West Chicago work, where to live? (Naperville, Elgin: commuting, best place to live, place)

[JayEddie]

Not exactly sure on the territory yet, but as a a field rep, my car/apartment is my office. My days will be filled with appointments in West Chicago.

[oakparkdude]

Here's a suggestion, but its probably more trouble than most people are willing to put up with. However, if you really, really, really want to live in the city, you could live in the city, park your car in West Chicago, and ride the train out to your car every day.

Taking the train out to West Chicago in the AM and returning by train in the PM would be much less stressful than driving (although you may find train reimbursement more difficult than mileage reimbursement.) You'll also have the added expense of paying for parking in West Chicago. You could consider driving the car into the city on Friday and back out on Monday so you have access to it on the weekend.

Its about 50-60 minutes via train from Chicago to West Chicago, plus any additional time getting to the train station in Chicago.

[chet everett]

I fear oakparkdude is being VERY optimisitic in his time estimates. The suburb of West Chicago is spread out along Rt 59 and includes a large number of industrial sites north and south of Roosevelt Rd. that are not easy to get from the tollway. The tollway itself as BUMPER TO BUMPER traffic during rush hour and even middays can be clogged with traffic that impedes the ability to move at any speed except below the posted limit.

Unless the OP's sales territory is not centered / near West Chicago I think it would be a challenge to live outside of about 10-15 mile radius. The distance to EVEN Oak Park by the most common route is almost 31 miles and the VERY VERY optimistic estimate that google maps provides is 40 minutes. I really doubt that it would take under an hour TO OAK PARK and if you were heading even to a the Med Center area west of UIC I would add MUCH more to get home. The way MOST outside sales jobs are in the region you have a pretty wide are to cover so depending on just how many visits per day you are expected to make and WHERE THE CUSTOMER LOCATIONS are located I would try for something that is rather centralized. The general region is pretty much centered on O'Hare airport. Living in a town like Elmhurst is about as close as you'd want to be to O'Hare ESPECIALLY if you need to head back to the West Chicago several times a week...

[Jandur]

Originally Posted by oakparkdude

Here's a suggestion, but its probably more trouble than most people are willing to put up with. However, if you really, really, really want to live in the city, you could live in the city, park your car in West Chicago, and ride the train out to your car every day.

Taking the train out to West Chicago in the AM and returning by train in the PM would be much less stressful than driving (although you may find train reimbursement more difficult than mileage reimbursement.) You'll also have the added expense of paying for parking in West Chicago. You could consider driving the car into the city on Friday and back out on Monday so you have access to it on the weekend.

Its about 50-60 minutes via train from Chicago to West Chicago, plus any additional time getting to the train station in Chicago.

I actually do know someone that did this. He stayed in Lincoln Park with his GF who dropped him off at Ogilvie every morning. He took the train to Batavia where his car was parked then drove to work. If you live very near the train station, or have an easy way to get there every morning it can work. Otherwise it's a very long commute.

[chet everett]

While the train station as parking lot thing might be OK in some area I know that some towns specifically prohibit such overnight / weekend parking. Even if it is allowed for the West Chicago station I don't know that I would feel real good leaving a car that I would need to visit customer sites parked in an area with less than stellar reputation. The other factor that I would think long and hard about is that most outside sales people I know are sorta expected to make every accomodation to the client's / customer's schedule and that is a whole lot different than saying "if I have a car to park and a train to catch I can't make sales calls outside of XX-XX hours...".

The way some folks makes it sound it is as if murderous hit squads roam the burbs looking to off anyone that is not married with kids. There are LOTS of people like the OP that live comfortably close to a job in the suburbs ESPECIALLY when the employer has an expectation that the salesperson will be able to service a territory that does not include hipster havens...

[oakparkdude]

Didn't say it would work for everyone, but I know lots of young professionals who sacrifice a lot to live in the city, so just wanted to make the OP aware that option exists, along with the tradeoffs.

[JayEddie]

This feedback is great, much appreciated! So it sounds like it makes most sense to live closer to where I am going to be working. That said, any suggestions for a young atmosphere near West Chicago or in West Chicago?

[chet everett]

I still think the best compromise is probably St. Charles / Geneva / Batavia. Nice riverfront areas in all those Fox Valley towns. Decent mix of resturants / night spots. Fair number of young-ish people that may actually be single...

Adjacent to West Chicago's airport / business park the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is still a pretty big employer of well educated younger people (though with the accelerator experiments shut down there are not nearly as many post docs and research assitants) and that is a positive factor on the social options...

[ToriaT]

I think geneva or st. charles would be good. there are also a lot of younger people around the winfield, warrenville, naperville area. I see them in droves around cantera when I am there. Lisle too. I think living in chicago would be a horrible commute. Its a misperception that all the young people flock to the city. Not true. Of people in my son's age group which is 25, about half of them hate the city and prefer to stay in the burbs. Half of them detest the burbs and try to spend as little time as possible here......

[Mister Mappy]

Once you know what your route will consist of, I would check with the city of West Chicago to see if you can leave a car at the Metra station there. If you can do it, I'd say go for it.

IMO, living in DuPage county just because it's close to work is a poor substitute to living in the city. You've got enough years to live in the suburbs once you're married with children.