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I think Naperville is over rated. Sure its nice but some people act like its the only nice suburb. There are many as nice or nicer than Naperville such as La Grange, Wheaton, Glen Ellyn, Hinsdale, etc. They are all nice too. Maybe they don't have the riverwalk but they might have other things to recommend them.
I agree Riverside is beautiful.
I think actually Cicero and Berwyn are under rated. Cicero is not as bad as you might think. I have been going in and out of there and due to what I heard I though it was like Englewood or something. Not true. Its not as bad as you might think it is. Its mostly a Hispanic suburb and has a higher crime rate but I feel safer there than in many places in Chicago.
I grew up in Lincolnwood and now live in Lake Forrest.
I'd say Lincolnwood is really underrated. The grade schools are excellent; the high school is technically average but there is a huge jump in quality of education from the regular classes to the Honors and AP classes -- people who made the effort to challenge themselves ended up doing very well in college. Its right by 94, 15 minutes from downtown with no traffic and by train. It was super safe. I would go on 2am walks almost daily during the summers and not fear for my safety at all. We had everything nearby; shopping, groceries, the beach, entertainment, downtown Chicago even. There is a good mix of affluent and middle class people which is something I liked. I realized it was underrated when I went to college and met people from the south and west suburbs who all seemed to either be under the impression its a bad neighborhood or had no idea what it was. One bad thing I have to say is idk if it was just my neighbors but the people are kind of unfriendly there, I guess since its so close to the city the city attitude carries over lol. So basically my only two complaints were 1) an average high school and 2) unfriendly neighbors. All the pluses to me more than made up for that.
Lake Forest to me is overrated. There is nothing do do here, but whats worse than that for me is the lack of decent grocery stores or places to eat. All they have is Heinen's which is overpriced and has no variety. I guess people who like isolation and community like it here, but I don't think that makes up for there being nothing to do. One major pro is its really pretty.
Also now that I go to Libertyville/Vernon Hills every weekend due to the lack of anything to do in Lake Forest, I must say those two areas are also really underrated. Libertyville is beautiful in the summer, affordable, friendly people, good shopping, and pretty good schools as well. I'm definitely going to raise my family there if I stay in Chicago.
For having one of the top schools in the country and being affordable with plenty of things to do, Lincolnshire is pretty underrated.
I don't really get the appeal of Naperville at all tbh and thats one I see thats highly recommended on here.
Weird. I dont see how cities with burgeoning downtowns, beautiful homes, excellent nightlife, supreme safety, good PT, and excellent schools could be considered "overrated". But hey, who am I?
I grew up in Lincolnwood and now live in Lake Forrest.
I'd say Lincolnwood is really underrated. The grade schools are excellent; the high school is technically average but there is a huge jump in quality of education from the regular classes to the Honors and AP classes -- people who made the effort to challenge themselves ended up doing very well in college. Its right by 94, 15 minutes from downtown with no traffic and by train. It was super safe. I would go on 2am walks almost daily during the summers and not fear for my safety at all. We had everything nearby; shopping, groceries, the beach, entertainment, downtown Chicago even. There is a good mix of affluent and middle class people which is something I liked. I realized it was underrated when I went to college and met people from the south and west suburbs who all seemed to either be under the impression its a bad neighborhood or had no idea what it was. One bad thing I have to say is idk if it was just my neighbors but the people are kind of unfriendly there, I guess since its so close to the city the city attitude carries over lol. So basically my only two complaints were 1) an average high school and 2) unfriendly neighbors. All the pluses to me more than made up for that.
Lake Forest to me is overrated. There is nothing do do here, but whats worse than that for me is the lack of decent grocery stores or places to eat. All they have is Heinen's which is overpriced and has no variety. I guess people who like isolation and community like it here, but I don't think that makes up for there being nothing to do. One major pro is its really pretty.
Also now that I go to Libertyville/Vernon Hills every weekend due to the lack of anything to do in Lake Forest, I must say those two areas are also really underrated. Libertyville is beautiful in the summer, affordable, friendly people, good shopping, and pretty good schools as well. I'm definitely going to raise my family there if I stay in Chicago.
For having one of the top schools in the country and being affordable with plenty of things to do, Lincolnshire is pretty underrated.
I don't really get the appeal of Naperville at all tbh and thats one I see thats highly recommended on here.
I would say Lincolnwood (Skokie) has above average high schools, but I agree - Lincolnwood is underrated.
I grew up in Lincolnwood and now live in Lake Forrest.
I'd say Lincolnwood is really underrated. The grade schools are excellent; the high school is technically average but there is a huge jump in quality of education from the regular classes to the Honors and AP classes -- people who made the effort to challenge themselves ended up doing very well in college. Its right by 94, 15 minutes from downtown with no traffic and by train. It was super safe. I would go on 2am walks almost daily during the summers and not fear for my safety at all. We had everything nearby; shopping, groceries, the beach, entertainment, downtown Chicago even. There is a good mix of affluent and middle class people which is something I liked. I realized it was underrated when I went to college and met people from the south and west suburbs who all seemed to either be under the impression its a bad neighborhood or had no idea what it was. One bad thing I have to say is idk if it was just my neighbors but the people are kind of unfriendly there, I guess since its so close to the city the city attitude carries over lol. So basically my only two complaints were 1) an average high school and 2) unfriendly neighbors. All the pluses to me more than made up for that.
Lake Forest to me is overrated. There is nothing do do here, but whats worse than that for me is the lack of decent grocery stores or places to eat. All they have is Heinen's which is overpriced and has no variety. I guess people who like isolation and community like it here, but I don't think that makes up for there being nothing to do. One major pro is its really pretty.
Also now that I go to Libertyville/Vernon Hills every weekend due to the lack of anything to do in Lake Forest, I must say those two areas are also really underrated. Libertyville is beautiful in the summer, affordable, friendly people, good shopping, and pretty good schools as well. I'm definitely going to raise my family there if I stay in Chicago.
For having one of the top schools in the country and being affordable with plenty of things to do, Lincolnshire is pretty underrated.
I don't really get the appeal of Naperville at all tbh and thats one I see thats highly recommended on here.
Totally agree with you. I didn't grow up in Lincolnwood, but I went there a lot when I lived in the city. I still drive through there sometimes and it's still very nice and the towers neighborhood had beauty comparable ti the North Shore and even more than some parts of HP imo. Now, I live in Highland Park and agree there's barely anything to do and to go shopping you have to go to Vernon Hills/Libertyville. There are unfriendly people everywhere, but I think there's more in Lake Forest than in Lincolnwood. The new Mariano's in Northbrook has made me so happy that there's a good grocery store close by and now I don't have to drive twenty minutes to Costco ebery other day. There's talk about there being another portillos in Deerfield that's bden on and off, hopefully it happens.
I grew up in Lincolnwood and now live in Lake Forrest.
I'd say Lincolnwood is really underrated. The grade schools are excellent; the high school is technically average but there is a huge jump in quality of education from the regular classes to the Honors and AP classes -- people who made the effort to challenge themselves ended up doing very well in college. Its right by 94, 15 minutes from downtown with no traffic and by train. It was super safe. I would go on 2am walks almost daily during the summers and not fear for my safety at all. We had everything nearby; shopping, groceries, the beach, entertainment, downtown Chicago even. There is a good mix of affluent and middle class people which is something I liked. I realized it was underrated when I went to college and met people from the south and west suburbs who all seemed to either be under the impression its a bad neighborhood or had no idea what it was. One bad thing I have to say is idk if it was just my neighbors but the people are kind of unfriendly there, I guess since its so close to the city the city attitude carries over lol. So basically my only two complaints were 1) an average high school and 2) unfriendly neighbors. All the pluses to me more than made up for that.
Lake Forest to me is overrated. There is nothing do do here, but whats worse than that for me is the lack of decent grocery stores or places to eat. All they have is Heinen's which is overpriced and has no variety. I guess people who like isolation and community like it here, but I don't think that makes up for there being nothing to do. One major pro is its really pretty.
Also now that I go to Libertyville/Vernon Hills every weekend due to the lack of anything to do in Lake Forest, I must say those two areas are also really underrated. Libertyville is beautiful in the summer, affordable, friendly people, good shopping, and pretty good schools as well. I'm definitely going to raise my family there if I stay in Chicago.
For having one of the top schools in the country and being affordable with plenty of things to do, Lincolnshire is pretty underrated.
I don't really get the appeal of Naperville at all tbh and thats one I see thats highly recommended on here.
While I too think that Lincolnwood is under-appreciated there are some other comments that just don't add up. When it comes to beaches the is no way that you can get from just about any part of Lincolnwood to a beach in under 15 minutes, and driving along Touhy (or worse taking a bus...) is hardly a pleasant experience. Though Chicago's Leone Beach is not very crowded by Chicago standards it is WAY MORE heavily used than Lake Forest's municipal beach AND the travel time from LITERALLY the farthest point in LF is shorter than most trips through Lincolnwood -- https://goo.gl/maps/ejz42rmbwnk
While I agree that LF is hardly "bustling" is would be silly to characterize Lincolnwood as other than a very low key suburb too, so again not sure what the point is...
Given the layout of Libertyville's core it is honest to say that there there is more to do than many other suburbs in Lake Co, but again saying that Naperville is overrated when it probably has at least 5x more spots to eat / have an adult beverage is just exceedingly misinformed to the point of being dishonest...
Pretty much anyone that wants to look at towns with very well regarded schools put Lincolnshire high on their list, but again its total lack of anything other than isolated little subdivisions puts it several notches down the list when compared to even Lake Forest, which does have a functional and attractive train-centric core, or even Lincolnwood, which at least has some clusters of dining / shopping along the arterials...
The folks that recommend Naperville generally do so with the caveat that there are big differences between the relatively small area that is walkably close to the extremely nice core of town and the rest of the town that does sprawl out. One could even say that about Libertyville, especially given the very sharp differences in even some of the more mature neighborhoods that, because of the weird lay out of roads and rails, are even more cut-off than in Naperville where most parts of town are at least on the same network of sub-arterials. I'd further point out that due to the very large distance and vastly different mix of employers in Lake Co vs DuPage / Kane / Will that separates Libertyville from Naperville there probably are not many situations where one would cross-shop the towns against each other...
First, let's get into what underrated means in the context of towns/cities. Everyone has a different definition of it, but to me, underrated means that a suburb isn't given credit where its due.
To me, the most underrated suburbs of Chicago are West Chicago, Des Plaines, and Franklin Park. All three have low crime rates, decent schools, good services, good transportation, etc. But they aren't perfect.
Overrated? Naperville.
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