Is there really a difference between a city neighborhood and a suburb?

That’s the question bopping through my brain these days, what with the questions being brought up about the mayoral aspirations of Paul Vallas.

VALLAS: Chicago enough to be mayor?

The one-time CEO of the Chicago Public Schools who also has worked in education in Philadelphia, New Orleans and Bridgeport, Conn., has had quite a life in many places.

BORN IN CHICAGO, it seems that Vallas is like many a Second City native in that he regards Chicago as home and his life always manages to bring him back to us – even though his work life has managed to take him to several places.

In fact, Vallas had his long-time home in the Chicago area in suburban Crestwood – which was his residence when he ran for lieutenant governor back in 2014.

Which is why it shouldn’t be shocking that some people are already trying to take Vallas’ mayoral aspirations down for the count by trying to make it seem that Paul has no right to think of himself as a Chicagoan.

WMAQ-TV this week reported how Vallas’ mayoral campaign doesn’t seem to have an office in Chicago. Campaign literature does offer up an address in the Chinatown neighborhood, but the television station couldn’t find local people aware of any political presence.

THEY DID FIND evidence that Vallas’ brother, Dean, has business interests at that address, and also in Crestwood. It also seems the Vallas for Mayor campaign, as it exists, does have a bank account – at a financial institution out in Plainfield.

Which, for what it’s worth, is a suburb not even located in Cook County (it’s most definitely Will, where locals consider Joliet to be the BIG city nearby).

So is Vallas unfit to even think of running for mayor of Chicago? Are we going to get something similar to the political strategy back in the 2011 election cycle – when people tried arguing that Rahm Emanuel wasn’t really a Chicagoan.

EMANUEL: Residency issue didn't work

After all, he was raised in the North Shore suburbs near Wilmette and did live in Washington, D.C. back when he was working for presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and also serving in the House of Representatives – albeit representing a district that covered the Northwest suburbs of Chicago proper.

THAT EFFORT ULTIMATELY failed, in large part because the courts ultimately found that Rahm was registered to vote at the residence where he continues to live – even during much of the time he was working in the District of Columbia.

While Vallas made a point of moving to the Lincoln Park neighborhood several months ago – so as to establish city residency so he could even consider being on the mayoral ballot for the 2019 election cycle.

It may be a lame issue. But then again, when there are roughly a dozen people talking seriously about trying to get their names on the ballot next year to run for mayor, perhaps they hope it will stick.

Particularly if it only manages to sway a few potential voters into erasing Vallas from their mental consideration for their vote. A few is all it will take in an at-large election in which no one will come close to a 50-percent-plus-one majority.

NOW I REALIZE why municipal elections are open only to city residents-proper. Suburbs have their own local governments. People ought to have a stake in the communities whose government business they want to do.

But there is a part of me who wonders if we ought to think of places like Calumet City, Cicero or Evanston as being similar to Hyde Park, Austin or Lake View. In terms of being small communities that comprise the greater entity otherwise known as the Chicago metropolitan area.

The idea that the Vallas campaign is at such an early stage it really hasn’t set up a full-time campaign office or established bank accounts for itself within the city proper for an election cycle that remains some eight months off (and we still have to vote for governor first) comes across as a non-issue.

Besides, if the Vallas campaign really is uncoordinated enough that it can’t put together a proper campaign office and account at one of the city’s bigger banks, then it likely is destined to become one of a fringe nature that we’ll most likely forget all about a year from now.

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All Private parking when out in public?

One of the drawbacks of being a reporter-type person is having to venture into neighborhoods where I’m not familiar with the local quirks.

Are these worth potential $130 penalty in Wilmette?

Which always has me wondering if I’m going to inadvertently park the automobile in a spot considered private by the locals; and wind up having the vehicle either towed away or booted.

NOT EXACTLY SOMETHING I want to have to explain to an editor as to why I’m not going to make a deadline. I still remember a time some several decades ago when I got into a fender-bender collision while on assignment with the now-defunct City News Bureau of Chicago.

My managing editor definitely held it against me for some time thereafter. How long would the grudge have lasted if my car had been impounded?

Because some people seem to think they can view space around their property as somehow sacred. Or if they’re out to get a neighboring business and follow the letter of the law in taking down any cars belonging to that business’ patrons IF they happen to venture into parking on their own property.

That seems to be the case in north suburban Wilmette (a place I must confess I haven’t set foot in for more than two decades).

THE WILMETTE LIFE newspaper reported how there have been several incidents in recent weeks of people who wanted ice cream from a Dairy Queen franchise and parked their cars in a nearby lot.

But the lot was part of the property of a neighboring strip mall, and the property owners have hired a company to keep a vigil on who parks in the lot and where they go.

The newspaper reported that the company admits it can have someone’s car booted within five seconds of noticing that the owner is engaging in business anywhere except the strip mall proper.

There even have been instances where someone who had business within the strip mall then decided to walk over next door to the Dairy Queen to get some ice cream before leaving the area.

THAT WAS ENOUGH to get them a boot that the company will only remove if paid $130 in cash (or $140, if charged on a credit card).

I’d like to think this is some sort of isolated incident – perhaps an example of a North Shore quirk that real people living in the rest of metro Chicago could never engage in.

Sadly enough, it isn’t.

I happen to know of a Mexican restaurant in suburban Lansing whose property is directly adjacent to a strip mall with a large parking lot – compared to the four parking spaces that are within the restaurant’s plot of land.

BUT I ALSO know of a convenience store owner within the strip mall who watches the parking – convinced it is meant exclusively for the people who venture into his store to pick up a pack of cigarettes or whatever other puny purchase they need to make at that moment.

I remember once venturing into that restaurant; only to be warned by the cashier that I had to move my car in order to eat there – or else the neighbor would have my car towed.

It would seem that this Wilmette Dairy Queen franchise is in a similar predicament. For the Wilmette Life reported that the ice cream shop has taken to posting signs warning their customers that their cars will be booted if they venture too far away from the place where they purchase their soft-serve cones.

All of which has me hoping I don’t have to venture into Wilmette for newsgathering purposes anytime soon. Because if my car got booted and I had to explain to an editor why there’d be a delay in copy, I’m pretty sure that a promise of a Blizzard would not be enough to calm him down.

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