Safe and nice areas close to O'Hare? (Chicago, Arlington Heights: rentals, houses)

[Flavia84]

Folks,

I'm looking to move to Chicago for an amazing work opportunity next year.

Any suggestions where to live close to O'Hare?

I will be working at the airport, so prefer to be in a close OR convenient location, safe and clean neighborhood, close to grocery stores, preferably close to a rail line to get to the city.

Any suggestions will be appreciated

[Not_liking_FL]

How long of a commute do you want, and what is your budget?

You could live anywhere along the blue line since it ends at O'Hare. The employee parking entrance is at the NW corner of the airport at Touhy/Mt. Prospect. Arlington Heights, Mt Prospect, Park Ridge, and Des Plaines would all be convenient suburbs to O'Hare and they have Metra stations with trains to the city. All the suburb areas I mentioned are very safe and clean.

[Flavia84]

I am looking for a studio/1 bedroom and around 1100$.

Commute-wise I'd like to straddle the fence between being close to the airport but at the same time at a relatively convenient location to the airport. So no further West than the airport probably.

What about the neighborhoods on the blue line? I heard not so good things about Cumberland...
Is Des Plaines pretty clean and safe?

[Bellamouse]

Yes, Des Plaines is clean and safe. You could also look at Chicago proper, near the Harlem El station. Also very safe and clean). I am partial to Norwood Park which is very upscale. There are some rentals here and there in the neighborhood. Edison Park is nice but it's not so close to the blue line. Not sure if you will have a car or not? If you'll have a car, I would go for Edison Park. They do have a Metra line that can take you into the city easily. Or you can drive to the blue line easily as well for when you want to go into the City for something. Plus Edison Park has a grocery store, several restaurants/bars and so forth right in their downtown. It's also very, very close to downtown Park Ridge which has the Trader Joe's, Whole Foods and lots of other restaurants - also the Starbucks and Panera, et.al.

[Flavia84]

Originally Posted by Bellamouse

Yes, Des Plaines is clean and safe. You could also look at Chicago proper, near the Harlem El station. Also very safe and clean). I am partial to Norwood Park which is very upscale. There are some rentals here and there in the neighborhood. Edison Park is nice but it's not so close to the blue line. Not sure if you will have a car or not? If you'll have a car, I would go for Edison Park. They do have a Metra line that can take you into the city easily. Or you can drive to the blue line easily as well for when you want to go into the City for something. Plus Edison Park has a grocery store, several restaurants/bars and so forth right in their downtown. It's also very, very close to downtown Park Ridge which has the Trader Joe's, Whole Foods and lots of other restaurants - also the Starbucks and Panera, et.al.

Awesome!

This is exactly the kind of info I was looking for, thanks a bunch Bellamouse!

I'll be there in a few weeks to check it out, so I'll look at all of these areas.

[Flavia84]

Is airport noise an issue in Des Plaines?

[Thepreacherswife]

Originally Posted by Flavia84

Is airport noise an issue in Des Plaines?

Depends on how sensitive your ears are. Des Plaines is mostly north of the airport, and the traffic patterns in and out of the airport are generally east/west, so you're not likely to have as much overhead jet traffic, but it's close enough that you'll generally always hear something, I would imagine.

I live right in the approach departure path but several miles east so the planes are still two or three thousand feet above ground when they pass over, it doesn't bug me. But just north of me in Sauganash people are always complaining about the noise.

[CCrest182]

Originally Posted by Flavia84

Folks,

I'm looking to move to Chicago for an amazing work opportunity next year.

Any suggestions where to live close to O'Hare?

I will be working at the airport, so prefer to be in a close OR convenient location, safe and clean neighborhood, close to grocery stores, preferably close to a rail line to get to the city.

Any suggestions will be appreciated

Park Ridge, Des Plaines and Norwood Park seem look good places to search.

[DanielWaterhouse]

Originally Posted by Thepreacherswife

Depends on how sensitive your ears are. Des Plaines is mostly north of the airport, and the traffic patterns in and out of the airport are generally east/west, so you're not likely to have as much overhead jet traffic, but it's close enough that you'll generally always hear something, I would imagine.

I live right in the approach departure path but several miles east so the planes are still two or three thousand feet above ground when they pass over, it doesn't bug me. But just north of me in Sauganash people are always complaining about the noise.

It really depends on the specific area of Des Plaines. There are definitely areas right in the flight path of at least one of the runways and the planes are very low in their approach at that point. The area I'm talking about is in the southern part of town - Estes, Lunt and Greenleaf are three of the streets where we were looking at houses and were bothered by the noise. When I lived further north, by downtown and the Metra station, I never noticed any airport noise.

[s0nginmyheart]

There is no train that will take you from Des Plaines to the airport (there should be a bus though). The nearest blue line station would be Rosemont, one stop before O'Hare. There is a Metra station in downtown DP that will take you to the Loop though.