I-55 Stevenson Reverse Commute - First time moving to Chicago & wanted to live in Lakeview - Help! (Joliet: rent, neighborhoods) - Illinois (IL) - Page 2 - City-Data Forum

chet everett · 02-12-2013, 02:03 PM

I think that JacksonPanther may be misunderstanding -- the bottlenecks in a commute to / from the Woodridge / Bolingbrook area from Lincoln Park are not the only factor. If one is coming from so far out the simple distances/ time delays at both ends of the commute work against any easy time cutting. If the OP instead could start out / end up MUCH closer to the Stevenson they stand a much better shot of not being snarled the whole route. If they are going to try coming all the way from north of Lincoln Park the range of trafffic they would encounter is atrocious -- all the commuters in the AM heading to the Loop from points north, all the folks getting on the Stevenson from points to that link to south LSD / the Dan Ryan, then 294, then I-355...

Going home they would potentially be snarled with all that PLUS things like the occiasional daul nightmare of nightgames at BOTH Wrigley and the Cell as well as stuff at Toyota Park and Soldier Field...

When it is empty the Stevenson moves well, as it has fewer exits per mile than the Kennedy or Ike, but when things get snarled there are fewer alternatives and then the drive times climb... The closer one is to being able to avoid each of the potential "crowd attractors" the more consistently mangeable one's commute will be. Trading even a few miles to slice off the yucky junctions can be a huge help. I would try to stick to Pilsen and the western side at that -- gives better access to Ashland ramp and avoids LSD / Dan Ryan ramps...

Midwestern7 · 02-12-2013, 02:36 PM

I have read not so great things about Pilsen.

I think my heart is set on, if not being able to live on the north side, to have easy access via the Red or Brown Line.

Are there any areas or solutions you'd recommend that would be close to this?

E.G. Get off I-55 at the Chinatown exit and drive up Canal to a parking garage near Roosevelt, then take the trains from there?

I've heard that South Loop doesn't have much going on either, so I was thinking just get a 24/7 spot in downtown area and live in River North, Gold Coast, or southern area of Lincoln Park for an easy 15-20 minute train ride to my car.

Do you think this trade-off of paying $150-250/mo for parking is more ideal than fighting traffic on LSD to get to Gold Coast / Lincoln Park / Lakeview as well as fighting its street level traffic and parking scarcity issue?

reppin_the_847 · 02-12-2013, 02:41 PM

I think that the South Loop and West Loop would be options worth investigating to shave off some time off of the commute. Might even be able to take Halsted down to 55.

chet everett · 02-12-2013, 02:46 PM

I think a former moderator of this sub-forum used to do that commute.
I think she lives in Kansas City now.

I tend to cringe at the thought of being STUCK in parking-lot levels of crawling traffic. Maybe her perspective will help you decide what thinks are like, but I gotta tell you -- over even the past couple of years the efforts of employers to shift their locations from spots on the southwest side of Chicago out to facilities along the Stevenson has REALLY amped up.

There are LOTS MORE of the big modern "logistics" facilities that result in considerably more truck traffic and such. I gather that quite a bit of the employment is not as "routine" as traditional 40-wk factory stuff may have been so that makes it harder to justify additional bus routes and such...

marothisu · 02-12-2013, 04:48 PM

Man, you're killing me. Sorry, but the perfect combination for you in this situation DOES NOT exist for the choices you want. If you live in Boystown area, you might save money but your commute will be hellish and I'm sorry, but you are going to ****ing kill yourself after awhile with this commute unless you leave before 7am everyday and come back home after 7pm everyday. The Chicago area has 10 million people in it. Wherever you have lived before, there is a good chance it was not this big. When we tell you that your commute is going to be hellish, we aren't blowing smoke up your ass.

You want to live there, I think we get it, but we are trying to save your headaches and you hating yourself based on our experience and others' experiences with this sort of thing. The other part is you want to live in an area that is closer, but you'll only have $150/month in spending money which if you have anything unexpected come up, you're ****ed now.

So your options you want are either (a) Have a hellish commute to work and be tired to do jack **** (unless you do coke) every weekend night -or- (b) Spend so much money that you barely have enough to enjoy yourself in an awesome city.

If you want a way for this to be better, you will listen to some of our advice and get a place in either Pilsen or Bridgeport. Whatever you have heard about these being bad areas...*probably* wrong. If you find a great place with cheap parking in the West Loop or South Loop, then I say go for that, but I have my serious doubts you'll be finding that.

snoylekim · 02-12-2013, 04:58 PM

In the evenings, I-55 inbound can get bad between about 5:30 and 7:00 because of ..White Sox Home Games..Blackhawk home games .. any night Bears Game ( really bad) ... Friday Nights generally in the spring and summer . it's not as bad as the outbound , but having driven back in on many evenings , it is not a clean shot in from the tollway to LSD . it's the main artery into the city from points southwest . Echoing Chet's exclamation ..355 is a ways out from any near-Lake or near-downtown neighborhood .. but I'd add West Loop to the list of possibilities ..it does give easy access to the expressway , or Halsted /Desplaines to Roosevelt then a quick on the Ryan .. but that's a small part of the journey to 355 .. And exiting the Stevenson to the Northbound Ryan is a PITA at that time.. would probably need to use the Cermak /Clark 'shortcut' ..

ToriaT · 02-12-2013, 05:56 PM

I agree its a hellish commute and there is no good alternative...you are talking about over and hour to two hour in bad weather commute. Even more. A couple of weeks in the bad weather it took three hours to get from north side of chicago to wheaton.

If you like Boystown. Lincoln Park, Goldcoast, etc. you will probably not like Pilsen, Bridgeport or Chinatown. Also it makes no sense to pay that much for parking. Find an apt. with street parking or more reasonable rates for a garage. Gold coast, River North. LSD, Lincoln Park are some of the most expensive places to live and are notoriously bad for parking and garages would be expensive there. Whatever you do you will have a year lease most likely and if it does not work out you can probably move somewhere else that is more suitable.

marothisu · 02-12-2013, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ToriaT

If you like Boystown. Lincoln Park, Goldcoast, etc. you will probably not like Pilsen, Bridgeport or Chinatown. Also it makes no sense to pay that much for parking. Find an apt. with street parking or more reasonable rates for a garage. Gold coast, River North. LSD, Lincoln Park are some of the most expensive places to live and are notoriously bad for parking and garages would be expensive there. Whatever you do you will have a year lease most likely and if it does not work out you can probably move somewhere else that is more suitable.

Well, I disagree about the Chinatown part of this. Pilsen and Bridgeport...really depends on the type of person you are. Lakeview is a pretty broad area and there's a lot to do there. I like Lakeview, but I also like Pilsen and Bridgeport. I don't think you have to hate one if you like the other. Those areas are types of compromises though. Get a better commute and still be within reach of Lakeview via public transit. Those two neighborhoods are basically the two closest of the "good stuff there" neighborhoods in Chicago along I-55. Chinatown would actually be pretty cool, but that's just me

I love some of the food in Chinatown for sure. MMmm

JBVirtuoso · 02-12-2013, 06:48 PM

Chinatown would be a great place to live, but I've never found any apartment listings there. I get the feeling that it's all condos or some kind of weird closed market. Maybe it's one of those areas where you have to just walk around and look for phone numbers.

marothisu · 02-12-2013, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JBVirtuoso

Chinatown would be a great place to live, but I've never found any apartment listings there. I get the feeling that it's all condos or some kind of weird closed market. Maybe it's one of those areas where you have to just walk around and look for phone numbers.

Yeah it's weird, isn't it? I have a few friends who have lived there before but they lived in condos. I think there are a number of condos and the apartments are most likely listed in Chinese in papers and stuff.