rogers park - bad reputation? (Chicago, Evanston: real estate, apartments, condo)

[amy_cate]

i've heard such mixed reviews about rogers park and wonder if it's worth checking out.. i guess most of the places i may look at are north eastern part near evanston, on water. what are your opinions like is it just slowly gentrifying or mixed bag or what? i don't like living places where there are bad blocks mixed in decent ones - hard to navigate if unfamiliar with the area. i may look at a condo there on fri and was just wondering. thanks!!

[manderson]

I saw you started the Brooklyn to Chicago thread, which was pretty wild b/c I'm in the throws of moving back to Chicago after having moved to Brooklyn a couple years ago. Check my post for suggestions and feel free to ask me any questions - I grew up in the Chicago suburbs and lived in Wicker Park for about 5 years b/f moving to Brooklyn.

Re: Rogers Park, I've never lived there but I had friends that lived in Evanston and we would always avoid this area. I've been told that cabs don't even like to go there. Of course, this is all secondhand insight, but I know we'd always go straight to Andersonville from Evanston to hang out at night.

[j33]

Roger's Park isn't so bad and you can get massive apartments for a good price (parking is very tight though). I lived there without incident 15 years ago back when Chicago was a bit rougher and managed okay (although at that time I occasionally heard gunfire, but I don't believe that is how it is now). HOWEVER, it is a street by street sort of place, some blocks are fine, some are sketchy, if you are looking for places in Roger's Park be sure to check out the street or 'el' stop it is off of. There is also a great little hippie restaurant/bookstore that has been there for years called Heartland cafe, I'm in my 30's now an recall eating there when I was a teenager with my parents and try to get up there for a meal every couple of years.

It is however, very far from downtown (the LOOP) and commuting to a job down there will take almost an hour (and given the current state of the Red Line train, perhaps more) depending on where in Roger's park you live.

[amy_cate]

what stops are more sketchy than others? i realize this is difficult for one person to say - but for the most part i know which stops to avoid in brooklyn and which trains are more sketch than others. in general i avoid the A/C lines and i hate it when the G runs in 2 parts and i'm stuck at bedford nostrand for 20 mins. sketch.

i definitely don't want to live in a really rough area.. i'm in brooklyn now for f**k's sake lol. i'm not really up to that. i'm really not sure where to look i think! this is so hard to do from a distance. i hope that we can still fly out tomorrow night. his dad's real sick so we may have to postpone.

thanks. i know these questions get asked a million times. and i think as a new yorker i've got a pretty good eye for things that may be sketchy and i'd like to think i'm a little more observant and city savvy than the average bear.

[Drover]

Jarvis and Howard are the two sketchiest stops in RP.

[manderson]

For ease, I would reference the Chicago Reader's ZIP Code/Neighborhood breakdown:

Chicago Reader Classifieds | Real Estate | Neighborhood-Zip Code List

You can be assured the safer neighborhoods are clustered under the City North and City Northwest groupings. That's just my opinion though - I'm sure someone else could make the case for a neighborhood like Pilsen, for example.

You can search the Reader's listings, but you'd probably have more luck using the neighborhoods listed as key word searches on Craigslist.

[WestRoPaJay]

well, Morse smells sketchy. lol.
rogers park is definitely a mixed bag. i don't know that it'll ever become truly "gentrified" (and hey, maybe it shouldn't)--I can't imagine upscale restaurants and shopping moving in on Howard.
If you can afford better, you should probably look for better.

[jessiegirl_98]

Rogers Park is fine. It can be a little sketchy in parts, but Loyola is in the area, so there is a lot of patrol. Also, anything right along Sheridan or east of Sheridan is fine, especially if you stay closer to Hollywood. The el stops can be a bit unsafe though at night.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by jessiegirl_98

Rogers Park is fine. It can be a little sketchy in parts, but Loyola is in the area, so there is a lot of patrol. Also, anything right along Sheridan or east of Sheridan is fine, especially if you stay closer to Hollywood. The el stops can be a bit unsafe though at night.

Heh. "It's fine, as long as you stay in this part of it, or maybe along that part of it, and oh, sometimes these parts of it are unsafe..." That tells you all you need to know about whether RP's reputation is earned or not -- that someone telling you it's fine has to add all these qualifiers.

[jessiegirl_98]

What I mean by "fine," is that isn't not fabulous, but it's not bad. The parts I were describing are nice areas. So, I wouldn't rule it out and if you want to live along Sheridan, on the beach, it can be a good place to live.