Melrose Park (Chicago, Elgin, Des Plaines: section 8, house, neighborhood)

[scottl333]

What are peoples thoughts are this suburb? Use to be almost all Italian but now seems to be mostly Hispanic. Anyone live there?

[emmi605]

Here is a recent thread on Melrose Park that may help answer some of your questions.
A Melrose Park comeback

[cuteazz1]

It's not very clean.

[Humboldt1]

Sorry folks,

But Melrose Park is not great and is getting worse. I dated a girl who lives in Leyden township between Melrose Park and Franklin Park. I love Lucky Dog but that is all Melrose Park has going for it. There is some recent retail and commercial development along North Avenue, most of which is in Northlake. River Grove to the northeast is much nicer. Maywood Park is like a slum version of Arlington, similar to Hawthorne.

I work out at the Bally's at North in Winston Plaza and have seen the area change over the past 5 years. They still have Italianfest, which is fun, but the italians are being replaced first by hispanics and now blacks, many from maywood and bellwood.

Stone Park is basically Melrose Park and has always had low end housing. The nicest housing is near loyola hospital.

While River Forest has the Des Plaines River and a vigilent police force to keep it safe, Melrose Park is experiencing the spillover effect from Maywood. I see this everyday at Bally's when I work out next to thugs.

There is some new commercial space along north and 25th along with a Food 4 Less. Seriously, that is a bad grocery store with cheap food and low quality produce and deli. Tony's is much better.

I have a number of businesses I bank in Melrose Park, Franklin Park and Northlake. Many are looking to head west for larger space and cheaper taxes. I imagine Jewel will be staying put for awhile as well as International. Other than the new buildings along 25th most of the buildings are old and in need of extensive repair. I have yet to meet a business owner who lives in Melrose Park, stone Park, or Northlake. They generally live in Elmwood Park, River Forest, or Elmhurst, some even Barrington.

Melrose Park is essentially an older version of Elk Grove Village with lots of tool and die businesses, many of which are struggling or have gone out. There are still a number of logistics and service companies. The biggest hit came when Sears moved to Hoffman from Melrose Park.

I can go on and on about Melrose Park but I would not move there and would be hesitant to buy a business there. The area is low working class now and will resemble maywood north of lake street in 10-15 years if not sooner.

Has anyone eaten at Tom' Steakhouse? I have heard it is good.

[chet everett]

Jewel has already relocated their HQ staff into Itasca -- the distribution center is too hard to relocate, so that will stay put for awhile... The white collar jobs that have transitioned over to their newish SuperValu masters would rather drive west than east...

Melrose Park needs more jobs. Humbolt1 is right about the hurt on the precision tooling and light assembly -- those were high paying jobs and are drying up. The logistics companies are shifting toward the I-55 area sw of Bolingbrook -- land is cheaper and so is the workforce. If/when a Fox Valley Expressway links up that area to I-90/Elgin there will be a perfect bypass around 294 -- that'll put even more hurt on the logistics companies. Long term trend is going to need a major rethink of that whole Leyden Township area -- schools are not good, business climate is tough, redevelopment is expensive...

[Johnny Northside]

I concur with Humboldt and Chet. Melrose Park is in a tough spot. As the Da Mare of Chicago has knocked down the projects around the United Center, those folks have moved to other parts of the West Side, beginning a domino effect. West Side section 8 residents move to Maywood, Bellwood, etc; and now the overflow and others fleeing Maywood are moving north (nowhere to go to the south with N Riverside/LaGrange Park, etc. being too pricey). In time, the relatively poor housing stock of most of Leyden Township will probably be the landing spot for the overflow from the near western suburbs.

[NCV9]

Melrose is a good place to buy a first time home. For newlyweds and boyfriend/girlfriend who want to buy a house and not planning to have kids for a few years. The reason I say that is because Melrose is a great and safe town, close to everything, but the public schools are TERRIBLE. Proviso East is one of the worst High Schools in the state.

[Needlesstosay]

Having read all the comments describing the horror of Melrose Park I feel obligated to clear up some misconceptions. I live in Melrose and love it.
My family was forced out of our neighborhood in the sixties. I beleive it is now know as the Lawndale Section. I am now seeing in Melrose a change from primarily Italian to a large percentage of Spanish. The town is not delipatedated. nor is it a slum. Yes many stores and business are owned by Spanish people but I personally have no problem with that. I will agree the schools are horrible and for that I have no solution but many comments have been made here that have no basis.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by Needlesstosay

... I am now seeing in Melrose a change from primarily Italian to a large percentage of Spanish...

You just noticed this now? This has been happening gradually for 20 years.

I call b.s.

[Needlesstosay]

No obviously I am not just taking notice but the descripitons of the town as stated in these blogs are not the way it is. Most that make comment do not live here. I do and I love it.