Moving from NW Burbs to Chicago... (Lombard, Humboldt: apartments, safe neighborhood, construction)

[mattred]

I'm 23 & single and have lived in the northwest suburbs all my life and looking to move into the city for lifestyle reasons. I've pretty much narrowed it down to either Bucktown/Wicker Park up to Wrigleyville, and anywhere in between. I went to check out a couple places that were a little bit closer to Humboldt Park and wasn't too comfortable with the area, but don't really know which areas are considered "safe" (I checked out apartments with a couple different apartment placing companies and of course, every apartment was in a safe neighborhood according to them, but after researching found out that wasn't really the case).

I'm trying to keep it below $800 so I've already resigned myself to the fact I'll be looking for roommates for a 2 or 3 bedroom place unless I want to live in a crappy area. I'd like to be close to the action, but something further away but close to the El so I can jump on to get there also works.

It's impossible to look for places on Craigslist sometimes, because these people list places as Bucktown and they really are more like Humboldt Park ("west bucktown" is a common one).

Does anyone have any specific places I should be looking based on these criteria, and not just neighborhoods but specific blocks/areas within the neighborhoods?

My other concern is that I'll be working in Lombard, and although I haven't experienced the traffic on 290 first-hand, if it's anything like the recently finished construction on 294/94, what's a realistic commute time to Lombard?

[ChicagoLoki]

Originally Posted by mattred

I'm 23 & single and have lived in the northwest suburbs all my life and looking to move into the city for lifestyle reasons. I've pretty much narrowed it down to either Bucktown/Wicker Park up to Wrigleyville, and anywhere in between. I went to check out a couple places that were a little bit closer to Humboldt Park and wasn't too comfortable with the area, but don't really know which areas are considered "safe" (I checked out apartments with a couple different apartment placing companies and of course, every apartment was in a safe neighborhood according to them, but after researching found out that wasn't really the case).

I'm trying to keep it below $800 so I've already resigned myself to the fact I'll be looking for roommates for a 2 or 3 bedroom place unless I want to live in a crappy area. I'd like to be close to the action, but something further away but close to the El so I can jump on to get there also works.

It's impossible to look for places on Craigslist sometimes, because these people list places as Bucktown and they really are more like Humboldt Park ("west bucktown" is a common one).

Does anyone have any specific places I should be looking based on these criteria, and not just neighborhoods but specific blocks/areas within the neighborhoods?

My other concern is that I'll be working in Lombard, and although I haven't experienced the traffic on 290 first-hand, if it's anything like the recently finished construction on 294/94, what's a realistic commute time to Lombard?

It's about 1hr 20 min to Lombard. If you want Wicker Park/Bucktown, look east of Damen, west of the river. Wrigleyville is a small part of Lakeview, so you should just search for Lakeview.