Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Check out East Lakeview. It is a great neighborhood full of 20 something MBA's. Tons of shops/restaurants/Whole Foods and other major grocieries all walkable and great access into the park for enjoying the lakefront trail system. You can get a courtyard/vintage building apartment for under 1200.00 and you don't need to use a real estate agent like in NYC. It is fine to go straight to the landlord with lots of listings on craigslist and the Chicago Reader. However, if you do go through an apartment rental service, they are generally totally free to the tenants here in Chicago (the landlord pays the fee). And you don't have to sign an exclusive contract so you can do your own search while working with different apartment finder services. A big one in Lakeview is The Apartment People.
You can just head out Addison or Irving Park to I-90 and then on to O'Hare. Commute will take at most an hour to an hour-ten minutes in the worst traffic (although it may seem longer during the standstill periods on the Kennedy/I-90).
I always say if you are gonna be here you should live within a few blocks of the Lake as it is incredible in the late spring/summer/fall.
good luck with everything
Not to sound like an ass but that is horrible advice. Taking the bus from EAST Lakeview to the Blue Line and then to O'Hare will take definitely over an hour. With traffic I wouldn't be surprised if it took an hour and half. When baseball season is in session and the Cubs are playing at home wouldn't surprise me if it took 2 hours as an overall trip to get to O'Hare, and baseball takes up a very good chunk up of the year.
The lake is beautiful to live by, but as compared as to how many seasons the OP will enjoy the lake compared to how much this person is going to travel to O'hare, it would be in the best interest of the OP to stay away from East Lakeview.
Keep in mind folks that his trips to O'Hare are probably free via taxi (paid for by employer).
If you don't mind traffic so much and a 1-1.5 hour trip getting home on a Thursday night, then Lakeview is certainly feasible.
That said, I personally would still live near the Blue Line because I hate sitting in traffic and would prefer the flexibility of taking the Blue Line when (a) the taxi line is long, and/or (b) my phone is showing heavy traffic out of ORD.
Not to sound like an ass but that is horrible advice. Taking the bus from EAST Lakeview to the Blue Line and then to O'Hare will take definitely over an hour. With traffic I wouldn't be surprised if it took an hour and half. When baseball season is in session and the Cubs are playing at home wouldn't surprise me if it took 2 hours as an overall trip to get to O'Hare, and baseball takes up a very good chunk up of the year.
The lake is beautiful to live by, but as compared as to how many seasons the OP will enjoy the lake compared to how much this person is going to travel to O'hare, it would be in the best interest of the OP to stay away from East Lakeview.
Without traffic, East Lakeview to O'Hare is about 1 hour 5 minutes, which assumes you're very close to one of the east-west bus routes. With walking and traffic, it's probably closer to 1 hour 30 minutes most of the time door-to-security, and if you can't afford to miss the flight, allocating 2 hours wouldn't be crazy to be safe.
On the other hand, a taxi trip very early morning (leaving before 6am) would only take about 30-35 minutes, and even when traffic is terrible, I don't think it would be more than 75 minutes door-to-security unless you left in the middle of a surprise snowstorm that resulted in the cancellation of a Cubs game, or during the Pride Parade.
Hey OP. I'm 24, from Seattle and living in Chicago. I think I can be of some help to you, although we'll have to set our differences aside as you're a Husky and I'm a Coug
I moved to Chicago exactly one year ago. Chicago is much more extreme in weather than mild Seattle. It doesn't rain nearly as often obviously, but when it does rain, it usually rains much harder than Seattle. Notice in Seattle few people really bust out umbrellas. A hoody is usually enough. Well the drops of rain are way bigger in Chicago and you can get soaked pretty easily. It's obviously way colder in Chicago and was a shock to my system when I moved here last winter. So be prepared. The wind in the winter rips right through all your layers. The air in Chicago is also much dryer in Winter and much much more humid than Seattle in the summer.
The city itself has way better nightlife than Seattle does. A lot of bars close at 2am like Seattle, but there also exists many "after hours" bars that stay open until 4 or 5am. It's a much bigger drinking town than Seattle and much more extroverted in general. People on the street make eye contact much more often than in Seattle where everyone walks around pretending nobody around them exists. Girls will eye **** you like crazy here whereas in Seattle, again, girls you don't know don't typically acknowledge your existence. Strangers on the street will start conversations with you much more often in a friendly way. Drivers are much more aggressive, drive faster, and honk their horns to communicate. In Seattle, people aren't aware horns exist and drive 5 miles under the speed limit. You won't find so many passive aggressive personalities like in Seattle either.
Compared to Seattle, Chicago cops don't give a **** about anything. You gotta be doing something pretty stupid to get their attention. They have bigger things to worry about. It's pretty hard to get pulled over in Chicago while speeding.
Chicago has a handful of dangerous neighborhoods that no Seattle neighborhood could even hold a candle to. The Seattle neighborhoods with the worst reputations are Disneyland in comparison to some of the places I've driven through like Garfield Park. So just be aware of which neighborhoods you don't belong in. This isn't to intimidate you. The majority of Chicago neighborhoods are very safe, but you will need to be even more city-smart here than in Seattle and cover all your bases. The population of Chicago is 5 times more than Seattle and the city itself is much larger. So learn your city geography before you move here. It will help a lot.
As for where you should live, people have given you good recommendations. For easy access to O'Hare, definitely live west of I-90 near the blue line. Chicago is kind of divided by the freeways (tollways/expressways) Neighborhoods like Wicker Park, Bucktown and Logan Square would be good choices for you. They're young, hip, diverse and fun. The blue line will take you right to the airport and those neighborhoods are also near the expressways (they don't call them freeways here, and each one has a specific name like the Kennedy or the Roosevelt. I still don't know the names and still call them freeways even though they're not. That's how people know I'm not from here).
A car isn't a necessity here like it is on the west coast. I don't have a car here, I sold it, and it's great. I get by just fine. I use the el mostly, but also buses and I have a bicycle which is extremely useful for running fast errands. I get things done faster than people with cars because I don't have to spend the infuriating time parking. Just try your best to leave within walking distance of an el station. Bus routes are everywhere though. The Chicago Transit system is really easy to use.
If you have any more questions about the differences between Chicago and Seattle, shoot away. In a nutshell, Seattle seems much sleepier than Chicago. That's my take anyway. I love Seattle by the way and not knocking it. My only complaint about Chicago is the weather but you get used to it... for the most part. It's a pretty awesome city though. My 3 buddies visited me from Seattle last summer, they'd never been here before, and they were blown away by how cool of a city it was. We had an amazing time and by the end they all wanted to move here. People don't hear enough about Chicago, the underdog America's huge cities.
One last thing OP. I live on Chicago's north side about 5-6 miles north of downtown in a neighborhood called Ravenswood. It's probably the equivalent of Seattle's Ballard, Wallingford or Green Lake both in distance from downtown and style of neighborhood. Wicker Park is probably the equivalent of Capitol Hill. Lakeview and Lincoln Park are equivalent to Queen Anne and Belltown or maybe the U-district.. These are my opinions and approximations though. And, just like Seattle, most of the neighborhoods to avoid are on the south and west sides of Chicago. When I drive to the airport with my brothers car from my neighborhood on the north side, it takes about 25-30 minutes depending on traffic so if you do have a car, definitely don't rule out the north side. There are a ton of awesome neighborhoods up here. You can save a lot of money in parking, insurance and gas not having a car though.
Hey OP. I'm 24, from Seattle and living in Chicago. I think I can be of some help to you, although we'll have to set our differences aside as you're a Husky and I'm a Coug
I moved to Chicago exactly one year ago. Chicago is much more extreme in weather than mild Seattle. It doesn't rain nearly as often obviously, but when it does rain, it usually rains much harder than Seattle. Notice in Seattle few people really bust out umbrellas. A hoody is usually enough. Well the drops of rain are way bigger in Chicago and you can get soaked pretty easily. It's obviously way colder in Chicago and was a shock to my system when I moved here last winter. So be prepared. The wind in the winter rips right through all your layers. The air in Chicago is also much dryer in Winter and much much more humid than Seattle in the summer.
The city itself has way better nightlife than Seattle does. A lot of bars close at 2am like Seattle, but there also exists many "after hours" bars that stay open until 4 or 5am. It's a much bigger drinking town than Seattle and much more extroverted in general. People on the street make eye contact much more often than in Seattle where everyone walks around pretending nobody around them exists. Girls will eye **** you like crazy here whereas in Seattle, again, girls you don't know don't typically acknowledge your existence. Strangers on the street will start conversations with you much more often in a friendly way. Drivers are much more aggressive, drive faster, and honk their horns to communicate. In Seattle, people aren't aware horns exist and drive 5 miles under the speed limit. You won't find so many passive aggressive personalities like in Seattle either.
Compared to Seattle, Chicago cops don't give a **** about anything. You gotta be doing something pretty stupid to get their attention. They have bigger things to worry about. It's pretty hard to get pulled over in Chicago while speeding.
Chicago has a handful of dangerous neighborhoods that no Seattle neighborhood could even hold a candle to. The Seattle neighborhoods with the worst reputations are Disneyland in comparison to some of the places I've driven through like Garfield Park. So just be aware of which neighborhoods you don't belong in. This isn't to intimidate you. The majority of Chicago neighborhoods are very safe, but you will need to be even more city-smart here than in Seattle and cover all your bases. The population of Chicago is 5 times more than Seattle and the city itself is much larger. So learn your city geography before you move here. It will help a lot.
As for where you should live, people have given you good recommendations. For easy access to O'Hare, definitely live west of I-90 near the blue line. Chicago is kind of divided by the freeways (tollways/expressways) Neighborhoods like Wicker Park, Bucktown and Logan Square would be good choices for you. They're young, hip, diverse and fun. The blue line will take you right to the airport and those neighborhoods are also near the expressways (they don't call them freeways here, and each one has a specific name like the Kennedy or the Roosevelt. I still don't know the names and still call them freeways even though they're not. That's how people know I'm not from here).
A car isn't a necessity here like it is on the west coast. I don't have a car here, I sold it, and it's great. I get by just fine. I use the el mostly, but also buses and I have a bicycle which is extremely useful for running fast errands. I get things done faster than people with cars because I don't have to spend the infuriating time parking. Just try your best to leave within walking distance of an el station. Bus routes are everywhere though. The Chicago Transit system is really easy to use.
If you have any more questions about the differences between Chicago and Seattle, shoot away. In a nutshell, Seattle seems much sleepier than Chicago. That's my take anyway. I love Seattle by the way and not knocking it. My only complaint about Chicago is the weather but you get used to it... for the most part. It's a pretty awesome city though. My 3 buddies visited me from Seattle last summer, they'd never been here before, and they were blown away by how cool of a city it was. We had an amazing time and by the end they all wanted to move here. People don't hear enough about Chicago, the underdog America's huge cities.
One last thing OP. I live on Chicago's north side about 5-6 miles north of downtown in a neighborhood called Ravenswood. It's probably the equivalent of Seattle's Ballard, Wallingford or Green Lake both in distance from downtown and style of neighborhood. Wicker Park is probably the equivalent of Capitol Hill. Lakeview and Lincoln Park are equivalent to Queen Anne and Belltown or maybe the U-district.. These are my opinions and approximations though. And, just like Seattle, most of the neighborhoods to avoid are on the south and west sides of Chicago. When I drive to the airport with my brothers car from my neighborhood on the north side, it takes about 25-30 minutes depending on traffic so if you do have a car, definitely don't rule out the north side. There are a ton of awesome neighborhoods up here. You can save a lot of money in parking, insurance and gas not having a car though.
I think you summed it up pretty well. Although I don't think the weather is that bad here, I also have to remind myself that I grew up here and have lived here almost all my life, so the Chicago weather is all I really know and am used to.
Without traffic, East Lakeview to O'Hare is about 1 hour 5 minutes, which assumes you're very close to one of the east-west bus routes. With walking and traffic, it's probably closer to 1 hour 30 minutes most of the time door-to-security, and if you can't afford to miss the flight, allocating 2 hours wouldn't be crazy to be safe.
On the other hand, a taxi trip very early morning (leaving before 6am) would only take about 30-35 minutes, and even when traffic is terrible, I don't think it would be more than 75 minutes door-to-security unless you left in the middle of a surprise snowstorm that resulted in the cancellation of a Cubs game, or during the Pride Parade.
I just realized everyone is talking strictly about the travel time to O'Hare.
Well, I'm not sure what OP's experience with O'Hare, but an extra issue is you will need to allow a lot of time once you arrive at the airport to go through security and all that.
We live less than a 5 minute walk from the Blue Line Belmont stop, and I am always horrified at how much time my wife has to pad her trips to O'Hare with as she has to account for those worst-case scenarios of the check-in lines not going smoothly.
When she takes a 7:30 am flight on a weekday, she's got the taxi picking her up at 5:30 even though it's less than a 30 minute drive at that hour.
I just realized everyone is talking strictly about the travel time to O'Hare.
Well, I'm not sure what OP's experience with O'Hare, but an extra issue is you will need to allow a lot of time once you arrive at the airport to go through security and all that.
We live less than a 5 minute walk from the Blue Line Belmont stop, and I am always horrified at how much time my wife has to pad her trips to O'Hare with as she has to account for those worst-case scenarios of the check-in lines not going smoothly.
When she takes a 7:30 am flight on a weekday, she's got the taxi picking her up at 5:30 even though it's less than a 30 minute drive at that hour.
I have to say I don't know any regular business travelers here who pad their airport time by that much. I've never missed a flight, and am paranoid about doing so, and have never allocated more than an hour for the airport time. Maybe 75 minutes for holiday travel.
Most frequent travelers I know don't check luggage and check in online, or use curb-side check-in to drop their bags. And I've never had security take more than 15 minutes to traverse at O'Hare. Everyone has their own tolerance for that sort of thing, but I don't think your wife's system is typical.
I have to say I don't know any regular business travelers here who pad their airport time by that much. I've never missed a flight, and am paranoid about doing so, and have never allocated more than an hour for the airport time. Maybe 75 minutes for holiday travel.
Most frequent travelers I know don't check luggage and check in online, or use curb-side check-in to drop their bags. And I've never had security take more than 15 minutes to traverse at O'Hare. Everyone has their own tolerance for that sort of thing, but I don't think your wife's system is typical.
She's traveling a lot, and has missed flights thanks to over-the-top security issues and backed-up lines.
I think she's actually on your plan- allow an hour at the airport,and allow an hour to get there, as you never know if there will be an accident or something else screwing up the drive.
Which brings me back to the OP and the Blue Line - the Blue Line is far more reliable than a cab (or god help me, a bus!) will ever be.
My wife takes the cab in the mornings just because it's so danged early, otherwise we always take the train (she takes the trains home from O'Hare).
My impression from recent trips to/through Wicker Park & Bucktown is they are solidly in the thirty-something (and approaching 40-something) camp as far as residents.
There are of course still tons of younger folks still coming for the bars & music venues, but no twenty-something is supporting the boutiques and other high-end little shops that now blanket those areas.
You'll see a lot of people playing dress-up in those areas. I don't know why the older folks are all about the "hipster" label. It's like wow, those younger kids don't like to shop at department stores??! They don't want to wear walmart clothes, what a bunch of freaks! Gimme a break, let's stop the driveby stereotyping, it may have been fun for a while but now it's really stale.
You'll see a lot of people playing dress-up in those areas. I don't know why the older folks are all about the "hipster" label. It's like wow, those younger kids don't like to shop at department stores??! They don't want to wear walmart clothes, what a bunch of freaks! Gimme a break, let's stop the driveby stereotyping, it may have been fun for a while but now it's really stale.
I think you misunderstood my post - I don't like to shop at department stores and I've never set foot in a Walmart.
But I'd also never buy the absurdly priced clothes I've seen for sale in numerous small little "indy" boutiques in Wicker Park.
And I don't think many twenty-somethings are supporting those, either. How do I know this?
Well, I haven't polled everyone in the area of course, but the reality is the boutiques followed the arrival of upper income professionals aka yuppies.
And hipsters and yuppies are kinda by definition like oil and water. Yeah, you can be a hip yuppie, but you can't be a yuppie hipster, that's an oxymoron as the terms are bandied about these days.
I'm not doing a "drive-by" anything btw, I've been intimately familiar with Wicker Park since about 1990. Does your experience there pre-date Urbis Orbis? If so, feel free to educate me.
But I wasn't mean to denigrate the neighborhood whatsoever, it's just my general sense it's a bit more expensive than the neighborhoods further NW along Milwaukee, something the OP might be interested in considering, or might not.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
