What's the best neighborhood for me? (Chicago, Lincoln: real estate, home, neighborhoods)

[Jon43214321]

I currently know no one in the city; I would like to be in a place where opportunities are most rife for meeting others around my age (I am 21). Price is probably not an issue.

[chirack]

price might not be an issuse but travel time to work or school maybe. Anyway Lincoln park and lakeview are your best bets followes by bucktown.

[aragx6]

Will you be working in the loop? or elsewhere?

[Jon43214321]

price might not be an issuse but travel time to work or school maybe. Anyway Lincoln park and lakeview are your best bets followes by bucktown.

Thanks. What most distinguishes the three? (I am looking then for factors to help me decide between the three of them.)

Will you be working in the loop? or elsewhere?

Thanks, I don't mind a commute (assuming that's why you ask).

[OhAcid]

Originally Posted by Jon43214321

Thanks. What most distinguishes the three? (I am looking then for factors to help me decide between the three of them.)

There are thousands of sources available on the internet with information about each of these neighborhoods and more. Also the forum has dozens of threads on each of these neighborhoods too. Why don't you research them yourself since you're the one moving and know what distinguishing features you are looking for.

[css9450]

Originally Posted by Jon43214321

Thanks, I don't mind a commute (assuming that's why you ask).

You do have a job, though, don't you? Its OK to tell us what part of town its in. You'll get better advice that way.

If you're working at someplace like 130th and Avenue O you'll really get tired of commuting from Lakeview.

[aragx6]

If you're not going to help us help you, why should we bother to give you advice? If you worked in the southern 'burbs and we told you to live in Andersonville, we'd clearly be doing you a huge disservice.

[Jon43214321]

There are thousands of sources available on the internet with information about each of these neighborhoods and more. Also the forum has dozens of threads on each of these neighborhoods too. Why don't you research them yourself since you're the one moving and know what distinguishing features you are looking for.

Yes, yes. Others might be know the best sources of this information and be able to priovide it to me quite easily (rather than me searching around for it), so it is worth asking. One would assume that if they feel all too inconveinenced by the request, they will simply not go out of their way to respond.

Some reservations from what I looked at so far...

Lincoln Park:

"Lincoln Park is more of a mix between college students due to DePaul and then mid to late twenties and early thirties nightlife."
"Lincoln Park is more of a mix between college students due to DePaul and then mid to late twenties and early thirties nightlife."

Perhaps this would leave me at a strange in-beween age-wise for meeting other folks? I will be nearly 22 by the time I move to one of these neighborhoods. There's a large distinction between a 22 and a 26 or 27 year old, and often even between a 22 and a 25 year old. As far as the college kids, nearly half of them would be a little young (18 and 19; maybe I'm overestimating the difference in this aspect?)--- truly I don't mind people that are a bit younger, but I feel college kids tend to mingle among college kids; altogether doesn't seem like the ideal situation for me meeting other folks.
In all other aspects, I quite like the Lincoln Park area, from what I know of it.

Lakeview:

"Lakeview is a larger neighborhood that has many different 'pockets'"; "offers more, at a better price, IMO"; "Lakeview is cheaper than Lincoln Park"; "Lakeview tend to be the fresh out of college crowd"...

That all sounds great! But then at disecting the individual neighborhoods...
-Lakeview East/North Halstead- Gay communities. Cool, but I'm not a gay man. I'm hoping to meet straight, single females.
-West/North Lakeview- "Affordable real estate and popular culture, such as that found along busy Southport Avenue, draws young adults from all over the city for quiet living or casual dining (Wikipedia)." "...has a healthy dining and bar scene with a few comfortable venues for a laidback drink or nice meal..." I get the impression that this is more of a tame area; not exactly what I want. Also, "no CTA train stops in West Lakeview, access to them is easy with the Belmont bus"- this could get annoying.
-Wrigleyville- The sports culture is cool and fun and all, but I'm really not that into baseball, or sports in general for that matter. Perhaps I shouldn't put too much emphasis on this aspect of the area?
I realise it's likely I'm missing a great deal here--- "Lakeview is a large neighborhood that has many different 'pockets'".

Bucktown:

"...a hip, urban area full of chic boutiques, galleries and restaurants. Carefully restored workers cottages and residences are now home to artists and young professionals..."

From what I've read so far, I don't see a huge downside to this area. I am aware that everyone seems to mention this along with Wicker Park. I am aware that Wicker Park is seen as very "hipster"; I know little about this whole sub-culture. I adore music and quite like "independent" sort of establishments, whether they be bars or coffee shops or whatnot, which I believe is supposed to be associated with this culture? I dress rather "upside of casually"- collered shirt and jeans, more or less--- I'm assuming it isn't TOO exculusive of a feel to the area, and perhaps this is the best option for me of the three?
Why does everyone mention this option as an extra to the first two? Is it simply a less popular area? Is there any reason I would have any more difficulty meeting folks here than in the other areas?

You do have a job, though, don't you? Its OK to tell us what part of town its in. You'll get better advice that way.

If you're working at someplace like 130th and Avenue O you'll really get tired of commuting from Lakeview.

I would just rather dial in this factor myself at a later time than get off-topic, especially as it is less of a priority to me. But thank you!

[Jon43214321]

If you're not going to help us help you, why should we bother to give you advice? If you worked in the southern 'burbs and we told you to live in Andersonville, we'd clearly be doing you a huge disservice.

You wouldn't, as like I said, the commute time is low on the priority list. I'd rather factor this in myself later than everyone factor it in for me, as I can do that myself. What I need from others is the knowledge I don't have; I don't want peoples' suggestions to be restricted by this qualifier. I am willing to make compromises occupation-wise to be in an ideal area. Pretend I have fallen into extreme wealth and have no commute time at all. (So please let's not defer from the main topic.) Thank you!

[chirack]

Here is some advice:

I think you don’t have much idea about the size of the Chicago land area. It could take an hour just to cross the city itself and more than an hour to get to the far burbs. CTA el access and metra access is not evenly spread throughout the city and if you need a car to drive there are locations in the city of Chicago where parking is a nightmare(Lincoln park, parts of lake view and bucktown) fall into this category. In this town rush hour is from 6:30/7:00am to 9:00am and from 4pm to 6pm and rush hour often doubles your commute time. In addition if you need to get to the loop odds are you won’t be driving due to parking costs and traffic. It is very important to know roughly where you will be working or attending school. If you are just moving here for fun then that does not matter.

I also think you are kind of at that odd age where you are first viewing yourself as an adult and getting your first real world job. In terms of age there is more difference between a 16 and 18 year old than between a 18 and 20 year old. And there is less difference between a 20 and 22 year old than between an 18 and a 20 year old. While you might be a bit intemadated by a 25 or 26 year old once you hit 23 there isn’t that huge a difference besides the fact that they are a tad ahead of you in life.

An area with college kids and mid twenty year olds(Lincoln Park) is fine. It is not like you are going to move somewhere and be the only 22 year old for ten miles around. There are plenty of people in that area your age and back in my 20ies it was one of my favorite places to hang around.

Lakeview and Wrigelyvile are the same neigbhood so you actually have sports bars, lesbian bars, gay bars, straight bars, mixed bars all within walking distance of Wrigley field. Unless you walk down halsted street wearing “gay apperal” you won’t have trouble finding the ladies and that bus ride is not that long. Plus there are tons of other neighborhoods with bars and fun you can access like River North.
I wouldn’t call any area of lake view tame.

Buck town is mentioned because it is cheaper than Lincoln park. Easier to park in than the other two and has access to the Kennedy Expressway. In terms of social life all three are good but lake view might be the wildest of the lot.