How do you feel about Montrose and Pulaski? (Irving: house, school)

[sepponearth]

Hey guys,

I'm a long time lurker but my first time posting here. I searched but couldn't find anything specific here.

My friends and I are looking for a place in our budget that's near the expressway and the blue/brown line. We are going to look at a place on Saturday (hooray!) that's a couple of blocks east of Pulaski and Montrose.

I did a drive around and (like it has been said here), some of the areas are kind of iffy. But most of the people I made eye contact with smiled or nodded hello. The walkscore of the place is 73, which isn't bad.

What do you guys think of that area? It seemed nice but I only drove around for a couple of minutes. It may not be the most upbeat place for a couple of recent graduates, but that's what trains are for, right? Thanks

[Drover]

I live near Montrose and Pulaski, a few blocks south. It's a boring, mostly uninteresting, old-school, non-spit-polished, non-gentrified part of town. It's true that the Montrose corridor between the Pulaski and the river can be a little "iffy" but not iffy enough to be concerned about living in the area. West of Pulaski is better than east but even east is nothing to be terribly concerned about. I've eaten at the Two-Way Diner and at Susy's near the Montrose/Pulaski/Elston triangle at 3am without any qualms. Basically, mind your own business, and don't walk around drunk in the middle of the night, and nobody will bother you.

[sepponearth]

Hey, thanks for the response.

Do you think walking down Montrose to get to the brown line is unsafe at any point of the day/night? It's about equidistant from the brown line and blue line, but I guess it depends on where I'm planning on going, but those are going to be the "most walked paths." I drove down Irving Park to see the walking path and it seemed pretty nice.

I'm less worried about me and more worried about friends visiting.

[Drover]

I wouldn't sweat it during the day. It's obviously riskier at night, and Montrose is a street that the thugs prowl at night. If it's any consolation, the thugs are more interested in harassing other thugs than harassing passers-by. If you're white, they'll pretty much leave you alone, especially if you don't dress/act like an urban tough-guy. Still, if I had to walk to or from the Brown Line late at night, I'd feel better walking down Wilson. Or better yet I'd wait for a bus at the Montrose Brown Line stop (provided the bus is still running), which is in a considerably tidier area than most of Montrose between the river and Pulaski.

[Carantini]

Its a nice area.

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by sepponearth

...It's about equidistant from the brown line and blue line, but I guess it depends on where I'm planning on going...

The Blue Line is way closer to Montrose and Pulaski than the Brown Line is.

[sepponearth]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

The Blue Line is way closer to Montrose and Pulaski than the Brown Line is.

I guess I exaggerated - the street is Central Park, smack dab between Pulaski and Kedzie. In my head it was only a few blocks east, but after I checked I see how wrong I was

Does that change any of the opinions here? We'll be driving mostly (the house has a 2 car garage which is AWESOME because I've seen the parking situation there) but the el is still very important.

Thanks again,
Steven

[Chi-town Native]

where will you be taking the train to, downtown?

in my experience the Blue line has always been faster than a comparable Brown Line stop to get downtown as it moves in a (relatively) straight line, and the trains on the Brown line screech and slow down to make all those "L" shaped bends as it snakes SE.

or has the new renovation sped up the train and removed that problem?

[surlycue]

^^no it's still slow as the dickens but it makes no difference with the track work going on on the blue line. if you have to take the train on the weekend the brown line would probably be faster since you'd have to get off the blue line on western and take the shuttle to where ever, grand i guess, and then hop back on the train to get downtown.

[Chi-town Native]

thanks - and yeah, can't wait until the blue line work is done. after seeing one sad batch of tourists get unceremoniously dumped off the train a few years ago when they did the first major repairs, it's not good for the City to be limiting transportation on such a major route.