Working in the University of Chicago... where to live? (Park Forest: to rent, hotel)

[nurieta]

Hi everybody!

I'm new in the forum so this is my first post. Well, on september I'm moving to Chicago for work. I'll be working in the UoC (58th street). I've been reading that the south side is not the best place to live but I don't know why: too much immigration? crime? deficient infrastructures and transportation? I hope you can tell me more about this, and maybe you could recommend me which neighborhood would best suit me, considering that I'm travelling with my family and I'll have a salary of 40.000 per year.

Thank you so much!

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by nurieta

Hi everybody!

I'm new in the forum so this is my first post. Well, on september I'm moving to Chicago for work. I'll be working in the UoC (58th street). I've been reading that the south side is not the best place to live but I don't know why: too much immigration? crime? deficient infrastructures and transportation? I hope you can tell me more about this, and maybe you could recommend me which neighborhood would best suit me, considering that I'm travelling with my family and I'll have a salary of 40.000 per year.

Thank you so much!

Congrats on the new job. U of Chicago is an amazing institution. As far as why the south side is not good, well let me say that not all of it's bad. There are good neighborhoods down there, but there's really bad neighborhoods too. Hyde Park, where U of Chicago is located, is a good neighborhood and has an amazing park in Jackson Park to the south. This is where the World's Fair was held over 100 years ago. Once you go outside of Hyde Park with the exception of Kenwood, it's not good. Washington Park to the West is not a good neighborhood. If you go even further West across the freeway and a few blocks south of that, you run into arguably the worst neighborhood in Chicago, Englewood.

The public transit is okay there. There's busses that run from downtown to Hyde Park, but of course they take a little bit of time because it has to go through traffic. I prefer the El, but the nearest one is the green line in Washington Park. There is a Metra train (mainly for suburban commuters) that goes on the Eastern edge of Hyde Park which originates from downtown. Driving is also an option if you don't live in Hyde Park. That is the good news. Also the housing is affordable.

It would be nice to know a little more about you though. How many bedrooms are you looking at to rent or buy? What kinds of activities do you like? Do you want to be in an area where there's a little to do but not a lot and would have to take public transit or drive to get to it..or do you want to be able to walk out your front door and walk a few minutes and have an amazing plethora of things to do/eat/drink/etc.?

[ChiNaan]

Originally Posted by nurieta

I've been reading that the south side is not the best place to live but I don't know why

Marothisu is right.

It's an overgeneralization that the South Side (which is roughly half of the city) is bad. It contains some really bad neighborhoods but also some nice ones, and Hyde Park is quite possibly the nicest. It's not the most exciting neighborhood (apparently U of C students study more than bar-hop, or go elsewhere to do the latter) but quite nice and safe. It's also affordable compared to similarly nice neighborhoods on the North Side.

If I were you I'd live in Hyde Park to work at U of C unless you really want to be where there's a lot of action and/or you want some physical distance between your home and work.

[chet everett]

There are numerous threads that detail the various options for living in any number of places if one is employed at UofC. The reputation / expertise of the University and associated health care facilities is attractive to a huge range of peoplpe, a fair percentage of whom live within walking distance of the facilities.

The historic issues that drive differences between Chicago's north side neighborhoods and those that are south / west of the Loop have much to do with patterns of employment and race. These patterns are difficult to change but Hyde Park has always been among the most desirable of Chicago's neighborhoods.

[kafka_on_the_shore]

Welcome to the community, are you working as part of the administration, or with the departments? It really depends on the likeliness of your job title that determines whether or not you'd likely be spending more time around campus. If its the latter, then a nice family home near Midway Airport would surely be to your best of interest, since a majority of that area is nothing but single-family homes.

[AnnabellaK]

If you have kids I think they would love the lake front especially Promontory Point and 57th Street Beach. There is a new theater coming to 53rd Street as well as an LA Fitness, Hyatt Boutique Hotel and Whole Foods. Housing ranges from affordable to quite expensive so depending on how large your family is and whether you want to find housing within the Ray School district your annual income of $40,000 may not stretch too far in Hyde Park.

[urza216]

You can always move to a south suburb along the Metra Electric line. There are three Metra Electric stops in Hyde Park.

Homewood, Flossmoor, Matteson, Richton Park, Park Forest, etc.