Chicago's Kiddieland amusement park closed it's doors September 27th, 2009.

[traveller]

As a few of you might know, 14 years ago last week on September 27th, 2009, Kiddieland Amusement Park, located in Melrose Park, Illinois, closed down for good. Kiddieland was a lot of fun. It was like a carnival. They had lots of neat attractions, including but not limited to a Tilt-A-Whirl, a scrambler, a swinging pirate ship ride called the "Galleon," a neat attraction called the Volcano Play Center, a couple of ferris wheels and merry go rounds, a water ride called the "Log Jammer," a kiddie train that circled the perimeter of the park, and a classic wooden roller coaster called the Little Dipper.

After it's closure, Kiddieland was demolished, and a Costco store was built where Kiddieland once stood. Kiddieland was yet another victim of the all-work-no-play boot camp lifestyle of Illinois. Clearly, Illinois on the whole is a business state. Illinois is even a boot camp, where everyone is rushed to work and expected to die for their boss (hit by a train while crossing the tracks when the gates are lowered, involved in a catastrophic car crash on the highway, and so forth), instead of being not as early as the previous day. It's no wonder there is little to no fun in the Chicagoland area, even for those that travel many miles to try to find fun, usually without success. And it's no wonder there's no social atmosphere in Illinois, and all interactions in especially Northern Illinois are strictly business-related and strictly for business only. I can easily bet nobody at Triton College, located slightly less than half a mile from where Kiddieland used to be, ever talks about Kiddieland anymore.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiddieland_Amusement_Park