Got a job in Aurora! Help! (Chicago, Naperville: apartment complexes, crime, theatre)

[MissV]

Ok... well, thank you for all of your advice... I just accepted a teaching position in Aurora...Waubonsie High School. I would appreciate ANY advice ANYONE can give me... I am making the move from out of state and really don't know too much about the area.

A big question is where to live. I have heard Naperville is a fun town with decent apartments? And close by...Any advice on that? Or even specific apartment complexes?

Then there are the people that say I shouldn't even CONSIDER the suburbs since I am young and single... I just get the impression that a place in the city would be SMALL and EXPENSIVE... I need some space and I think I would be ok with heading into the city on the weekends?

I dunno! HELP PLEASE! Send me a private message if you want to take me under your wing and provide me with lots of advice, because I sure need it! I have AOL and MSN messenger, would love to chat on those with someone that is in a similar situation or feels that they can offer good advice...

Just FYI, I'm 26, single, a girl, a teacher... love to go out and have fun, but don't need to do that EVERY night. I like the going out scene where you can actually talk to people... Would love a place that offers a lot to people my age. Again, please help! Thanks so much.

[Steve-o]

Congrats on the job! Waubonsie is a great school! As for apartments, there are some right near the Fox Valley Mall, on all sides. There are some nice new ones about 2-3 miles from the school, on what I believe is 75th street. There are a bunch in Naperville as well, but theyre quite pricey. Aurora itself is not a great town, it has lots of problems, and is really the only bad suburb (higher crime, etc) out that far, the rest are nice and relatively quiet. There are Amli Apartments (luxury?) on Eola, also not too far from the school at all.

As for things to do, if you cant find something to do in that area, you must be dead. LOL There is shopping galore (Fox Valley Mall kinda sucks) all along Rt. 59 and pretty much any other road you take from there. Downtown Naperville is the perfect place if you like to socialize. There are lots of bars and clubs, nice restaurants, shopping, riverwalk, parks, etc... Naperville is consistently ranked in the top 10 cities in the USA by CNN, that should tell you something about it. Just watch out for the traffic, its horrible. Oh, there are also numerous festivals in Naperville, they have dozens of them year round. Great place to live!

[NannyinHE]

apartmentguide.com

that should give you an idea of the areas offerings, i think there is also an option on the page that says "whats around" or something like that.

[futrMrsJ]

Aurora, the area around fox valley is often referred to as "naperville" by businesses. I say that to say that the area around Fox Valley isn't bad - in fact it's the top rated school district in the state - but you already knew that.
The best advice I could give would be to drive around when you get a chance - and DO NOT move into Fox Valley villages - the atmosphere is dreary no matter when you go. At Christmas time you don't know it's Christmas until you get out of the complex - so if you want "community" stay away from there.
Amli at Oakhurst is nice and right down the street as Steve said.
I have a son that's in school at Young and there are some young (don't know about single) teachers there so I'd imagine you'd be able to make friends easily (many more at Waubonsie since it's a larger school). Hope that helps!

[emilysghost]

I live about a mile from the high school you are planning to work at. It's a nice area. I find it funny that most say "but Aurora is not that great" when the daily crime report from Chicago is disheartening.

I've lived and worked here for two and a half years. There is a downtown area that is tired and being renovated at the same time. There is a casino and a theatre there. Being that I live on the fringe on the east side of the city, near Naperville, it's pretty nice.

Rent for basic one room apartments on this side of Aurora seem to start around 800 dollars a month and can go up or down from there. You will pay more for the Naperville name but I recall investigating the Sherry Apartments and, while older and tired, did have a reasonable cost and was IN Naperville if just being there is important to you.

The last two stops on the BNSF line of the Metra are in Aurora. The 59th station has a huge parking lot and is in a good area. So there's your launching pad to Chicago if you don't care to drive there.

There are things to do in and around here. Naperville isn't that far away depending on where you live and I, unlike another poster, think the mall is just fine if you are "into" going to malls. I like to describe Rt 59 south of the Metra as the "land of crass commercialism" since there is almost every business you could think of along this road that divides Aurora and Naperville.

Naperville has a place called the River Walk and holds numerous festivals in and around this place. It's a very affuent community and has excellent schools from what I hear. I came here after many years in Indiana and did not raise my kids in these schools.

There are many communities to visit. I think Geneva is a nice place to visit as well and its not too far. I went to the Festival of the Vine last year and it was fun.

Please feel free to email me privately if you have specific questions. I have a daughter who is graduating music college and she is looking for her niche too.

Sherry

[Drover]

Uh, this thread is a year old. I suspect she's found an apartment and found her way around by now.

[rccastner]

Originally Posted by emilysghost

I live about a mile from the high school you are planning to work at. It's a nice area. I find it funny that most say "but Aurora is not that great" when the daily crime report from Chicago is disheartening.



Sherry

you obviously dont know what the hell your talking about. you live in the nicer part of aurora, id like to see you move into any part of the downtown or area surrounding downtown and see if you still think its funny that people say its bad.