Oak Park/Berwyn/Cicero/West Loop to Downers Grove (Chicago: apartments, rentals)

[saltatoria]

Hello, all.

I am much more familiar with Chicago's north side than the west side, so I need a bit of help.

I finally have an opportunity to work for my company's office in Downers Grove, so I'll be looking for apartments that are an "easy-ish" commute to/from Downers Grove. My boyfriend will be working in the Loop, hence the need to remain on the CTA grid rather than moving to Naperville or another nearby suburb. We decided to compromise and live between both of our jobs.

Anyway, a quick look at Craigslist isn't showing me very many two-bedroom apts in the Oak Park/Berwyn area. Even University Village isn't giving up much. When I do find something, it's often in East Garfield Park or Austin, which I've read are a bit sketchier than other neighborhoods. I'm familiar with city life and not *afraid* of crime, but I'd like to avoid HIGH-crime areas if possible.

Once I move the map closer to Wicker Park, Ukrainian Village, etc, I find many more rentals. While I would love to live that close to the city, it obviously adds time to my commute.

We're 37 and 39, respectively, and we aren't into the bar scene, so we don't need to be near night life during the week. We tend to go out on weekends, and we can always use CTA to head into the Loop for that. We'd actually prefer an area that's geared toward DINKs like us.

We can afford around $1200-1400/month for a two-bedroom. Should I increase that range if I expect to live in the Oak Park/Berwyn area? I'm trying to avoid paying more than $1400 since I'll already be paying quite a bit for gas.

Suggestions?

[oakparkdude]

There should be plenty of vintage 2 bedrooms in Oak Park in your price range. Be sure to enquire about parking options. On street parking is heavily restricted/regulated.

[pete6032]

Why can't you move to Naperville and have the BF take Metra?

[saltatoria]

Originally Posted by pete6032

Why can't you move to Naperville and have the BF take Metra?

If we live in Oak Park (or thereabouts), I have a 45-minute drive, and he has a 30-minute commute on CTA, so it's more fair.

Plus, I don't want to have to do the Metra/CTA combo every time we want to do anything in the city. I'm already twitchy about living as far west as Oak Park.

For example, from Naperville, it will take us approximately two hours to get to Wrigley Field. If we drive, it's about an hour to the shuttle lot and then time on the shuttle (usually 20-30 minutes, depending on traffic on Addison - based on prior experience). If it's going to take us 1.5-2 hours to get to Wrigley, we may as well live in Michigan again (it's a two-hour drive from our city to Chicago).

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by saltatoria

If we live in Oak Park (or thereabouts), I have a 45-minute drive, and he has a 30-minute commute on CTA, so it's more fair.

Plus, I don't want to have to do the Metra/CTA combo every time we want to do anything in the city. I'm already twitchy about living as far west as Oak Park.

For example, from Naperville, it will take us approximately two hours to get to Wrigley Field. If we drive, it's about an hour to the shuttle lot and then time on the shuttle (usually 20-30 minutes, depending on traffic on Addison - based on prior experience). If it's going to take us 1.5-2 hours to get to Wrigley, we may as well live in Michigan again (it's a two-hour drive from our city to Chicago).

It is true that you could get to Wrigley Field in under two hours from MICHIGAN but it is NONSENSE that it would take 2 hours from Naperville unless you deliberately set out to complicate the trip.

I could care less where you live but you are badly mistaken if you think the best way to get to a Cubs game is to drive an hour to some distant lot and then spend another 30 minutes on some shuttle. You could easily make this trip in well under 90 minutes using Metra and the Red Line. Even if you left the Wrigleyville area as late as 11:30PM you could utilize Metra back out to Naperville as late as 12:40 AM...

If you want to give serious consideration to nice places for a couple that has no particular desire to head to "meat market" type nightspots and want a truly balanced comute for one half of the couple working in the Loop and the other half working in Downers Grove it would foolish NOT to give top consideration to towns like Downers Grove or LaGrange on the BNSF which has EXCEEDINGLY QUICK service to the Loop as well as other good options like Elmhurst or Oak Park which are the on the UP-W line. It is flat out ridiculous not to consider these options. The ease of driving to a job in Downers Grove when you live in the town should remove any "twitchiness" from the equation... There is nothing "fair" about giving you and your partner fits with longer commutes than are necessary. There are several express train that reliably link Downers Grove to the Loop in 27 minutes, several option from LaGrange even quicker. There is no doubt that the day-to-day trip for both of you to/from your employment would be far easier...

The fact it is relatively easy to do things like even drive all the way to Lakeview or Uptown or Millenium Park from a relatively well situated town like town like Downers Grove in under 45 minutes, get parking, enjoy an evening's entertainment and drive home ready for work the next day. I do this fairly often.

[marothisu]

If it were me and I went into the city enough for non work stuff, I'd probably live in Oak Park or Forest Park because it's kind of half way and also on the train line. I guess if you didn't have a problem driving to a CTA stop, then yeah places like Berwyn would be on my list too.

[saltatoria]

Originally Posted by chet everett

It is true that you could get to Wrigley Field in under two hours from MICHIGAN but it is NONSENSE that it would take 2 hours from Naperville unless you deliberately set out to complicate the trip.

I could care less where you live but you are badly mistaken if you think the best way to get to a Cubs game is to drive an hour to some distant lot and then spend another 30 minutes on some shuttle. You could easily make this trip in well under 90 minutes using Metra and the Red Line. Even if you left the Wrigleyville area as late as 11:30PM you could utilize Metra back out to Naperville as late as 12:40 AM...

If you want to give serious consideration to nice places for a couple that has no particular desire to head to "meat market" type nightspots and want a truly balanced comute for one half of the couple working in the Loop and the other half working in Downers Grove it would foolish NOT to give top consideration to towns like Downers Grove or LaGrange on the BNSF which has EXCEEDINGLY QUICK service to the Loop as well as other good options like Elmhurst or Oak Park which are the on the UP-W line. It is flat out ridiculous not to consider these options. The ease of driving to a job in Downers Grove when you live in the town should remove any "twitchiness" from the equation... There is nothing "fair" about giving you and your partner fits with longer commutes than are necessary. There are several express train that reliably link Downers Grove to the Loop in 27 minutes, several option from LaGrange even quicker. There is no doubt that the day-to-day trip for both of you to/from your employment would be far easier...

The fact it is relatively easy to do things like even drive all the way to Lakeview or Uptown or Millenium Park from a relatively well situated town like town like Downers Grove in under 45 minutes, get parking, enjoy an evening's entertainment and drive home ready for work the next day. I do this fairly often.

To be fair, I was not "setting out to complicate the trip". I plugged in the locations in Google Maps and used the transit option for the Saturday afternoon schedules. If Google was wrong, then fine - it was wrong.

I am not against living in the suburbs; that's what this thread is for - ideas.

In my experience, parking in Lakeview is hard to find, so that's why I didn't consider driving in from the suburbs. I suppose we could pay for parking, but that defeats the purpose of living in a city with good transit options. One of the reasons we're moving there is so we can do more walking and use transit.

[holl1ngsworth]

Probably easiest to live around your job in DG and have BF take the BNSF. Super fast, super easy. Why not check out downtown DG this weekend? Definitely a few fun spots, and should suffice for a couple of late-30s DINKs. If DG is too quite, you could check out the larger downtowns of Elmhurst and La Grange, which split the difference just as well as Oak Park does.

A few years back, Chicago Mag voted La Grange the best suburban downtown.
Miscellaneous - Chicago

A side note: As an almost-40 DINK, you might actually enjoy the access to nature that a middle-ring suburb like DG offers. It's a big change from the concrete jungle, and a step up from Oak Park as well. As you get older you might find yourself really enjoy weekends at The Morton Arboretum, walks at the local forest preserve, or biking the Illinois Prairie Path.

http://www.mortonarb.org/
http://www.dgparks.org/facilities/ly...nt-prairie.htm
http://www.ipp.org/
http://www.ipp.org/pdf/IPP-free-map-color-updated.pdf

[Lookout Kid]

Oak Park is a reasonable option. I had friends who lived in Oak Park about 15 years ago, and one of them worked in the Loop and the other in Naperville. I think they found this arrangement to be fair. However, they found Oak Park a bit boring (they were 23 at the time). The nightlife options in and around Oak Park have greatly improved since the late 90's, though.

Otherwise, I like the option of living near DG and having the BF take the train. It's a lot easier than living in the city and having the suburban worker reverse commuting on the expressways. Note that the DG Main Street express trains are 27 minutes to the Loop, which is really awesome considering the distance traveled. Other options along the BNSF route are good as well, with La Grange being a great suggestion by holl1ngsworth.

[treemoni]

BF will grow tired of that commute in the winter. It gets old fast.

OP, FP and Berwyn are all excellent choices. Living in one of the three is a fair arrangement; you can't beat the city access, Do not let these people convince you to take the Metra because they are afraid of diversity.