Moving to Albany Park (Springfield, Pulaski: condo, home, neighborhood)

[Chrism1222]

Moving to Albany, about 5 blocks west of the train station. Lawrence and Pulaski. What are the pros and cons of the neighborhood? I drove by there Saturday and Sunday night and it seems empty. The block where the place id be buying also seems empty. Besides the parking, is there anything I should look out for? Is the gang activity awful? Will the neighborhood get worse before it gets better?

[Thepreacherswife]

It's been about 10 months since we moved from there but I'm guessing it hasn't changed much (used to live two blocks north of the Admiral Theatre). The western end of Albany Park is pretty quiet. There's some gang activity; the worst was one gang member setting fire to a three-flat on Argyle near the Volta playground and it wound up killing a mother and daughter, but that was seven years ago. Mostly petty drug stuff otherwise, and it's not like it's rampant.

You can walk to Aldi and Eugene Field and Gompers Parks. The Pulaski bus (or Lawrence bus going west to Jefferson Park) gives you quick access to the Blue Line. West of Central Park there have been plenty of condo rehabs and new construction. Plenty of kids. Never had a problem at night safety-wise. The closer to Lawrence and Pulaski you are the more noise you get at night, but more than a block away the noise drops off pretty considerably.

Other than parking (and our condo had an alley spot so it wasn't much of an issue) the only thing that irked me was trash on the parkway and people not picking up after their dogs. If you are north of Argyle then you might have an occasional flooding issue because of the river, from Springfield going east.

[NealIRC]

Originally Posted by Thepreacherswife

There's some gang activity; the worst was one gang member setting fire to a three-flat on Argyle near the Volta playground and it wound up killing a mother and daughter, but that was seven years ago. Mostly petty drug stuff otherwise, and it's not like it's rampant.

Those were Cobras targeting the SGDs.

In 2011, SGDs started terrorizing Albany Park, doing crap against the Familia Stones, Cobras, Kings. After everybody went peaceful SGDs started doing sht, and some time later, the 17th district police station declared war on the SGDs. But yea that fire was targetted against the home of a SGD.

[Alacran]

You'll be fine.


That Neal IRC got a little detailed on what happened.
But yeah, yogi killed the pregnant mom and daughter.

There's been a couple homicides after that, but all gang related after that.