How are the west burbs in Chicago?

[atamas]

Cicero is not recommended. The town never had warmth or a quiet feel to it; it's always been a hustle type of town that tends to suffocate you after living there a while.

For kids there is Morton College but there is no great tradition that inspires going to a University since I would argue that most residents are not college graduates.

Look elsewhere, if you want that area look at North Riverside or Oak Park. Further West to Naperville is better overall as long as your commute to work is reasonable.

[ihynes]

I live in Brookfield, 13 miles west of downtown Chicago - it's on the train lines and is a very cozy little suburb I would recommend to anyone who would like to live in the "urban suburban" communities. We have well-to-do communities to the east and west sides of us, so we have some amenities that come with that, and the benefit of their good schools, too. I don't know why anyone would recommend Wheaton, which is quite a long way from the city. It is only for religious fundamentalists. I lived there for almost two years and it was like being in an episode of the Twilight Zone. But I have to say, their elementary school art teacher was fantastic and the school in general was excellent.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by ihynes

I live in Brookfield, 13 miles west of downtown Chicago - it's on the train lines and is a very cozy little suburb I would recommend to anyone who would like to live in the "urban suburban" communities. We have well-to-do communities to the east and west sides of us, so we have some amenities that come with that, and the benefit of their good schools, too. I don't know why anyone would recommend Wheaton, which is quite a long way from the city. It is only for religious fundamentalists. I lived there for almost two years and it was like being in an episode of the Twilight Zone. But I have to say, their elementary school art teacher was fantastic and the school in general was excellent.

First, I too think Brookfield is a great suburb that has a nice mix of things, great train service via BNSF, central location for drving to many other areas. The eastern Hollywood section shares schools with Riverside and is especially desirable.

Second, the data from USNews about the high schools is good, confriming your experience with the elementary schools:
Wheaton Warrenville South High School: Best High Schools - USNews.com
Wheaton North High School: Best High Schools - USNews.com

Third, while Wheaton College is located near downtown Wheaton, and is well known for having a pretty solid fundamentalist basis, there are whole lot of faiths represented in town, from various immigrant/Asian churches, to mainline Cathoilic, Lutheran, and Orthodox and Presbyterian denominations. Moderator cut: link to a competitors site removed

Further, Wheaton is the County Seat of DuPage Co. and as such has a very active League of Women Voters, a whole swarm of attorneys of varying political views, and a lotof government employees that tend to be pretty supportive of Unions, which are hardly a hot bed of 'fundamentalism'.


It is not Oak Park, but neither is Wheaton, with its nearly 60,000 residents some freakish place: http://www.city-data.com/business/ec...-Illinois.html