Relocating to Chicago....where should we live? (Oak Park, Elmhurst: for rent, crime)

[Missilelle]

My fiancé and I both work in NYC. He was just offered a job in Itasca and my company has offices in the Merchandise Mart building. We are having a hard time finding a neighborhood that’s commutable for both of us. He would be driving to Itasca and I would be taking the train into the city.


We’ve been looking at Oak Park, but I’d like to know if there are any other options. Any advice would be appreciated!

[fusillirob1983]

Originally Posted by Missilelle

My fiancé and I both work in NYC. He was just offered a job in Itasca and my company has offices in the Merchandise Mart building. We are having a hard time finding a neighborhood that’s commutable for both of us. He would be driving to Itasca and I would be taking the train into the city.


We’ve been looking at Oak Park, but I’d like to know if there are any other options. Any advice would be appreciated!

It probably depends approximately your age, what kind of interests the two of you have and monthly budget for rent. There's definitely worse split commutes, so you have some options just based on only knowing work locations so far.

[Missilelle]

We’d like to keep our rent under $3k per month. It’s important that we have access to a movie theater, we love the idea of a walkable neighborhood with dining and shops, especially as we try to make new friends in our new city.

[Curly Q. Bobalink]

Indiana.

Seriously, though, why not just choose Itasca, Bensenville, etc.? Train service into the city is right there, and it would minimize the automobile commute into Itasca, he may even be able to bicycle to work. Splitting the commute "difference" makes no sense to me, once you're on a train, what's the difference if the trip is five miles longer? My buddy's wife commuted downtown by train for the past twenty years, and it worked well for them. Oak Park, while being a "historically pretty" area, has more crime than I'd be comfortable with. If you choose Bensenville, make sure you can handle the air traffic from O'Hare. My friend has gotten used to it, but if you're sensitive, you may not. I'm sure you can find the flight paths somewhere on line and avoid being directly under them. My sister used to live in Itasca, and she liked it.

[fusillirob1983]

Originally Posted by Missilelle

We’d like to keep our rent under $3k per month. It’s important that we have access to a movie theater, we love the idea of a walkable neighborhood with dining and shops, especially as we try to make new friends in our new city.

I'd go with Elmhurst. It's a quick train ride into the city on the Union Pacific West line that goes into Ogilvie. Your fiance's drive to Itasca would probably be less than 30 minutes. It has a walkable neighborhood with dining, shops, a supermarket, and a movie theater. Most towns don't have a movie theater in a walkable area.

[JJski]

I second elmhurst - awesome town...

[Missilelle]

I guess I’m a little gunshy about long train commutes. I currently take NJTransit into NYC and a 55 minute ride took 2+ hours this morning. Is the Metra reliable?

[damba]

More reliable than NJtransit, definitely.

You can get to Ogilvie in ~30 min via Metra, depending on when you leave Elmhurst.

[fusillirob1983]

Originally Posted by Missilelle

I guess I’m a little gunshy about long train commutes. I currently take NJTransit into NYC and a 55 minute ride took 2+ hours this morning. Is the Metra reliable?

In my experience of living in the burbs for more than 2 years, Metra worked as scheduled all but maybe a dozen times. Figured I've traveled round trip about 500 times, or 1,000 individual train rides, so that means I've run into an inconvenience of maybe 20 minutes or more less than 2% of the time. Others may have experienced differently. Perhaps I've been lucky.

Elmhurst's train is about 25 minutes, probably one of the fastest suburban routes in a desirable area.

[ToriaT]

Elmhurst is nice. I'd skip Oak Park as the commute to Itasca would not be good. You might want to look at Itasca too as well as Wooddale. I'd skip Bensenville. Maybe look at Roselle too. These are all on the train lines. They are reliable. A few times a year there are delays or a problem but generally reliable. Thousands of people take them everyday.