where to live if working in oak park (Chicago, Cicero: apartment, how much)

[jxn3000]

may possibly be taking a position in oak park early next year. any suggestions for a nice, fun, safe neighborhood for a single gay male? do not want to live in the suburbs. was thinking of andersonville, edgewater, lakeview or avondale. dont know much about any of these, but a friend made these suggestions. any idea how much, or how difficult, of a daily commute it would be to oak park from these areas?

[Lookout Kid]

I don't mean to be snarky, but how about Oak Park? I've heard it's very gay-friendly. If you're younger than 30 it could be pretty boring for you, however.

Cross Avondale off your list. I'm not sure how it got on there.

City neighborhoods on the Green Line or Blue Line are good for Oak Park commutes. "Fun" neighborhoods would include Bucktown, Wicker Park, West Loop, and South Loop. The scene for Gay males is heavily centered in Lakeview and parts of Uptown, but gay men live all over the North Side. The problem is that none of these areas is an easy commute to Oak Park via rail. If you drive, you can take Lakeshore Drive to Lower Wacker to Congress--which bleeds into the Eisenhower Expressway.

[BRU67]

Don't forget Pilsen either, though the commute to Oak Park might be a little clumsy if you want to rely on public transit. You could probably get to 54/Cermak in Cicero on the Pink Line pretty quickly but then you'd have to take a bus or two to get to Oak Park. You might want to run a "trip planner" on that. I know a lot of young singles who live there and they all seem to think it's great. Definitely a bit on the edgy side compared to the others you mentioned, which are more gentrified.

[alwaystraveling25]

Hello! Welcome to Chicago!

As a fellow Under 30 Gay man (25), I would say live in Lakeview. It's true, you pay a lot of money for a small apartment, but you cannot beat the community here. Whether going to dinner with friends, going out to the bars (All of my favorite gay bars are in Lakeview, between Belmont and Addison on Halsted), or just walking around the neighborhood, I run into gay people I know. It's very gay-friendly here.

Andersonville also has a big flux of gay men lately, but for your job in Oak Park that puts you even further away from it.
Edgewater is also becoming gentrified, but it's more older gay men up there and still puts you far from work (6000 north versus where I live at 3500 North). In both Andersonville and Edgewater I highly recommend having a car, in Lakeview you don't need one at all.
Avondale I would not recommend - I'm sure it's a fine place to live, but I have lived here since March and had never even heard of it - I had to look it up on Wikipedia. I don't know a single gay person that lives there, and I know gays from the Gold Coast to Evanston...

Definitely don't even consider the suburbs - I know a younger gay couple (mid-20's) that lives there for work, and they never come into the city, ever, since traffic is always awful and they don't want to come in and party and always have to stay the night...versus driving in and being sober all night to drive home at 4AM, exhausted.

Where are you moving here from? I moved here from Kansas City, by way of Metro Detroit, and you cannot beat the gay community in Chicago - it's so much more then bars. The Gay Sports League (CMSA) and many other community events really gets you involved and bonded with others.

Welcome to Chicago - if you have any questions, feel free to DM me or message me...but trust your gay friends on where to live...we know best! :-)

[Lookout Kid]

I know I'm going to sound like a booster for my own neighborhood again, but I would add Buena Park to your list. Buena Park is the southern part of Uptown that is directly adjacent to Lakeview, and it is packed to the hilt with gay men. I'd say my building is about half gay (the residents, not the building!). It's next to the Boystown action, yet just a little removed from it if you ever want peace and quiet. And access to Lakeshore Drive via Irving Park Road is INFINTELY better than the clogged up Belmont interchange.

[jxn3000]

wow..thanks for all the suggestions. plan on being back in the city next week, so guess i will really have to do a couple test runs from different locations to see which will work out best for me. any more suggestions?

[lincolnparker]

Id say the gold coast, which has some popular hangouts for gays such as gentry and sound bar (river north, technically, but walkable from gold coast). Plus your commute is going to be easier than if u lived in lakeview. You can always come up to lakeview from gold coast. Its only a 10 min cab ride on lakeshore.

Originally Posted by jxn3000

may possibly be taking a position in oak park early next year. any suggestions for a nice, fun, safe neighborhood for a single gay male? do not want to live in the suburbs. was thinking of andersonville, edgewater, lakeview or avondale. dont know much about any of these, but a friend made these suggestions. any idea how much, or how difficult, of a daily commute it would be to oak park from these areas?

[robnew2k]

Hey thanks for the information that you gave to Jxn3000. It was helpful to me, as I am going through the possibility that I may be offered a position that I am currently interviewing for in Chicago. I am gay as well, and looking for what Lakeview seems to offer, based on what others tell me, and limited experience in Lakeview myself. I am from Buffalo, NY, and am considering Lakeview as my first choice, and also Uptown, Edgewater, and Andersonville as well. The whole process is nerve-wracking and I haven't even told family that I am interviewing and considering moving. They would talk me out of it. Anyway, thanks again for your information.
Rob

[paytonc]

Originally Posted by jxn3000

may possibly be taking a position in oak park early next year. any suggestions for a nice, fun, safe neighborhood for a single gay male?

Depends on where in OP you're working. If in south OP, the Blue Line might be an option for your commute; it "boomerangs" out there pretty fast from Logan Square or Wicker Park. If it's in downtown OP, the Green Line or the Metra UP-West work from downtown; nearby areas like the West Loop or South Loop might be preferable. They're not as neighborhoody, but they're convenient to everywhere and have come down in price. Anything on the north lakefront will involve a transfer.

I wouldn't assume that just because someone is gay means that they'll want to live in the north side gay ghetto (Lakeview, Uptown, Andersonville). I, for one, don't like all the theatrics and don't go out there; even beyond the gay clubs, much else in Lakeview/Andersonville (taverns, restaurants, gyms, barbers, coffee, shopping) strikes me as mediocre and/or overpriced.

That said, some people really enjoy the scene and go out a lot. In that case, minimizing the distance between home and nightclub matters more than minimizing the distance between home and work. I'm not sure what's more important to the original poster, but his post mentions workplace first.

(And yes, there's gay nightlife elsewhere. The downtown bars tend to attract an older crowd, but there are periodic events throughout the city. Oddly enough, here on the northwest side they're only on school nights -- perhaps that appeals to the art-school crowd.)

[chirack]

Oak Park is a near burb that feels like it is a city. Oak Park is very gay friendly.

The only problem with Oak Park is that is its location. (I.e. it’s not in boy's town and getting to boy's town from boys town via public transit is slightly awkward). Most of the gay center of Chicago is located in the Lakeview, Andersonvile and Edgewater neighborhoods.

Lakeview has the majority of the gay bars but parking in Lakeview can be a problem (i.e. you will probably have to pay for it in a parking lot).

Oak park might have a gay bar or two(in fact there used to be a gay bar their where folks from the burbs who didn't want to commute to Lakeview hung out). Not up to date on the current location of gay bars.

I would not rule out Oak Park for Lakeview unless you want to be able to walk to a wide variety of gay bars. Oak Park is probably cheaper for the space and if you have a car then parking is not a problem. Lakeview on the other hand is expensive and lacks parking.