Job in North Park area but want to live in suburbs... but where?

[GreXican]

You'd probably be best suited for Evanston based on your lifestyle.

Park Ridge is a beautiful and rather pricey (for my standards) suburb.
Apparently airport noise is only a slight problem south of Touhy.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/chica...noise-ord.html
If airport noise were such a large problem then Park Ridge would not be one of the nicest northwest suburbs. One thing I love about Park Ridge is that there are no "bad areas", as the poster above me stated.

[thePR]

Originally Posted by Nysee53

There is a ton of airport noise in Park Ridge. Residents complain all the time.

Only in FAR south Park Ridge does airplane noise become a problem.

Originally Posted by theadamsfamily

I checked the listings I had for Park Ridge and there was one house we liked. But, we did searches for businesses around the area and found mostly chains and fast food restaurants....eeek. We'll still go and check it out personally once we are in the area (we're traveling next Sunday). Park Ridge schools seem to get good ratings in greatschools.net I am sorry to hear that airport noise is also an issue.

Maybe if I tell you guys a bit more about us, you'd be able to tell me if Skokie, Evanston, Lincolnwood, or Park Ridge are for us (or if they are just WRONG for us):
We're a family of four. Both husband and I work in the arts. Our kids are 5 and 3. One dog. We love eating out, love Asian restaurants, Latin American food... We like attending gallery openings, visiting museums, and attending other cultural events (that's why we'd like to be accessible to downtown Chicago). We like doing fun things outside with the kids (parks, lake... all of that sounds good). We're also a bi-cultural and bilingual household (husband is American, but I am from South America and we like the kids to speak Spanish at home).

So far it seems like we'd be a better fit in Evanston....Skokie and Lincolnwood are worth looking into because of their location (commute to work) and elementary schools.
Am I incorrect in assuming that we'd stick out like a sore thumb in Park Ridge?

There are just as many fast food places here as in any town around, we are not the exception. We also do have our fair share of restaurants that are sit down and the food doesn't come with a toy. There are 3 (that i know of, so that means there's more) asian food places in town. I don't like it that much but they do have great food. Just outside of downtown is Edison Park (a part of Chicago) and the only fast food place there is a subway so it is a fine place to go that is basically part of Park Ridge.

As I said above, airplane noise is not a problem.

There are some artsy places in Park Ridge but I don't know enough about it because I've never looked for them. It also has a few museums but is only a short ride from the Museum Campus of Chicago. You can drive down or take the Cumberland "L" (subway) downtown.

Park Ridge is full of parks, they are almost everywhere and you can't go wrong with them. Evanston does have the upper hand when it comes to lakes because it rests on Lake Michigan and has some nice beaches but it is only a short ride away.

Park Ridge is mainly White but the largest minority group would be Hispanics and the high school (because of the cities it draws from) has a higher percentage of any minority. So to answer your question about sticking out like a sore thumb: Overall Park Ridge's minorities are much less than both Skokie and Evanston but have a more comparable rate when it comes to Hispanics. You could fit in here just fine. We have plenty of people here who are 100% Polish and speak it in the home and outside.

I hope I didn't just ramble.

[theadamsfamily]

Thanks to everyone that responded. Every little bit of info helps us our at this stage.

Which suburb would have the easier/quicker commute to North Park: Evanston or Park Ridge?

[GreXican]

If you look at the map I made, and assuming you work in the area outlined in black, then you can see that Park Ridge and Evanston are roughly the same physical distance from NP. However, the commute to PR would be quicker and easier because you'd take Peterson (Which becomes Caldwall) to Devon/Touhy/Oakton and you'd be in PR. The fact that PR is out of the city makes the traffic less heavy as well.



The commute to Evanston, assuming you take that house inside the triangle, is outlined in light blue. I dont know if you plan to take public transportation or not, but if you're driving then your way into Evanston may be an extra 5 minutes or so, but nothing big. Crawford to Howard, and head east, and you're in Evanston. However, an alternative route would be to take Crawford to Church, and take Church east and make your way to your home - Church tends to be a faster road whenever I take it, hence why I avoid Emerson. (Actually now that I think about it the alternative route may be a faster commute because Howard can be rather hectic during rush hour). I chose what I think to be the fastest commutes during rush hour, and I tried to avoid the city for you when commuting back to Evanston, because it can get very congested during rush hour.

Other suburbs that you should consider that we all mentioned are outlined in red.

[Lookout Kid]

The Commute to Evanston would be faster. I'd take Western all the way down to Peterson. Western generally moves pretty quickly (Western is called Asbury north of Howard).

Grexian's map is a good general guide, but I wouldn't take the borders too literally. Of course there are exceptions throughout all of Evanston, and the only way to know if a certain block or neighborhood is decent is to check it out for yourself. Also, I worry about the effects of this sort of "redlining", but thankfully there aren't that many people reading this board.

I'm an architect and my wife works in design/advertising, so I can attest to Evanston being a good place for "artsy" types...