What About Westchester Illinois? (Chicago, Naperville: low crime, hotels, new house)

[Farmer Bob]

Yeah, Westchester is kind of an oddball place. It's pretty much unlike anything around it. It's quiet, relaxed, kind of like a big park, and just kind of feels like you're home when you're there. It seems like there's nothing right in it, but there's everything around it. You can pay $350k for a house and live in the middle of the amenities of La Grange, for example, or you can pay $250k in Westchester and still get to the amenities of La Grange, Oak Brook, etc. within a few minutes. True, there isn't much in the way of bars and "entertainment," but they're not that far away in travel time. Toss in those forest preserves on its borders and what you seem to have in Westchester is a true suburban suburb tucked away from the urbanism of the surrounding suburbs. Not too close and not too far. Even that one ugly gorilla in the living room, Proviso West High School, is not in Westchester. (Back in the days when Proviso West was one of the highest ranked schools in the state, it was Westchester that supplied the top students, from it's top grade schools.) The median income is $70k, and there are indeed professionals living there. It seems especially popular with Loyola University hospital staffers. It does have a lot of older, long-time residents, but there's a reason for that: they like it.

[Vespatian]

That pool that was mentioned before has kids from all the other surrounding towns except Westchester (excluding La Grange - La Grange Park).

"It seems especially popular with Loyola University hospital staffers." - they all live in Oak Park, Brookfield, Forest Park, even South Berwyn. You'd have to be a fool to buy in Westchester now.

As per amenities, it sucks driving to places in other towns when your town could easily have them; you'd have to be a loon to think that's a pleasant experience in some way.

"Proviso West High School, is not in Westchester".....and Proviso West high school is the public high school FOR Westchester. Just because it's several thousand yards away from the boarder of the town doesn't make it any better of a school.

Let's face it: unless some miraculous retail or public works development will come to boost Westchester, its status quo of a dying bedroom community will continue.

[chet everett]

The locations issues are not unique to Westchester. In some ways it the southern end of "belt of despair" that runs from Rosemont on the north and includes a whole lot of towns that had a huge chunk of the manufacturing base of the region that is gone. The towns are not equally devastated, because some have managed to have a hook into the transportation infrastructure or other positives and others have managed to be a little more proactive in getting newer industrial space filled. In general the list includes towns that have little chance of every being on a "desirable" list, and it is sorta funny that when folks complain about the situation/perception in some south suburbs (or Elgin or Waukegan or North Chicago) these towns often are not even on the radar:
Roughly north to south:
Schiller Park
Franklin Park
Elmwood Park
Northlake
Stone Park
Melrose Park
Berkley
Hillside
Bellwood
Maywood
Forest Park
Berwyn
Cicero
Lyons
McCook

All of those qualify as "west suburbs" by the standard of not being south of Stevenson, and some still offer a handful of desirable features. That said the overwhelming negatives of their schools is undeniable, and it unlikely to ever turn around. Fortunately the industry that was present in those areas was never as monolithic as something like the automobile business in Detroit or steel in Gary. In fact I believe those areas were home to the first wave of "high tech" firms that built radios and TVs back in the day. For those that propose "big projects" to revitalize areas I wonder what could be done to rethink the miles of outdated single level homes that were thrown together in those areas, improve the schools and help prevent further decline...

[Farmer Bob]

"It seems especially popular with Loyola University hospital staffers." - they all live in Oak Park, Brookfield, Forest Park, even South Berwyn.-- Vespatian

Well, your statement happens to be absolutely untrue. There are quite a few people from Loyola in Westchester. They go there for the convenience of access to Loyola and to the rest of the area amenities you seem to think you have to live immediately next door to in order to be able to have the benefit of them. They go there because they can get a decent house at a decent price. They go there for its adjacency to the forest preserves, the same safe preserves that border La Grange Park and Western Springs. Westchester is well-situated among all the amenities of the western suburbs, and yet is a quiet refuge from them. Better still, given your inexplicable hostility to it, it's a quiet refuge from the likes of you, too.

[Vespatian]

Originally Posted by Farmer Bob

Better still, given your inexplicable hostility to it, it's a quiet refuge from the likes of you, too.

I live not far from Mayfair Park

I'm also in the process of looking around at moving. Little did I know when we moved to Westchester in '93 that it would remain comatose and slowly decay like those areas listed above (although it's a bit much to bring Gary into the comparison).

I'm sure every town has it cheerleaders, probably even Maywood and Stone Park. I have my opinions and I also see things in a different way.

No, I didn't live in Westchester during its heydays of the 1950's and 60's. However, Farmer Bob, your opinions of Westchester as an idyllic suburb seem to originate from this era.

You are right, Westchester has a lot of forests. It also has a liquor store on Mannheim, a Jewel on Cermak, and a dollar store in the plaza on 31st. Hooray!

It was apparently decades of a geriatric town government that kept Westchester in a time warp. Now, it's unable to compete for families who could get a house in hot Naperville, Downers Grove, or La Grange for the same $$$.

Look at Morton Grove and La Grange Park: same houses as Westchester, better school district, higher property values. Thus, more businesses are attracted to it, more families are willing to invest in buying a home there, and there is stability and growth.

Westchester has done the opposite. Its purposely stayed in stasis for 60 years, trying to keep an air of its former suburban luxury that is rapidly decaying.

I personally know quite a number of young couples and families that ultimately chose La Grange Park, Brookfield and Elmhurst to buy a home in, after investigating Westchester. I also know quite a good number that moved away from Westchester when their kids began to reach high school age.

If you like the quiet of Westchester, good for you. Just keep in mind that when all the blue hairs depart Westchester, it won't be the way you know it now.

[Farmer Bob]

"Now, it's unable to compete for families who could get a house in hot Naperville, Downers Grove, or La Grange for the same $$$." -- Vespatian

Now there's a hot one! How many people do you think you're going to be able to fool with that one when all they have to do is pass your quote by their realtors? As to you living "near" Mayfair Park, I suppose we'll have to take your word for it. You have to be one strange character to have lived 17 years in a town whose gentle and benign "stagnation," in your perplexingly embittered opinion, has got you so worked up against it. You sound like you were in virtual hell all that time. My condolences. What offends you so much about peace and quiet? Indeed, I do remember Westchester from the 50s and 60s. Twenty thousand people at it's peak. Noisy. It was much better when so much of it was prairie and farmlands, but you can't have everything, especially when you're having "growth." But there's still the forest preserves. There's the Dominick's and Paul's in the Plaza on 31st. There's Giordano's, Rocky's Pizza, a great little Mexican place and the Thai restaurant at Cermak and Mannheim. Apparently you missed them on your trips to the "Dollar store" (where's that at again?) and the liquor store. How curious: You say you you're in the process of looking around and moving. One presumes you own a house. So, speaking of comatose, why would somebody who presumably will be trying to sell that house so viciously try to run down the town that it's in, particularly on the basis of it's . . . what? . . its tranquility? Just quit your griping and leave already, if indeed you actually live there, shill. You'll wake your neighbors.

Guy signs up for city-data just so he can make three posts that lower his own property value. Not likely.

[Vespatian]

Originally Posted by Farmer Bob

gentle and benign "stagnation,".

I should have known I was dealing with a retiree who dislikes change of any type.

And I wasn't in "virtual hell" in Weschester for 17 years.

I just happen to now see a town that once had many young people out and about with friendly neighbors now go into decline. I miss our neighbors that recently moved to Westmont, Darien and Oak Park. Those families were great.

This has all happened in the past year alone: on the next block down there's two empty foreclosures. My garage (and our car inside) has been broken into and I had bicycles stolen from my yard that I had left alone when I went inside to get a tool (thus, someone was watching me). If the "noisy" Westchester of the 50's and 60's had this sorta stuff occurring, I'd have moved back to the city!

And so you have free will to join City-Data, so do I. And if I see Westchester as a dying suburb, thus I shall write about it!

[ajolotl]

Vespatian's view is very reasonable from what I've witnessed. No idea where Farmer Bob is coming from -- he is the last person I would expect to defend Westchester given his posting history (using the term "whitey" is a pretty distinctive trait). Farmer Bob: Do you own some real estate in the area? Something seems awry.

[Farmer Bob]

"Vespatian's view is very reasonable from what I've witnessed." -- ajolot

How about if you tell us what you've "witnessed." Then we can have a discussion.

"Farmer Bob: Do you own some real estate in the area? Something seems awry." -- ajolotl

If you actually read my posts -- all on this page -- you'd know where I was coming from. I grew up there. My parents' house is there. As to there something being "awry," there certainly is. It's quite curious that a fellow who purports to own property there would venomously run down the town which he, by his own claim, is attempting to move out of. Why, it would take a real fool to exert such an effort to depress the resale value of his own property. And I've not yet accused Vespatian of being a fool, just a shill, maybe. I don't mind anybody hating Westchester, Chicago, me or anything else they hate. I'd rather they do it for substantive reasons though. These fairytales about no professionals living there, or nobody from Loyola Hospital living there when there are two on Dad's block alone and others that I know of, just doesn't cut it, and it speaks to me either of a blow hard or an agenda.

"(using the term "whitey" is a pretty distinctive trait)." -- ajolotl

Distinctive of what? Don't be sly, if you think you have something to say, say it.

[Farmer Bob]

"This has all happened in the past year alone: on the next block down there's two empty foreclosures. My garage (and our car inside) has been broken into and I had bicycles stolen from my yard that I had left alone when I went inside to get a tool (thus, someone was watching me)." -- Vespatian

I don't think you're going to find many towns that don't have some foreclosures in them, not in this economic climate, and it's going to get a lot worse in all of them, including Westchester.

As to your crime wave, you have your anecdote and I have mine. My parents built their house in 1942. Nothing, ever has been stolen from it. Nothing that I'm aware of has ever been stolen from their block. (Next street over a car was stolen a couple of years ago, though.)

"I should have known I was dealing with a retiree who dislikes change of any type. -- Vespatian

You're wrong on two counts and irrelevant on one. Having lived in exciting Chicago for decades, I've seen more change than you can imagine. I certainly did not like all of it. I particularly enjoyed "change" when the drive-by shootings stopped, though. You think it's bad when somebody steals your bicycle? Try somebody trying to steal your car, with you still in it.

"I just happen to now see a town that once had many young people out and about with friendly neighbors now go into decline. I miss our neighbors that recently moved to Westmont, Darien and Oak Park. Those families were great." -- Vespatian

Sounds like you don't much like change. Adapt, expand, make new friends! Blame fate, God, your friends, your deodorant -- don't blame Westchester. We live in nomadic times.

Since we started out talking about your crime wave, let's take a little look at what your friends moved away from and into:

City-data crime index:

US average (2008) -- 320.9

Oak Park -- 304.4
Westmont -- 132.5
Westchester -- 96.2
Darien -- 81.2

Now Darien does beat Westchester -- by a little -- but look how far out you have to go to get that marginal improvement, and is it cheaper? Is it more centrally located?