Oakbrook Terrace vs. Westchester (Chicago, Cicero: low income, section 8, sales)

[KawiWowi]

Hi, great site here, glad to have found it. My wife and I currently live in Westchester and have 3 young children. We've outgrown our 2 bedroom house and are looking to stay in the area near I-294/I-290 due to proximity to work, family, friends, downtown, and the softball leagues in Elmhurst and NW Side of Chicago that I play in.

We love Westchester and are considering staying. In our area, especially our block, many older people have passed on and nice, new families with kids have moved in, which gives the block a great, lively friendliness. All our neighbors are good people. However, the kicker is that there's no way I'd send my kids to Proviso West for HS, so I'll probably have to move again if I stay in W.Chester. Now, it just so happens that I've always liked the little area of OB Terrace just w. of Rt 83 and just north of 22nd St. It has curvy streets, very little traffic, and a wide variety of homes. Generously spattered throughout the area there are gorgeous, new, brick & stone homes that surely replaced teardown homes. Side by side w/these mansions are humble, little, well-maintained frame homes built in the 50's and 60's. Many of the lots are pretty generous in size, especially for being so close to Chicago. I can pick up a nice, brick, 4 bedroom home in either S. Westchester or OBT for around $300K. What's my best bet? I don't mind remodeling and might even consider blowing off the roof and adding a floor if I found the right area. Don't know much about OBT schools (HS or elementary), crime stats, presence of apt complexes, taxes, community, services, parks, or even library availability. It's odd, I've lived in the area for 7 years and yet, outside the mall, I know very little about OB Terrace. Don't even know if they have a little league program. Replies in the way of facts and opinions are all welcome. I figure there has to be a good reason people are doing teardowns in OBT. Thanks!

[AuDiBelle]

That is a pretty section back in there! Plus, your taxes are likely to be lower with the tax revenue from the mall. The main drawback of OBT is that it borders and shares schools with the less desirable portion of Villa Park. Not that Villa Park is bad in any way, but the southern end has a lot of apartment complexes (pretty sure some section 8 too). I'm not sure about the crime around there, but I know there are lots of parks, pools, and little league is big in VP. There's a substantial hispanic population in southern VP too, if that's any concern to you.

Overall, if I had to pick between the two towns, I think I would go with OBT. I love Westchester (my mom lives there), but the Proviso issue is a downer. The schools OBT feeds into aren't rated top-notch either, but it's probably due to the portion of the student body that's ESL. I'd do some more investigating into the schools (Ardmore, Jackson, and Willowbrook) before making any decision.

[chet everett]

I think whatyousay is incorrect on the elementary schools -- the school district for Oakbrook Terrace is really Salt Creek 48 -- Interactive Illinois Report Card It is among the smallest districts in the region. Numbers are very good, though it has a very jaggy incorporation line and has lots of high value non-residential property (including PARTS of Oakbrook Center Mall, though all the sales tax from that goes to Village of Oak Brook -- parts of that area are also inside the very very high performing Butler 53 district...)

Willowbrook HS is where the kids from OBT go, some pluses and some drawbacks, as the other things said about the rest of Villa Park are true...

In general the pluses of OBT are different than the pluses of Westchester -- as noted the curvy streets and large lots give OBT a kind of semi-rural feel, that reminds me of places to the NW, but not as new / uniform / upscale -- kind of a down market Inverness ... There is not really a true 'gated community' thing going on like Rosemont, but there is a kind of "surrounded by offices / retail/ hotels" thing that has a similar effect of keeping "outsiders out"... Funky police force / local politics have had some similar Rosement-esque drama in the past, but I think things are much quieter now. Once upon a time there were developers with huge plans to massively de-populate OBT and turn almost all of it into more offices and retail -- that froze remodeling and sales for many many years. That period has passed and most folks there now have built up their places into pretty impressive state.

Pluses of Westchester are that is it more walkable, more traditional grid feel, better access to Forest Preserves, more variety with private schools. Of course it can hard to find a bigger house / lot as the pattern is pretty "post WW II housing boom" . Big downside is possibility /likelihood of further declines at Proviso...

[AuDiBelle]

Ahh, my bad about the elementary schools. Did not know that! I shall defer to Chet on that one.

[gardener34]

Are you catholic? Many people in Westchester send their kids to a myriad of catholic schools in the area. Also OBT I think is in Dupage as opposed to Westchester in cook county. Depends on what you have a preference for.

[KawiWowi]

My wife and I are both Christian, we attend a church on the NW side of Chicago and have a son at a private, Christian school in LaGrange. Just two more reasons to stay centrally located. We're pretty comfortable with people of all religions, except for the lunatics. We're looking at Western Springs and La Grange Park too, but man, something about that little OBT area really floats my boat. If Willowbrook HS is only so-so, it's a bit surprising that people are doing teardowns in the area. However, I suppose that Willowbrook looks like Cornell University when compared to Proviso West. Thanks for the feedback, you all. Additional comments still appreciated.

[AuDiBelle]

I'm not sure why, but this school district (48) has a pretty high % of low income students. 29% at Stella May, 27% at John Albright, 16% at Salt Creek. I would think that high considering the area. I'm guessing there is low-income housing feeding into the district as well, but I'm not overly familiar with the district lines.

Are you planning to keep your son in the LaGrange school if you do move to OBT?

Willowbrook is better than so-so in my opinion. NOT that ACT scores are the end-all-be-all of a school's worth, but Willowbrook's ACT scores are pretty darn decent (22 across the board compared to 16/17 at Proviso). State average is 20/21. If you move to the LT district (LG and Western Springs), the ACT scores go up a tiny bit more to 24.

[quadrokeith]

Originally Posted by whatyousay

I'm not sure why, but this school district (48) has a pretty high % of low income students. 29% at Stella May, 27% at John Albright, 16% at Salt Creek. I would think that high considering the area. I'm guessing there is low-income housing feeding into the district as well, but I'm not overly familiar with the district lines.

Are you planning to keep your son in the LaGrange school if you do move to OBT?

Willowbrook is better than so-so in my opinion. NOT that ACT scores are the end-all-be-all of a school's worth, but Willowbrook's ACT scores are pretty darn decent (22 across the board compared to 16/17 at Proviso). State average is 20/21. If you move to the LT district (LG and Western Springs), the ACT scores go up a tiny bit more to 24.

I have a bunch of friends in their late twenties who all went to Willowbrook (they were all friends in high school). All of these people are doing well in their personal and professional lives. I don't know how much they attribute this to their high school... and maybe I just know the former smart kids or something. But of that group I know a doctor, two engineers, a lab scientist, a grad student at Northwestern and a couple of bankers... and one guy who gave up his job and moved to Colorado to climb, hike and bike all day (he's probably the smartest of the bunch!).

Anyway, I don't know much about the school, but I do know that the people I know that went there are intelligent and well-adjusted individuals.

[chet everett]

I think that lots of the low income kids at the Salt Creek schools are coming from rentals -- becuase of the odd history of OBT and the real estate speculation there are rather large percentage of homes owned by investors. There are also a fair number of townhomes that are owned by investors, and some dedicated apartments too. It is "like an Ivy league" school district for folks coming from the Proviso or Cicero area, and in some ways I applaud the parents for moving to some place that is safer and in most ways healthier. I never owned a rental home in OBT but I looked at 'em and the prices are /were competitive, so I know that for folks that don't need /want access to trains it was a very attractive option. The bigger lots also make it attractive to folks with work trucks and such, something that is harder to do in towns where one car garage was the norm...

I tend to agree that the HS is OBT's biggest negative, but it only in comparison to the other nearby schools that are so much better. The issues that face Willowbrook are pretty run of the mill -- kids at the top do OK, kids at the bottom such up lots of resources. Too many kids are in the middle and the options for the middle are slimmer and slimmer these days. Most folks prefer Willowbrook to the other school in the district (Addison Trail) becuase the scores are a smidge higher, the racial balance is more like the rest of the burbs and the level of "orderliness" is generally higher. Neither school is really stellar, and both typify to me the sort of "not bad enough to run from" problems that really do lead to too many of the kids from the middle not having much shot at a decent career. If those middling kids do go to college odds are not good that they'll finish and those that don't even go to college have pretty grim job prospects...

Private high school options (like Montini, IC, Timothy, St. Joe, Nazareth) are plentiful and convenient so I suppose that for parents with the ability to bank roll a better path to a competitive college that might make sense.

The other thing is that, like at most any school, some higher performing kids that certainly do participate in sports and clubs and have decent test scores and take the kinds of classes that ought to prepare one for college, so it is not a complete 'dead zone' that would have parents screaming for change, but the folks with more ability to commit more resources to pretty much everything in their kids lives (from academics to sports to travel and entertainment) will be scarce. That is not really a negative, just a reality check...