What's so bad about Bolingbrook IL? (Chicago, Naperville: sales, apartment complexes, crime)

[Midrash]

Hi, everytime my partner and I mention that we are considering Bolingbrook as the place to buy our home, we are given the "Oh ... you don't want to live in Bolingbrook" response over and over again.

We don't have kids so school district is not an issue for now. However, even if we were to have kids soon, from what I can tell, the Bolingbrook elementary schools (Builta or Pioneer - I am looking in the western part of Bolingbrook, west of Weber road) are more than satisfactory.

We don't have the biggest budget, and the value you get in Bolingbrook is fantastic. We are happy to commute, so I'm racking my brain to figure out why it gets such a bad reputation. Is it just because of Drew Peterson?

We've been told about gangs in the area, but I wonder if there is any truth to that or if its just hearsay. How is the crime rate?

As far as I can tell, it seems just fine to me, is there something I'm missing?

[Irishtom29]

Bolingbrook has a considerable working class population and many Blacks too and is integrated both economically and racially therefore many bourgeois aren't keen on it. The neighborhoods ran the gamut from not so good apartment complexes to very nice houses as can be expected in a town that's not homogenized. There are many modest houses in Bolingbrook but the people that own them are earnest, hardworking and respectable.

There was no gang problem when I lived there a few years ago. Oh, you'd see kids hanging around some places but no big deal.

The schools are fine if your kids are fine. Both my daughters had no problem getting into U of I Urbana-Champaign from the public schools there; one girl was also accepted at Northwestern and U of Chicago but as I was paying the freight she went to U of I. Yeah, the schools are OK, they did their job.

Bolingbrook isn't cool but it's OK. Hell, when you get right down to it NO suburb is really cool anyway.

[JP_GoBucks]

I think the northwest side of Bolingbrook is ok, but yes it does have a bad rep. And that was before Drew Peterson. Not sure why, but just more crime there. Plainfield may be a better choice.

[ManheimMadman]

We live next to Bolingbrook in Romeoville. We also have friends who live near the so called "questionable" parts of Bolingbrook (53 & Lily Cache), and although the properties near there are older, they never get any trouble.

It is integrated in some parts, but not so much in others. The newer parts that hug the Naperville border and that have been built in the last decade or so are pretty nice- you can't really notice the Naperville/Bolingrbook division.

As far as gangs in the area- I believe so. My friend is a hispanic living near 53 & Lily Cache, and she says that her friends are gang members. When I asked her more about this, she said that they mostly were interested in drug sales and trafficking, and that's about it. BHS is a solid school that many people graduate from and succeed in life.

[lordinfamous]

Well You may not have to worry about the Elementary Schools, but BHS is awful. It is full of crime, fights and gangs. Constant rivalrys from Folk and People Nation Gangs in Bolingbrook. And if your thinking about having kids, chances are in Middle school they might be considered being recruited.

[ManheimMadman]

I just checked the report card for BHS. I hadn't realized that it went down the crapper that fast. 07 looked to be like a pretty bad year for them. Ouch.

[AaronK]

BHS is...severely black? Sorry to put it so bluntly, but these are not upper class folks, these are working class and lower class folk raising their children. And when you put them altogether, you get much racial strife. It is true that test scores have gone down over here over the last few years, because the parents do not value their kids education. I feel sorry for the teachers more than anything else.

Bolingbrook may be alright, depending on what section of town you're in, but I would make sure it is the part of town where your kids have the opportunity to go to a Plainfield school (if you ever have kids) and not the Bolingbrook school. It actually was just built, and reached capacity last year so they had to make a huge addition.

All in all I would stay away from this one strip: Joliet/Romeoville/Bolingbrook. Plainfield, Naperville, Lemont, Lockport, etc are all very decent. Naperville is too pricey though.

[noid_1985]

lol Bolingbrook isn't bad but that's just my opinion. I equate bad to suburbs like Maywood, Cicero, Harvey, North Chicago. Those suburbs are bad economically as well as everything else. My brother and I visit my cousin often and joke about him living in Baldwin Hills ( a TV Show based on teens in an affluent black neighborhood of LA) but his family lives west of Weber Rd., not in the notouriously BAD part of Bolingbrook 53 & Lily Cache

[crbcrbrgv]

Originally Posted by Midrash

Hi, everytime my partner and I mention that we are considering Bolingbrook as the place to buy our home, we are given the "Oh ... you don't want to live in Bolingbrook" response over and over again.

We don't have kids so school district is not an issue for now. However, even if we were to have kids soon, from what I can tell, the Bolingbrook elementary schools (Builta or Pioneer - I am looking in the western part of Bolingbrook, west of Weber road) are more than satisfactory.

We don't have the biggest budget, and the value you get in Bolingbrook is fantastic. We are happy to commute, so I'm racking my brain to figure out why it gets such a bad reputation. Is it just because of Drew Peterson?

We've been told about gangs in the area, but I wonder if there is any truth to that or if its just hearsay. How is the crime rate?

As far as I can tell, it seems just fine to me, is there something I'm missing?

It sounds to me like you need to stop telling your Naperville friends you are considering moving to Bolingbrook.

[Incognito Mosquito]

Bolingbrook's bark is worse than its bite when it comes to the negative reputation. I've lived on the west side of Weber Rd. (admittedly the "nice" part of town) for a year now and whenever I read the police reports it seems like 95% of the criminal activity is over in the older Rt. 53 area and points east. And even so I routinely shop in that area and have never felt unsafe. The Boughton/Hassert corridor between Weber and 59 blends together with Naperville and Plainfield and has a different feel from the older parts of Bolingbrook, so don't let any stereotypes about the town (whether there's truth to them or not) discourage you from that area.

I can't speak much to the schools or gang activity, but I will say that the stories I read in the paper and hear from others about BHS portray it as a little "rougher" than a typical west suburban high school, so if kids are in the picture down the road that's something to consider.

Like another poster said, it's all relative-- the worst parts of Bolingbrook are probably still better than the best parts of Maywood. So it's not terrible, it just ain't Naperville