Evergreen Park for young families? (Oak Lawn, Homer: condo, coop, houses)

[ChicagoGirl17]

My fiance and I currently live in Lakeview, but we would like to buy a house in Evergreen Park and start a family in the near future. I am from Michigan but he was born and raised in Evergreen Park. From the stories I hear from him, his family & friends he had a great childhood there and it is exactly the kind of childhood I want our kids to have. But I'm wondering, is it still like it was 15-20 years ago when he was growing up? Are there still parts where every other house is a young family, and 16 kids of the same age live on the same block? What areas/streets are like this? Also, we would like to buy a house and set up shop, not intending to move until after our yet-to-be-born kids are out of the house. Is Evergreen Park a good place to do this? Where 'bouts within the neighborhood? Lastly, if you know certain areas in surrounding communities that have these qualities, definitely shout 'em out. Mt. Greenwood, Beverly & Oak Lawn are not out of the question.

Thanks so much in advance for your help!

[vester72]

I grew up there too and had a great childhood, but have not been back in a while. From what I remember, the schools (public that is) are not the best, but not the worst - I am not sure about the number of kids in the area now though - my mom moved away from there 4-5 years ago.

[cdc3217]

I had a friend move there a few years ago with her young daughter, specifically for the good schools and to be close to her cousins. Its nice. My impression is there are a lot of young families , probably also a lot of older residents whose children have flown the coop as well. Seems like a lot of extended families are settled in there. The houses are largely bungalows, the area near Duffy Park (92nd & Millard) seems to be a little nicer in terms of mature trees and prettier houses. There has been a lot of retail development along 95th Street, so there is lots of convenient shopping and hopefully some sort of city service support for the local government.

Oak LAwn is similar, but a lot larger. Mt. Greenwood is really similar, but lots of police live there. Beverly considers itself tonier and more urban, and has the best public transit of the lot (although Oak Lawn has Metra train station)

There is a lot of cultural crossover in recreation and shopping along the 95th street corridor for residents in all these areas.

Here is a link for school results - you can search on different towns.
Interactive Illinois Report Card

[NSH]

I live in the area and see the kids doing the exact same stuff I was doing at their age. I could see your kids growing up with a lot of good stories and memories. I know I did! Agree with the other commenter, best area is around Circle Park, nice size lots with a mix of housing from custom built to frame bungalows.
My opinion is that the politics of Evergreen have become more mainstream since Sexton took over. He has some very good policies that Oak lawn does not have. Mainly he does not give tax rebates to big box stores for setting up in the village. This works out great for the homeowners who end up footing the bill to have a Target or Home Depot in town. Wal-Mart is already adding close to $3 mil a year to the coffers. For a small village this is huge money.

[prairiestate]

I grew up there, and live next door in Oak Lawn now. There's quite a varied housing stock in EP, and unlike in neighboring towns, there are few tear downs. It seems like everyone is adding on a huge addition though. They just finished a beautiful streetscaping project on 95th St, and there's a lot of new commercial development. In town or very nearby, you'll find Border's, Starbucks, Panera, Jimmy John's, Coldstone Creamery, and more. Obviously, it's considered a fairly well to do community. There's a huge new park, built on unused cemetery land, with walking trails, ponds, a skating rink and other amenities. The library has just finished a beautiful renovation and expansion project. The schools are generally considered good. The high school has about 900 students, big enough to offer a fairly wide variety of courses, but small enough so you don't get lost in the crowd. It's a very tight knit community where people tend to put down roots for life. My aunt recently moved from the boomtown of Homer Glen, back to her childhood hometown of Evergreen Park, completely gutting, rebuilding and expanding a house there. There's a lot of that going on, so people are pretty eager to stay in town, even if it means having to rebuild their homes. Definitely check out Oak Lawn, too, which has much the same attributes. I have to admit though, as much as I like Oak Lawn, it just doesn't have the same small town feel that Evergreen Park does. The reason why I ended up in Oak Lawn is because I wanted a condo, which are almost non-existent in Evergreen Park.

[gardener34]

Many people from there send their kids to catholic schools. (or they used to)

[EPCHS Class Reunion]

Can't tell who's-who from the user names on this Thread, so please alert anyone who graduated from Evergreen Park High School in 1968 about the
40th Class Reunion. See details online at <http://www.classreport.org/usa/il/evergreen%5Fpark/ephs/1968/>...thanks!
-MD

[bg7405]

Evergreen park is the most amazing neighborhood on the southside of chicago along with parts of oak lawn and beverly. I would definately reccomend you move there, there are a lot of young families moving into the area. I just recently sold my house there because my husband was transfered down to texas and a young newly married family looking to start a family bought our house. i will say one thing though, evergreen park is an extremely tight knit community and not very many people move out once they move in! its easy to make friends and people are extremely friendly, along with the kids.
one thing to note though in the area is there are areas that are a little less favorable
than others i would suggest for you to raise kids the best area is the area between 95th street, pulaski, kedzie, and 103rd. it has brother rice and mcauley highschools along with st. xavier, that area is awesome to raise kids, there are a million kids on every block.
if you are looking to raise kids i would recommend anywhere west of kedzie is great
evergreen park has this small town feel that you dont really get out in the subarbs
its great
mount greenwood is also very similar to evergreen park, but like the people in the other posts said since its still in the city of chicago a lot of police and firemen live there that work for the city of chicago.

[MarkB]

I grew there back in the late 70's/early eightees. Evergreen Park was pretty much formed by all the families that settled there back in the 1950's. It's safe to say that 90% of them have either died off or moved into condo's after they became empty nesters. Its not a bad place by any means. However, dont expect to see school age children running down the street like you would see 30-40 years ago. The baby boomers have moved to the far south and western suburbs for the most part. Last year, I drove by my old block during the summer and it was a ghostown. Stay west of California Ave. and South of 91st St. to be on the safe side. I grew up in St Bernadette parish which is a very tight-nit community.

If it was me, I would consider Oak Lawn first.

[prairiestate]

Originally Posted by MarkB

...However, dont expect to see school age children running down the street like you would see 30-40 years ago....

That was true 15 years ago. Today, there are fervent debates on how to relieve school overcrowding. The kids of the baby boomers are back with their own families. I'm not sure when you were there, if it was in the middle of winter or two in the morning, but there are usually a ton of kids out on the streets.