Would you consider NW Indiana if transit to Chicago improved? (Aurora: houses, employment)

[svillechris]

I've been on these boards before and the general consensus is that Northwest Indiana doesn't have the proper commuter rail system (and I agree) for it to be a viable option to many of you working in downtown Chicago. However, it looks like a resolution to that issue may be coming soon. There's a proposal for the West Lake Corridor, or basically an extention of the South Shore to reach the desirable towns that most who work downtown would like to live in.
Here's some info:
http://www.nictd-wlc.com/images/board_3_previous_study_alignments.pdf (broken link)

It would go through Munster, Dyer, St. John, down to Lowell. Right now, the train only goes through the lousy towns of East Chicago, Hammond, Gary, etc. which has made the commute to Chicago a real pain, so this looks to be a very promising plan.

Prelimnary studies have shown that the train ride from St. John/Dyer/Munster would be much less than an hour up to the Randolph station. I work with plenty of people who live in the far west suburbs of Batavia, St. Charles, Aurora, and even some up in Cary and Cystal Lake. This commute would be shorter for them, and the money they spend on property in these Illinois towns could get them so much more in Northwest Indiana.

So I ask those who live in the Chicago suburbs and work downtown (as I do), would this extention lead you to at least consider these towns in Northwest Indiana? Why, or why not? Thanks in advance for the info.

[chet everett]

The evolution of west suburbs as desirable places has happened over many many decades. Having a train by itself is not going to change that. You won't get the kind of towns in NW for several generations, if ever.

Schools are one part, shops, restaurants, families, attitudes all take a long time to get established.

If some one grew up outside the region, then went to school here and/or got their first job downtown it is very different than folks that grew up in the burbs, lived in the city and then had kids and moved back to the burbs. That really does not happen nearly as much with NWI -- there is an aspirational thing going on too. If you grew up in a town that is basically farm or industry focused, then worked in Chicago you probably realized that the suburbs have a very different demographic. Folks are spending more on houses and cars and everything than even the most well off folks in a similar sized town in NWI.

These things may never change. I suppose in some ways this is not a bad thing, as not every town needs to buy their produce at Whole Foods.
In other ways I think the over reliance on downtown Chicago for office jobs is silly too -- agriculture and manufacturing have reduced employee needs, but they still are major parts of the overall economy. More should be done fo invest in growing those areas.

[pvande55]

For a long time the Pennsylvania, later Penn Central, Conrail and finally Amtrak, ran trains between Chicago and Valparaiso, but on a different alignment, through Gary. For the 20 years it has not been running there has been talk of reviving it, but that is about all there has been.

[svillechris]

Originally Posted by chet everett

The evolution of west suburbs as desirable places has happened over many many decades. Having a train by itself is not going to change that. You won't get the kind of towns in NW for several generations, if ever.

Schools are one part, shops, restaurants, families, attitudes all take a long time to get established.

If some one grew up outside the region, then went to school here and/or got their first job downtown it is very different than folks that grew up in the burbs, lived in the city and then had kids and moved back to the burbs. That really does not happen nearly as much with NWI -- there is an aspirational thing going on too. If you grew up in a town that is basically farm or industry focused, then worked in Chicago you probably realized that the suburbs have a very different demographic. Folks are spending more on houses and cars and everything than even the most well off folks in a similar sized town in NWI.

These things may never change. I suppose in some ways this is not a bad thing, as not every town needs to buy their produce at Whole Foods.
In other ways I think the over reliance on downtown Chicago for office jobs is silly too -- agriculture and manufacturing have reduced employee needs, but they still are major parts of the overall economy. More should be done fo invest in growing those areas.

I don't disagree with much of what you're saying. I would like to point out that the vital areas to establishing a nice commuting that you referred to, being schools, shops, restaurants, families, attitudes, are actually already present in the towns I've listed. Again, I'm not referring to the industrial towns like Hammond, EC, Gary. I'm referring to the towns that already have that suburbia feel, such as Munster, Dyer, Schererville, St. John, Crown Point etc. Those important underlying attributes are already there within these towns. I'm not saying that the industrial towns will change as a result of this. I'm basically asking if anyone currently living in Chicago suburbs would now consider living in a town like Munster, Dyer, Schererville, St. John, Crown Point which are already very established, nice towns, and was not asking if people would be willing to cross the border to become part of a huge revitalization effort.

[chet everett]

I am understand that the towns in NWI that have some features of a HOffman Estates or Schamuburg are superficially lacking only rail, but the work / patterns really are different.

You need a whole shift in mindset to happen in someplace. I know there are some office jobs and professionals in Merriville and such, but it is nothing like say a Park Ridge or Elmhurst where upwards of half of working people hop a train OR drive to a nearby office. If you move to NWI and your office ( or spouse's office...) relocated from downtown to someplace past O'Hare you could forget about ever making home for Little League, where as in the true bedroom communities of the region it is no big deal..

[BRU67]

Chicagoland has job bases in the Loop and, as Chet says, the western suburbs. So I would not move to NW Indiana, no. Personally, I think we should spend the transit dollars on better connecting Chicago and the Western 'burbs into a public transit infrastructure than trying to build a commuter railway between Chicago and NW Indiana from scratch. We could, for example, expand the L further west. As to the Pink Line, the land is there to take it to at least Westchester, and probably further if need be.

[chet everett]

If you look at the maps of jobs and salaries the "hot spots" are clustered in several groups: from Oak Brook/westchester thru Aurora/Naperville along I88, from O'Hare/Rosemont thru Hoffman Estates along I90 (wihh a huge chunk at Schaumburg roughly in the middle), and a big sprawling corridor from Park Ridge all they way past Libdertyville along the TriState. Toghether all of these still do not rival the shear numbers in the Loop, but the spread should help the OP to understand that public transit to the Loop alone is not enough to get folks to consider NWI.

Heck I think that in terms of actually helping congestion and employers in the region the biggest bang for the buck might be some kind of express bus system like they use in DC. Thousnads of folks in suburban Maryland and Virgina drive to parking lots where they get on a touring style coach for a 40 to 90minute ride to an employment / rail transit hub that at least gives them some relief from the endless frustration of the Beltway...

[svillechris]

I do understand your points, but I'm referring specifically to those individuals with jobs in the loop. Now, of course, if your job gets moved to a much different area, that would start a whole other conversation as to where to live. However, if I had a very steady reliable job that was in the loop and traveled an hour or more to get there, I personally think that NW Indiana, especially with the proposed Westlake Corridor, will offer a much more reasonable option.

[BRU67]

It would be easy to run the L out to Oak Brook. Heck, it used to run all the way out to Westchester until the early 1950s so you already have the pathway more or less. It could be done for a heck of a lot less than a brand new Metra system for NW Indiana that would only meet the needs of half the regional job base. Simple logic holds that the former makes more sense.

Agree on the express bus system. The 322 Pace route already connects Oak Brook to the Pink Line down Cermak Rd., albeit not an express system. It's roughly a 45 minute bus ride between 54/Cermak and Oakbrook Center during rush hour times. That could be cut down considerably by extending the Pink Line out to Oak Brook Center. Then you could run express busses to job hot spots in the western suburbs from there.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by svillechris

I do understand your points, but I'm referring specifically to those individuals with jobs in the loop. Now, of course, if your job gets moved to a much different area, that would start a whole other conversation as to where to live. However, if I had a very steady reliable job that was in the loop and traveled an hour or more to get there, I personally think that NW Indiana, especially with the proposed Westlake Corridor, will offer a much more reasonable option.

That makes sense but the whole point in analyzing public transit infrastructure improvements is to provide the proverbial greatest good for the greatest number. Sure, the Westlake Corridor makes a lot of sense -- for those in NW Indiana with jobs in the Loop. But a Pink Line expansion/express bus system would make sense for the much more populated Chicagoland area west of the City. And it would likely cost much less money.