Moving to Chicago this summer (Arlington Heights, Schaumburg: appointed, sale, rentals)

[Adriana and Rob]

We're a family of three with a 6 year old boy. We're looking for a place to live in the suburbs convenient to O'hare airport, Rosemont area and public transportation. We're also looking for good school system and to be close to green areas. We have been recommended Des Plaines, Evanston, Elk Grove, Schaumburg, Mount prospect and Arlington Heights. We're open to any suggestions. Thank you in advance.

[nanannie]

Hmmm,I like Arlington Hts,Des Plaines,Mnt Prospect.Nice nice towns,older,charming neighborhoods,good schools and on the Metra train line for an easy commute to the city.Evanston is much much larger,closer to the city and lake, a really diverse,thriving area(home of Northwestern U) It has some wonderful historic homes and neighborhoods(some you could walk to the beach). I put it in a different catergory then the above mentioned towns because of its size and proximity to Chicago (easy commute) I did not pick the other two,no offense to those who live there,simply because they are more sub divison/mall/strip mall type areas,no real "downtown" and not such an easy commute (no trains) and not as charming in my book,,but they have their good points as well.And they are closer to Ohare.Evanston is not.Might I suggest towns like Elmhurst? Great schools,easy jaunt to Ohare,great thriving town,also on the train line.Your really have alot of options,,please come visit and see what feels like "home" to you.Good Luck and welcome to Illinois

[reggiewee]

Hi. We lived in Arlington Heights till recently. Our 3 kids went to school in nearby Rolling Meadows (www.StColette.com). It was a smaller school and the kids didn't have any trouble integrating.

The area is really kid friendly (ice rink, lake activities, etc), many activities in the Arlington Heights park district. The city has a great library.

Many good schools in the Arlington heights/Schaumburg area, so you will have no issues with schooling in that area.

I worked in downtown Chicago and found that "Arlington Heights Station" had a better train schedule than the other neighboring cities (the express trains stop there). I found this out, only after I moved in, but was pretty pleased with it.
- see: Metra / Union Pacific District Northwest Line

Houses/Rentals are more moderately priced in Palatine though, so I would consider recommend you take a look at both Arlington Heights and Palatine.

Work has now taken me away from the area, but the family loved it there.

All the best!
-Reg

[Joe107]

I'd look at Elmhurst...it's close to Ohare and it's a great town.....however, it's alot more expensive than above suburbs listed: Des Plaines, Evanston, Elk Grove, Schaumburg, Mount prospect and Arlington Heights

[reggiewee]

Just wanted to add a few more thots on my experiences moving into NW suburbs:
As with everyone, we had to make the school/home/work locations work. To do the necessary homework I found maps from American Map Corp friendly in the sense that they showed me clearly where the parks, greenery & residential areas were. I used this to give a big picture perspective in conjunction with Google Map (zoom-ins) to figure out most things remotely. Saved me a lot of time househunting as I found that this method was pretty accurate once I got there.

So I’ld recommend investing in a good Map of Chicago 7 County or Northwest suburbs.
Chicagoland, IL 2007 Seven County Street Atlas - Large Type : American Map: The Premier Group of Map, Travel and Language Brands (http://www.americanmap.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=561 - broken link)
Northwest Cook County, IL Street Map : American Map: The Premier Group of Map, Travel and Language Brands (http://www.americanmap.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2882 - broken link)

Here’s a link I found useful when looking for restaurants (esp kid friendly ones)
favorite places (broken link)
I would also greatly recommend the pork cutlets at Takkatsu (at Wing & Vail) at the Arl Hts train station.

In addition to the library, the parks, lake, ice-rink and park activities, we manged to keep the kids busy all year by bringing them to the Brookfield zoo in Oakpark (check out the dolphin show), the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire (had kid friendly plays at aro $10 a ticket, and the Kohl's Children Museum. My 11 year also enjoyed the kid friendly improv at Chicago Comedy Company (Streets of Woodfield).

Many summer activities (Festival 2007 - 32nd annual celebration) Most cities in the NW suburbs have excellent fireworks show on 7/4. The ones at Ithaca and Arlington Park are excellent. In winter, there are many sump areas that become sledding hills – the one the kids liked was close by at Kirchoff and Wilke.

A good hospital in the area is Northwest Community hospital. The School will definitely be able to recommend a good child-friendly clinic. One my family went to was Horizon Medical Center(Remington and Plum Grove, next to Gerber Car Repair). Apart from thinking that the doctors were nice and great (prob same with most other clinics), this one also had good facilities (modern eqpt), and really kept timely appointments (generally we saw the doctor within 10 min of appointed time! I really hate waiting when the kids are not well) and they were open evenings and Saturdays (i found the extended hours helpful).

Huge malls in the area include Ikea and Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg. My kids found Woodfield Mall a little intimidating, so we went more often to large but less busy places like Randhurst Mall, and Deerpark Town Centre.
I also found that there was a good garage sale culture in the neighborhood there (so actually if I had to do it again, we could probably just move in with suitcases.

Oberweis Dairy was a special treat for them, and they were ok with 2 kids sharing a banana split (my third preferred cookie dough!) so we were able to go there often enough without me having to take a second job (and we bought milk there too (creamier than from the supermkts). Jake’s Pizza (Wilke and Central) and TNT café (Wilke and Campbell) gave other reasonable eats. Best bread we found was a Bakery Cresent (just after Boston Blackie's along Algonquin) – we loved both their white bread and their raisin loaf. Johnnie’s Italian Sausage (Algonquin and Arlington Heights Rd) and Fratello’s are also local institutions.

Our car went to Ray’s Auto (at Kirchoff and Meadow Dr, next to Taco bell). Chaps there refused to take payment for fixing my car key-fob (“I’ll getcha the next time” was what the mechanic said to me) the first time I dropped by even tho I was not living there at that time.

[bobsmith319]

I grew up in Mount Prospect and I highly reccomend that subarb. Also I would suggest looking at Park Ridge and Niles. All of the subarbs you mentioned are very nice and have quality schools. If you have any more questions just let me know.