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Thanks everyone! This is very helpful and I agree that I need to spend some more time on the ground in these short-listed communities. It sounds as though mid-day parking can be a bit of a challenge in many areas although I did call the Winnetka city council and they seemed to imply there was sufficient mid-day parking - is that just a sales pitch?
Chet - as you say, we are a bit of a rare situation as most of our work colleagues with similar careers have had one parent either stay at home or take a less demanding job. Just to clarify on your comment, my husband and I do not actually work together but we happen to both be partners within the same huge firm. We are also "older" parents (early 40's) and not to digress too much from the topic at hand but I invested 15+ years in my career prior to having kids and although my kids are my first priority, I also love my job and I'm trying to balance albeit with a significant lack of sleep at times! Hence our focus on things like mid-day parking and such at train stations as we try to make our work schedules flex around the edges.
To answer another question, we would prefer to buy as the idea of relocating from the UK and moving again does not sound fun. That may not be realistic but that is our hope if we find the right house/location. With that said, from my observations so far, I don't think we could go too far wrong in any of these locations. I have a real estate agent feeding me new home listings in both Hinsdale and North Shore locations. I still have a perhaps emotional pull towards Kenilworth primarily due to the idea of a school that goes from PK all the way to 8th grade plus full day kindergarten but the home inventory is certainly less and not as many downtown options.
Hinsdale is probably the wild card. I didn't even want to look at it before as I didn't like the feel of the whole freeways getting there but once we entered the actual town it was charming although still not quite as appealing to me as North Shore. Based on the parking situation, it seems we would have to find a house walkable to the train as I don't love the daily fee lot idea and when we visited mid-day those pay lots were totally full.
Re ethnic food good to know we can be fine in either location. Frankly, the ethnic food options beyond Indian in the UK are not too great so my prior high expectations of good Thai, Mexican, Chinese, etc from San Francisco have been lowered! We did try both a Greek place in Winnetka and a Sushi place in Wilmette that were both pretty good so that was positive!
Any more input would be great, especially on schools and/or parking situations!
If your schedule doesn't follow the mass commuter times, you're better off driving downtown by yourself. With that being said, I'd physically live as close to your office as possible.
Best options:
1.) Car Service
2.) Drive yourself
3.) Metra
If the commute pattern works out to be one parent leaving home a bit earlier to get back home earlier that is not as bad as a true "midday" schedule. The thing too is that with Chicago financial sector having a fairly early AM start and subsequent close well before the end of "normal" working hours it is not bad at all to have one parent be able to get home pretty close to when school aged kids need to come home -- my wife and I did that back when we both worked downtown and it was not an excellent way for us to both be involved in the day-to-day care of the kids -- you can see the express train service correlates well with such schedules.
It is not at all uncommon for folks in the more affluent areas to have kids a bit later in life -- early 40s with kids in kindergarten is not odd in the least.
Depending on what sort of role you each have the firm that you are partners in the access to airports may or may not be a factor -- I know a few folks that work for accounting / consulting firms who rack up "Lifetime Platinum" status with airlines that work in a different capacity than partners that rarely need to travel anywhere.
If the OP is working with a relocation specialist from the North Shore I would be sure to remind them to include listings from Clarendon Hills along with those in adjacent Hinsdale -- same schools (D181 & D86), excellent access to train from most every part of compact town, less bustling core, significantly better value for newer homes -- 37 Chestnut Ave, CLARENDON HILLS, IL 60514 | MLS# 08468515 | Redfin
Finally I have lived in the region basically my whole life. I have been lucky enough to live in fairly affluent towns and I can honestly say that even folks that are literally Chairmen of the Board to world famous businesses generally do not have "car service". They mostly rely on Metra if it is compatabile with their schedule and if it is not they generally do drive themself. The fact is that the actual driving distance from a town like Winnetka to the heart of the Loop is almost exactly the same as the same trip from Hinsdale. Normal levels of traffic give a slight edge to the Hinsdale journey, largely because there is sort of "dead zone" of no signficant employment through much of the western part of Chicago while the journey from Winnetka cuts across / through the highly traveled routes to O'Hare and the many firms doing business in northern Cook / southern Lake Co... http://goo.gl/maps/IrQSO
One quick comment to the OP: You mentioned above that "Based on the parking situation, it seems we would have to find a house walkable to the train as I don't love the daily fee lot idea and when we visited mid-day those pay lots were totally full." Not sure which community you were referring to, but I don't think this is the case in regards to Hinsdale... you of course would want to check with the Village, but I certainly don't think you'd have to live walk-to-train.
Thanks! Will add Clarendon hills to my search. This commute thing is really a pain as I don't know where my main client base will be other than I understand some big corporates are up in Deerfield, etc in the north (chet you are right we are partners in a big 4 accounting firm). When we lived in Bay Area I had clients spread from north of SF downtown to San Jose and it was rough as Bay Area traffic was terrible but now in London I take the train 70% of time and fly from heathrow to clients the other 30% so I never drive except weekends which is so nice!
My husband will fly probably every other week from O'hare but frankly that is not a factor as a car service to an airport is easy compared to a daily commute grind. I actually suspect that 3Series is right that i may end up driving more than planned as it is very common for me to get a late start (say leave at 9-10am) if I help get the kids off to school or take a call from home and then I will often work until 10pm if I will miss bedtime anyway. So from that standpoint is there any big difference in off peak driving between downtown to hinsdale vs downtown to say winnetka?
Finally, from a leisure standpoint we love to go on walks and visit parks. My biggest issue with Chicago is lack of mountains so the next best thing to me is forested areas/parks. I grew up in Montana Rockies so we will fly there to get our mountain fix I guess but are there benefits to west suburbs vs NS to access outdoors areas? Of course I realize NS has the benefit of the lake which is beautiful to look at but I'm not actually a beach person and would prefer smaller lakes in a forest to a big lake. I'm assuming NS as it has easier access to Wisconsin but maybe there are areas accessible from west as well?
There is a fairly extension Forest Preserve system run by each of the counties that has many nice spots. The general fiscal catastrophe in Cook Co means maintenance and staffing is not as good as in DuPage or Lake Co but the actual land and ponds / lakes that each preserve offers are quite nice. In places like Hinsdale, which laps over the boarder of Cook & DuPage Counties you have very nice access to Forest Preserves in Oak Brook, Westetn Springs, Lemont and a variety of other towns as well as very large parks under municipal control. If you like to give you dogs some time off leash there are ample facilities for that too. There are some preserves with ponds / creeks/ lakes / waterfalls / streams / rivers that are quite nice. Parts of Hinsdale still in Cook Co that border Oak Brook are quite heavily wooded with lots of wildlife, to get a similar experience on the North Shore you'd probably have to go into Lake Co...
For weekend trips Wisconsin is a bit closer to the North Shore while Michigan's "harbor country" is closer to Hinsdale. There is a longer traditon of true beach front vactions in Michigan for both "the big lake" and inland lakes which are more numerous than in south eastern Wisconsin -- Lake Geneva & Delavan are oddly over priced for most folks whereas the whole stretch from Grand Beach in Indiana all along the "sunset shore" of Lake Michigan has some nice access.
For folks that have clients in the suburbs the biggest factor is usually a central location with good access to the tollways -- major HQ locations in Lake , DuPage, or suburban Cook Co are generally pretty accessible from any of the tollways. I personally know folks that deliberately choose towns like Park Ridge becuase they are about equidistant from all the major "corporate clusters" but honestly short of choosing a place at the extreme edge of Illinois bordering Indiana the ease of driving to most locations in normal conditions is quite tolerable...
I have been to the greater SF Bay area on business several times, as well vacationing out there and the level of traffic / distances folks regularly commute is much worse than anything you would thpocally encounter in the Chicago region. The fact is that off peak a drive that relies on expressways / tollroads will often be far faster than during rush hour -- I have often made the 20 miles from the Loop to Hinsdale in under 20 minutes, but even with the routine choke points that occur during rush hour the drive might barely double to 40 minutes in the AM and maybe 45-50 for the ride out to the burbs. Of course if there is MAJOR weather incident the speeds will drop dramatically and in such conditions it has taken 90 minutes or more... The specific locations on the North shore that are closer to the Edens / farther from Lake Michigan can be the most variable part of driving up their as the various cross streets do tend to restrict traffic flows more signficantly than in other places and slightly less than direct connection of the Edens for those coming from O'Hare add some complexity to even off peak drives...
Thanks! Will add Clarendon hills to my search. This commute thing is really a pain as I don't know where my main client base will be other than I understand some big corporates are up in Deerfield, etc in the north (chet you are right we are partners in a big 4 accounting firm). When we lived in Bay Area I had clients spread from north of SF downtown to San Jose and it was rough as Bay Area traffic was terrible but now in London I take the train 70% of time and fly from heathrow to clients the other 30% so I never drive except weekends which is so nice!
My husband will fly probably every other week from O'hare but frankly that is not a factor as a car service to an airport is easy compared to a daily commute grind. I actually suspect that 3Series is right that i may end up driving more than planned as it is very common for me to get a late start (say leave at 9-10am) if I help get the kids off to school or take a call from home and then I will often work until 10pm if I will miss bedtime anyway. So from that standpoint is there any big difference in off peak driving between downtown to hinsdale vs downtown to say winnetka?
Finally, from a leisure standpoint we love to go on walks and visit parks. My biggest issue with Chicago is lack of mountains so the next best thing to me is forested areas/parks. I grew up in Montana Rockies so we will fly there to get our mountain fix I guess but are there benefits to west suburbs vs NS to access outdoors areas? Of course I realize NS has the benefit of the lake which is beautiful to look at but I'm not actually a beach person and would prefer smaller lakes in a forest to a big lake. I'm assuming NS as it has easier access to Wisconsin but maybe there are areas accessible from west as well?
It's faster and easier to get to Ohare and Midway from the Western Suburbs. You also have more options to get home (routes) on a Thurs or Fri night when traffic is maddening coming out of Ohare.
Wisconsin access is the same from the NS and the west suburbs, perhaps an extra 20min becuase of the distance.
Driving into Chicago from the west side or north shore during off-peak hours is the same according to co-workers and personal exprience.
If I were you, I wouldn't care too much about Metra. Most folks with varying schedules will drive. If you need to go to the office than a client, take the metra downtown, then take a car service to the client site then home.
It's faster and easier to get to Ohare and Midway from the Western Suburbs. You also have more options to get home (routes) on a Thurs or Fri night when traffic is maddening coming out of Ohare.
Wisconsin access is the same from the NS and the west suburbs, perhaps an extra 20min becuase of the distance.
Driving into Chicago from the west side or north shore during off-peak hours is the same according to co-workers and personal exprience.
If I were you, I wouldn't care too much about Metra. Most folks with varying schedules will drive. If you need to go to the office than a client, take the metra downtown, then take a car service to the client site then home.
Unless things have changed dramatically for accounting / consulting partners, there are still LOTS of days that one will NEED to spend 8+ hrs "in the office in the Loop" and for those days it is nice to ride the train in and out with the least hassle on either end.
On days that one will need to visit clients in their suburban office their is little doubt in my mind that "a car service" is NOT generally acceptable -- the client will not be happy see their account billed for some limousine. If the OP does not own a car the firm will likely expect the partner to ride along with someone that does have a personal vehicle even if that means taking an "extra early" train to meet up at the Loop office before heading back out to the burbs...
Interesting comment. I have a friend in NYC (consultant) that swears by car service lol. He's taken it out to Jersey on occasion even, although for those types of trips he's typically on commuter rail.
The western suburbs are definitely easier for trips to Midway Airport. For trips to O'Hare, it depends. If you're on the western edge of Winnetka or in any part of Northbrook, the drive to O'Hare is probably about the same as it is from Hinsdale. It depends on how much a drive you are from 294.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 3Series
It's faster and easier to get to Ohare and Midway from the Western Suburbs. You also have more options to get home (routes) on a Thurs or Fri night when traffic is maddening coming out of Ohare.
Wisconsin access is the same from the NS and the west suburbs, perhaps an extra 20min becuase of the distance.
Driving into Chicago from the west side or north shore during off-peak hours is the same according to co-workers and personal exprience.
If I were you, I wouldn't care too much about Metra. Most folks with varying schedules will drive. If you need to go to the office than a client, take the metra downtown, then take a car service to the client site then home.
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Metra will probably still be a factor...
