Twenty-five years ago, the population of Harvey in the south suburbs was slightly higher than Wilmette on the affluent North Shore.

Harvey’s 30,000 residents well exceeded the 27,651 who lived in Wilmette at the time. The south suburb’s inhabitants were working class rather than the upper-middle-class and wealthy households in Wilmette, but with a median household income of $40,000 (more than $75,000 today, adjusted for inflation) Harvey’s residents were earning nearly the median for the country as a whole.

Today? Harvey has lost more than a third of its population, with the total dipping below 20,000. Median income is slightly above $41,000, about half the median income in Cook County as a whole. Wilmette’s population is about the same as it was in 2000 — 27,550. And median income? Not

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