commute from Hyde Park to Harvey? (Chicago, Oak Forest: apartments, rental, safe area) - Illinois (IL) - City-Data Forum

runnercine · 07-18-2011, 05:41 PM

Hi. I'm not knowledgeable about Chicago area... I'm up for a job in Harvey. Is it wise to get apartment in Hyde Park and commute to Harvey...? According to Google Maps, the drive would be 17 miles + 30 minutes which seems reasonable.

P.S. - I visited Homewood which is a nice town but with few apartments. I visited Oak Forest and found a wide blvd with mucho retail...not a real town and not good for bicycles...ugh. I'm single, and most suburban culture is family/high school-focused which is fine but not for me.

urza216 · 07-18-2011, 06:03 PM

Makes perfect sense to me. What exactly is your question? Why would this be un-wise? It would be un-wise to lengthen your commute, IMO. Hyde Park is is a great community on the south side of the city. If you work in Harvey and dislike the suburbs, it makes sense to live in Hyde Park.

Some people do s*** that doesn't make any sense though. Like move to the north side when they work in Harvey. This isn't very wise.

Mr Downtown · 07-18-2011, 06:53 PM

Hyde Park and Harvey are linked by Metra Electric service. Since you'd be reverse commuting, you could take your bike aboard the train on most days.

sunnyandcloudydays · 07-18-2011, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by runnercine

Hi. I'm not knowledgeable about Chicago area... I'm up for a job in Harvey. Is it wise to get apartment in Hyde Park and commute to Harvey...? According to Google Maps, the drive would be 17 miles + 30 minutes which seems reasonable.

P.S. - I visited Homewood which is a nice town but with few apartments. I visited Oak Forest and found a wide blvd with mucho retail...not a real town and not good for bicycles...ugh. I'm single, and most suburban culture is family/high school-focused which is fine but not for me.

There are a lot of forest preserves in and around oak forest in addition Tinley and Palos = just dont overlook that area by one street which i am presuming its 159th

urza216 · 07-18-2011, 08:24 PM

Yeah, Oak Forest has some bike paths. To say it's not bike friendly isn't really true at all. Suburbs have bike trails.. In the city it's pretty much just riding your bicyle on the city streets. And it's a different kind of experience.

sunnyandcloudydays · 07-19-2011, 03:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by runnercine

Hi. I'm not knowledgeable about Chicago area... I'm up for a job in Harvey. Is it wise to get apartment in Hyde Park and commute to Harvey...? According to Google Maps, the drive would be 17 miles + 30 minutes which seems reasonable.

P.S. - I visited Homewood which is a nice town but with few apartments. I visited Oak Forest and found a wide blvd with mucho retail...not a real town and not good for bicycles...ugh. I'm single, and most suburban culture is family/high school-focused which is fine but not for me.

What type of rental are you looking for? and what type of amentities are important to you
are you moving from someplace else in the midwest and what size of a city are you moving from
the information would help make suggestions with people here on the forum

Vlajos · 07-19-2011, 07:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by urza216

Some people do s*** that doesn't make any sense though. Like move to the north side when they work in Harvey. This isn't very wise.

Unwise to some. May make sense for others.

SJaye · 07-19-2011, 10:39 AM

I am guessing the OP may be referring to traffic patterns and whether or not he/she should expect the commute to take longer than the 30 minutes advertised on google maps on a regular basis.

UnderTheLiveOaks · 07-19-2011, 11:09 AM

Hyde Park makes the most sense for folks looking to live in the city who work in places like Harvey/Dolton/etc. I think that's fair to say. To get any closer to Harvey (in a safe area) you'd need to enjoy a suburban or semi-suburban experience.

runnercine · 07-19-2011, 07:41 PM

Thanks for all the input. I’m mostly ignorant of area and just trying figure this all out.

Doing a reverse-commute is an outside-the-box approach that seems sound to me. I was just wondering if those who know the area would have an angle on this I hadn’t considered. From perusing the Web, it seems Hyde Park is unfortunately not too big and is surrounded by rough neighborhoods. But there would be numerous positives:

• Ample apartments available.
• Not too noisy since U of Chicago is not a party school(?)
• Closer to theaters showing independent film.
• Ability to substitute bicycle for car as much as possible (e.g., errands)—Chicago has a gold rating as a bicycle-friendly community.
• And I’m single—with no family, the social aspect of city-life is more appealing than feeling isolated among families in the suburbs. I liked suburbs a lot when growing up, but I’ve lived in Milwaukee and think cities are for me.

Train + bicycle commute is a cool idea. But Harvey seemed too rough for bicycle ride.

In my (brief) visit to Oak Forest, on 159th St and just north, I didn’t see the bike paths or bicycles. Kudos to them if they have good bike paths.

Google Maps says I can make commute averaging 34 miles per hour, which seems reasonable for reverse-commute in a big city. To drive car from Hyde Park to highway, I assume I’d have to go through some bad neighborhoods but not too bad.