Inside scoop on Naperville (Chicago, Aurora: crime, home, transfer)

[Miami_Mom]

Am trying to convince my husband to move our family to Naperville based on all the great write ups in Money magazine year after year. We would be moving from Miami which has great weather but is flooded by rude people and increased cost of living (with no increased pay to balance it out)

I would be moving with two preschoolers. Can anyone just give me their thoughts on people, jobs, etc. Do companies normally have you work a lot of overtime or is 40 hrs the norm? Are people relatively polite or do you find yourself being shoved, rude salespeople, etc? Are people friendly if you are new in town?

Any insights would be greatly appreciated

Thanks!

[foiplus]

My husband's family lives in Lisle right by downtown Naperville. We have a great time when we go there to visit. (We live in Tampa - just up the road from you!) I think you'd be very happy there compared to the mentality of people in Miami. Lots and LOTS of families.

[citygirl78]

Naperville is a town you will probably love or hate. I personally hate it. Its just not my scene. It has NO diversity (i.e. It is all rich white folks). A lot of the people here seem snobby, sort of self entitled. And the weather sucks.

On the upside, there are tons of restaurants, bars, stores, etc. The town is quite clean and downtown naperville is cute. I have no children myself, but I have heard the schools are good. Crime is also very low. Everything is very laid back it seems.

Basically I think If you are into the conservative, straight laced, soccer mom type of area, you would love it. However If you like a more open minded, diversified and fast paced life, you will probably hate it.

Oh and if you do move here, try and get a place with a garage. Trust me, waking up at 8am and having to spend 20 minutes digging your car out of the snow and scraping the ice off your windshield is NOT a fun way to start the day! Good Luck with your search!

[europa]

Originally Posted by Miami_Mom

Am trying to convince my husband to move our family to Naperville based on all the great write ups in Money magazine year after year. We would be moving from Miami which has great weather but is flooded by rude people and increased cost of living (with no increased pay to balance it out)

I would be moving with two preschoolers. Can anyone just give me their thoughts on people, jobs, etc. Do companies normally have you work a lot of overtime or is 40 hrs the norm? Are people relatively polite or do you find yourself being shoved, rude salespeople, etc? Are people friendly if you are new in town?

Any insights would be greatly appreciated

Thanks!

Almost 14% of Naperville's population commutes to downtown Chicago for work via Metra. So if that is where your jobs will be, be prepared for commuting and try to find a place near the train station- Also, there is currently a 4-6 year waiting list to get a parking pass for the train station, otherwise you will have to walk, bike or pay a daily parking fee.

As far as meeting people, as someone said earlier there are many families here and are involved in their own various family activities, kids' soccer games, etc. so I'm not sure what kinds of things you are looking for, but it's not exactly a very happening place outside of weekends when a lot of out-of- towners swarm downtown Naperville.

Schools are good here but very large, crime is low and safe neighborhoods in most areas. If you're not used to the weather, be prepared for the winter cold.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by citygirl78

And the weather sucks.

Sometimes it does, no doubt. Sometimes its bad, sometimes its heavenly, what differs from any other place on earth?

[Frank the Tank]

Originally Posted by citygirl78

Naperville is a town you will probably love or hate. I personally hate it. Its just not my scene. It has NO diversity (i.e. It is all rich white folks). A lot of the people here seem snobby, sort of self entitled. And the weather sucks.

On the upside, there are tons of restaurants, bars, stores, etc. The town is quite clean and downtown naperville is cute. I have no children myself, but I have heard the schools are good. Crime is also very low. Everything is very laid back it seems.

Basically I think If you are into the conservative, straight laced, soccer mom type of area, you would love it. However If you like a more open minded, diversified and fast paced life, you will probably hate it.

Oh and if you do move here, try and get a place with a garage. Trust me, waking up at 8am and having to spend 20 minutes digging your car out of the snow and scraping the ice off your windshield is NOT a fun way to start the day! Good Luck with your search!

Naperville is certainly affluent, but the lingering perception that it's not diverse and is filled with "rich white folks" is way off base. The town has about a 20% minority population (Asians make up over 10% of the total population overall and an even higher percentage of the kids in the school system) along with a large number of expat corporate transferees from overseas. I'm not saying that it's the most diverse community compared to, say, the city of Chicago itself, but particularly for a relatively wealthy community, that's a whole lot more diverse than comparable West and North Suburbs (and definitely not lily-white).

[Steve-o]

I dont think that Naperville is really all that affluent. Compared to West Chicago it might be, but compared to HInsdale, Long Grove, Barrington, Lake Forest, etc, its not really.

[reppin_the_847]

I'm not from the Naperville area, so I don't really know the town all that well, but from natives that I have talked to, I get the impression that Naperville certainly does have its very affluent pockets. The area is so large after all that it has FOUR public high schools that your kids may get sent to depending on which part of town you live in.

Originally Posted by Steve-o

I dont think that Naperville is really all that affluent. Compared to West Chicago it might be, but compared to HInsdale, Long Grove, Barrington, Lake Forest, etc, its not really.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by reppin_the_847

I'm not from the Naperville area, so I don't really know the town all that well, but from natives that I have talked to, I get the impression that Naperville certainly does have its very affluent pockets. The area is so large after all that it has FOUR public high schools that your kids may get sent to depending on which part of town you live in.

Very true. There are quite a few mega-affluent areas, but overall, most of the neighborhoods in general are quite old. There is alot of gentrification going on, particularly around downtown (Jefferson Ave comes to mind), but areas along Washington near the hospital are old and nothing to write home about.

[Frank the Tank]

Originally Posted by Steve-o

I dont think that Naperville is really all that affluent. Compared to West Chicago it might be, but compared to HInsdale, Long Grove, Barrington, Lake Forest, etc, its not really.

Definitely places like Hinsdale and the North Shore suburbs have higher housing prices and are wealthier than Naperville as a whole. That being said, Naperville also literally has 10-20 times the population of those suburbs - if you took certain neighborhoods in Naperville (i.e. downtown Naperville), they would be the same size or larger as those other suburbs and would be in the same income/housing price stratosphere. What makes Naperville unusual is that it's a city of a large size (140,000+ at this point) where virtually everyone is at least upper middle class going up to very wealthy, while this isn't the case with similarly-sized cities in the area (i.e. Aurora and Joliet, which have clearly defined pockets of poverty). If you look at the highest income cities with populations over 50,000 in the United States (see the last list in the link below), Naperville comes in at #10 (and you can deduce from the list that it's #1 for cities with populations over 65,000 since every city ahead of it is smaller than that size).

Highest-income places in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia