Relocating to Chicago from San Francisco, CA--- Help!

[jsk1983]

Originally Posted by MChinch

I have lived in San Francisco or a major city my whole life. When I was looking at the suburbs, I was warned to stay out of Waukegan and North Chicago as they had some rougher neighborhoods. I am not too sure about the public transportation situation in the suburbs and don't want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere without a car.

Yep, North Chicago and Waukegan have seen better days. The area where your going to school looks to be surrounded by the Naval Base, that's pretty much the buffer between the old money upper class North Shore and textbook rust belt North Chicago.

[chirack]

Originally Posted by MChinch

I have lived in San Francisco or a major city my whole life. When I was looking at the suburbs, I was warned to stay out of Waukegan and North Chicago as they had some rougher neighborhoods. I am not too sure about the public transportation situation in the suburbs and don't want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere without a car.

The issuse with public tranportation(Metra, not CTA) in Chicago is that it is set up to get people from the burbs into the city.

It does not work quite as well in reverse because the burbs may or may not have a bus or even enough sidewalk at the Metra station to get you to your location. Also Metra's reverse scedule can be a problem.

That being said Metra is very comfortable ride and is very much on time and you can get some work done on the train or take a nap.Trust me driving down 90/94 in rush hour could cause you to need medical attention..... It jams bad.

If you fear this situation choose the burbs and any burb with a Metra station will offer easy access to the city. However your partner will need transportation from the station home.

Do not drive downtown Chicago unless you have to. Traffic and Parking make driving downtown a bad idea in general.

[MChinch]

The goal is to find a neighborhood in Chicago that has easy access to both metra and the el. If need be, I would take the metra or drive and she would take the el, since I am guessing that there are more jobs in the city than in the suburbs.

Thus far, someone suggested Andersonville or any of neighborhoods on the North side of Chicago. Specific names/ neighborhood suggestions would be much appreciated.

[chirack]

Originally Posted by MChinch

The goal is to find a neighborhood in Chicago that has easy access to both metra and the el. If need be, I would take the metra or drive and she would take the el, since I am guessing that there are more jobs in the city than in the suburbs.

Thus far, someone suggested Andersonville or any of neighborhoods on the North side of Chicago. Specific names/ neighborhood suggestions would be much appreciated.

No area in Chicago offers a good drive. The neighborboods of the West Loop, Bucktown, Ravenswood, Rogers Park offer access to the Metra which will get you to North Chicago.

West Loop and Bucktown will offer beter access to 90/94 but they are very far south. Ravenswood and Roger's Park will cause you to need to drive the street to get to 90/94(adding time to the commute despite the fact that they are further north than Bucktown).

There are areas in Chicago with better access to 90 or 94 and good public access downtown like Irving Park but no area in Chicago has a drive less than 45 mins or so from North Chicago and Irving park is not on the UP-N line(i.e. It's Metra station takes you to a different set of burbs).

The burb of Evanston offers a better drive to North Chicago and access to the Metra which can take you to North Chicago and Downtown. It also best fits your discription in the opening post if you choose to live anywhere outside of the city itself.

Evanston, Ravenswood and Bucktown also have CTA el access(which is more frequent than Metra or may take your partner a bit closer to where she works downtown). West Loop of course has great CTA access but is the farest Metra and Drive from North Chicago.

[jsk1983]

Originally Posted by MChinch

The goal is to find a neighborhood in Chicago that has easy access to both metra and the el. If need be, I would take the metra or drive and she would take the el, since I am guessing that there are more jobs in the city than in the suburbs.

Thus far, someone suggested Andersonville or any of neighborhoods on the North side of Chicago. Specific names/ neighborhood suggestions would be much appreciated.

Actually I'm pretty sure the suburbs have more jobs. For some reason I'm thinking they had 68% of the jobs, wish I remembered where I heard that. If that is true it pretty much reflects the population distribution. Of course some industries are more concentrated in one area than another.

[chet everett]

I think chirack is correct -- your best bet to be withing striking distance of Metra train to North Chicago and have CTA & Metra access to jobs in Chicago AND not be so far that should you need you need to drive you.d be up a creek is to be in Evanston.

Second best is probably Ravenswood, but that would basically make options to North Chicago a bit worse and kind of wash for options into Chicago, as express trains are probably better from Evanston...

Third best is maybe Bucktown, but then you are trading shorter ride to the Loop for a significantly longer trip to North Chicago, unless you plan to drive up the Edens, which is really pretty horrible.

While Bucktown (and even West Loop) are still not "south side" neighborhoods of Chicago the layout of the expressways, surface streets and even transit options would make it awful to commute.

I would not discount the potential of your partner landing a job in Evanston or another north area / suburb. Ideally if you are both closer together neither will have an awful commute. Evanston has several large employers including Northwestern University,several hospitals / health care facilities, offices of various kinds, retail, etc. It is a nice place.