Possible move from NYC to Chicago... need some advice....

[carfreechicago]

Hyde Park is pretty, but not very convenient without a car. Doesn't have great transit connections, and doesn't have a great grocery store situation, with shut-down co-ops and such (don't ask). Evanston would feel more like Chicago and more urban than Hyde Park.

If you want total convenience on foot and with transit though, I'd vote for Lakeview, Lincoln Park or Gold Coast.

[loufalu]

I see.... but can I find a decent Apartment for like $1000???

[Drover]

Gold Coast? Not likely. Lincoln Park and Lakeview? Maybe if you shop very, very patiently. ("Decent" being the key word here.) In that price range, I'd look in Lincoln Square.

[loufalu]

Well it all depends on how well I'll get paid out there.

[carfreechicago]

I think Drover is exaggerating about Lakeview. Gold Coast and Lincoln Park may be a little more difficult in that range, but probably still doable. It does depend on what you mean by decent though -- how big and how nice? I moved to Chicago from Maryland and was totally shocked at how cheap it was here compared to there. I assume coming from New York you don't mind smaller. When I moved to Lakeview five years ago I got a very nice rehabbed convertible studio two blocks from the train and two blocks from the grocery store for $675. Then I shared a two-bedroom with a roommate - that was about $1,100. Two years ago I was in a nice one-bedroom on a great street for $875. Now I own. You'll find cheaper places east of Clark St. West of there it isn't quite as dense and there aren't as many smaller places. Broadway is a really great street, though a couple blocks further from the trains.

If you want a recently-rehabbed two-bedroom, then yes, you might try Lincoln Square.

[Drover]

Except he's not coming from Manhattan; he's coming from the Bronx -- North Bronx is my guess based on a prior description of his neighborhood. That's why I'm trying to steer him away from areas with small apartments.

It also bears mentioning that there has been a pretty sudden demand for rental units now that the credit/real estate market has cooled way off. Rents are going up again.

[Manigault]

I moved from Wakefield in the Bronx to Hyde Park. Hyde Park is better. I spent about three years in the neighborhood with no car and really was not inconvenienced by the lack thereof. Actually, its a great place to ride a bike and I've often biked down the lake from downtown to Hyde Park. It has some of the best transportation to the downtown where you can get a seat and still be in the loop in half an hour, on the express bus, the commuter train or even the el. The diversity is amazing: Two temples, two mosques, two Catholic churches, about five Protestant churches and a Mormon church. Take your pick.

There's the 57th street art fair, the book fair and a festival just about every week in Washington Park. Lotsa museums, too. It is also, after Rogers Park, one of the few places in Chicago where you can live cheaply and near the lake. Lotsa restaurants but only from the cheap to mid-priced. There is space to park and no neighborhood permit parking, if you do have a car. The public and private schools are superior.

Hyde Park is on the south side as much as Riverdale is in the Bronx. At least in my opinion.

[yakijy]

I grew up on the edge of Hyde Park on the South Side. It is hyped as the 'model' integrated neighborhood - there is a distince brand of black elitism there. Lincoln Park is kind of the other, white elitism on the North side. I wouldn't live in either place.

[loufalu]

I am going to Chitown on the first weekend in November... just to check out the different areas so I can focus on apartment hunting.... For those of you who have been helping me out on here.....DRINKS ARE ON ME!!!