Relocating to CHI suburbs (Evanston, Oak Park: homes, to buy, public schools)

[Tinaa30]

Hello,
My family is relocating from suburban Boston for a job at UIC medical center. My main concern is great public schools for twins age 5 and my husband is very concerned about commute time. Any thoughts on Hinsdale and what the commute would be like on public transportation? I assume driving is out of the question. Any other areas where public transportation would be easier to UIC medical but also have great schools? Thanks for any advice.

Tina

[chet everett]

Driving to UIC is not "out of the question" from any part of the region and if you carefully plan a route that follows major arterial streets and avoids know bottlenecks the travel time from Hinsdale is generally under 45 minutes -- Hinsdale to UIC Med Center via Ogden Ave

Public transportation is technically an option, but not a particularly good one if time savings is your goal as the combination of designated shuttle (which UIC has run) or CTA buses or the Pink Line that connects near the Western Ave BNSF stop would ADD about 30 or more to the trip...

Short of living in very close proximity of the Med Center the options for signficantly faster public transit are pretty poor. Even if you were walking distance from a Green Line station at the heart of Oak Park the trip to UIC shave 10 minutes off travel time...

[Bogey]

Though we are not able to speak to life/schools in Hinsdale, that looks like a good commute for your husband. FWIW, my husband has worked near UIC for over a decade and commutes from Evanston. He takes Lake Shore Drive or I94 to work, then gets on I290 to get to the Medical Center area. When Wacker Drive is open, it's a 30 min. drive in the morning off of LSD, but it won't reopen for another year (I don't know the projected date). If your husband is traveling during off hours, then I94 could be quite quick, also around 30 min, but that can double during rush hour.
Regarding schools, we also have twin 5 year olds who are starting school in the fall, and we like our options here.
Best of luck with your move.

[jsk1983]

Oak Park could work and would be closer than Hinsdale. The CTA Blue Line has a station fairly near the medical center.

[MSchemist80]

You could come in on any of the Union Pacific Lines then hop on the pink line at Clinton to Polk Street Station which is right there. That would allow you to live in a wide variety of North Shore, Northwest, and West Suburbs. There are also several CTA busses that run from either Union Station or Oglevie to UIC's medical center.

[chet everett]

The time it takes to take multiple transit lines means that unless there is some kind of very unusual traffic event your total travel time is far quicker just driving. Honestly my wife worked at UIC and we very much wanted to utilize public transit but the travel times ranged from about 10 minutes saved to well over 40 EXTRA minutes of dealing with wait times and delays. Just not worth it to anyone with a family. Hungry kids win out over transit efficiency ...

[OakBrookMom]

Lots of doctors in our area commute into the city every day, many as Chet pointed out use the Ogden route. We have a doctor on our block that commutes to U of C every day, a nurse a block over that commutes to Rush, a friend in the next subdivision that commutes to Rush and another doctor friend who lives in north Hinsdale that commutes to Cook County Hospital every day and feels that driving is a more reliable route because the Ogden route is very predictable 45 minutes. In fact they all take Ogden. If that is too long and you want to cut the commute just follow Ogden east and look at Western Springs and LaGrange and then a bit further cutting the commute more considerably is Riverside or Oak Park both of which offers driving and commuter options via the Blue Line with Pace or CTA link-ups. River Forest offers access to the CTA in next door Oak Park.
Hinsdale 181 and Oak Brook's Butler 53 with a few others feed into Hinsdale Central - all three are ranked higher based on test scores, check the trib and suntimes last 5 years of test result postings (each have a slightly different rating calculation based not only on tests but on factors like money spent per pupil and class size but post the actual test score numbers so you can compare) which will show a consistent record of excellence for all three districts. Of course you probably already are aware of the stats because why else would you be considering these areas vs Oak Park where you can walk to the Blue Line and get off at the UIC exit and walk to work. What sold us on our location vs Hinsdale 181 was the low taxes because it allowed us to buy a bigger home than what we would be able to afford elsewhere plus still have excellent schools, library and park district. We do miss the in-town feel but like the small size of our K-8 schools and anyone who says that we don't have a sense of community because our lots are large enough that we can't see into our neighbor's homes and don't have sidewalks hasn't lived here and seen the community support each other in times of crisis.