different commutes ? (Chicago, Naperville, Oak Lawn: to rent, homes, good schools)

[NcerfromNY]

Hi - so we've accepted the Chicago job. Woop! We're working on where to live next. Ideally I'd like to rent for 6 months until we can figure out where we want to be. In the meantime - can you all give me some idea of commutes from the following towns - assume arrival into Central Chicago at around 7:00AM, depart downtown at about 4:00.

I'm wondering about these towns:
Crystal Lake
Naperville
Oswego

Please don't offer the train schedule -- he'll be in different sites, sometimes daily, and will have to be back and forth between sites all day (some of which don't have stations nearby)

Thank you!!

[Avengerfire]

All of them are not good commute wise in a car. Do you have any idea where the work areas will be?

[NcerfromNY]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

All of them are not good commute wise in a car. Do you have any idea where the work areas will be?

downtown - he'll be in various schools daily in CPS. He's prepared for an hour commute - is that realistic, or are the areas listed more like 2 hour at that time ?

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by NcerfromNY

downtown - he'll be in various schools daily in CPS. He's prepared for an hour commute - is that realistic, or are the areas listed more like 2 hour at that time ?

They all are most certainly (for the most part) one hour each-bare minimum-not factoring in weather and other variables.

[chirack]

I think you either need to choose a burb that is near to the city or live in the city itself if you need to drive. Think Oak park, Forrest park ect. Also in what areas are thoose sites? The city itself has some nasty traffic at times.

Another thing he needs to check out is parking, basically there is almost no parking downtown and the traffic is bad. However there are lots of cabs and the downtown area isn't that large(i.e. he could cab it around). I am also confused by you saying that he is working downtown but the sites are not near train stations. Downtown Chicago has the best coverage via public transit of any area in the state.

Do you mean he will be driving around CPS schools located all over chicago rather than in downtown chicago??

[NcerfromNY]

Originally Posted by chirack

I think you either need to choose a burb that is near to the city or live in the city itself if you need to drive. Think Oak park, Forrest park ect. Also in what areas are thoose sites? The city itself has some nasty traffic at times.

Another thing he needs to check out is parking, basically there is almost no parking downtown and the traffic is bad. However there are lots of cabs and the downtown area isn't that large(i.e. he could cab it around). I am also confused by you saying that he is working downtown but the sites are not near train stations. Downtown Chicago has the best coverage via public transit of any area in the state.

Do you mean he will be driving around CPS schools located all over chicago rather than in downtown chicago??

the schools won't be limited to just the loop- they will be all over the city limits of Chicago. We have 3 kids - 7, 3, 1 and relish life with a yard, space in the house, the trappings of suburban life. we've lived in the suburbs of ny and commuted and also the burbs of DC and commuted. He's not afraid of a commute, we just want to understand what the commute is like at different times of day from the different suburbs.

thanks for the info on the areas to check out within the city limits!

[chet everett]

Anything to the NW will be SEVERALLY bottlenecked at the end of the NW tollway / start of the Kennedy, plus to get to any south side area it would necessary to use the Dan Ryan, which has very heavy volumes of trucks and is laid out very inefficiently. For those reasons I would scratch Crystal Lkake or other NW suburbs off your list given the driving necessary in his job.

Anything west of Hillside gets bottlenecked at the end of the E-W Tollway/ start of the Eisenhower. Despite some reconfiguration the high volumes of cars and service oriented vehicles makes this miserable, combined with a very long commute to this choke point few people that live in Naperville and can take commuter rail brave the driving.

Oswego is mostly surrounded by Naperville, any traffic problems are shared.

Given your husband's need to drive it would be prudent to give serious thought to closer in suburbs. I would give serious thought to Brookfiled, Riverside, Oak Park, Park Ridge and maybe Oak Lawn. For the most part these are more traditional suburbs but the homes do have yards and parks, good schools, easier access to Chicago...

[chicagojlo]

Does the requirement to live in Chicago only apply to teachers at CPS?

[NcerfromNY]

Originally Posted by chicagojlo

Does the requirement to live in Chicago only apply to teachers at CPS?

I don't know - I know that it does not apply to my husband, who will be serving a contract with CPS. I expect that his team will probably be living either within city limits or very nearby. (the teams onsite daily at the same schools)

[chirack]

Chet everett suggestions are good suburbs to look at. From downtown Chicago to oak park and most of the burbs he mentioned can be up to an hour in rush hour traffic, but without traffic it is down to 30 mins or less. In addition the Western burbs are near the western boarder of Chicago so travel times to the west side of Chicago will be lower than that.

The city itself is rather large and not everything is near an expressway, so their may be times his commute will be a little longer than 1 hour no matter which near burb he chooses. Also see where the locations he needs to vist are.

Oakpark and the west burbs are fine if he mostly needs to go to the west side and maybe the near north or northside but if the schools he needs to vist are on the far south side it makes less sense.