Jefferson Park Question (Chicago, Berwyn, Brooklyn: apartment, renters, appliances)

[Longislander86]

Hi, I'm from New York (Long Island area) and have wanted to move to Chicago since a visit there when I was younger. I'm going to be graduating college, and am looking for a nice neighborhood to rent an apartment in.

I've done a little bit of research, and have some questions on the neighborhood of Jefferson Park.

1. Does this area have a city feel to it? One person I spoke to from around here said it has a Queens/Brooklyn feel to it, is this true? If anyone has visited those areas.

2. Is it semi-affordable for someone who's just graduated and will be paying back student loans and such?

3. Is public transportation good in this area?

4. How is the nightlife for someone who is younger?


Thank you for your help.

[jdiddy]

http://www.city-data.com/forum/chica...tage-park.html

Post future questions about city neighborhoods in the Chicago sub-forum. You'll get better advice.

[Longislander86]

OK, I will, thank you.

[aragx6]

There's pretty much no nightlife. If that's something your into, I'd look elsewhere. What's your budget?

[freeriding7]

I've never been to New York so don't know their neighborhoods. Jeff Park has many apartment bldgs., bungalows and frame houses. Portage Park is right next to Jeff Park and they are almost identical. The rents are moderate and VERY many vacancies right now. Renters dream! I have a one bedroom with all seasons room, dining room, fake fireplace, nice size bath, new appliances and washer and dryer in bsmt. I pay only $875 AND I am about 1,000 feet from a public swimming pool with a huge park. There are a few cool bars around and plenty of shopping only minutes away. What more can I say except try logging on to some Chicago papers (not the sun-times) amd check out the want ads. Nadig News and the Press paper are local for those two areas.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by aragx6

There's pretty much no nightlife. If that's something your into, I'd look elsewhere. What's your budget?

There are plenty of bars in Jefferson Park! They wont have the same crowd as Lake View or whatever(and maybe that is a good thing), but I have had many fun times in them...

[Longislander86]

Wow thanks for all the help. My budget is around $800-900 a month, I'm hoping to come check out the area around the beginning of the summer.

Nightlife isn't that big of a deal for me, I'd just like to know that theres somethings to do in case the need arises.

[Drover]

$900/mo is about the starting rate for a larger 1-bedroom or maybe a small 2-bedroom in Jefferson Park. One of the reasons it's a tick more expensive than surrounding neighborhoods is because JeffPark has about the densest concentration of transportation options anywhere in the city outside of the Loop. In particular, there is a huge transportation hub combining a commuter rail stop, a city rail stop, about a dozen city combined city & suburbans bus lines (that doesn't count the handful of bus lines that run through the neighborhood but don't stop at the transportation complex) plus a major arterial expressway running right through the neighborhood and another one about a mile away. If you want transportation options, Jefferson Park is about the best place in the city to live.

[aragx6]

I didn't mean to say there are no bars and that no one has any fun there but if the OP is just graduating college I wanted to make sure he/she wasn't looking for something a little more hopping. It' certainly a quieter part of the city, and his/her number 4 was asking about nightlife for someone younger. That's not really what that area is about.

[Lookout Kid]

For comparison, Jefferson Park is a lot more like Queens than Brooklyn--though the distant parts of Brooklyn are similar. It's mostly detached single-family bungalows, but there are two-flats and other apartment buildings mixed in occasionally, and some streets are full of them. If you want more density or rowhouses, you'll have to get into the 19th century parts of the city.

Google "Chicago Bungalow", and you will see what 80% of Jeff Park looks like. They are 1-1/2 story brick craftsman style houses built in the 10s-30s, and have a surprising amount of space for the short street frontage. It's one of the most common housing types in Chicago's outer-ring neighborhoods and some inner-ring suburbs (like Berwyn).