Philly to Chicago (Itasca, Irving: crime, roughest, daycare)

[JasmineDS07]

Hi!
I posted this in the suburbs section, but we're also open to the city if there are any good options there.
So I am considering a accepting a job in Itasca IL and I'm really confused. We would be moving from Philadelphia and I really don't have any experience with the Chicago area. I'm trying to figure out the best places to live for us.
I have a 3 month old son so I'm not SUPER worried about schools yet, but some really good daycare options would be great. We're a young(ish) AA couple, I'm 26 my boyfriend is 31. My office will be in Itasca and I would be also traveling sometimes and he'll be working from home. We have one car so being near public transit in a somewhat walkable area would be great. I think I would prefer to live in a suburb instead of the city because SAFETY is a HUGE concern for us, especially since we don't know anyone nearby. Outside of our regular jobs and our son, we're both pretty artsy (he's a musician) and we like to eat out a lot. Of course as our son gets older having fun family friendly stuff is important. And we also will have his other 2 children 7 and 2 with us when school is out for holidays and summer.
We would probably need a 3 bedroom (or large 2) and for our budget we would want to keep it under $1800 a month.
What area's should we look in? I know there's a commute from Chicago to Itasca but that would be ok especially if I'm taking the car and my boyfriend is using public transportation.

Thanks!

[marothisu]

First, the safety remark - there's many completely safe parts of Chicago where you wouldn't have to worry about that if you knew where to go. Itasca is a little out there, past O'Hare. If you were to live anywhere in the city that's safe/pretty safe and at least a little walkable on your budget, you might want to focus on an area like Irving Park. There's some parts of Jefferson Park too which can be somewhat walkable.

[JasmineDS07]

Sorry I shouldn't have worded it that way. In Philly for the most part the city is ROUGH with a few very expensive exceptions.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by JasmineDS07

Sorry I shouldn't have worded it that way. In Philly for the most part the city is ROUGH with a few very expensive exceptions.

Chicago is not Philly. Chicago does have a crime problem, but it's also big enough where there's large sections that are pretty damn safe. The north and northwest side of the city combined has a homicide rate closer to that of Austin, Texas, San Diego, and Seattle. The roughest parts of town are usually in the west and south sides (which together have a homicide rate closer to that of a St. Louis or Baltimore) - though there are still nice and safe areas in those parts too.