Where to live in Chicago (Bridgeport: hardwood floors, apartment, loft)

[NoxZ]

Hi,

i assume this question has been asked many times and i was looking the threads all over, but couldn't find anything suitable for me.

Now the story: I will be relocating from Europe to Chicago in June this year.
My workplace will be in Northwest Indiana (Portage). I could live there as well, but the posibility to live in a big city is something very exiting.

I already checked out all information i could get and found out that the south of Chicago is not the best and safest place to live for a young male 27 single.

So it would be somwhere downtown or close, but without having an extremely long commute to NWI every day. I already found some place in the South loop, Printer's Row (is that part of the South loop or another "district"?) like AMLI, The Regal, Roosevelt Apt.
Is this a place really worth living in? I'm looking into a min. 1 BR Apartment or Loft with Hardwood Floors, Balcony, W/D in Unit for ~ 1.500$

Any other parts of the town that you could recommend (please have the daily commute to NWI in mind). Amtrak does not stop in Portage do they?

Anything usefull is highly appreciated as i have not lived in the US before

Thanks a lot

[Drover]

If you want a relatively safe, urban experience with a reasonable commute to Portage, Hyde Park is your best bet.

With very limited execptions, Amtrak doesn't really do commuter service. They're more for regional inter-city travel. The service you want is the South Shore train, operated by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District. It has stops in Hyde Park and Portage. The question is, how close to the train station do you work, and if the answer is "not very close," do you have a way to get from the station to work? One thing you'll find about living here is that the convenience and availability of public transportation falls off quite quickly as you move away from the city out into the suburbs. Just because a train drops you off in Portage doesn't mean there will be a bus waiting there to take you by your work site.

[NoxZ]

Isn't Hyde Park kinda boring what i heard? On Google Maps it looks far away from downtown.

The commute by Train would be then possible. Getting someone to take/get me from the Train Station would not be a problem. Or i just place a rusty old bike on the train station. But i think i would take the car anyway to get there.

[Drover]

Something has to give. If you want to live in the hot nightlife areas, your commute is going to suck. Downtown is not where most of the nightlife happens; the north side is. South Loop will at least make it easier to access the various nightlife spots around the city, but South Loop itself isn't terribly exciting for now. Maybe in a decade it will be but right now it's not.

[Bird4Prez]

I agree with Drover. Chicago is a world class city, but large swaths of it are tricky to live in. Most of the southeast side is formally a large area for manufacturing and has become pretty run-down and tough. This large swath of land is your biggest obstacle to a fun nightlife and a doable commute. I would live in The South Loop, Chinatown, or Bridgeport and rely on the 24 hour Red Line to get you everywhere you need to go for your nightlife. That is the best compromise that i can think of if you don't want to live in Hyde park