The good and bad about Des Plaines (Mount Prospect: work, homes)

[DGDurmie]

Is Des Plaines a good place to live in terms of safety and family-friendliness? Where are the "unsafe" areas that I've heard about? Are the schools actually good, or just ok? In general, I'm looking for honest pros and cons about all of these things. Also, I heard there are often flooding problems because of the river....

[pandabear]

Des Planes honestly is a very diverse town. Youve got everything from your latino and section 8 slumappartments, a trailer park, to million dollar plus homes. You'll be able to tell whether or not you are in a good area very quickly..The schools are not the best by far but they are not the worst by far either.

The area is very diverse and the schools test scores reflect that. Over all the town for the most part the city gives off a working to middle class vibe.

Personally if I were raising a familly i would not live in des plaines though. The diversity tends to expose kids to many things that you may not wish them to be exposed to. But thats just me. Personally i would go for park ridge or if niles.

[Evie7463]

I would disagree that Des Plaines gives off a working class vibe -- it's actually gotten much more expensive to live there since the '70s. The downtown has been gentrified and expanded and it pretty much rolls over into Mount Prospect, which is even MORE expensive. The nice thing about DesPlaines is that it's close to O'Hare and the expressway(s).

[nanannie]

Living that close to O'hare might be a "nice thing" to some,,but for many it would be a nightmare.The downtown is alot nicer (then years past),but I would agree with the other posters on this,look elsewhere