Oak Park??...moving to Chicago. (Fulton: apartments, leasing, crime)

[catch22]

Hello everyone,

I am a graduate student from Massachusetts and will be starting a doctoral program, in Chicago, come next Fall. I would like to move out to Illinois this summer, and so far have a lead on leasing an apartment in Oak Park...I've been told that Oak Park is a really nice place to be, especially for students my age. Is this true? (23-25 yrs. old)

I'm a female, so I am really concerned about relocating to a safe neighborhood...

There are Oak Park apartments available on W. Fulton St., Cuyler Ave., South Blvd. and N. Humphrey Ave.- to name a few. Are these streets in safe neighborhoods?

Also, are there any parts of Oak Park that are considered inner city?

Thanks so much!

[Drover]

Here's the deal: most of Oak Park is just as nifty as a penny-loafer. However, the eastern edge of Oak Park borders a particularly rough part of Chicago called Austin, and some of the urban issues in Austin affect the eastern edge of Oak Park. Humphrey Avenue is one block from Austin; Cuyler Avenue is three blocks from Austin; Fulton Avenue actually puts you in Austin; and South Boulevard may or may not be OK depending on the block number. Rule of thumb about living in Oak Park is you want to be at least as far west as Ridgeland Avenue, which puts half a mile between you and Austin. (It actually puts about a mile between you and the really bad part of Austin as opposed to the mildly bad part of Austin that directly borders Oak Park.)

[oakparkdude]

We moved from Somerville, MA to Oak Park about two years ago for work, and we love it here. The downtown area with restaurants and coffee shops is on the western part of town (Lake St and Harlem Ave). You'll probably want to live close to this area.

As Drover mentioned, crime tends to increase with proximity to the Austin Blvd. That being said, I think all of Oak Park is safe to walk around in the day time, and if you take reasonable precautions, even walking around at night is not a problem.