What suburb is for us? For that matter, is Chicago for us? (Naperville: crime rate, hotel)

[Cjjhnson]

Hello! My fiance and I trying to decide where to move when we get married. We kind of want to move away and start our new lives together.

I am curious what Chicago suburb, if any, has what we are looking for. And if not, we are open to just about anywhere.

Background: We currently live in the Des Moines metro, and our family is here. We are looking for a much bigger metro, primarily bc a metro of 600,000 doesn't always provide the most things to do.

What we are looking for:

A place with culture. We DO NOT want anything cookie cutter, McMansions, beige houses, mini-vans, and so on. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it just isn't us. We want something unique.

We would like an active downtown with lots of foot traffic, coffee shops, maybe some book stores, little cafes, so on.

I am a massage therapist and am looking to open a business in the area we would be moving, so an area that is a bit more...hippie...may be better

Cost of living isn't a huge deal for us, as my salary is directly associated with the COL. However, this only goes up to a certain extent. If the average cost of a house is 500k, that's too high.

We have 2 dogs, so a pet friendly area with dogs parks and lots of people walking around with them would be nice.

We have no kids and aren't really planning on having any, so family friendliness isn't high up on our priority list.

Finally, we would want to live near downtown where ever we move, so an area with an accessible downtown would be nice.

Thanks in advance!

And ANY places are welcome. We just like Chicago, have been there a lot, and it is pretty close to our families, but it is open to negotiation.

[Steve-o]

Oak Park sounds perfect for you guys.

[oakparkdude]

Originally Posted by Steve-o

Oak Park sounds perfect for you guys.

Yeah, OP might be a good fit. The cost of housing may bump up against your upper limit, depending on your minimum criteria for a house.

[middle-aged mom]

Urban/suburban Evanston is also another possibility.

[Cjjhnson]

Those both look pretty good. I am concerned however with how urban they are. We are so used to...well..Des Moines, we are nervous with how high density they are. Can you get around easily there? I like going by foot sometimes and by public transit, but for things like groceries, we would like to bring our car so we don't have to carry all that stuff all over the place. And, we wouldn't be able to own a single family home for a really long time there. But all of these things we could deal with. However, upon further research, I saw that the crime rate is pretty high (at least according to forums). Is this true?

And we saw places like St Charles and Geneva and thought they looked quaint and a little easier to manage. Would these be good for us?

Thanks for the replies so far guys!

[rrah]

St. Charles and Geneva are not exactly hippie kinds of places. Lots of minivans, cookie cutter, and McMansions. I enjoyed living in the area, but I don't think it's what you want. The downtowns are nice there, but again, not much of a young, hip vibe. Getting around those two places using public transit would be a joke.

[oakparkdude]

Originally Posted by Cjjhnson

Those both look pretty good. I am concerned however with how urban they are. We are so used to...well..Des Moines, we are nervous with how high density they are. Can you get around easily there? I like going by foot sometimes and by public transit, but for things like groceries, we would like to bring our car so we don't have to carry all that stuff all over the place. And, we wouldn't be able to own a single family home for a really long time there. But all of these things we could deal with. However, upon further research, I saw that the crime rate is pretty high (at least according to forums). Is this true?

And we saw places like St Charles and Geneva and thought they looked quaint and a little easier to manage. Would these be good for us?

Thanks for the replies so far guys!

Geneva and St. Charles both have older, historic downtown areas with some retail and dining. The vast majority of these towns is more recent development of the strip-mall, big-box retail, and cookie cutter housing development. The housing is significantly cheaper than Oak Park or Evanston, and crime rates are lower, so that may appeal to you. Geneva has Metra station so you can get into Chicago by transit, it takes about 80 minutes one way. Other than the commuter rail, a car is a necessity for transportation as the few bus routes run infrequently and don't go very many places.

[Cjjhnson]

Ok, we are gonna visit Oak Park next month and see how we like it. Thanks guys!

BTW, I'd only seen St Charles and Geneva online, and all the pics of them are just of the cute downtowns and things like that. Who knew?

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by rrah

St. Charles and Geneva are not exactly hippie kinds of places. Lots of minivans, cookie cutter, and McMansions. I enjoyed living in the area, but I don't think it's what you want. The downtowns are nice there, but again, not much of a young, hip vibe. Getting around those two places using public transit would be a joke.

Heck, Chicago has lots of minivans, too.

Geneva and St. Charles have McMansions and some cookie-cutter neighborhoods, but theyre mainly on the outskirts, where the growth is occurring. The central parts of town are quite historic with many beautiful old homes, old business districts, etc.

And I dont know when the last time you were in downtown St. Charles was, but it has been revamped and is actually attracting a very young crowd on weekends, as there are many bars catering to them. Its starting to remind me of a 1/3 scale Naperville.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by Cjjhnson

Ok, we are gonna visit Oak Park next month and see how we like it. Thanks guys!

BTW, I'd only seen St Charles and Geneva online, and all the pics of them are just of the cute downtowns and things like that. Who knew?

Minus how urban it feels/looks in comparison to Oak Park, I think St. Charles is a better place to live than Oak Park for many reasons, and I think you'd really like it. There is less traffic, its quieter, safer, cheaper, more open, cleaner, has several parks/Forest Preserves, better schools, etc, etc.

Some shots from around St. Charles: