Looking for the best place to buy. Keywords: young, liberal, artsy

[j33]

"south wicker park" isn't so bad, that is where I live, the neighborhood is called "east village" or "West Town" (depending on who you talk to) ... now "west wicker park" (also known to normal people as Humboldt Park, can be hit or miss depending on the block).

Another popular area is Lincoln Square and Andersonville.

[TootsieWootsie]

Logan Park? Are you kidding????
I always loved the area, and looked hard for a place when I returned about two years ago. It is getting better, but there are halfway houses a half block off the main boulevard, and the area still looks scarey. Are you people kidding?
Myself, I have aways loved the old homes with the big windows and curved glass from the turn of the century. BUT not enough to live in a dangerous looking area.
Get real with this person. Logan Park is not some safe, little corner of the city like the Gold Coast is. Good grief, folks!

[j33]

TootsieWootsie - everyone has a different background and definition of safe.

For the most part, I've enjoyed my visits to Logan Square and find that most of the neighborhood is just fine (yes, there are some streets that aren't). However, as far as half-way houses are concerned, I seem to recall plenty of transient hotels being located in the gold coast as well (I'm sure you remember the Mark Twain Hotel . Just the existance of a half-way house or transient hotel does not a ghetto make, otherwise lincoln park and the goldcoast would trouble as well.

I'm curious what you meant by 'looks scary' because I never got that impression of Logan square and quite frankly, I don't have much of a problem recommending Logan Square as a neighborhood for someone looking for a decent inexpensive neighborhood. Naturally, when looking over a neighborhood to move to, I would tell that person to visit it several times during several times of the day, preferably visiting around midnight on a Tuesday and midnight on a Saturday to get a feel of what it is like late at night. I wish I had done that with a neighborhood I lived in in 1992 in Rogers Park otherwise I would have thought twice before I signed the lease. However, I have been in Logan Square late at night and have had no problems except for only one time when I choose not to walk down a street because it was late at night and I didn't like the look of a crowd hanging out on the corner, but other than that one isolated incident (which could happen anywhere) I've have no problems with the place.

Kedzie and Lake looks scary (you want sketchy, drive around certain parts of the west-side sometime), Logan Square does not.

[NSH]

Beautiful Pic of Logan Square, Chicago
http://www.acm.edu/urbanstudy/twoflats-lg.jpg (broken link)

[hawkfandan]

I have a friend who's been in Logan Square for a few years now. It's still an area that varies greatly - block to block. One block good - the next block not so good.

Checkout Andersonville. It's where all of the disgruntled hipsters packed up and moved to when they got squeezed out of Wicker Park & Bucktown.

Also - as a previous poster mentioned - you will be hard pressed to find ANYTHING 'decent' for under 300k. An empty lot across the street from me (in Lincoln Park), recently sold for 900k.

[Octogirl23]

Pilsen, Lakeview, Wicker Park, Bucktown and some areas (but de careful) of Humboldt Park