Please Help! I Need a Downtown Chicago Apt. ASAP! (Lincoln: apartments, rent)

[BrenBren82]

Hey Everyone,

I JUST found out I got a great job I really wanted in downtown Chicago but they want me there NOW.. That's where you come in!

I'm a white, catholic, college graduate who's now a marketing manager in the windy city. Problem is, I know nothing about the area but that they want me living as close to downtown Chicago as possible. Is downtown broken down into specifically named areas or just referred to as downtown?! Also what are the safest, closest areas? What would be the range for a one bedroom or a studio apartment?! And is there ANYWHERE I can live downtown without paying an arm and a leg for parking my car?!

I've checked out apartments.com and craig's list. Is there anywhere else I can check to help me with my search?!

Thanks for any and all of your help!!

<3
Bren

[TeacherMan]

My wife and are relocating in 15 days. I did like 80 hours of research. Depending on what you want (it would help if you could provide more of what you wanted, like price range, culture, demographics, night scene, etc.), I think Bridgeport is EXCELLENT!!! We found our new apartment (small 3 bedroom, 15 minutes from downtown, $800/month) through CraigsList, but we also used Chicago Reader and Bridgeport News. I conducted the research through this web-site and the knowledgeable Chicago locals.

I am more than willing to help, and I am sure there are others on this sight as well.

Happy Hunting!

Cheers,
-TM

[untuchableface]

This is silly. You don't need to live downtown. And you shouldn't if you have a car. About 1% of people that work downtown actually live downtown. (I made that stat up but I'm guessing it's pretty close.) Transportation is excellent here and you can get to work just fine.

Where is the job located so we know which train or bus you should be by?

[BrenBren82]

Thanks for the quick reply to my dilemma! As far as price, I'm willing to pay what I have to in order to be safe or at least feel as safe as possible. So I know downtown starts around $1100 for a studio, at least that's what I saw + a couple hundred a month for my parking spot. I do have to have a car because my job requires me to travel around the city with more than I can tote on a train. Also I was instructed that it's necessary to live in the city of Chicago because we have someone in the same job as myself in the suburbs. I need to be in all the action to learn from it and use it in my everyday job (it's a marketing job). I will be working mostly from my home office but need to be out in the field daily. As far as demographics, I would prefer to live in a predominately white area only because it's all I know (nothing against anyone - please don't take that the wrong way).

Again, thanks for your insight!



Bren

[TeacherMan]

Originally Posted by BrenBren82

Thanks for the quick reply to my dilemma! As far as price, I'm willing to pay what I have to in order to be safe or at least feel as safe as possible. So I know downtown starts around $1100 for a studio, at least that's what I saw + a couple hundred a month for my parking spot. I do have to have a car because my job requires me to travel around the city with more than I can tote on a train. Also I was instructed that it's necessary to live in the city of Chicago because we have someone in the same job as myself in the suburbs. I need to be in all the action to learn from it and use it in my everyday job (it's a marketing job). I will be working mostly from my home office but need to be out in the field daily. As far as demographics, I would prefer to live in a predominately white area only because it's all I know (nothing against anyone - please don't take that the wrong way).

Again, thanks for your insight!



Bren

Unfortunately your price range, and desired demographics are quite different than were ours for our search. Again I will suggest maybe using CraigsList, Chicago Reader, etc. And DEFINITELY get some opinions from local experts (Drover, j33 and NSH were great help to me...).
As far as what comes to my mind, I would suggest the Loop, the Gold Coast, Uptown, Wicker Park, Andersonville, Bucktown, Lincoln Square...
What do you think City-Data community, am I steering her in the right direction???

Good luck!

Cheers,
-TM

[manny928]

There are so many great places to live in city. I would suggest
living in gold coast, south loop, west loop, Bucktown or in directly in downtown. If you head a little north you can still live in the city and still have space for parking such as West Rogers Park, Albany Park, Sauganash. In my opinion these are all safe and desirables places to live.

[Drover]

It would help to know what you mean by "downtown." To many people living in the far suburbs or outside the metropolitan area, just about anywhere in the city limits is "downtown." To most people who live in the city or in the near suburbs, "downtown" pretty much means the Loop area, aka the busines/legal/financial district, and nowhere else. By "downtown" do you also include, say, the Lakeview neighborhood, which is about 3.5 miles north of the city's business/legal/financial district? Or do you really need to live closer than that?

[j33]

Drover is right. We need to define downtown first. If you are working at a job that requires you to have a car and travel around, living in the LOOP (downtown how I define it) would be the most asinine thing I could think of doing, I would live in a neighborhood near the expressway where parking doesn't cost $200 a month.

If you are working out of a home office and traveling around the city with a car, the LOOP is probably the last place you want to live.

As far as 'being broken into', cars are broken into often even in the nicest neighborhoods in the city, if you are overly concerned with the state and/or condition of your car, rent a garage and don't park on the street. I owned a car for 5 years and by the time I was done with it (or rather, the car was done with me), I was pretty jaded about break-ins, etc.

[kkaufmann]

The 'City of Chicago' covers a pretty large area and lots of neighborhoods. TeacherMan mentioned allot of good areas. In case you are looking on Craigslist for specific names of areas very close to 'downtown, I also consider downtown area to include West Loop, South Loop, Museum Campus, Printers Row, New East Side/River East, River North, and Streeterville. These areas are more expensive than the outlying areas, and parking is about $200/mo.

Also - where will you be driving to? Ask your company if it is neighborhoods within the city and to name some neighborhoods. Will you be driving to the suburbs? North or south suburbs? Driving throughout the city limits can be horrible - I live near the loop and it has taken me an hour to drive to Bucktown before.

[reppin_the_847]

If you can manage to find a decent place that HAS parking, and is either in Wrigleyville, Lakeview, Lincoln Park, or the Gold Coast (and any place you choose in these neighborhoods must be in the east side, closer to Lake Shore Drive if you want your commute to be simpler), then I'd jump on it. The demographic that you desire resides in these areas. The price range can vary a little bit from neighborhood to neighborhood and street parking is a total b*tch in these areas, but if you play your cards right, you might be able to find some kind of deal that includes a parking spot. Good luck!