Good suburb for black families near chicago (Evanston, Oak Park: neighborhood, elementary schools)

[tmorrisaries]

I'm new to the state currently residing in a NW suburb of Chicago.
I'm looking for a good safe black suburb close to the city or at least that offers public transportation with great schools, jobs, and amenities for a diverse population and families.

[reppin_the_847]

These have probably been stated before numerous times but Oak Park & Evanston stand out as far as suburbs that are close to the city with top notch public transportation. Elementary schools probably vary, but their high schools are pretty good I think. Population should be pretty diverse in both. If schools weren't an issue (or you were going with private schooling), then I would throw Hyde Park (city neighborhood) in there too.

Originally Posted by tmorrisaries

I'm new to the state currently residing in a NW suburb of Chicago.
I'm looking for a good safe black suburb close to the city or at least that offers public transportation with great schools, jobs, and amenities for a diverse population and families.

[tonythetuna]

Homewood vs. Flossmoor (updated information)

[urza216]

Get out of the northwest burbs and come south. And yeah, Tony gave you a good link..

Did you say you "at least" wanted diversity? Yeah, Oak Park and Evanston are majority white while a lot of south suburbs are majority black.

I'd suggest Homewood or Flossmoor. They're not right by the city but too far away either. Both towns have a Metra station. It's diverse, has good schools and is very safe.

There are other south suburbs that are less diverse but in a different way than the town you currently reside in is less diverse. Most south suburbs still have a much higher white population than most north suburb's 1-3% black population though.

I also wonder if by "a suburb near Chicago" you were just defining what a suburb is and didn't actually mean you needed an inner ring burb.

[Chicagoland60426]

Evanston
Oak Park
Flossmoor
Homewood

To note, by looking at the demographics in the towns and schools in the past decade, I'll say diversity in Evanston and Oak Park is a lot more stable than the latter two. But all four currently have what you want.