lakefront, gave the town by the 1920s the sobriquet "The City of Homes", a fact often touted by local real estate agents. Use of the phrase has been attributed to a 1924 speech at the local Kiwanis club. Since the late 20th century, because of Evanston's activism and often left of center politics, it is sometimes humorously (or sarcastically) referred to as "The People's Republic of Evanston".