Relocation Help! (Chicago, Aurora, Naperville: employment, transfer, neighborhoods)

[mansaba]

My wife and I are currently living in Iowa. We are moving to the Chicagoland area in a few months. We are not sure where to live. We have lived in Oak Park before and loved it. I am a social worker and she works in the financial industry. There's just not much here in Iowa. Any tips would be helpful.

[norska55]

To mansaba:
re: places to live. If you liked Oak park, you would like Evanston, It has Metra trainline directly to downtown Chicago and finan district. Also universities are adjacent to Evanston, for your social worker career. Evanston close to CHicago on North end, with many cultural activities. Expensive tho.

[mansaba]

What about the Naperville area? How is the social service industry there?

[Frank the Tank]

Originally Posted by mansaba

What about the Naperville area? How is the social service industry there?

Naperville is probably no better and no worse than the Chicago area overall in terms of employment for social workers. In terms of the financial sector, the area has a large number of corporate jobs compared to a lot of suburbs since corporate headquarters line up along I-88 from Naperville to Oak Brook. Personally, I live in Naperville and love it (great downtown, solid Metra service to the Loop, top public schools), but it might be worth seeing where you and your husband end up working since you don't want to be stuck with too long of a commute.

[mansaba]

That's very true...I have heard many great things about Naperville...But you're right, the commute may be bad. How is the international community in Naperville? Are there many good ethnic restuarants?

[Frank the Tank]

Sorry - I meant you and your wife! There's a great selection of ethnic restaurants (probably as good as you can get outside of the Chicago city limits) and the Asian population, in particular, is pretty sizeable. Since Naperville is often on the short list of places for corporate transferees, there's a good number of expats relative to most suburbs. You should also know that Naperville is pretty large - about 12 times the size of the Winnetka and twice the size of Evanston - so there's a good amount of variation between neighborhoods in terms of character and pricing.

[mansaba]

Good reply. Thanks for your insight into Naperville. I think it is a city of interest. what does anyone else think of Naperville?

[laney28]

I love Naperville for the shopping and diversity of cultures. Great schools. The negative is the traffic on the main artery of Route 59 heading towards I 88 into the city.

[mansaba]

What is your favorite place to shop in Naperville. Give me some details on the shopping (my wife needs to know

[laney28]

Naperville has a LOT of unique shops downtown. They have a Talbots downtown, they have a bunch of little boutiques.

Off of route 59 you have just about everything. Sams/Walmart/BBB/Linens and Things/ Old Navy/ Ulta/ etc etc etc

Cross the street of Route 59 and you are in Aurora, where there is the fox valley mall. H and M, Carsons, Marshall fields..oh thats right its macys now. Strike that.

Go down a few miles and you get to bollingbrook, were there is a nice new Ikea.

Head west on 88 for a few miles and you have the Aurora Premium Outlet mall. Kate Spade, Versace, etc etc .

It rivals woodfield for shopping.