Forest View, IL

Forest View is a small Cook County village with an industrial life much larger than its residential footprint. The 2020 census counted 792 residents. Founded in 1924 by World War I veterans led by attorney Joseph Nosek, it began as a place where veterans could put down roots west of Harlem Avenue. That plan collided with the Prohibition era: Ralph Capone's pressure pushed families out, and the settlement picked up the nickname "Caponeville" before police and local vigilantes broke up the operation.

Today, most of the village is taken up by the Stevenson Expressway corridor, Harlem Avenue industrial areas, and trucking facilities around 47th Street and Central Avenue. Only about a tenth of the land is residential, so Forest View feels like a small pocket between Garfield Ridge, Stickney, and Chicago's freight routes. The village sits at the southwest end of the Chicago Portage area and serves as a place where work traffic passes through. Children attend Lyons School District 103, with Home Elementary in Stickney and George Washington Middle School in Lyons. Forest View is a village with a surprisingly layered story: veterans, bootlegging, ComEd, and freight all occupy the same narrow map.