Tell me about Cicero (Chicago, Berwyn: apartments, homes, neighborhood)

[gardener34]

Lived in Cicero for 7 years. Not much good to say about it.
Berwyn is a better bet if you insist on living that close to the downtown. Oak Park and Lagrange are pretty expensive if you are on a budget.

[jo_bee]

Originally Posted by chalet

I live in berwyn and find it better than cicero. it's just the next town over. i live near cermak, which is close to I-290 and also to I-55. The mall is also very near. I work in downtown chicago and take the green line "L" to work. It's about less than 20 min on the "L"

The area I live in has a lot of 3 flats. rent i think is average 700-1200.

I have never heard of Berwyn and everyone saying it's just a dump on the southside with gangs, drugs, crime, etc. But thanks for changing my view on it.

[bobsmith319]

Do your self a favor and don't move to Cicero. Its filled with gang activity and excessive poverty. Not a reccomended place to live. Oak Park is great, east access to Chicago via CTA. Has great schools, higih taxes though. I have been told that areas of Oak Park near Chicago are bad. Otherwise I would pick Oak Park over Cicero.

[crbcrbrgv]

Skip Cicero and live in Berwyn. It's much nicer and has better schools.

[bungalowdweller]

Originally Posted by NSH

From 1920-1980 if you weren't Italian and from Cicero you were not greeted with any type of welcome.

The new mayor is trying to clean up the image as a haven of drugs, prostitution, and 24 hour taverns.

They also cater to the elderly, the mostly Caucasian voting population in town. If you are over 65, own a home in town for 5 or more years then the town pays for just about any repairs that are needed including new roofs, shoveling snow, mowing grass, and taxi service. Not a bad deal.

Have not heard of any resurgence lately as Cicero making any type of comeback with Caucasians but I don't see why not, it is close to downtown, has oodles of public transportation options and is a very interesting place.

I'll be interested to hear what others who live in the area have to say.

1. Cicero had HUGE numbers of Czechs, Slovaks, Irish and Lithuanians. After the Prague Spring of 1968, many young Czech and Slovak refugees sought refuge there. The Czechs opened so many banks on Cermak Road that the street was known as "Bohemian Wall Street" because of the huge deposits in those banks. The idea that one had to be Italian is urban myth created by outsiders. It's nonsense.

2. Although the program for seniors in Cicero was more generous in the past, benefits are limited to $500 a year now. There is a senior bus taking residents to the doctor, definately NOT a taxi service!

3. Cicero has not had a problem with prostitution for a l-o-n-g time! The former town president, the charismatic but controversial Betty Loren Maltese, put an end to it. She conducted endless stings and the names and towns of the johns were printed in the paper. Mostly out-of-towners relying on old info. Traditionally prostitution occurred along Cicero Avenue at the border of Cicero and Chicago. Most of it is gone on the Cicero side of town. People got tired of being busted and went elsewhere.

We have NO 24 hour taverns in Cicero. They, too, are LONG gone. They were a throwback to the glory days of 24 hour factories such as HotPoint and Western Electric. Men would go in after shifts. The people of Cicero didn't want that rep anymore and we got rid of them! Again, it was Betty Loren Maltese who got rid of them.

The same with porn bookstores. Betty Loren Maltese changed zoning laws forcing those "establishments" off of main streets like Roosevelt Road and into industrial areas.

There have always been hip people who live in Cicero. My neighbor is a dancer/teacher. Her dance specialty? Maori and Middle Eastern. A well known married couple, both professional ballet dancers, live here. We have an assortment of publishers, writers, poets, musicians, museum professionals and other assorted mucky-mucks who have lived here quietly for a long time. Why do we live here? The police don't take any guff, we love our homes, (mine was highlighted in American Bungalow Magazine) taxes are relatively low and the location is outstanding.

Why no gentrification? Politics is my guess. We're getting too many illegals in town and their presence drives out prosperous, legal Latinos who don't want to live among them.

I think that Berwyn is next for white interest, i.e. gentrification, but only if the city puts out the welcome mat for small biz like Forest Park did. And refuses to give the gangs an inch. Although many in Berwyn think that everyone who lives in Cicero is bad news, it ain't so. I have many friends in Berwyn and wish the town all the best.

The Best part of Cicero? The Warren Park area, north-west, from 16th Sts to 22nd Sts and 57th Ave to the western border at 61st Court. I have a gorgeous house that I couldn't get anywhere else for what I paid for it. I'm 4 blocks from Oak Park and minutes away from anything in Forest Park, Berwyn, River Forest, etc. A friend of mine owns three houses in town.

I hate the "element" but love the location. I don't walk at night anymore but I wouldn't do it ANYWHERE. My family are old Oak Parkers and no one we know walks at night.

I think it'll take at least another 10 years for Cicero to be discovered by whites although young, hip Latinos are already building lofts off of 22nd St. I've lived here for 14 years and have seen all the changes. The gang situation has vastly improved--I know they're out there but I don't see them anymore. What has worsened? The rat problem is worse because the slobs refuse to close their garbage cans. And the illegal population and subsequent overcrowding. And inner-city blacks being displaced by Daley's gentrification on the west side of the Chicago are coming into the town (living mainly along Roosevelt Road) bringing their problems with them.

We're a town with a superior location and there are lots of us who are sitting here and waiting to see what happens.

[pandabear]

I remember back in 1998 me and my buddies in high school decided to go for a cruise down roosevelt road in glen ellyn one summer night. We figured hey lets se how far this road goes.. well we wound up in cicero..and i can tell you this.. we had some friends in the car that were african american and they wanted to turn around even more than we did..the place just looked scary. i havent been there since, but i cant immagine a place like that changing very much for the better.

[triton1]

if you are looking for safety, the safest parts of cicero are on the south end, especially from 35th street southward. the north end of town, especially between cermak and roosevelt east of austin blvd has a lot of gangs, crime, and violence.

[nanannie]

If the "Sopranos" were in Illinois,,they would live in Cicero

[prinsessa]

I live in Cicero and I don't think it is that bad. There are some bad parts, but there aren't many places that don't have bad areas. We live on the south side of Cicero and are only a couple of blocks from Berwyn. There isn't much crime around here (from what I see) except for bikes and stuff getting taken out of yards. There isn't much variety when it comes to restaurants. There are Mexican, Italian, and maybe one or two tiny Chinese fast food restaurants.

Some things I don't like about Cicero is the lack of variety in restaurants, schools aren't the best, and it is kind of boring. I don't think the crime is that bad, but I grew up in Chicago. One thing I love about living here is that there are tons of kids. My kids always have someone to play with.

[gardener34]

Prinsessa - your area is a nice area of cicero. Also the part that is north of cermak right off austin(?) there... some really nice art deco and bungalows there. We never had much crime when we lived there, but we protected and locked everything up all the time. Once someone tried to jimmy open our garage door but failed.
But those were the betty loren-maltese days - and their crew kept the gangs in check I think. I don't know about the new regime there.
When we lived there there was lots of good polish restaurants - now all mexican restaurants.
Cicero has always been the town where the immigrants start at.
We lived in a 2-flat right by the hawthorne racetrack off laramie there - by morton community college.