Moving to Chi June 1 (Chicago, Naperville: mover, crimes, how much)

[cajunlibra]

The Lisle/Naperville area. Oak Park would give me about a 30 min commute by car. I may use Metra sometimes to save money on gas. Would it be cheaper to drive and pay for tolls with an iPass or ride Metra and take the PACE bus from the station to the school?

[Drover]

If you're just measuring tolls against train/bus fare, tolls win by a long shot -- AS LONG AS you're using an I-Pass. Pay by cash and the toll rates double. Factor in all the other operating costs involved in driving a car out to Naperville/Lisle every day and I'm pretty sure the train/bus combo wins easily.

Just so you know, PACE buses operate on lengthy intervals, sometimes up to an hour between each bus. Make sure you find out which one goes to your school and when it runs. It's not like being in the city where you just wait around and one shows up (theoretically) within a few minutes.

[cajunlibra]

Naperville/Lisle area. How is Pilsen around Harrison Park? That's still north of Cermak.

[cajunlibra]

And what about Whipple b/w 23rd and 24th or 25th & Western?

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by cajunlibra

The Lisle/Naperville area. Oak Park would give me about a 30 min commute by car. I may use Metra sometimes to save money on gas. Would it be cheaper to drive and pay for tolls with an iPass or ride Metra and take the PACE bus from the station to the school?

I don't think $750 is going to go far at all in any town but I bet you could find a place to rent for abit more than that in Downers Grove or Lisle and be very close to school. If you are going to Benedictine that is a short drive. If you are going to North Central you could take a Metra train to Naperville and walk. Driving from Oak Park is going to take longer than 30 minutes, cost A LOT in gas too. You don't want to be off the Burlington to get to Lisle or Naperville -- Oak Park is on the Union Pacfic West Line -- better for Wheaton and Elmhurst, bad for North Central or Benedictine.

Getting into Chicago for fun via Metra would be easy OR you could drive as that would be easier than trying to get out (it doesn't seem to make sense, but the fact is that the commute into the City is much easier than other direction, mostly becuase of the situation with buses are such being MUCH better on the City end).

DuPage is very safe and Downers Grove especially is home to a pretty active core of family oriented gay couples -- not like the much more "swinging" boystown scene but definately gay friendly for a suburb. Lisle might have a bit less fun things to do and maybe even a few pockets of machoness that is not real comfortable with PDAs, but still a safe progressive place.

Naperville is probably too expensive to even consider at $750 -- have ot double that.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by cajunlibra

And what about Whipple b/w 23rd and 24th or 25th & Western?

Not gay friendly -- Hispanic community in Chicago is hostile toward gays. Not really violent in the "skin head" way, but lots of childish stuff that will get real old and could escalate to something bad.

[Drover]

23rd/24th and Whipple = not a sexy neighborhood. "Mediocre" might even be a little charitable. 25th and Western is pretty OK, though east of Western is definitely better than west. There's a tiny pocket of civilization centered around Oakley Avenue (one block east of Western) running from about 22nd Street down to Blue Island Avenue. Seems like a bit of a haul from there out to Lisle though, even on the train.

[cajunlibra]

Wow thanks for the thorough descriptions. They are quite helpful. I'm choosing Oak Park because it allows me to have easier access to CTA to get to the airport when I need to and also I'll have an internship downtown that will be more convenient from OP. Airport is important so that I don't have to impose on anyone to take me since Midway and OHare aren't exactly a short drive to Downers Grove/Lisle/Bolingbrook/Naperville areas. I'm glad to hear Downers Grove is so open and progressive.

[chet everett]

Use your car for occasional trips to O'Hare/midway. Remote parking is cheapish.
Surprisingly (or maybe not) it is EASY to drive the airports -- even Bolingbrook is not too bad to Midway.
Not much fun to go all the way downtown then all the way back out to get to airport on the El. Lack of designated "airport express trains" means trying to do this during rush hour is a recipe to miss a flight...

Nothing is faster per distance than the Burlington from Naperville to Union St -- bypasses like every stop. Now THAT is an express! Downers has some good expresses too.

Did you set up the intership or the college? Maybe they have a transportation angle? I think there might be discounted fares for some kinds of students -- maybe too old...

[oakparkdude]

Welcome to Oak Park.

Blue cab has flat-rate pricing to Ohare and Midway. Its something like $26 from northern OP to Ohare and $28 to Midway and vice-versa for southern OP. If that's too much money, the #90 CTA bus travels from downtown Oak Park to the Blue Line Harlem station. Its a lot faster than taking the el downtown to connect to the blue line.