How is the West Loop as a residential neighborhood? (Chicago: living in, restaurants)

[knitgirl]

Originally Posted by personone

Good points. I have the same feelings about much of West Town, Logan Square, Ravenswood, etc. They are all really cool, interesting neighborhoods but the lack of green space would make it hard for me to live there. I don't even have pets, but without green space or trees at least, it feels like a concrete jungle.

The HELL??!!! Ravenswood is very green, tons of trees. I can't imagine what you want if you think it's not green enough unless you want to live in a forest.

[Master Jay]

knitgirl (or anyone): help me out. Is Welles Park considered Ravenswood OR Lincoln Square OR does it depend whom one asks? Because I think that is a very nice park, and from my experience the area had a nice mix of suburban and urban feel to it. Master Jay

[personone]

Originally Posted by knitgirl

The HELL??!!! Ravenswood is very green, tons of trees. I can't imagine what you want if you think it's not green enough unless you want to live in a forest.

I'm not as familiar with Ravenswood, so I was probably wrong in my initial post. If you read my other post instead of overreacting, you would see I acknowledged that I do remember Ravenswood having some nice tree lined streets.

[personone]

Originally Posted by via chicago

theres nothing inherently un-urban about having parks and trees in a city neighborhood. i think most people would agree those are components that make a place desirable to live.

you can still have trees and parks without massive lawns



^thats Manhattan btw...(to say nothing of the most in demand place to live in the entire city which is, you know, directly next to central park)

Yes, that looks very similar to my neighborhood in Lincoln Park.

[fusillirob1983]

Originally Posted by Master Jay

knitgirl (or anyone): help me out. Is Welles Park considered Ravenswood OR Lincoln Square OR does it depend whom one asks? Because I think that is a very nice park, and from my experience the area had a nice mix of suburban and urban feel to it. Master Jay

This is kind of semantics. It could be considered both. Google maps shows Ravenswood extending from Clark to the river basically and all of Lincoln Square is contained within it. Others may consider Ravenswood to the east of Lincoln Square as a smaller part of the Lincoln Square community area. Lincoln Square is one of the 77 official community areas of Chicago, while Ravenswood is not. What people refer to as Ravenswood overlaps significantly with most of Lincoln Square and western portions of Uptown (also an official community area).

[Master Jay]

fusillirob1983, that is EXACTLY why I termed, "...OR does t depend whom one asks?". I know there is sometimes discrepancies that can change based on a 4 block difference, for example... Either way, I am a huge fan of the area. I love the park, the library, and the Square on Lincoln Avenue. Additinoally my favorite Korean restaurant is there. Master Jay

[nikitakolata]

I honestly do not understand the appeal of the West Loop. I work on Randolph & Racine. There is construction everywhere right now. The old buildings are industrial and pretty ugly. There's a huge lack of green space, as others have pointed out. Also, from where I work there's no convenient drug store. The closest option is to walk to Whole Foods on Washington and I think there's a 7 Eleven near Madison. The area has added fast casual restaurants like Shake Shack, Sweetgreen, etc., which helps.

I find most other neighborhoods of Chicago to be a lot more visually appealing, personally. Parking is also a nightmare around here, which is probably the number one reason I cannot wait to leave (as a business owner, which is obviously a different perspective).

[chet everett]

I am not as down on West Loop as nikitakolata but I have to agree there are some major issues with general traffic flow and such that are maddening. No matter if you try to use transit, some sort of motor vehicle (personal, taxi, Uber/Lyft), a bicycle or even walk you cannot help but be frustrated. It is like some of the planners were counting on the pretty much dead "Bus Rapid Transit" to be some kind of model , but with or without it there are major tie-ups. https://chicago.suntimes.com/autos/a...express-buses/

The thing too is future developments seem to be rather reliant on cars, so I suspect things will get worse... https://chicago.curbed.com/2018/1/25...s-sterling-bay

[via chicago]

^
the public transit is perfectly fine, theres a Pink Line stop at Morgan right there. i transfer from the red line downtown at State/Lake and it takes like 5 minutes to come over the river. you could make a similar transfer from the blue line at the Thompson center. Metra is a little trickier, but you can still catch a Pink Line from Clinton and take it a stop if the walk is too far. i dont know what everyone is complaining about. (its also not like Union Station is any closer to Michigan Ave, or the buildings near Millennium Park...in fact theyre further)

[chet everett]

While I don't disagree that the absolute distance to someplace like the Google office is pretty much the same as heading east from Ogilvie Transportation Center to someplace like Prudential Plaza, there is massive difference between rambling along with tens of thousands other office worker who might stop off at any of the dozens of McDonalds & Starbucks or the many high rise office buildings. In contrast the lack of density means that there is dearth of what planners call "street level amenities". That makes for an unpleasant walk toward and over the Kennedy / Dan Ryan interchanges or a decision to clamor to the CTA and spend more money on a bus that is likely to get hopelessly mired in traffic or wait for a pink/green line train. The further "crush" that happens when a pink /green line loads / unloads at Clinton-to-Morgan is very different than the much more closely spaced stops in the Loop itself. For that matter, the relative need for folks coming from Northside residential areas to transfer is itself a big negative compared to CTA lines that mostly do not require such steps -- the developments along the Blue, Brown, and Red lines are "transit oriented" not just because of the presence of the line but because it is time efficient. I suspect that if some young person rents a spot in the West Loop while many of their pals live in the areas to the North there are going to be very few weekends where they will not regret the decision...

I'm not saying that it is "impossible" to get to either the office or residential sites in the West Loop, just that there are difficulties and when weighing those challenges it forces one to evaluate how that stacks up against other areas that have been developed in a different model. Maybe there will eventually be more amenities, and maybe if you rent in a building that is super close to work it is not a big deal, but speaking as somebody that has had to get to business meeting and now really crossed off ever working for some of those firms it certainly seems like a complaint that other share...