Oak Park - Safe? Growing/Eventful downtown?

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by chet everett

For folks that fall in love with an architecturally significant home in Oak Park or covet the conveniences of unparalleled suburban CTA service Oak Park has no equal. For folks with less emotionally driven motivations Elmhurst compares very favorably.

You always manage to squeeze a subtle anti-Oak Park slam in there. Of course the reasons to live in Oak Park are more than "emotional"... The prime one being that you have a shorter train commute downtown than any other suburb (the UP-W line took 13 minutes the last time I rode it), more options to get downtown including three trains, and the shortest possible drive downtown. It's possible to live in Oak Park and still have a social life with your friends who live in the city, and people in Oak Park tend to use the amenities in the city a bit more, in my experience.

Oak Park's location is both it's prime asset and it's biggest curse, as it is a bit too cozy with one of Chicago's most violent neighborhoods. But the risks presented by this aren't as great as many imagine, and Oak Park remains a mostly safe community. The crime rate is more like a north side city neighborhood, and not like Wheaton or Downers Grove--and this is not something that all suburbanites are willing to deal with.

[chet everett]

I don't really see how listing out the factual pluses of Elmhurst is a subtle dig at Oak Park. I like Oak Park and sometimes recommend it for folks for whom it makes sense. I agree that location is an important factor but that is no different than any other community. Fact is there are a whole bunch of communities that lie between Elmhurst and Oak Park that have little to recommend them and I believe others have pointed out how that differs from someplace like Evanston which is really more a gateway to nicely developed North Shore communities. It is sort of odd that even though Riverside is due south of Oak Park it is more of gateway to a whole string of pleasant towns along the BNSF while things are not as uniform along the UP-W line, from a rational standpoint that suggests there must be something that is responsible for those differences. The most obvious factor is how Proviso Township High Schools create an atmosphere of undesirable schools in the areas west of Oak Park. Is suspect the diffculty in turning around those campuses will continue to be a negative that isolates those towns.

[Lookout Kid]

Chet, it seemed like you were implying that moving to Oak Park was an emotionally-driven decision that flaunted logic. I just found it amusing.

I agree with everything else in your post above. There are certainly more options out there than just Oak Park, and you are correct that many of these options don't get as much publicity from folks on this forum. If you like traditional tree-lined neighborhoods with older houses, a downtown core, and need good public schools and quick access to the Loop via Metra, you may also like the following areas in the Western Suburbs:

Parts of Elmhurst
Riverside
La Grange north of 47th Street
La Grange Park's Harding Woods Neighborhood
Most of Western Springs
Most of Hinsdale
Some parts of Clarendon Hills
Downers grove between Ogden and 55th
Northern Glen Ellyn
Central Wheaton

And if you don't care about getting to the Loop on a daily basis, there are some charming areas near the Fox River as well that offer some of the vintage look and feel of Oak Park with good schools.

Oak Park has more options for commuting to the Loop than any of the towns listed above, and is just closer. And there's an "Oak Park" culture of liberal attitudes that some find appealing, and that leads to some unique business offerings that feel a bit "college town".

[chet everett]

I would add pretty much all of the North Shore to your list as well as large swaths of the NW suburbs too, from Park Ridge through Barrington where there is a signficant and often overlooked "real town". Heading up into northern Cook Co and the heart of Lake Co there is a nice corridor of towns too, most of which are also well served by commuter rail. They don't really fit my definition of North Shore as they are inland but they're someties lumped in.

Similarly there are parts of towns on the southside that rarely get mentioned here but do have a lot of charming homes that folks can "fall in love with" -- Flossmoor is top of that list but should also include spots inside Chicago from Kenwood through Morgan Park / Beverly & Mt. Greenwood. There are slices of Oak Lawn that really have some cute streets too. Of course the rational side of the equation has to be part of the calculation too and for folks that weigh the current costs (including often high property taxes) with the likely direction being persued by schemers in Springfield that will almost certainly see an even greater disparity of taxes imposed upon areas least able to shoulder them...

(p.s. The only emotions I scoff at are those deny reality -- I know full well how many factors enter into the "fell in love with it" thinking that drives many housing purchases. If folks go into a transaction with their eyes wide open about the pluses and minuses they'll generally be happy. If they instead base their decision on a lack of information they are more likely to come to regret it...)

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

Chet, it seemed like you were implying that moving to Oak Park was an emotionally-driven decision that flaunted logic. I just found it amusing.

I agree with everything else in your post above. There are certainly more options out there than just Oak Park, and you are correct that many of these options don't get as much publicity from folks on this forum. If you like traditional tree-lined neighborhoods with older houses, a downtown core, and need good public schools and quick access to the Loop via Metra, you may also like the following areas in the Western Suburbs:

Parts of Elmhurst
Riverside
La Grange north of 47th Street
La Grange Park's Harding Woods Neighborhood
Most of Western Springs
Most of Hinsdale
Some parts of Clarendon Hills
Downers grove between Ogden and 55th
Northern Glen Ellyn
Central Wheaton

And if you don't care about getting to the Loop on a daily basis, there are some charming areas near the Fox River as well that offer some of the vintage look and feel of Oak Park with good schools.

Oak Park has more options for commuting to the Loop than any of the towns listed above, and is just closer. And there's an "Oak Park" culture of liberal attitudes that some find appealing, and that leads to some unique business offerings that feel a bit "college town".

[JacksonPanther]

Originally Posted by chet everett

It is sort of odd that even though Riverside is due south of Oak Park it is more of gateway to a whole string of pleasant towns along the BNSF while things are not as uniform along the UP-W line, from a rational standpoint that suggests there must be something that is responsible for those differences. The most obvious factor is how Proviso Township High Schools create an atmosphere of undesirable schools in the areas west of Oak Park. Is suspect the diffculty in turning around those campuses will continue to be a negative that isolates those towns.

Don't cherry-pick the towns along the BNSF to make your point. The first suburb on the BNSF is Cicero, followed by Berwyn, neither of which is known for their high schools.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by JacksonPanther

Don't cherry-pick the towns along the BNSF to make your point. The first suburb on the BNSF is Cicero, followed by Berwyn, neither of which is known for their high schools.

The degree to which folks avoid Cicero and Berwyn is certainly driven by the lack of success that is seen at Morton East & West. That said since the effort to change things for the better can be accomplished by efforts to elect a responsible School Board would stretch over just two towns the likelihood of success is probably higher than the multiple communities that stretch from Forest Park & Maywood all the way to the Cook Co border west of Hillside/ Westchester...

[Lookout Kid]

Westmont's schools are inexplicably bad too.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

Westmont's schools are inexplicably bad too.

Westmont lacked a high school for decades. They used to literally fund out-of-distict payments to either DG or Hinsdale high schools. They built their own high school in the 1970s. It is not nearly in the same category as the towns mentioned above and actually does not compare too terribly to the schools in Lisle, which also jumped on the Unit District bandwagon...

There have been some recent physical improvements to the Westmont High building. It was previously a windowless relic from the low point of buildings. It is now a much more pleasant place. Those physical expenditures come from a School Board that is much more aware of the lagging property values that are acompanied by schools that are not equal to high performing peers. The relative desirability of high rent car dealerships, office buildings and other commercial space is making it a little easier to spend the money to update not just the physical surroundings but invest in instrutional materials and upgrading staffing to match expectations.

The timeline of how long before results are seen is not an exact science but with changes coming to the weak state mandated tests and the tougher "common core" I would expect the improvements to be on the "sooner than later" range...

[chitownperson]

All of the comments about Oak Park from OP residents and LK all seem well based in reality and well balance. I don't see anyone of these posters posting things that are emotionally driven. I hope the OP can get some decent info from some village residents and have the opportunity to visit the village as much as possible to gain more insight.