south suburbs? (Chicago, Oak Lawn, Orland Park: low crime, new home, neighborhood)

[j33]

I always remembered Olympia Fields being very nice when I grew up in the south burbs in the 80's. In fact, my sister and I used to ask our parents to take us over there to go trick or treating on halloween when we were kids, our 'kid reasoning' of course being that rich people would give out better candy

[justfour]

where do you get people moved to mokena, frankfort, new lenox, tinley park- because they were scared?

[MarquettePark]

Typical, Chicago Real Estate agent paranoria, when Marquette Park, became racially mixed, real estate agents preyed on the fears of white residents, by telling them, that they should move as far south and west as soon as possible, before their property values dropped.

Not to get off subject, but I have always believed the real estate companies, are the cause of Chicago's racial problems,

My agent told me to move to Mokena, Frankfort, and Tinley, bypassing all the other south burbs, if I wanted to be safe, and have a long term residence,

[Drover]

Originally Posted by MarquettePark

Typical, Chicago Real Estate agent paranoria, when Marquette Park, became racially mixed, real estate agents preyed on the fears of white residents, by telling them, that they should move as far south and west as soon as possible, before their property values dropped.

Not to get off subject, but I have always believed the real estate companies, are the cause of Chicago's racial problems,

Well, which is it? Did they cause the racial problems or prey on the pre-existing racial problems? I don't mean to be patronizing, but to blame social problems hundreds of years in the making on real estate agents is spectacularly fatuous.

[formula409]

lmao... funny I grew up blocks from Marquette Park

I remember being a kid and asking my dad to go to the park, he replied NO not today.. as there was a KKK rally going on.... on the same day as Martin Luther King march and you asked why where people scared.. lol Now who wants that drama, no matter what race you are... do you? But we continued to live in the area for another 10 years and every year it got worse... not because of race but because of bad attitudes and dumb azzes!

I then I lived for a short time in the west lawn area (just as bad) You know something about being shot at makes ya wanna leave... and now being a husband and father it was time for a change.

We moved the Orland area, not because a real estate agent told me to but because I did some research. Now being here for over 10 years I know I made the right decision. My wife and I both work in the area, we don't have to go far for Anything and schools here surprised me how they actually cared about my child's education... a far cry from the Chicago school sys. The parks are clean and well kept... and every time you turn around there building new ones. There's all kinds of sport teams and activity's to keep your kids busy. I'm very happy to say that I'm raising my kids here.

[jettsetter]

The thing with the south suburbs is that you either got the nice towns or the bad towns. The nice towns unfortunately are the most expensive and have the better school systems. All the rest are affordable but the school systems aren't the best. The better neighborhoods are Flossmoor, Olympia Fields, Western parts of Matteson, Western parts of Country Club Hills, Frankfurt, Mokena, Tinley Park, Orland Park and Orland Hills, Oak Forest, Parts of Oak Lawn, Burbank, Hickory Hills, the Palos Area and Homer Glen. The not so good areas are everything else. Not to be taken as racist-coming from a black person -but a lot of the south towns are being inhabited by misplaced public housing city dwellers. Unfortunately they bring along their inner city lifestyles so you see the quality of once nice burbs like Homewood, Hazel Crest and Richton Park going downhill. There is also a big presence of Middle Class Blacks moving into the area who are reviving towns such as Matteson. The whites that were once in these towns started moving over west into Frankfurt, Mokena, Tinley Park, and New Lenox leaving the other towns predominantly Black.

[yevette1820]

If you are not afraid of diversity, there are many wonderful communities in the southern suburbs. The Homewood-Flossmoor community is a high income community with Blue ribbon schools. It is a GREAT community and my family has been happy here for 15 years.

[pfull]

Some of your responses about the "black" south suburbs of Chicago are just too much. It's true that stories can be passed down by generations in poor areas such as Midlothian and previously Crestwood (before the new mall)- just to make one feel better than the other. To tell you the truth, because of bussing, all the neighboring towns go to the same schools- by the way...who makes up the values of property anyways? white men!!!! why should they lower their own homes values-

[Paxtonian]

The people lowering the values don't live there, they engage in "block-busting" as a business premise. How it's done is easy, in an area near the edge of the white and black areas, a couple of houses are bought by the realtor and black families move in. Then a rumor campaign is started to frighten the locals into selling before prices plummet because the neighborhood has "turned". The realtor then buys up the houses at seriously reduced prices and resells them to black families at a profit. After this, they go on to the next edge area and repeat the process. My Mom grew up in Englewood, this is the process the realtors did there. Racism on both sides in Chicago is a reality, I'm white and I recall lividly getting hit with a block of ice tossed into our car when I was a kid. Why did they do it? Becuase we were driving through a black area. I'm lucky I just happened to have the window down when they tossed it (the heater in our Ford was stuck on high). Racism is wrong period, from either side as far as I'm concerned. However, un-racist I may be, I'm not daft enough to go back to see my Mom's old house in Englewood, it's far too dangerous. We know it still exists from satellite pictures.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by jettsetter

There is also a big presence of Middle Class Blacks moving into the area who are reviving towns such as Matteson. The whites that were once in these towns started moving over west into Frankfurt, Mokena, Tinley Park, and New Lenox leaving the other towns predominantly Black.

Maybe I'm ignorant on the subject, but I didn't know Matteson was ever in need of reviving. It seemed to me that middle- and upper-middle-class whites were being replaced with middle- and upper-middle-class blacks and that the quality of the town itself never really went anywhere. Thoughts?