Affordable, safe, fun area for mid-20's male (Chicago, Lincoln: fit in, for rent)

[RothOfKhan]

A bit about me: I'm a male in my mid-20's moving to Chicago from a rural area. The move to Chicago will be my first big city living experience, and I would like to use this experience as a chance to do more things socially than I have so far in my life.

For the first year, I will be attending college at one of the City Colleges. I have no preference as to which, as I'm just finishing up my Associates and can get the classes I need at any of them, but I'll later likely be moving on to DePaul. That's far enough ahead in the future that I'm not worried about living somewhere close to that campus right away, but if that can be fit in, that's also a plus.

I will be primarily relying on public transportation, so an area that's well connected by both bus and train is highly preferred. Areas that are good for using a bike to get around in the summer months would be a plus, but it's not a necessity.

I'm not an avid partier, so I don't need to be in a really party heavy area, but being close enough to some nice areas that I can hop on a bus or train and spend a night out or catch some football games at a bar on the weekend would be great. This is something I'm very flexible on though.

I'd assume most areas are going to have this, but a gym or fitness center in the area is important to me.

I do a lot of work online both at home and while I'm out, so an area with strong AT&T mobile LTE coverage (I may be willing to change providers) as well as fast home internet (at least ~20mbps, and preferably not Comcast) would be important too. I'd assume most areas in Chicago would be heavily saturated, but I want to make sure.

As far as finances go, I don't really have a set price I'm looking to pay for rent, but finding a place that is as affordable as possible would be a high priority, so long as I don't truly sacrifice safety and overall cleanliness of the area.

I think that should cover most everything that would be needed to offer up some suggestions. Anything else, let me know.

I've seen some suggestions for Lincoln Square for people with similar needs, so I'm already starting to look there, but any other suggestions or reaffirmations for Lincoln Square would be greatly appreciated.