Your Favorite Suburb And Why (Chicago, Arlington Heights: appointed, lawyers, neighborhoods)

[Orangeish]

Libertyville tops my list. Thats just me tho

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by otters21

you have hit that right on the nail. I agree with you 100%. There needs to be ZERO tolerance for the trash that that ruins hardworking blue collar communities. Packing up and fleeing further out is not the answer. Because of increased dependence on the car, loss of farmland and other resources , no wonder prices skyrocket and and it is getting unaffordable for everyone except for the rich to live. It also seems that this ghetto thug lifestyle is glorified by the media " Its cool to be a gangsta" and our youth is eating that up. It has to come to a point where blue collar Joe is going to say"enough's enough " and finally stand up and do something about keeping the communities intact and safe. He needs to realize that packing and fleeing is going to empty out his wallet faster, because prices are high and they are not going to stop rising.

It costs the average person approximately $20-25k to move, when you factor in realtor commissions, closing costs, title fees, attorneys' fees, moving expenses, etc. And that's just to get out of your old house, and doesn't include any money you may be "upside down" on your present mortgage. This would have sounded nuts 4 years ago but many people also have a mortgage balance remaining after their sale nowadays. And, of course, your new house is going to be more expensive, and substantially so if you really want to make sure "it" doesn't happen again.

I just read somewhere that places like Bolingbrook and Plainfield, sure bets for white flighters just 10 years ago, are experiencing real problems in drug trafficking now. I've a feeling that's just the start as the "urban" folks from the areas they originally fled start arriving out there in greater numbers. What working class whites often fail to grasp is that if they can afford it, so can the working class folks in the other demographic groups that they're trying to get away from. You may get a temporary escape, but sooner or later, it will just catch up to you.

If you want to "insure" against that, you go to Winnetka, Lake Forest, Oak Brook, Winfield, or somewhere so expensive, that you'll be protected against demographic shifts. And that ain't cheap, or even realistically doable for the majority of people in blue collar occupations.

[cubssoxfan]

Originally Posted by BRU67

It costs the average person approximately $20-25k to move, when you factor in realtor commissions, closing costs, title fees, attorneys' fees, moving expenses, etc. And that's just to get out of your old house, and doesn't include any money you may be "upside down" on your present mortgage. This would have sounded nuts 4 years ago but many people also have a mortgage balance remaining after their sale nowadays. And, of course, your new house is going to be more expensive, and substantially so if you really want to make sure "it" doesn't happen again.

I just read somewhere that places like Bolingbrook and Plainfield, sure bets for white flighters just 10 years ago, are experiencing real problems in drug trafficking now. I've a feeling that's just the start as the "urban" folks from the areas they originally fled start arriving out there in greater numbers. What working class whites often fail to grasp is that if they can afford it, so can the working class folks in the other demographic groups that they're trying to get away from. You may get a temporary escape, but sooner or later, it will just catch up to you.

If you want to "insure" against that, you go to Winnetka, Lake Forest, Oak Brook, Winfield, or somewhere so expensive, that you'll be protected against demographic shifts. And that ain't cheap, or even realistically doable for the majority of people in blue collar occupations.

Or like many, you buy a smaller, older home or a townhome in a suburb like Arlington Heights, Glen Ellyn, Western Springs or any number of other suburbs that are older, more established and yes more expensive than Plainfield or Bolingbrook. Some are only moderately more expensive. It's the old axiom of buy the smallest/least expensive home in the more expensive neighborhood instead of buying the biggest home in the less expensive neighborhood.

[chet everett]

I disagree -- the problems of the towns you mention are largely related to SIZE -- the fact is that towns that are SMALLER are far easier to maintain in a stable state and keep uniformly nice as long as the town is smartly developed so that there is sufficient revenue from commercial property and/or high quality residential so that only low rates of property tax are needed.

Oak Brook is, by design, incapable of having more than 10K residents (and levies no property tax for operations of the Village due to the health of its large retail base) -- Evergreen Park has more than double the number of residents (and a pretty high operating budget) but sick mix of dying car dealers and badly run retail, Bolingbrook 5X that(and property taxes rates that quite high for the area). If you look at some towns that screwed up the other way you get Riverside, which should have annexed North Riverside and instead can snobbily say they have snazzy curvilinear streets but residents suffers under a crushing property tax burden while plain jane North Riverside is much cheaper...

The towns that get bigger need to have large numbers of public employees and the costs of adding layers of over paid managers / supervisors / lieutenants drives the town to OK zoning and development that "promises" more revenue. Instead the quality of life declines...

[04JETTA]

Right now it's between Orland Park and Naperville but I guarantee that will change

[deechee]

Originally Posted by knat_2

Why do you like Orland Hills so much? Besides its tax rate is like 50% of its neighbors...

I like the secluded feel. No one really knows where it is I'm willing to pay for that!

Originally Posted by otters21

I personally don't have an issue with Hispanics as long as they are decent. willing to work hard and want a chance and many if not most are like that. Its the thuggish criminal and gangbanging element that move in and take over Chicagoland blue collar neighborhoods and bring in their drugs, shootings and crime . They are the ones who cause decline and white and/or middle class flight. Blue collar Joe just keeps getting forced to move further and further out to areas where you have to drive everywhere and mass transit is almost non existant. It is too expensive to live in those areas with the cost of upkeep on a vehicle ( think car payments,insurance, maintainance and gas etc.) In those areas there is no way a family could get away with owning just one car. In most cases the wife has to work fulltime as well as the husband just to make ends meet and most likely she is going to need her own vehicle to get to her job. Poor blue collar Joe just keeps running out of safe affordable options of places to live that are walkable with good access to mass transit and it is getting to be a crisis in not just Chicago ,but all over the country. Will it ever end ( the rampant decline , rise in crime and the White and/or middle class flight) ? Section 8 is one of the major factors in this crisis and it has done nothing positive ,but has caused decline in our neighborhoods. It is a scourge IMHO.

I like everyone regardless of color. I don't like people who think gangbanging, drug dealing, shooting randomly, talking loudly outside, not taking care of their homes is okay. That's my only problem. I'll gladly be your neighbor if you are a decent person, I wouldn't care if you were purple.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by cubssoxfan

Or like many, you buy a smaller, older home or a townhome in a suburb like Arlington Heights, Glen Ellyn, Western Springs or any number of other suburbs that are older, more established and yes more expensive than Plainfield or Bolingbrook. Some are only moderately more expensive. It's the old axiom of buy the smallest/least expensive home in the more expensive neighborhood instead of buying the biggest home in the less expensive neighborhood.

Makes sense to me but unfortunately, if you have a family, that may not always be an option. Plus, people these days seem to always want to move to more space, not less, so not many choose this option. They'd rather buy the new bigger house further out, looking at it in terms of dollars per square foot versus long term stability.

Chet's correct in that larger towns face more of a challenge. I'd add that some of this is due to the large number of rental properties that most inner-ring suburbs have. Usually, it's 30-50% of the housing stock. Multiply that times 12,000-15,000 housing units and you have a lot of residents who are turning over pretty quickly, and can pack it in more readily if there are any signs of trouble. It's easy for that to spiral downhill unless the community is very diligent about it. Oak Park, for example, did a pretty good job at this, so it can be done.

[Steve-o]

My fave suburbs (too hard to pick one): Geneva, St. Charles, Lake Forest, Naperville, Wasco, Batavia, Wheaton, Wayne, Elmhurst, Winnetka, Glen Ellyn, Hinsdale, Schaumburg, the Barringtons.

[nJohn]

I like Oak Lawn, Burbank, and Bridgeview. There are plenty others, but I have found memories in said suburbs.

[thePR]

Winnetka and Park Ridge. I like older cities with less sprawl.