questions about park forest (Chicago, Homewood: rental, crime, townhomes)

[bhudapop]

i am thinking about moving to park forest from savannah. it seems to be a pretty quiet and safe town that is not too far away from chicago. is there anything i need to worry about with this town? are there any paper mills nearby? is it an ok town for an artist, it seems like it is just a short (one hour) train ride away from the culture of chicago. does the east of side of park forest get much crime spill over from chicago hights?

[candy007]

O my! well I need a little more info. Do you have children? What exactly are you looking for in Park Forest.. I live not far from there. I can fill you in with nore info.

[bhudapop]

no, i have no children. i was looking into park forest because it looks relatively safe and affordable while still being easily accessible by train to chicago.

[At1WithNature]

What's your racial make up? That's the most important thing in the south suburbs. You have towns dominated by blacks and then you have towns dominated by hispanics as well as whites. The asians are up north. So in the South Burbs you really just have a black/white thing since most hispanics are up north like the asians and many whites are as well. The South Burbs are a black dominated area where diversity doesn't exist.

You may look at the demographics for a city and think it is diverse. But in the South Burbs, those are simply towns that are in transition. They are transitioning from all white to all black and may look diverse because you simply catch them in the middle of a transition. That is all.

[meatpuff]

At1WithNature is pretty much right about the south suburbs. In my opinion, Homewood and Flossmoor may end up being exceptions to this rule and wind up being stably integrated. Or not. But there are no other notable exceptions in the south suburbs. So yup, your race matters as to where you would want to move in the south suburbs.

Incidentally, bhudapop, you may like Homewood. As an artist maybe you would like living around that scattering of University of Chicago characters that commutes in from Homewood and there are some other nice things about that town.

You should tell us more about yourself if you want helpful commentary from us.

[ImaloneJill]

I was also going to suggest Homewood as opposed to Park Forest.

[FleeTheRustBelt]

I grew up there and my folks still live there. There is some spillover crime from the Heights, but it's mostly in the area east of Western Ave. and north of 26th St. Avoid this area, and also avoid the RENTAL townhomes near downtown (areas F and G, the rest of the townhomes are co-ops, and safe enough). But in other parts of the village there's a lot of petty crime, lawnmowers and bikes being stolen, things like that. Crime's been on a steady upward trend there, the police force is a bit understaffed and is more used to dealing with DUI's than gang bangers. If you do move there, keep your doors locked and chain up anything you leave outside. Common sense.

No paper mills anywhere near Park Forest. If it's pollution you're worried about, the air quality in PF is no better or worse than any other suburb of a big city. No smoke-belching factories or anything.

It's an okay place for an artist I guess. It has live theater performance and an art fair which gave PF somewhat of a reputation for being "bohemian", but IMO that's overrated. It's still south Chicagoland, people are WAY more into the Bears than Bauhaus.

Homewood would be a better bet. But Homewood's a bit more expensive.

[pvande55]

Author William Whyte studied Park Forest extensively for his book "The Organization Man" in the 50's. It has obviously changed a lot since then.

[bhudapop]

i am 25 and white. i was interested in park forest because they had quite a few homes under $20k (mostly north of 26 and east of western avenue) and they have a metra line that goes into chicago. those are the two main qualifications i am looking for in a home. i was asking about the paper mill because i am mildly allergic to pine, pine in its normal form does not bother me but saw dust and paper mills do. i don't really need an artistic environment in the town i live in, just access to one. (ie downtown chicago) i also like that that there is a good chunk of woods nearby, but that is not a necessary item just a bonus. i took a peek at home wood and i couldn't find anything for $30k so it is out of my budget for housing

[meatpuff]

Well, I didn't know Park Forest had homes for $20K. But if that is your budget, tell ya what, Park Forest ain't bad at all. At that price, you're looking for anywhere that isn't a deserted hellhole. And Park Forest is fine, really pretty nice. The biggest problem might be the schools, but if you don't have kids you wouldn't have much to complain about there.