Chicago-Ashburn, Beverly, Pill Hill, Morgan Park, Mount Greenwood (Oak Lawn, Orland Park: low crime, homes)

[mslibrarian]

Hello,

Relocating to Chicago soon and am interested in information on the following neighborhoods-Ashburn, Beverly, Pill Hill, Morgan Park, Mount Greenwood, etc. I would like information on Chicago taxes, housing prices, best schools in the area (public and private-A++++ schools only), shopping, diversity, etc. I would love to move to an area with low crime-if possible and the closest to the suburbs (or has a suburban feel). I have a family of four (two children). Any help would be appreciated.

[prairiestate]

I risked being flamed as a racist, but I'm simply stating a fact here. Ashburn, Pill Hill and Morgan Park are predominently black. Beverly is mixed. Mt. Greenwood is almost all white. I only mention race, because you may not feel comfortable living in a neighborhood where you're the only white or black family.Beverly's fairly safe, Mt. Greenwod is mostly cops and is very safe, the other neighborhoods are a bit high in crime. Again, just stating facts. The police blotter in the Daily Southtown regularly reports armed robberies and gang shootings in Ashburn, hardly ever in Mt. Greenwood. To be fair, I live in overwhelmingly white Oak Lawn, and we have a lot of armed robberies, along with the odd home invasion, car jacking or gang shooting. Still, it's a fairly safe area overall.

[prairiestate]

They're all nice middle class areas. Chatham/ Pill Hill are well within the city limits. The others are on the border. Mt. Greenwood is virtually identical to the surrounding suburbs. Homes will begin at the mid 200's at an absolute minimum, closer to 300,000 in Mt. Greenwood and 400,000 and much higher in Beverly.

Residential areas are fairly seggregated, except Beverly, but shopping areas, libraries, etc. are quite diverse, at least at the city limits. White, Black, Hispanic, Arab, Asian are all well represented.

Chatham/Pill Hill has a new Target, Home Depot, Best Buy and other major retailers with more to follow. Farther out, there is the new Wal-Mart in Evergreen Park, Target coming soon to Oak Lawn. Borders, Chipotle, and more in Beverly, with new shops under construction. A nice mall in Chicago Ridge, a full line of big box stores in Crestwood and Burbank, with some in Oak Lawn. Upscale shopping a 1/2 hour away in Orland Park. Not a whole lot in the way of unique local shopping though. 95th St. in Beverly is a bit disppointing right now, though hopefully that will change. There are some good restaurants in the area. A new French bistro in Beverly, and Chi Tung in Evergeen Park is wildly popular for Asian food (Chinese, Thai, Japanese).

Bus service is a bit lacking at the edge of the city, though you could probably get by with only one car. Metra - Rock Island line stops in Beverly and Morgan Park, the Metra Electric in Chatham/Pill Hill. Both will easily get you downtown.