Highland Park is an affluent Chicago suburb known for being the backdrop of films like 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' and 'Risky Business'
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Palmer Haasch
Jul 5, 2022, 08:09 IST
Seats used by parade watchers are left abandoned at the scene after a mass shooting July 4, 2022, in Highland Park, Illinois.Jim Vondruska/Getty Images
A shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, left six dead and at least 31 injured.
The city is part of Chicago's affluent North Shore region.
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On July 4th, Highland Park — an affluent community north of Chicago that was the backdrop to iconic films like "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" — became the site of a mass shooting during a Fourth of July parade that's left six people dead and at least 31 people injured.
Highland Park is in Chicago's affluent North Shore region
Highland Park lies about 25 miles north of downtown Chicago, part of the city's affluent North Shore region, and has a population of about 30,000.
The city boasts shops and restaurants, areas like the Ravinia District, which hosts historic outdoor music venue Ravinia Festival, and the newly opened The Lot, an outdoor dining and entertainment space in downtown Highland Park.
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According to US Census data, 84.7% of the city's residents are white (not Hispanic or Latino), 8.9% are Hispanic or Latino, 2.9% are Asian, and 0.8% are Black. The city also has a large Jewish population. It has a median household income of $147,067, just over double the state's median household income of $68,428.
In "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," an iconic Highland Park location known as the Ben Rose House features as the home of the character Cameron, played by Alan Ruck. In the film, Cameron memorably sends his father's prized Ferrari careening through one of the home's glass windows.
Jon Avnet, a producer on "Risky Business," which premiered in 1983 and starred a young Tom Cruise, told the Chicago Tribune near the film's 30th anniversary in 2013 that Highland Park's affluence was a key part of the setting of the film.
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"This is where it was always set," Avnet told the Tribune. "It was basically white boys off the lake. The chase, the locations, the houses we used — they were the perfect settings for this to come to life. Going through the main part of town looking at the-then-cinema, they're very iconic to what we were looking for and they obviously were Highland Park."
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