Wheaton, Glynn Ellen, Elmhurst, or LaGrange? (Hanover Park, Bartlett: houses, neighborhoods, wedding)

[laurenlb]

My family and I are looking to relocate to the west suburbs. We are looking for a great downtown area, that we can walk to with good restaurants. Family friendliness is very important. A good parks/rec department is also important. Mostly, we are looking for a true "community" feel among its residents. Can anyone help us out?

[ahava]

You'll find that in all four of those towns. What's your price range and where will you be working? Those are the factors I'd use to decide.

[JenGD]

Glen Ellyn is an amazing town... great downtown, range of housing, great schools (note: Glenbard West is considered a little better than South), rolling terrain, lake ellyn, land-locked, hip downtown thearter, great park district, not super yuppy, mix of liberal and conservative, great shopping options in wheaton, the downtown hasn't been overrun by chain stores and restaurants, it's just lovely. It would be my choice of the 4 you mentioned.

Wheaton is really nice too... although there are some less desirable neighborhoods. Overall it has a really nice downtown, great park district, good mix of shopping options. It's very beautiful like Glen Ellyn. You should know that it is very conservative.

Elmhurst is nice... but can get a little "keeping up w/ the jones-ish." Smaller lots, good schools -- but some of the grade schools are better than others, mix of housing options.

Parts of LaGrange are really nice, and others not as cute... don't know to much else about it though.

[irish setter girl]

I can only comment on the Glen Ellyn and Wheaton burbs. I don't know enough on the others to give you an accurate picture. Both Wheaton and GE are great. There are excellent public schools, parks, private schools, preschool programs and the access to restaurants/shops/expressways is great. Downtown Wheaton and downtown GE are very similar in terms on the type of house you will find. GE allows for more tear downs than Wheaton and the price tag in downtown Glen Ellyn will be more than Wheaton. South Wheaton is more subdivisionish if that is what you are looking for. The southern part of GE has large subdivisions as well. Parts of Wheaton attend GE schools. In my personal opinion I think both districts are great. Both communities have active park districts and both have that "tight family feel". You can drive through both towns and see people hanging out with neighbors, families walking up town for ice cream, people walking to the library etc... Both have access to metra and the Prairie Path which is a great feature. As for Wheaton being conservative, this is true to a certain extent but it is not something to scare anyone off. I am far from the typical Wheatonite and I've lived here most of my life and know lots of people on both side of the conservative fence and we all get along just fine

Good luck to you in your decision.

[InformedConsent]

Originally Posted by JenGD

Elmhurst is nice... but can get a little "keeping up w/ the jones-ish." Smaller lots, good schools -- but some of the grade schools are better than others, mix of housing options.

Elmhurst's high school drops off quite a bit. Be careful. There's definitely academic issues going on there, but the administration and the school board only seem intent on addressing facilities issues.

Their strategic planning consultants (ECRA Group) found the following problems, which haven't been addressed:

- Information for program effectiveness is not developed and communicated to faculty and administrators to monitor the quality of the instructional program and make systematic changes.

- There is a great need for improved alignment of the curriculum and instructional program as well as academic standards throughout all District 205 schools.

- Lack of alignment is leading to students advancing to the next educational level without being fully prepared.

- The achievement of students as they progress from primary grade levels to intermediate grade levels to middle school to high school is not effectively assessed or communicated. Therefore, teachers are not aware of the strengths and limitations of their students prior to receiving them at the beginning of the school year, and are not provided timely information as to the academic achievement of their students during the school year.

- There is no internal district assessment system to effectively monitor and improve the instructional program. The district uses external assessments to produce achievement data, but nothing is done with the data to make it useful in improving the quality of education in the district.
-- ECRA Group's May 2008 Strategic Planning Report

And yet you'll see people who post on this forum - especially those who live in Elmhurst - say that Elmhurst's residents value education. The problem is, they have absolutely no idea that their schools' academics and their students' achievement are not on par with other similar suburban schools, or that the problems listed above are detrimental to the quality of their schools. It must just be a mantra that they blindly accept and repeat - 'we have good schools.' They feel good about it, but no one looks at the town's schools closely enough to see what's really going on.

[Lookout Kid]

La Grange is the only one of those communities that appeals to me personally, but all of them are nice communities with the qualities you seek. I think La Grange has the best downtown of the bunch, however. And it's got a more traditional town feel to it, with sidewalks, etc. Wheaton also has a nice downtown and some historic areas, but most of it is newer development.

[cdc3217]

I've driven around LaGrange recently, and I did see a lot of kids walking and riding bikes. Also younger kids playing in front of houses. Both La Grange and La Grange Park have what appear to be strong Park Disricts, and I think they're moving/rebuilding Richport YMCA right in there somewhere.

It has a fairly large historic area, where the vast majority of the homes have been maintained/restored. There are sections that were developed later than are more ranch-y or bungalow-y, and the housing prices vary accordingly. One thing I like about La Grange is that is does have a little more income and racial diversity than some other Western 'burbs (although this may be marginal, not sure.)

The schools seem to perform very strongly - Lyons Twshp HS has strong performance on IL School report cards. As others have said its got a nice downtown area and its a quick ride downtown via Metra.

[Honeyberdy]

Wheaton is a tad expensive, but the best of those four. The school district is a little better than the other three. My favorite part has to be the downtown area. There are at least 10 restaurants to choose from, many of them fairly new. A lot of the shops are not chain stores, so it has much more of a community feel. This makes exploring the downtown a good experience because you don't know what to expect until you actually go into every store. It is a very family friendly place. After school on weekdays and on weekends, you can see a lot of pre-teen/teenagers walking around with their friends.

Glen Ellyn is similar, just not as much. A lot of their downtown buildings are the same yellow-sh brick color which I think is a little bland compared to the larger variation of architecture in Wheaton.

Can't say much about the other two.

[Roxy14]

Originally Posted by laurenlb

My family and I are looking to relocate to the west suburbs. We are looking for a great downtown area, that we can walk to with good restaurants. Family friendliness is very important. A good parks/rec department is also important. Mostly, we are looking for a true "community" feel among its residents. Can anyone help us out?

If you are looking in that general location you should also check out south Hanover Park....houses are VERY reasonable, lots are big, neighborhoods are friendly and it is so easy to get to stores/recreation facilities. It is just on the outskirts of expensive Bartlett homes.....check it out!

[fairmarketvalue]

Originally Posted by irish setter girl

I can only comment on the Glen Ellyn and Wheaton burbs. I don't know enough on the others to give you an accurate picture. Both Wheaton and GE are great. There are excellent public schools, parks, private schools, preschool programs and the access to restaurants/shops/expressways is great. Downtown Wheaton and downtown GE are very similar in terms on the type of house you will find. GE allows for more tear downs than Wheaton and the price tag in downtown Glen Ellyn will be more than Wheaton. South Wheaton is more subdivisionish if that is what you are looking for. The southern part of GE has large subdivisions as well. Parts of Wheaton attend GE schools. In my personal opinion I think both districts are great. Both communities have active park districts and both have that "tight family feel". You can drive through both towns and see people hanging out with neighbors, families walking up town for ice cream, people walking to the library etc... Both have access to metra and the Prairie Path which is a great feature. As for Wheaton being conservative, this is true to a certain extent but it is not something to scare anyone off. I am far from the typical Wheatonite and I've lived here most of my life and know lots of people on both side of the conservative fence and we all get along just fine

Good luck to you in your decision.

Isn't it funny how Wheaton keeps getting refered to as "conservative"? While I understand how and why that came to be, That was many decades ago. I actually wish our new neighbors were a little more "conservative" as there are bar-b-q's every weekend until wee hours of the night. Don't get me wrong, we've been to a few and lots of fun. My point here is that I don't think at this point in life, Wheaton is any more conservative than the rest of the suburbs in DuPage County. DuPage county is predominantly Republican but there are also liberals among us, Wheaton included. There is a strong sense of "faith" in the Wheaton community but it doesn't make them "conservative". Lots of strong catholic influences that love to have a good time and are pretty sure they won't "go to hell" if they do so. I'm starting to think this reputation is based on the fact that it is a tight knit community with that "sense of community" so many seek. We just attended a wedding last night for one of our freinds daughters, born and raised in Wheaton and we had a GREAT time (paying for it today). Most of the brides' guests were from and still living in Wheaton. We, too, have lived here for almost 18 years and I have never had any discussion or "road block" from one of these "conservatives" everyone refers to. It's just a great town and you will love it if you choose here or any of the other 3 communities you inquired about on this thread topic. Good luck and welcome to the area.