Best place to live with Family (Lincoln Park..?) (Chicago, Evanston: low income, rental)

[Coffee-Mom]

Check out Lincoln Square! I know quite a few really neat families who live in that area and commute to high school in the Gold Coast area or to work in The Loop. The nice thing about Lincoln Square is how convenient it is to The Brown Line. Yes, it's one of the farther out stops so you'll be on the train a bit longer, but it's easy to get to the train stations and you can pretty much avoid buses completely. Lincoln Square has a lot of good restaurants and shops, and I'm sure you'll find plenty of yoga if that's what you are into.

Lincoln Park, Old Town and Gold Coast are incredible, but you'd have to sacrifice space. If you are willing to take a smaller apartment or condo, definitely pursue those areas. If you do hone in on Lincoln Park, be careful going to far towards the lake as it is away from the train. Try to keep near the train stops, which are more central and to the west.

Also, I don't think Chicago has middle schools. The kids here go K-8 at one school and then start 9th grade at a high school. Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Lincoln Square all have good public K-8 schools, so you can put the kids in a public school and save your $$$ for tuition at a private high school should they not test into one of the selective enrollment high schools. There's a lot of talk about how difficult it is to get into the selective enrollment schools, but if your kids are reasonably smart and test well, they should get into one. Payton, Lane, Jones, Whitney Young and Northside are all great schools with fabulous teachers. I know kids at all these schools and they couldn't be happier.

As for Parker, my guess is that with your income you'd be among the less affluent at that school. But that's just my perception based on who I know that goes there. I could be totally wrong. My perception is that it's a school for the very, very wealthy or kids who really want to go there and are given financial aid because they are bright, driven and need a leg up. But like I said -- I do not know. Just my perception. The smartest teens I know went to Catholic or public K-8 and then tested into one of the selective enrollments mentioned above OR Latin, which is another really good private (though expensive). Last time I checked, Parker and Latin were around 35K per year, and then you have additional expenses on top of that such as fundraisers and giving campaigns.

Good luck with your big move! How exciting for you.

P.S. I didn't mention any of the west side neighborhoods because going east to west/west to east in this city is a drag, but we have lots of friends who love Bucktown and the west part of Lincoln Park. They tend to do more driving, though. I'm partial to the north and near north areas because I like getting around by foot or by train.

[chet everett]

Not clear if "coffee-mom" has kids in CPS, as a former teacher in Chicago Public Schools I would caution that although Lincoln Square does offer more space for the money, the neighborhood has not developed as much of a group of affluent parents committed to improving their public school as say Lakeview. Further, as the article I earlier linked to shows, CPS higher-ups seem to want to sabotage such efforts as they've done by removing Blaine's successful principal...

Transitions are a challenge for pre-teens and the choices in CPS or even ultra-costly private schools seem, in the view of this teacher and parent that has seen those from the inside, far more stressful than the relatively easier path of a suburban school.

[NOLA101]

Lincoln Square public schools aren't among the best in CPS. If school quality is top priority, look to the North Shore suburbs (generally the most desirable are along the lake), or the western suburbs around Hinsdale/Oak Brook. Those two areas probably have the highest concentration of "people like you" in Chicagoland (somewhat affluent expat types with kids).

[chicagobear]

I would look at the Gold Coast and Lincoln Park. It is an easy commute to downtown and the areas are very walkable with lots of amenities. The public schools there are fine for elementary school. You would probably need to send your child to private school for high school. Francis Parker and Latin are the two most prominent in that area.

[civis]

Originally Posted by aelawen

Hi



@NealIRC: europeans aren't religious usually, except in Southern Europe or for people in their sixties, so I'm not sure about the German churches. I was planning to contact some cultural associations.

Are you really from Germany? Majority of Germans belong to a church: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Germany
There's even church tax in Germany as far as I recall. Also, looking for non materialistic people in country like US and city like Chicago where business climate is normally described as cut-throat is like looking for a black cat in a dark room, and the cat is not there.

[NOLA101]

Originally Posted by civis

Are you really from Germany? Majority of Germans belong to a church:

I assume she's coming from a Lutheran area. The Lutheran parts of Germany are overwhelmingly nonreligious, though many people still belong to the Lutheran church as a matter of tradition.

The Catholic parts of Germany are somewhat more religious, and atheism, while not uncommon, isn't the norm.

Speaking very generally, Northern and Eastern Germany are non-religious, while the Central/Southern parts of the country are more religious.

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by civis

Are you really from Germany? Majority of Germans belong to a church: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Germany
There's even church tax in Germany as far as I recall. Also, looking for non materialistic people in country like US and city like Chicago where business climate is normally described as cut-throat is like looking for a black cat in a dark room, and the cat is not there.

There are LOTS of people with the good fortune to be paid well and the mindset to care more about their own family / well-being / mental health than to emphasize any material things. In fact, given my experiences as a school teacher in Chicago, working in real estate, transition to a more 'tech centric' career, having friends that live in nicer parts of Chicago as well as towns a short commute from the Loop, I would say that as folks experience a more comfortable income they are more likely to place value on things other than material goods. For those with school aged children that often means finding the right kind of environment where those values are reinforced in schools and thus it makes perfect sense that the OP is looking for a public school where those values will find resonance.

The biggest support for things like climate change / sustainable agricultural / acceptance over dogma comes from the "new affluent", not traditionalists. The OP seems clearly to be representative of what some sociologists describe as "evolutionary novel" --

More intelligent people are significantly more likely to exhibit social values and religious and political preferences that are novel to the human species in evolutionary history. Specifically, liberalism and atheism, and for men (but not women), preference for sexual exclusivity correlate with higher intelligence, a new study finds.

Intelligent people have 'unnatural' preferences and values that are novel in human evolution

[civis]

Originally Posted by chet everett

I would say that as folks experience a more comfortable income they are more likely to place value on things other than material goods.

they may, but they are not sincere (very common to an American).
One would not spent their life targeting "more comfortable income" if they were non materialistic in the first place.
It's easy to say "I'm not materialistic" when you already have everything imaginable.

Besides claiming atheism is also going for pro-materialism - atheists essentially reject non-materialistic values, as all non-materialistic comes from God, regardless of God's association with one's religion or not.
"Save your soul" - the expression was not invented by yoga promoters or producers of organic food.

[King Harold]

I'd have to agree that you're not going to find enlightened non-materialistic people within Chicagoland yuppiedom. The OP seems to be married to a corporate lawyer based in London so that direction of discussion seems veering wildly off topic.

My advice to the OP would be to rent in Lincoln Park for a year and figure it out from there. It may very well be that you want to ultimately live in Hinsdale but moving directly to the Chicago burbs from London will incur much culture shock.

[ToriaT]

There is no real concentrated German ex pat enclave in Chicago.....the neighborhood that was more German of recent decades is the Lincoln Square area which is good...most ethnics have left for the suburbs long ago. You don't say what your price ranges are and that would be helpful. Also there are many many people of German descent in the Chicago area. In fact German is probably one of the most common ancestry that many people share in the Chicago area, myself included. If you are looking for somewhere urban, with good schools, liberal, yoga loving, natural foods loving, try Oak Park. Also the next town Forest Park was formerly a German enclave but has bad schools. Oak Park has the kind of people you seem to be looking for...they are not necessarily of German descent though....they have a Whole Foods market, A Trader Joe's and also something called the Sugar Beet Coop where you will find the kind of food you are looking for.

SUGAR BEET FOOD CO-OP

Also to find the expat community you will want to engage with the Dankhaus. That is the local German "organization". I highly recommend it, I've been there and my friend teaches cooking classes for strudel, german potato salad, rouladen, etc.

DANK Haus German American Cultural Center - Chicago