Can i live downtown and work in the suburbs? (Chicago: new home, neighborhoods)

[notfriedman]

Hi Jen,

Per our conversations im looking to moving to Chicago and could use guidence to where i should live. Im hoping to not have a commute of more than an hour to any of the neigborhood locations that i would possbily work at. The way our business works is i could be moved every 6 months to different neighborhoods that we build in, so being somewhat centrally located would be important. Hopefully i could still live in Chicago, most likely it would be on the edge though. If Chicago is located within an hour of most of these cities i would be fine with the small chance i would be located in one further away. This is the map of our communities we are currently building.

Centex Homes | New Homes in Illinois (IL), Chicago, New Homes Builders, House Construction (http://centex.com/Illinois/ - broken link)

or a list of the cities are Woodstock, Wadsworth/West Waukegen, McHenry, Elgin, Yorkville, Joliet, West Joliet, Minooka, Shorewood, Manhatten, and Boubonnais.

Is it unrealistic to live in the city but leave my car at the end of the train that goes out to the suburbs so i could take the train for half the commute and drive the other portion and would that save me some time? Or, (2 part question) to live toward the end of the train so i could take it into the city if i wanted? and where would there be a cool/hip city (like royal oak, ferndale, birmingham) just outside of Chicago at the end of the train? What train city would that be?

Im planning on visiting the city at the end of next work week so i can experience traffic and neighborhood locations, so if you had some possible suggestions on where to live it would help and i would use those spots as starting points.

Thanks for the help!

Dave

[DonkeyTeeth]

I'm usually one who thinks that its certainly possible to live in the city and commute by car to the suburbs, mostly because I had to do it for a long time as a consultant. However, the locations you listed are almost all very, very far out on the fringes of the suburbs where you'd probably be looking at a 1.5 hour commute each way even in great conditions. I don't think too many Metra stops in the burbs allow overnight parking, so I don't know how realistic any plan to leave your car somewhere and do a partial commute could be.

As much as I usually think a city/suburb combo lifestyle can work, I think in your case you'll be happier living maybe somewhere in the 355 corridor and using your free time to go play in the city.

[emmi605]

I agree. Living downtown for those locations would be horrible. I would try finding something near 355 that is central like Lombard, which has a growing nightlife for a young person. That way you could hope on 355 to go south, 88 west or up 355/59 to go north. You can still hop a train in Lombard to go downtown in the evenings and weekends. Since so many people reverse commute, the traffic in Chicago is bad both in and out during morning and afternoon rush hours and many time inbetween. As far as living on the far West of Chicago, that isn't a great neighborhood. The first western suburb is Oak Park which is nice, but you still will spend so much time in traffic on the Ike getting to I88. You'll be able to have fun in the suburbs and go downtown for fun also.

[Lori56]

I totally agree with both of you. Living downtown and commuting to the 'suburbs' that are listedb (sorry, but those are pretty rural suburbs compared to what most of us consider the burbs!!!) would be 2 hours at least.

The 355 corridor some where in the central west area -- Wheaton, Carol Stream, or further south Bolingbrook, Naperville, might better serve your needs.

Most of the trains run E-W and fartherest out commuting point in (maybe) McHenry -- used to be Geneva. I work for the phone company in Wheaton, and our engineers for the Minooka-Joliet-Aurora area work out of Joliet. Out Wheaton people handle Elgin-Barrington-McHenry, etc. Anyway you look at it you are going to need to do some drive time.

[diane3]

That probably won't work. I know for a fact from the city to Woodstock or McHenry will be over an hour and Elgin is about an hour from the city.