Is Chicago Underpopulated? (Park Ridge, Lincoln, Madison: appointed, private school, camps)

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by oakparkdude

If you live in Oak Park, you have a 20 minute commute by el to the Loop. How many Chicago neighborhoods can make that claim?

A lot.

[chicago103]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

I've met people from Oriole Park, and they love it. Have you actually lived there? As one fellow I met a few years back said "it's like a slice of heaven with reasonable property taxes."

Schools are not the end-all-be-all some people assume they are.

Plenty of people either don't have kids, or would be sending their kids to a parochial school even if they lived in a nice suburb because that's how they want their children raised.

And while this isn't important to you or everyone, some people truly do value being in the City limits as they value being a Chicagoan. I am guilty as charged. I would rather deal with all sorts of urban hassles than have to grapple every morning with what I did wrong in life to end up stuck in some exurb, even if the house was huge and the schools were great.

You can have it all in Chicago if the "all" isn't purely materialistic/"keeping up with the Jones'," you just need to be smart.

I agree with you 100%. The property taxes are often very low in these outer neighborhoods so that is an advantage right there. My dad owns both the house I live in now in Garfield Ridge in the city of Chicago and his primary house out in Will County and he is always complaining how LOW property taxes are in Chicago compared to the outer suburbs. I remind him not every place is as cheap as the SW side but there you have it. I also think that living in an outer neighborhood gives you the prestige of a Chicago address without the high costs of housing and if you live in the right place you can still walk to stores and take public transit. Most here own cars but you can walk places, don't have to drive as far when you do and can take public transit downtown. So I don't agree with this notion that the outer neighborhoods have all the drawbacks of the city but none of the benefits, pure nonsense to me but other people have different priorities and preferences.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

I've met people from Oriole Park, and they love it. Have you actually lived there? As one fellow I met a few years back said "it's like a slice of heaven with reasonable property taxes."

Schools are not the end-all-be-all some people assume they are.

Plenty of people either don't have kids, or would be sending their kids to a parochial school even if they lived in a nice suburb because that's how they want their children raised.

And while this isn't important to you or everyone, some people truly do value being in the City limits as they value being a Chicagoan. I am guilty as charged. I would rather deal with all sorts of urban hassles than have to grapple every morning with what I did wrong in life to end up stuck in some exurb, even if the house was huge and the schools were great.

You can have it all in Chicago if the "all" isn't purely materialistic/"keeping up with the Jones'," you just need to be smart.

No I don't live in Oriole Park but I drive through it frequently to get to work. Being a resident isn't necessary to draw conclusions about it. If you're allowed to, then so am I.

If your ego positively demands your ZIP code start with "606" yet you don't actually want or need a truly urban experience, then I suppose Oriole Park is as good a place as any. But you don't require those bragging rights, surely you know there are many more options than just "Chicago" and "exurbs."

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by Drover

No I don't live in Oriole Park but I drive through it frequently to get to work. Being a resident isn't necessary to draw conclusions about it. If you're allowed to, then so am I.

Re-read what I wrote. I was passing on first-hand experiences, not my personal opinion.

And you're killing me with the "I drive through it" logic. I used to drive through Cabrini Green to get to school, but only the world's biggest narcissist would pretend that equated to an understanding of what it was like to live there.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by Drover

If your ego positively demands your ZIP code start with "606" yet you don't actually want or need a truly urban experience, then I suppose Oriole Park is as good a place as any. But you don't require those bragging rights, surely you know there are many more options than just "Chicago" and "exurbs."

And exactly who are you to be deciding whether anyone "actually wants or needs a truly urban experience?"

Since you didn't grow up here, you won't ever know what that is anyway. The "truly urban experience" is a cradle-to-grave one.

[chicago103]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

And exactly who are you to be deciding whether anyone "actually wants or needs a truly urban experience?"

Since you didn't grow up here, you won't ever know what that is anyway. The "truly urban experience" is a cradle-to-grave one.

Urban experience is all relative, many people would actually consider neighborhoods like Garfield Ridge as quite urban. People in rural areas and those living in exurban McMansions would certainly think my area is urban enough, in fact too urban to many.. You are also right about transplants usually not having a good understanding of what outer city neighborhood living is really like, they just dismiss it as "city lite" or "suburb lite", it is a lot more nuanced than that.

[oakparkdude]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

A lot.

Okay let me restate. How many Chicago neighborhoods can the average middle to upper income family afford a SFH with a yard and be 20 minutes of the Loop?

I'm think primarily the southwest side since the Orange line is pretty fast. A few areas on the south side (Bridgeport) and maybe there are a couple affordable workman's cottages in Wicker Park. Are there any somewhat affordable SFH along the north main south of Diversey?

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by oakparkdude

Okay let me restate. How many Chicago neighborhoods can the average middle to upper income family afford a SFH with a yard and be 20 minutes of the Loop?

I'm think primarily the southwest side since the Orange line is pretty fast. A few areas on the south side (Bridgeport) and maybe there are a couple affordable workman's cottages in Wicker Park. Are there any somewhat affordable SFH along the north main south of Diversey?

well, since the housing bust you might be able to find a few of these places in Logan Sq. but if you expand to Belmont you can find these kinds of places in Avondale. won't be 20 minutes to the Loop, but from the station 30 minutes or so is the norm. they'll be smaller homes, or bungalows, and may need some work/updating, but they'll be SFHs with a yard.

[MassVt]

Originally Posted by Drover

By the time you're looking in Oriole Park, you might as well be out in the suburbs anyway. Oriole Park gives you all of the headaches of still being in the city with no discernible benefits over living in a nearby suburb.

True. Oriole Park is a decent neighborhood, but nothing spectacular, or even special; I'd much rather live in Park Ridge, just across I-94 ( or at least a short walk over the Cumberland Blue Line subway connecting bridge)..

[MassVt]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

And exactly who are you to be deciding whether anyone "actually wants or needs a truly urban experience?"

Since you didn't grow up here, you won't ever know what that is anyway. The "truly urban experience" is a cradle-to-grave one.

Simply, utterly ridiculous.