Portage Indiana (Merrillville, Valparaiso, Schererville: sex offenders, Home Depot, neighborhood)

[mesa boy]

This place looks almost perfect in everyway. If I moved here it would be with a 15 year old boy and a 16 year old girl. If we moved here it would probley be during the summer so what fun is there to do during the summer months.

[domergurl]

It's great that you think so highly of Portage. Have you checked out Chesterton too? It's always good to see other places to make sure that the one you like is the one for you.

[mhouse2001]

Portage is not looked upon with envy by surrounding areas. The main drag of US6 is woefully in need of repair and the businesses along it don't constitute a downtown. It does have a core area and it's OK, but I wouldn't recommend it. Chesterton, to the east, is much better. Portage gets alot of air pollution from the steel mills and the air will smell funny many days in the year. The high school is not well regarded either, from what my extensive family in NWI has indicated. I don't know exactly what you're looking for but, generally, one could do better than Portage.

[paul87920]

Originally Posted by mhouse2001

Portage is not looked upon with envy by surrounding areas. The main drag of US6 is woefully in need of repair and the businesses along it don't constitute a downtown. It does have a core area and it's OK, but I wouldn't recommend it. Chesterton, to the east, is much better. Portage gets alot of air pollution from the steel mills and the air will smell funny many days in the year. The high school is not well regarded either, from what my extensive family in NWI has indicated. I don't know exactly what you're looking for but, generally, one could do better than Portage.

Well coming from an actual resident of the NWI area I have to disagree. Portage, Chesterton, and Valparaiso are all great cities in Porter County. Crown Point, Munster, and Schererville are great cities in Lake County.

[wendyjane]

Before moving to Portage, check out the schools (scores, drug problems at the high school, etc.), crime/drugs overall and the number of sex offenders in the city to start. The local paper (thetimesonline) has lots of stories about these topics. That should give you a good idea of why people are mentioning other towns to look at in northwest Indiana, especially with children of high school (or any) age. Some of the areas more northeast or on the edges of town would be OK (there are some really nice streets), but there is only one public high school in town. Chesterton and Valparaiso are similar to each other, but both are very different from Portage.

[americanemocouple]

Well knowing Portage by living there for 13 years and just recently moving 2 weeks ago Portage has grown so much. Rt 6 is now 4 lanes across. Portage High School is increasing their students and built a Field house. There is now a Kohl's, Sears, Super Menards (which is just like a super walmart, they have food, some clothes and all the general mendars supplies)..They are expanding a lot and are in the running with Valparaiso to be the next Merrillville. (Valpo now has best buy, jc pennys, menards, home depot, bed, bath and beyond, many more resturants and stores.) I still think it's a great place to live..picking the right subdivision is key, working with the great builder Gore Reality helped my parents build their home and I lived with them in Southfield Estates (which is still such a great neighborhood)...But it's not the little city when we first moved there..it's growing (almost too fast)

[GraniteStater]

Portage is a growing exurban city with a closer travel time to the Chicagoland area compared with Valparaiso. More development in the future between Valpo and Portage will likely lead to the towns almost being connected by suburban development.