Car in Chicago (the worries of having one) (Lincoln, Irving: apartments, insurance)

[Michael Scott]

Hey guys,

Long time no post. I'll be moving to Chicago after graduation. I'll be interning there this coming summer with global professional services firm, and expect to receive an offer after it. Its client service work, so you are almost exclusively at the client site (you may have alternating clients, a couple at a time, or one all year round, but its always at a client site). Basically, this means while I may get lucky and get some clients in the city, most people end up having to reverse commute to clients in the suburbs. For this reason, having a vehicle is part of the employee contract, which I just found out (though I will likely not need one for my internship).

Now, I'm probably overreacting to this, but this is kind of putting a damper on my idea of living the city life (never lived in a major city). I always hear about how awful the traffic is, parking, driving in snow and ice, stuff like that, not to mention the cost of insurance, parking, maintenance, and fuel (my employer reimburses, I believe, 56 cents per mile, which isn't fantastic but certainly not bad to cover fuel). Other than work, I intend to not use my car very much at all.

So my question is, is it really that much of a pain in the ass to have to have a car in the city? Not that I have much choice in the matter, but I don't want to dread the idea of having to bring my car. I have a very small car that gets decent mileage and is still under warranty for another 6 years (or 100k miles if that comes first, but its looking like years at this point). It is paid off, so that will help a bit with insurance. Also, do most people park on the street (I have no idea how that kind of thing works in a major city), or lots near their apartments? Are apartments with parking insanely expensive? In other words, what does the average 20 something who gets paid decently (about $50k) and NEEDS to have a car do?

Thanks!!

[oakparkdude]

The highest density neighborhoods have little on-street parking and expensive ($200+/month) off-street parking. You don't need to live in those neighborhoods. There are plenty of nice, enjoyable neighborhoods with reasonable amount of on-street parking and/or relatively inexpensive (100/month) off-street parking.

[marothisu]

And with what Oakparkdude says, if you do end up living outside of the areas where it's a ***** to find street parking in, then what you can do is position yourself well to public transit that goes to those dense areas if you plan on frequenting them.

[Michael Scott]

Originally Posted by oakparkdude

The highest density neighborhoods have little on-street parking and expensive ($200+/month) off-street parking. You don't need to live in those neighborhoods. There are plenty of nice, enjoyable neighborhoods with reasonable amount of on-street parking and/or relatively inexpensive (100/month) off-street parking.

Thats good to know. I guess when it gets closer to the time I will have to come back on here and ask more questions about neighborhoods. I know of the typical "post-college" neighborhoods (Lincoln Park, Wicker Park, Lakeview, etc.), but not much of the details on them.

Originally Posted by marothisu

And with what Oakparkdude says, if you do end up living outside of the areas where it's a ***** to find street parking in, then what you can do is position yourself well to public transit that goes to those dense areas if you plan on frequenting them.

So basically it won't be a big deal and I'm making much ado about nothing, like I tend to do? lol

[NARFALICIOUS]

Originally Posted by Michael Scott

Thats good to know. I guess when it gets closer to the time I will have to come back on here and ask more questions about neighborhoods. I know of the typical "post-college" neighborhoods (Lincoln Park, Wicker Park, Lakeview, etc.), but not much of the details on them.



So basically it won't be a big deal and I'm making much ado about nothing, like I tend to do? lol

With a 50k salary and no car payment, as long as you don't pay half your salary in rent, you'll be fine.
Best thing you should do is spend some time figuring out about 5-10 neighborhoods/areas you'd like to live and investigate the parking situation in all those areas.
Look at specifics like
- street parking not just in front of your building, but 2-5 blocks away too, if any of it is permit parking (some neighborhoods require permit parking where you pay a yearly fee to get a permit to put on your car to park in your neighborhood, the benefit of this is it keeps the streets with relatively more spots open than non-permit parking streets of the same density and guards against people who come to those neighborhoods for shopping/bars/events and stealing spots from residents)
- if the buildings have parking spots or parking garages and how much additional.
- what other parking garages are around

[Drover]

It's a pain in the ass to have a car in the kinds of neighborhoods where you're most likely going to want to live. So like others have said, situate yourself in one of the less in-demand neighborhoods close by so that you have a car to get to clients and then have relatively easy access to the nightlife areas on weekends. That's exactly what I've done by choosing to live in Irving Park. The wife and I can park both our cars on the street with no problems if need be (sometimes the landlord needs me to clear my car off the driveway), but I'm a quick Blue Line jaunt to Logan Square, Bucktown/Wicker Park, West Town, or a fairly quick bus ride to Lakeview, North Center, Southport Corridor, etc.

In either case, traffic really does suck around here and getting to your clients can be a major PITA depending on where they are located.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by Michael Scott

So basically it won't be a big deal and I'm making much ado about nothing, like I tend to do? lol

Well, if you position yourself well, but there's still some neighborhoods that may not be the REALLY POPULAR ones that still have stuff going on, but are slightly less dense, like Logan Square or Avondale. That is still on the Blue Line, and for something like Avondale, you can take the bus east if you want to go to Lakeview (that bus actually does run all night, albeit wee hours maybe only every 30 minutes). Or Irving Park, there's some good stuff there, but it's also on the Blue Line, which runs 24/7 so you could still party it up in Logan Square or Wicker Park or something as it's not a long ride.

Stuff like that. Obviously there's other places but that was just an example.

[UPChicago]

Just for reference sake, I'm 24, 58k and own a car and from my experience the city is EXTREMELY oppressive towards car owners.

Dude, just expect that you will receive a minimum of 3 paying tickets and 1 speed/red-light ticket per year. If you don't successfully contest then expect to owe a minimum of $500 a year in tickets, if you don't pay expect to be booted.

The city is short on money due to mismanagement and has decided it appropriate to take it out on drivers.

[NARFALICIOUS]

Originally Posted by UPChicago

Just for reference sake, I'm 24, 58k and own a car and from my experience the city is EXTREMELY oppressive towards car owners.

Dude, just expect that you will receive a minimum of 3 paying tickets and 1 speed/red-light ticket per year. If you don't successfully contest then expect to owe a minimum of $500 a year in tickets, if you don't pay expect to be booted.

The city is short on money due to mismanagement and has decided it appropriate to take it out on drivers.

LOL speaking as someone who has owned more than one vehicle at a time for most of my driving years and no garage, I can only say that almost every ticket I've gotten was my fault and not the city just looking to take my money. Of course they'll take your money gladly, but only if you did something to deserve it.

- Running a red light? No one in the city is forcing you to run one.
- Parking on a meter overnight, couldn't make it in time to move it in the morning, not the city's fault.
- Expired tags/city sticker? Should keep track of your vehicle.
- Street cleaning? BIG orange signs.
- Left car sitting for several days, didn't see new no-parking signs? Construction? Gotta care about your vehicle more than to let it sit without checking.
- Speeding? Ditto.

That said, I agree to plan on having money for tickets. But don't blame the city.

[rubbersoul89]

Originally Posted by UPChicago

Just for reference sake, I'm 24, 58k and own a car and from my experience the city is EXTREMELY oppressive towards car owners.

Dude, just expect that you will receive a minimum of 3 paying tickets and 1 speed/red-light ticket per year. If you don't successfully contest then expect to owe a minimum of $500 a year in tickets, if you don't pay expect to be booted.

The city is short on money due to mismanagement and has decided it appropriate to take it out on drivers.

i had a car in the city for 3, almost 4 years, and got 1 parking ticket during that entire time, and that was entirely my fault because my tags were expired. guess that's not really a parking ticket, but whatever you want to call it.

there's no doubt the city waits for people to step out of line and hit them revenue generating tickets, but imo, people vastly exaggerate how hard it is to follow the rules.

i've found it's just one of those things people love to ***** about because they love to *****.