Are there bad parts in Oak Park? (Chicago, Cicero: apartments, crime rate)

[xraychick]

I'm a 23 year old girl looking into moving to Oak Park because I attend college in River Grove. I went to look at some apartments today in Oak Park on Lake and Humphrey which is right by West Suburban Hospital. I previously had heard that Oak Park was a really safe and great place to live.
Today I didn't think it looked so great, I don't know if it is just the area or if its just me. I recently live in a really bad neiborhood and really just want to get out of it, can anyone please tell me places I can move to where I'll be safe and be close to River Grove? I'm looking into moving into a studio or one bedroom apartment where it won't too expensive to live.

Thanks

[Drover]

Yes, a small sliver of Oak Park is pretty iffy, and sure enough, the apartment you saw is in that sliver. Humphrey and Lake is half a block from the Chicago neighborhood of Austin, which is quite a rough spot. Stay away from that apartment; about 4 to 8 blocks west of there should be fine. (And yes, 4 blocks can really make a big difference around here. Ask the Gold Coasters who live 4 blocks from Cabrini Green.)

[oakparkdude]

Crime in Oak Park is generally a function of distance to Chicago, more specifically, the Austin neighborhood of Chicago which is a high-poverty, high-crime neighborhood. Since Austin is east of Oak Park, the further west you live the less likely you will be a victim of crime. If I were you, I'd try to find a place near downtown Oak Park (Harlem and Lake). Not only is this part of OP generally safer, its probably the most fun place for students to live. Of course, the rents will probably be higher than on east Lake st, so its a trade-off.

You could also check out Forest Park, (around Madison st), which is also safe and has lots of restaurants and bars, and is probably a bit cheaper than OP. You could live in Elmwood Park or River Grove itself, both of which are safe, but probably more boring for college students.

[BRU67]

For years, the term "Ridgeland Line"was common in Oak Park -- which basically meant don't move east of Ridgeland. Not only did you have Austin but that's where all of Oak Park's, um, "diversity" lived. Today, the term is outdated to some degree because many areas east of Ridgeland are now very nice. Home prices have gone through the roof over the past 10 years (which has served to push out a good chunk of the riff raff) and Rescorp and the Oak Park Regional Housing Center have done a great job turning around many of the troublesome apartment buildings.

Still though, however nice it is, spillover from Austin has to be a real concern. Oak Park still has a very high crime rate because of this. Austin hasn't improved, and probably won't for the forseeable future. Your "sense of danger" was probably right on.

As to other places in the area, Forest Park is nice. On or around Madison is definitely the place to be. And don't forget neighboring Berwyn either. A very nice and underrated community that's seeing a rise in young people and cool bars and restaurants. The Roosevelt Road corridor between Berwyn and Oak Park is really starting to take off. Take Roosevelt to 1st Avenue and you'd be in River Grove in about 10 minutes.

[Iced Dragon]

Hi everybody,

hope you don't mind using this topic for my question?
My girlfriend will be visiting the USA for 5 weeks. She'll be staying in Oak park (Oak Park Ave.) and will work in North Ave (Elmwood Park). Anyway, it should take a 30 min walk between both places. Now, is this already a 'safe' area?
Ridgeland Ave. would be the first avenue to the east from Oak Park Ave. and Austin Ave. is the next.

Being foreign (Belgium), hope you don't mind this stupid question, but how do you define a 'block'? Is that between avenues or are there multiple blocks between avenues?


Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,
Bjorn

[mdz]

If she's walking from oak park avenue west to Elmwood Park, she'll be fine. perfectly safe as long as she uses the standard "city" precautions

a standard city block here is 1/8 of a mile.

Hope that helps.

[crbcrbrgv]

She's completely cool however I do have a friend who was robbed at gunpoint at the Oak Park mall. It was at 10 pm. Oak Park is the same as Chicago. If you look confident and appear to have a reason to be in a place nobody really bothers you. As for Oak Park safety I have to agree with the poster about east of Ridgeland becoming nicer. I would not recommend living east of Ridgeland south of the Eisenhower. Where Berwyn/Oak Park/Cicero meet on Roosevelt is heavily affected by the Austin neighborhood. Also, one of the worst parts of Cicero is 16th and Central over to Laramie. That's not too far away from southeast Oak Park.

[KevK]

Austin is quickly gentrifing with black professionals moving in and the ghetto scum moving out. I would not worry about Oak Park east.

[GoingMobile]

... and if you go too far west of River Forest (Bellwood, Maywood) the neighborhood gets iffy again in a hurry!

I work in the Bellwood/Maywood area. We've had all of the windows shot out of our offices last week (again, darned drive-bys!), and most of the retail and office space in the area has been abandoned for greener pastures. Maywood led all of the Chicagoland area 'burbs in murders last year.

Oak Park / River Forest is an nice affluent area in a sea of poverty/crime. I wonder how long it will be before they turn the entire area into a gated community.

[bobsmith319]

Areas of Oak Park near Chicago are not the best, all the other areas are great. Good Luck :-)