Would love some help -- nieghborhood recommendations

Eri Paige

Hey,

I live in Minneapolis and at the end of next year my husband will be applying to grad school. His top school is University of Illinois -- Chicago. Since almost all of his choices are in Chicago I have been doing some research on the neighborhoods. And I would really like some insight on what you believe are the best neighborhoods. Our criteria would be for it to be not crazy expensive, safe, in the actual city, and more of a family oriented neighborhood not filled with bars. Does this even exist in any city? haha!

 Thank you in advance! 

marcylth

Hi there! A fellow Minneapolis girl, here. My boyfriend and I just moved to Chicago last fall (he moved in October, I moved in December). We live in the Loop and absolutely love it, but our choice of neighborhood was really based on proximity to Union Station, as he commutes north for his position.

 I have a couple of friends who both work and go to school at University of Chicago, and the best bet is to stay in the South Loop area or even further south in Hyde Park, etc. We actually looked at a lot of South Loop places and loved the area, but ultimately wanted to be closer to Union Station.

South Loop has amazing restaurants, great parks, and fantastic apartments. The apartment buildings we loved there were Roosevelt Collection, AMLI, and Burnham Pointe. We didn't look at Fisher Building City Apartments, but heard they were nice. They are a lot cheaper, but we excluded them because they don't have in-unit laundry.

Feel free to drop me an email at any point if you need help with the move - we actually worked with a fabulous realtor who works with people who want to rent or buy, we are renting. I'd be happy to connect you to him. chicagocareergirl at gmail dot com

hannaleestyle

Exciting and congrats! I have lived in Chicago for the past 7 years and have lived in the South Loop, Lincoln Park, Wicker Park and back to LP. 

   Lincoln Park in my opinion is very family oriented and depending where you live in LP you won't need to be near a bunch of bars. Good public trans all over- esp. if near a red line.  Great neighborhood-food, decent shopping. Armitage and halsted cute boutique shopping. 

Wicker Park has been becoming more and more popular. FUN restaurants and good, amazing boutique shopping and overall a little bit more quirky.  - I love it. Definitely a bit edgier than most neighborhoods. Poor public trans (my opinion!)  

 South Loop has been on the rise. The least favorite of my living situation- if don't have a car can be tough and far from rest of city.  Has been on the rise for awhile now so is much better than it used to be.  Depending on where you live.  Pretty good public trans but be careful late at night (anywhere but esp. south loop public trans.) 

 

Good luck!  

ChiTownBelle

I'm going to throw out opposite opinions here.  I work at UIC (hospital) and live in North Center/lakeview, 8mi north, about a 25-30min drive on city street (with traffic).  Look into Lakeview, Roscoe Village, North Center, Ravenswood, Southport, etc etc for places that are family oriented and not packed with crazy bars, etc.  Lincoln Park is awesome, but is mainly filled with college grads, lots of bars and restaurants, and hard parking.  You will see families and such all over, but affordable homes and apt's for families are a little further north/west.  Wrigleyville and Southport Corridor are great too.  Just because he is going to school at UIC doesn't mean you have to live there!  Find a place with easier parking and close to public transportation.  Every neighborhood has it's pros and cons.  Do your research, so that when you come to look at places to rent/buy, you can narrow down your search significantly. 

hz80408

We've Lincoln Park and Lakeview.  DH's first year he lived at Wrigleyville/Southport corridor.

We don't drive often, so it's we've always been located within 1/2 mile of the El.  DH's 1st place and now our current place are right off Southport Corridor, which we love.  The streets are tree-lined and when it's nice you see people out walking their dogs or kids riding bikes, however, if you do feel like going out to bars, Southport is right there and you're a $5 cab ride from Wrigleyville.

 Several of ours out of town friends have visited and commented on how surprised that are that this "is Chicago", b/c it seems so friendly/neighborhood orientated.

We also had a friend living in the Fisher building in the loop.  She loved it, but found that on weekends she was always going to the North side, so she has since moved there.

GL!

figs181

Though my neighborhood is not located in the city itself, I'm going to toss it out there.  My husband and I just bought a house in Oak Park.  Oak Park is about an 8 mile straight shot west from the city and is the definition of family and community oriented.  For example, a week after we moved in our neighbors came over to introduce themselves with a bottle of wine and cheese.  They asked for our email addresses and the next day we recieved an email containing a spreadsheet with contact information for every household on our block!  Oak Park is big on block parties, progressive dinners, kids playing in the yard and even more.  When my husband and I were looking at houses on Halloween, we met our realtor at her office (located on Oak Park Avenue and Lake Street - Oak Park's "downtown") and to our surprise the village had blocked off about a mile section of Oak Park Avenue to host a "trick or treat parade" for the children.  As we drove around later that day we kept running into closed roads...the village closed a few roads so the children could have a safe place to trick or treat.  There are several parks that host moonlight movies and other events in the spring/summer.  The schools are highly rated (a major reason we moved to OP) and the housing isn't overly expensive.  Of course, there are some areas (i.e. the Historic District - Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio area) that are a bit pricey, to put it mildly, but overall not too bad.  OP is very well connected to the city as well.  We have several stops along the Green and Blue Line "L" (Austin, Ridgeland, Oak Park and Harlem stops) and a few Metra stops as well.  I have to mention the fabulous farmers market as well...by far THE BEST farmers market I have ever been to!  The main farmers market is on Saturday mornings, but the village is now hosting a secondary market on Wednesday evenings as well.  I can't speak highly enough about this village!

ErinE683

Look into Wicker Park/ Bucktown and Logan Square, becaues they are both off the blue line and very convenient for UIC (those are the hoods where my UIC friends live). I live in Lincoln Square, which is a fantastic neighborhood. It fits your criteria-- safe, pretty affordable, lots to do w/o being too bar-centric. I just think getting to UIC might be kind of a pain from here-- my friends who used to live in this nighborhood both moved to those other neighborhoods when they started grad school at UIC. Good luck!

katiecavallo

Logan Square is closer to your area and still nice, but if you're looking for REALLY family-friendly, check out Lincoln Square/North Center. There is a park: Welles Park right in between and TONS of families there. The el is pretty close and you can take the brown line and transfer to the red line at Belmont and head downtown. A lot of people from that area end up working downtown. Southport Corridor is also really cute and family friendly, but less than Lincoln Square.

kelbrian

I love Logan Square. We have many friends here with children, and we all adore our little neighborhood. It's very up and coming, very family friendly.

There's a fabulous farmer's market every Sunday nearly year-round - warmer months it is located near the actual square (June through October) and in the colder months (November through March) it is held at the Congress Theater. Live music for adults and also for kids, too. It's a place for the neighborhood to get together and enjoy each other, honestly.

There are many little coffee shops (Cafe Mustache, New Wave, Nothin' Less, Letizia's),  a French bakery (La Boulangerie), a ton of great restaurants (Lula, The Logan, Boiler Room, Revolution, Bonsoiree, Chilapan, 90 Miles , Dunlay's), three fantastic bike shops (Boulevard Bikes, The Bike Lane, Smart Bike Parts), some great bars/pubs (Longman & Eagle, Revolution, Owen & Engine, Coles - but they are all located on busier streets, not in the more residential areas) We even have this cute little toy store now (Play) and an art gallery (I AM Logan Square) that features local artists.

There are two blue line stops in the neighborhood (Logan, which ishandicap accessible, and California) and a few major bus lines (Diversey, Armitage, Fullerton, California, Kimball). You can hop right on the blue line and be at UIC in less than an hour.

We also have a beyond wonderful co-op (Chicago's only!), the Dill Pickle, and two great parks (Palmer Square aka 'bunny park' which has a jogging path, large grassy and tree-scattered area plus toddler park and Haas Park, which has a great fenced in playground with splash pad, a huge fenced in grassy field and soon to be a brand new field house).

A few schools but only one that I can recommend - Goethe. Nearly all of my friends' children attend Goethe, and it is very beloved. My daughter will hopefully be attending it come fall.

There's a more industrial area that has a grocery store (Strack and Van Til, which we love), Target, Chipotle, Panera, Potbelly's, JoAnn's, Payless, PetCo, Starbucks, Vitamin Shoppe, Home Goods, Micro Center... But it's farther away from the residential areas.

You will find people of all cultures, colors and walks of life here. It's diverse, it's friendly and it is definitely affordable. Something for everyone, honestly. My husband and I love it and like to think of it as a little gem in Chicago.