Is Lyons a safe place to stay? (Chicago, Joliet: apartments, condos)

[Rita1969]

My family and I are currently planning a vacation in Chicago and have found a really reasonable deal on a hotel in Lyons. I have been told that Lyons is a "shady" area and am not really sure what that means. I'd really appreciate any comments on whether or not I should be checking out other hotels in a different area. We will be doing a lot of travelling between downtown Chicago and the Joliet area. Lyons was kind of smack dab in the middle. Is the area safe? Are there gangs? What type of "shadiness" goes on here? The hotel we have reserved is the Rodeway Inn. Thanks for your help!

[Georgia]

Originally Posted by Rita1969

My family and I are currently planning a vacation in Chicago and have found a really reasonable deal on a hotel in Lyons. I have been told that Lyons is a "shady" area and am not really sure what that means. I'd really appreciate any comments on whether or not I should be checking out other hotels in a different area. We will be doing a lot of travelling between downtown Chicago and the Joliet area. Lyons was kind of smack dab in the middle. Is the area safe? Are there gangs? What type of "shadiness" goes on here? The hotel we have reserved is the Rodeway Inn. Thanks for your help!

Lyons http://www.city-data.com/city/Lyons-Illinois.html
Let's just say it is rather old and small.
In the old industrial area below SW of Cicero.
Not much happens there, but personally I would find a better place to stay.

[nanannie]

Originally Posted by Georgia

Lyons http://www.city-data.com/city/Lyons-Illinois.html
Let's just say it is rather old and small.
In the old industrial area below SW of Cicero.
Not much happens there, but personally I would find a better place to stay.

I agree,,MUCH better choices out there

[Rita1969]

Thanks for your comments, I've cancelled the room in Lyons. We are now staying in Westport. I hear it's much better!

[Rita1969]

Sorry, that should have been Westmont, not Westport.

[whitj2410]

Have no Fear Rita1969, Lyons is not the Ghetto by any means. There's your usual riff raff like with any middle class town near a large city, but it's not overridden by gangs, or prostitutes or any thing like that. Its also close to Brookfield Zoo which is by far a must see!!
Hope I helped

Jeffro

[gardener34]

Westmont is good. Lyons used to have all kinds of girly clubs and stuff there but that is all gone for years now.

[DocFeetz]

I live in Lyons. It's a blue collar suburb with a few professionals. The apartments along Ogden and Joliet Rd (Old Route 66) have had their share of transient types and substance abusers, but the houses are generally well kept up and property values are good. There's very little crime; we've had two graffiti incidents in 25 years. Many of the older residents worked at the Reynolds plant or the Electro-Motive plant in McCook. The town was (till the 1980's) practically all white and was traditionally stereotyped as being half German Lutherans and half Czech Catholics. The village is becoming more diverse, but most new residents seem like good neighbors and the schools are bulging with all the growing families.

In the old days, there did indeed used to be a lot of strip clubs, and the former mayor was rumored to have had mob ties (like many other suburban pols). The strip clubs are all long gone, and there are very few taverns of any kind anymore. There's a new Walgreens (natch) and even a Starbucks. The current administration embarked on a redevelopment binge and tore down a lot of older small businesses and rundown homes in the past several years. Their efforts were met with a lot of resistance from some of the residents, partly because they used eminent domain to "quick take" property and give it to developers to put in condos, and partly just because it's typical suburban politics to fight over redevelopment plans. But the net effect is that the grand redevelopment plan had to be scaled back and has some notable gaps in it. The next big question is what they will do with the quarry that's slated to shut down in the next few years. We're a little nervous that they'll allow it to be filled with something we'll all regret later, like Hillside's quarry was. I know they want to build a mall there, but who needs another mall?

It's a nice town but not a tourist destination in itself. Brookfield Zoo and the Salt Creek Bike Trail are nearby, and Lyons is at the head end of the I&M Canal Heritage Corridor, but unless you're a history buff there isn't much to see - just an overgrown pond behind an oil terminal that marks the site where Marquette and Joliet portaged their canoes in 1673.

The only motels in town are old and kind of run down, and/or inhabited by various dysfunctional people. The Presidential Inn has hot tubs but their ten-year-long "free rubber duckie" offer finally ended a year or two ago.

The William Tell Inn in Countryside seems nice and isn't too far away. Most other chain lodging is out in the Willowbrook or Oak Brook regions.

Too much information, probably.

[gardener34]

Westmont and countryside would be good choices.

[KayLKay24]

I have lived in Lyons for 20 years now, and after reading all the other replies that everyone has posted, it makes me mad. To be honest, I think that Lyons is a very safe place to live, let alone just for visiting. My entire family has lived in Lyons, and still do. It is very quiet here, and not much happens. It is a very old town, that has been going through a lot of repairs to update it. The schools here are great. They have also been going through modeling to improve. So I do not know what everyone else is talking about when they say that Lyons is a shady place, because its not. I take my four year old son for a walk every night, I leave my car windows down, and doors unlocked just because I feel so safe in Lyons.