Relocating from Florida - Oak Park? (Chicago, Schaumburg: sale, condo, crime rate)

[brenty]

I think they are not family friendly because they are very urban suburbs. I call them Urburbs. Urburbs can be family friendly. I would consider parts of Evanston family friendly and I also consider it an Urburb. I would not want my kids walking around Oak Park or River Forest by themselves. It is too close to the city and I would fear of spilover crime. I also think that most of Oak Park is too liberal and there are too many people that I would not want my children to be around. I grew up in Pepper Pike, OH. It is an affluent community outside of Cleveland. It is similar to Northfield or Unincorporated Winnetka (Indian Hill). I thought it was a great choice for my parents to raise me there, instead of a community like Lakewood, OH or Shaker Heights, OH. In Evanston you do not have to worry about your children getting in to trouble in most of the Evanston neighborhoods. You can go in Oak Park across the street and be near high end homes and then low end homes aka Ridgeland Avenue.

[oakparkdude]

Originally Posted by brenty

I would not want my kids walking around Oak Park or River Forest by themselves. It is too close to the city and I would fear of spilover crime. I also think that most of Oak Park is too liberal and there are too many people that I would not want my children to be around. ...You can go in Oak Park across the street and be near high end homes and then low end homes aka Ridgeland Avenue.

1. Again, the crime statistics do not bear out any significant difference between Oak Park and Evanston. River Forest crime statistics are significantly better than Evanston's.

You're entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts.


2. I'm curious, Exactly what sort of people in Oak Park do you not want your children to be around? Also, you do realize that for many, the liberalness of Oak Park is a positive, not a negative, right?

3. Low end homes? So basically Oak Park is bad for kids because not everyone here is rich and has a 3000 square foot, 2 million dollar house?

From your posts, I can deduce that you basically want a neighborhood full of rich people with beautiful houses and expensive cars. There doesn't seem to be any place in your world for people of lesser means. To be fair, this is not an uncommon opinion. Maybe Oak Park is a bad place for YOUR children. That's fine. But try to remember that not everyone can afford a 2 million dollar mansion, and not everyone wants to be as insulated from urban life as you clearly desire.

[middle-aged mom]

A whopping 34% of students in Evanston are low income compared to 12% in Oak Park River Forest.

Evanston is adjacent to an area in Chicago known for violence, gangs and the usual urban mayhem.

There are a substantial number of condos in Evanston occupied by younger and older people who do not have any skin in the school system. Those on the younger end are hopeful they will make a killing in the real estate market and be able to move on to more upscale single family suburbs. Like so many who purchased in the past few years, mosty will wait longer than they expected, if they are relying soley upon the paper equity in their condos.

Oak Park/River Forest is dominated by single family homes occupied by families with school-aged children who invest tremendous time and energy into their local schools.

I was born in Evanston and lived in Oak Park. I adore both towns for different reasons at different stages of life.

[middle-aged mom]

Originally Posted by brenty

I would not want my kids walking around Oak Park or River Forest by themselves. It is too close to the city and I would fear of spilover crime.

It appears that you choose to pretend the Evanston-Chicago border is not one of the most notorious and vicious gang and drug enviornments in all of Chicago.

[brenty]

Rogers Park is developing and becoming safer much faster than Austin. Austin is one of the roughest communities in Chicago. Rogers Park is not. There are still some drug problems. But, not nearly as bad as Austin. Oak Park is like a city neighborhood. While Evanston is more suburban. Evanston has more low-income people because Evanston itself has a lot of affordable housing in the transitional area built by the city. Evanston overall still has many more wealthy people than Oak Park. Evanston also has many Single-Family Homes. In fact the market ratio shows that Oak Park has more multi-family residential units on the market than Evanston. I am a conservative, that is one reason I chose Evanston because of the good mix of political opinions. Evanston was founded by a prominent Illinois Republican, we have only had one Democratic mayor, who is currently the mayor. I believe that there are too many, I do not want to say, people in Oak Park's family neighborhoods. The Evanston Chicago border is cut off by green space, shopping, and low-income housing. Howard Street is not even close to the main areas of Evanston. A $1,000,000 home just sold in late 2007 on a street 1 block from Howard. Evanston does have plenty of families living in homes. Many see it as a rip-off because housing prices in Evanston are similar to Wilmette and many figure you should just live there.

[oakparkdude]

Originally Posted by brenty

I believe that there are too many, I do not want to say, people in Oak Park's family neighborhoods.

What kind of people? Black people? Gay people? Poor people? Democrats? People who drive domestic cars?

Why don't you want to say? Why don't you be open and put all your biases out on the table?

[brenty]

I do not want to say because I do not want to get an infraction.

[oakparkdude]

Originally Posted by brenty

I do not want to say because I do not want to get an infraction.

It sounds like you are all but admitting to be either racist or homophobic or quite possibly both. I think this is a fairly useful bit of info about you that I will definitely keep in mind when evaluating your posts in the future.

[brenty]

I'll give you a hint. I do not go to Lakeview. But, I do recommend places for Gay's to live. I would not recommend anywhere on the North Shore. Oak Park is a fantastic option. I do not hate them but I just do not want them in a family suburb. It is my personal opinion and does not affect my posts in anyway. I mean I used to live in San Francisco.

[oakparkdude]

Originally Posted by brenty

I'll give you a hint. I do not go to Lakeview. But, I do recommend places for Gay's to live. I would not recommend anywhere on the North Shore. Oak Park is a fantastic option. I do not hate them but I just do not want them in a family suburb. It is my personal opinion and does not affect my posts in anyway. I mean I used to live in San Francisco.

Honestly, that's fine with me. You're entitled to your beliefs. It does help me understand why you think OP is not family-friendly. I'd like to point out again, though, that many (hetero) people choose OP partly because it is gay-friendly, so clearly your recommendations are of less value to these liberal-minded people. That's why its better to be open about your biases.