Looking for liberal-leaning, SAFE suburb w/ best schools! (Chicago, Oak Park: low income, crime)

[urza216]

Why not Homewood? It's everything you're looking for.

[burbcurious]

Originally Posted by urza216

Why not Homewood? It's everything you're looking for.

I appreciate the suggestion. I'm trying to stay north or west since that's where most of my family/friends live.

[doodlemagic]

Originally Posted by Aleking

Elmhurst...liberal leaning

lmao

lets be honest pretty much all of illinois is liberal leaning but elmhurst is dupage county and if you could consider any parts of illinois to be republican or convservative it would be dupage county

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by burbcurious

I appreciate the suggestion. I'm trying to stay north or west since that's where most of my family/friends live.

It would be useful to understand the rest of your criteria too -- do you want to rely on Metra to get to the Loop or is driving preferable? Stay under 40 minute or is 90 minutes each way OK? Do have a king's ransom to spend on a house or more modest budget? You OK with having the least showy house in town or do you want shiny brand new appliances from a top brand name, fancy granite and a master bath that would make a millionaire blush? Room for the Lambo, Bentley, G-Wagon and Rolls or a one car stall for the Camry fine?

[burbcurious]

Originally Posted by chet everett

It would be useful to understand the rest of your criteria too -- do you want to rely on Metra to get to the Loop or is driving preferable? Stay under 40 minute or is 90 minutes each way OK? Do have a king's ransom to spend on a house or more modest budget? You OK with having the least showy house in town or do you want shiny brand new appliances from a top brand name, fancy granite and a master bath that would make a millionaire blush? Room for the Lambo, Bentley, G-Wagon and Rolls or a one car stall for the Camry fine?

I'd prefer the Metra (or even CTA if possible, from places like Forest Park, Oak Park, Evanston) to needing to drive downtown for work. Man, the Metra is SO cushy compared to the red line. I will not miss that! Definitely no more than 45 minutes commute each way, but there are Metra express trains that can make or break that.

Budget? I'm looking for a 4 bed, 3 bath with a yard for under $500k. The more space the better. I know some areas this will require a sacrifice in amenities. Kind of mindblowing how much further your dollar goes in places like Naperville than places like Oak Park.

I do not need showy. Curb appeal is something I think is generally easier to fix than many other things and granite and stainless steel can always be added later. That said, move in ready is always going to be the preference. A 2 car garage is also ideal but 1 + pad would suffice.

[chet everett]

Forest Park has miserable schools at the high school level due to being in the Proviso district, so you can scratch that.

Skokie is served by CTA, as is Wilmette, even Park Ridge is walkably close to the Blue Line.

$500K will go much farther in southern Naperville but your commute time skyrockets, core of Naperville that $500K probably buys more in Skokie or even Oak Park, though taxes are likely to be a huge negative. Of course if you are Ok with a place big on the charm and with a quaint 1 car garage $500k will get you a decent enough place in not just Park Ridge or Naperville but probably even LaGrange or Western Springs, if you are also ok being "roll out of bed" close to train tracks you might even snag a place in Hinsdale or Winnetka...

If you can afford to shop "in the off season" you might be able to find a motivated buyer that will listen your offer too.

[Hickory patrick]

Look into Brookfield, not my kind of mug of beer, but sounds like what you are looking for..

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by Hickory patrick

Look into Brookfield, not my kind of mug of beer, but sounds like what you are looking for..

I like Brookfield a lot, but with $500k to spend there are probably towns with more to offer. And oddly I don't really find the values all that seamless as one looks at Riverside -- lots of money for "showplace" homes but the average house is probably a notch below someplace like Western Springs or even River Forest, but for folks that love the twisty streets and charming little business district it is one of a kind.

[chitownperson]

Originally Posted by burbcurious

Thanks for all the comments thus far!

gelert - thanks for sharing the Census link. I'll play with that later on.

chitownperson - yup, I'm trying to identify where the not-so-safe areas are in Oak Park and Evanston. Also where the dividing lines lay for the best schools. Your posts on Austin are helpful- thanks! I realize that if you leave your garage open, you may get your lawnmower stolen (pretty much anywhere) - that's not as much a concern as violent crime.

chet everett - thanks for steering me to the Illinois Report Card! Yes, obviously getting concrete data on 'liberal leaning' is more difficult than things that are more measurable. How exactly do I put this... I'm looking for a more open-minded, accepting area. Not overly religious. Someplace where a gay couples or multi-racial family wouldn't get stared at. Does that make sense?

Lookout Kid - where are you getting the #s you put out there?

Anybody have more places I should be considering?

You're welcome.

People who are more concerned with safety feel better staying a couple of block or more west of Austin Blvd. beyond that, the levels of crime even out, and violent crime is a non issue, as there is little to no spill over from the border. Oak Park is very popular with families, and one of the top needs for families is safety, and I would not have moved here with my family if I had any reservations about safety. Every suburb has to contend with drugs, and people delivering drugs, so its not something any community can get away from, which comes down to effort of the police and educating kids.

Oak Park is unique is that its diversity (racial, sexual, economic, religious etc...) is largely integrated. One of the reasons we moved here is due to the large amounts of mixed race families, us being one, where such kids do not stand out as the "other". Oak Park has the largest lGBT community outside of boys town, and has a large amount of same sex couples with kids. There are 4 such homes on our block, and we are not the exception. When talking with one of my neighbour, who is half of a same sex couple with kids, about their move to Oak Park, they mentioned that they wanted a community where their kids and family would not stand out as the "other" or merely "tolerated" and be identified largely though their sexual orientation ("the gay couple with kids on the block") as they've experienced in some other communities, but wanted to be just part of the community without their sexual identity being tied to the communities perception of them and their kids. They feel like they've found that in Oak Park. It is unfortunate that such efforts are sneered at and brushed off by some people outside of the community. It's easy to focus purely on data without anaylsis, but once you start to analysis the community, you get a much clearer idea about the unique diffences in each community.

No community is perfect for everyone, and no community has everything that everyone wants, but what make it right for one vs another, is the different combinations of things it offers and the community. Some people want to live in a spread out suburb that 85% white and uniformily affluent, and some don't. To each their own.

[ToriaT]

As most have pointed out, Evanston and Oak Park are liberal leaning, even when at one point they were more conservative some decades ago. It strikes me that the northern and northwestern suburbs are more liberal or mixed politically while the western suburbs are more conservative but that too is changing to be more mixed. Traditionally, Cook county was more democratic, dupage and lake county more republican. That's my take in a nutshell.