NYC family of 6. Evanston, Winnetka...other places? (Chicago, Oak Park: crime rate, homes)

[Paige65]

I'm not on CD much anymore but happened upon your post. I would look at all the communities along the lake, Evanston, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Glencoe, Highland Park, Lake Forest. They really all have much to offer. I know your wife may have concerns about Lake Forest, but it's really not much different than most of the aforementioned suburbs. It may have been a few bad apples sort of thing that your wife experienced. I like Lake Forest and Lake Bluff but they may be too far for you. Highland Park may be too far as well.

I agree with another poster who said that Evanston and Highland Park have the most vibrant downtown areas. Also, Highland Park has an additional small commercial district near Ravinia Festival. The Ravinia business district is on Roger Williams Avenue from Green Bay Road on its west border to Dean Avenue as its east border. You can live on the East side of the metra tracks in Ravinia, where the houses and yards are larger and closer to the beach (the only public swimming beach in Highland Park is in the Ravinia neighborhood at the end of Roger Williams Avenue). You can walk to the Ravinia business district which has a Walgreen's, bakery, dry cleaners, hair salons, nail salons, a chinese tea house, a handful of small retail shops (women's clothing, kids resale, home furnishings, jewelry), restaurants (japanese, italian, american bistro, pizza, barbeque, chinese take out). About the only thing you can't do in Ravinia is buy the bulk of your groceries (great grocery store, Sunset Foods, is five minutes away). If you live close enough, you get the benefit of hearing the Ravinia Festival when you sit in your backyard in the summer! There's also a jogging/biking trail (Green Bay Trail) that runs North/South right through the middle of the Ravinia district along the train line. Not originally from HIghland Park or Chicagoland, but bought here in mid 90's when in our late twenties and have been here since 1994. Prior to purchasing our first house, we had been renting in Evanston. Evanston has much to offer as well.

I think you should really drive up the North Shore taking detours through all of their business districts to see what you might like.

After re-reading your post, I see that you are interested in Catholic schools. I should mention that while there is a Catholic church in Highland Park, there are no Catholic schools, and there is a substantial Jewish population. We are not Jewish and our neighborhood is very diverse. We have one set of neighbors that send their children to Sacred Heart and Loyola because Catholic education is important to them, we also have another set of neighbors whose children go to Solomon Schecter, but far and away, most kids go to public school. The schools in Highland Park are very good (look at Chicago Sun-Times ratings in November 2012, both Braeside Elementary and Ravinia Elementary are in the top 20 public elementary schools in the state).

http://www.suntimes.com/news/educati...cago-area.html

[chet everett]

I agree with many of the points Paige makes about relative convenience but I disagree that these areas or really anything outside of Chicago itself has anything close to the kind of "pedestrian orientation" that Chicago itself does.

I know a very nice family that is fortunate to have a lovely home walking distance from downtown Highland Park. One of the parent's has an office just few blocks from home. The family car is often seen in front of the office as kids need to driven lots of places....

[Paige65]

To be sure, I didn't mean to imply that the pedestrian orientation is anything close to Chicago itself. However, there are pockets of the suburbs that are more pedestrian friendly than others. I was just trying to let him know about an area he may have overlooked.

We lived with one car for many years, but as soon as our kids were in elementary school, we found we needed more than one car. We could still most likely have one if we didn't have kids. Too many people going to many different directions for one car!

[chet everett]

The OP said like they / their spouse wanted to maintain a lifestyle that would allow them to walk shops while the kids are at school and then "discover" a fabulous discount pedicure salon. I suspect this is rather typical in Manhatran. It is slightly less common but still possible in parts of Chicago like the Gold Coast or Lincon Park, but truly even in Evanston it is not very common for families with school age children not to be highly reliant on at least one (and very likely more than one...) personal vehicle.


If the OP said they wanted to live in a high rise that would suggest Gold Coast, their desire to have some green space strongly points to Lincoln Park.


In al honesty this will likely be the best way to meet their desire to be walkable close to Lake Michigan and have a range of retail outlets to busy them on their explorations of their new home. Evanston has a fraction of such situations and the relative cost / lack of uniformity in where houses that match this criteria are geographically situated in Evanston is problematic...

Originally Posted by Paige65

To be sure, I didn't mean to imply that the pedestrian orientation is anything close to Chicago itself. However, there are pockets of the suburbs that are more pedestrian friendly than others. I was just trying to let him know about an area he may have overlooked.

We lived with one car for many years, but as soon as our kids were in elementary school, we found we needed more than one car. We could still most likely have one if we didn't have kids. Too many people going to many different directions for one car!

[dogluvr2012]

IMO, suburbs + kids = must have car. Some of these towns have nice downtown areas, but a lot of the walkable conveniences you mention won't be in the downtown area. Things are more spread out. It sounds like you are looking for urban living rather than suburban.

[kindrakindra]

Originally Posted by dogluvr2012

IMO, suburbs + kids = must have car. Some of these towns have nice downtown areas, but a lot of the walkable conveniences you mention won't be in the downtown area. Things are more spread out. It sounds like you are looking for urban living rather than suburban.

I do think in certain suburbs like Evanston and Oak Park you can get by without a car for groceries, restaurants, doctor appointments, some kid activities, etc. The problem is that other kid activities and kid birthday parties make that more of a challenge, a problem complicated by extreme weather 6 months of the year. Not being able to drive is much worse than a general dislike of driving/first choice is to seek out alternatives but still willing sometimes. The latter is doable for certain suburbs; the former, not really.

[chitownperson]

Originally Posted by kindrakindra

I do think in certain suburbs like Evanston and Oak Park you can get by without a car for groceries, restaurants, doctor appointments, some kid activities, etc. The problem is that other kid activities and kid birthday parties make that more of a challenge, a problem complicated by extreme weather 6 months of the year. Not being able to drive is much worse than a general dislike of driving/first choice is to seek out alternatives but still willing sometimes. The latter is doable for certain suburbs; the former, not really.

I agree with this, and would add that even many areas of Chicago can be difficult without a car, like hauling stuff from Target, Home Depot etc... But Evanston and Oak Park certainly provide walkable conveniences to the activities you mention.

Regarding the OP's query about a "nice, useful downtown", Oak Park was recently named "downtown of the month" by the International Downtown Association.

https://www.ida-downtown.org/eweb/dy...owntownoakpark

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by chitownperson

I agree with this, and would add that even many areas of Chicago can be difficult without a car, like hauling stuff from Target, Home Depot etc...

Regarding the OP's query about a "nice, useful downtown", Oak Park was recently named "downtown of the month" by the International Downtown Association.

12 months of the year Oak Park will always be far removed from Lake Michigan.

[chitownperson]

Originally Posted by chet everett

12 months of the year Oak Park will always be far removed from Lake Michigan.

Thanks for stating the obvious. I'm sure the OP could manage to deduct that fact by him or her self.

[chet everett]

Sorry the thread is three pages long, wasn't sure if you understood how strongly the OP is attracted to Lake Michigan.