Moving to Chicago from NYC, working in Niles, where to live? (Evanston: rental, homes)

[HighTopSneaks]

So I'll be moving to Chicago by myself to take up a job in Niles next month. I am debating on where to live, will be taking public transportation to work as I have no car right now and understand that commuting to Chicago suburbs without a car is tough but I'll have to make ways for now. I am a young female (late 20s), coming from NYC. Would like an area that is safe to live (#1 priority), that has walkable grocery shopping and perhaps some presence of bars/restaurants. Dont need the nightlife thing much but would hope for an easy commute to Downtown if needed.

I am on a pretty tight budget and would prefer rent to be about $800/month which I know limits me. Would prefer to just take one bus (the 85A) or along the blue line (to transfer to bus). The neighborhoods I looked at include Jefferson Park, Portage Park, Irving Park, Logan Sq, Wicker Park, Lincolnwood.

The other thing I was looking at was taking the Pacebus system along the 290 route which drops me right in Niles close by to work. From there my options could include Rogers Park. Evanston seems a little further north and would make my commute more difficult.

What would be your recommendations on places to live based on my criteria? Thanks.

[chirack]

Make sure that you can safely walk from where the bus drops you off to your workplace. One big problem with public transit in the burbs is often the lack of sidewalk(and sometimes the distance to the bus route even if there is sidewalk).

You could use Metra. The northwest line has a stop in park ridge on the 290 bus route. Metra is the commuter rail road. You can catch this train from bucktown(wicker park), irving park, Jefferson park, Edison park. Just aim to live in walking distance to Metra to save time on the commute. Only problem is that Metra is more for people going to work downtown from the burbs than the other way around so the service may or may not work for you.

Also the 290 Connects at the cumberland CTA station(on the blue line).

[chirack]

From a transit point of view Irving park and Jefferson Park are good spots. Can use Metra(which can be nicer/faster than CTA but more expensive and more limited in service), Can use CTA blue line(which is 24 hours and more frequent than Metra). Can get both 290 and 85A busses(from blue line). They also are dense and walkable and not too expensive. The northwest line has a transfer station at Jefferson Park to the Blue line and the it is right by the Irviing park station as well(like a very short walk). Aim to live within walking distance of the train or else you will need a bus to get to the train to get to the bus!

PACE is nice, neat on time but compared to CTA has less service along it's routes and ends service before CTA does.

PACE and METRA fares are seperate from CTA fares. Metra has a fare that allows you to ride on PACE and another that allows rides on CTA busses(durring certain hours) and PACE(all hours).

Also downtown Chicago is the easiest place to get to via public tranist. Almost all el lines(and in the case of the one that does not(Yellow-all times and Purple-non rush) you transfer to the Red line) and all Metra lines go downtown.

[Drover]

Niles is pretty spread-out; since you intend to use public transportation it would help to know where in Niles you'll be working. That way we can make recommendations based at least in part on ease of transit to work and back. You don't have to name the exact place or the exact address if you're not comfortable with that, but a nearby intersection (e.g. "Harlem and Oakton") or a block number (e.g. "7400 block of W. Main Street").

[Dncr]

Niles isn't really the standard suburb at all. It's entirely built out, and while it not be the most walkable city in Illinois, it isn't horrendous. It would be helpful to know where you're working though. The Metra runs to Morton Grove and Park Ridge, both of which are neighboring communities. the L runs to Skokie, which is about two miles east of Niles.

[HighTopSneaks]

Thanks guys, to help you further my work location will be near Howard St btwn Lehigh and N Caldwell.

How different is Jefferson Park vs Irving Park?

[Organized Mess]

Jefferson Park is very residential with tons of single family homes and not a lot to do. Irving Park is developing but I'm not too sure it can offer the walkability you're currently looking for. I would encourage you to check out Lincoln Square or Ravenswood. It's laid back, with fun things around but not so overwhelming that you feel like you're at a 24 hour party. There are plenty of grocery options and there's a ton of public transportation options. Although getting to Niles may require you to take the Red Line to Howard and take the Niles bus from the Howard station. I'd Google Map the directions to your job using the Transit option and see how that works out.

[trainfan87]

the chicago neighborhood of edison park is not a bad choice either and howard street just happens to be the border of edison park and niles. Its very safe ie has alot of chicago cops and firemen who dont tolerate crime, and its good on rental prices. Dont waist your time in jefferson park. its a boring area that is starting to change. I would not recommend a young female walking around at night in jefferson park. In edison park, you have the Union Pacific North metra service which probably has a train almost every ten -15 mins with easy access back to downtown. Northwest hwy which runs along those railroad tracks has a couple of nice restaurants and some happening spots.

[jsk1983]

Originally Posted by trainfan87

the chicago neighborhood of edison park is not a bad choice either and howard street just happens to be the border of edison park and niles. Its very safe ie has alot of chicago cops and firemen who dont tolerate crime, and its good on rental prices. Dont waist your time in jefferson park. its a boring area that is starting to change. I would not recommend a young female walking around at night in jefferson park. In edison park, you have the Union Pacific North metra service which probably has a train almost every ten -15 mins with easy access back to downtown. Northwest hwy which runs along those railroad tracks has a couple of nice restaurants and some happening spots.

If you don't drive you wont want to live in Edison Park. Very limited public transport. The Metra service is commuter rail which runs at limited frequencies outside of rush hour. Some buses but the Northwest Highway bus runs every half hour at times.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Organized Mess

Jefferson Park is very residential with tons of single family homes and not a lot to do. Irving Park is developing but I'm not too sure it can offer the walkability you're currently looking for. I would encourage you to check out Lincoln Square or Ravenswood. It's laid back, with fun things around but not so overwhelming that you feel like you're at a 24 hour party. There are plenty of grocery options and there's a ton of public transportation options. Although getting to Niles may require you to take the Red Line to Howard and take the Niles bus from the Howard station. I'd Google Map the directions to your job using the Transit option and see how that works out.

Originally Posted by trainfan87

the chicago neighborhood of edison park is not a bad choice either and howard street just happens to be the border of edison park and niles. Its very safe ie has alot of chicago cops and firemen who dont tolerate crime, and its good on rental prices. Dont waist your time in jefferson park. its a boring area that is starting to change. I would not recommend a young female walking around at night in jefferson park. In edison park, you have the Union Pacific North metra service which probably has a train almost every ten -15 mins with easy access back to downtown. Northwest hwy which runs along those railroad tracks has a couple of nice restaurants and some happening spots.

A couple of notes to the OP on the advice given above:

1) While Ravenswood and Lincoln Square are nice neighborhoods, transit from these places to your workplace is not practical. What Organized Mess doesn't tell you about hopping on the Red Line up to Howard (the Purple Line express would be a better option anyway) is that you first have to backtrack on the Brown Line southeast, then take the Red or Purple Line back north, then take a bus back west on a often slow, crawling, surface street, and then either take another bus (by this time you're looking at 3 transfers each way) or hoof it just under a mile from the nearest Touhy bus stop to your final destination. Under absolutely ideal conditions you're looking at about 90 minutes each way. You'd be better off just taking the Montrose or Lawrence bus west from these neighborhoods then taking the Pace 225 bus north from the Jefferson Park transit hub -- and you're still ideally looking at an hour each way.

2) There is no reason why anyone should particularly fear walking around Jefferson Park at night. While standard vigilance is a good idea anywhere in an urban setting, as urban neighborhoods go Jefferson Park falls well on the "safe" side of the ledger.

3) That said, Edison Park is not a bad recommendation. It has a small but very nice strip of shops and restaurants and the like along Northwest Highway, plus it's pretty close to downtown Park Ridge which has its own nice shopping/restaurant cluster, and it's pretty close to your workplace. In fact if you're looking that far northwest of downtown I'd actually recommend downtown Park Ridge over Edison Park -- there's a lot more going in downtown PR. From either place you can take the Pace 290 bus east to either Caldwell or Lehigh (whichever is closest to your workplace) and then walk from there. Total trip time would be probably 30 minutes or so -- hard to pin down an exact time since the transit routing services like Google Transit and Goroo resolutely refuse to acknowledge the existence of Pace 290 service from Edison Park to points east. Weather permitting you could probably bike to work from Edison Park/Park Ridge in about 20 minutes, though I'd caution that using side streets would probably be safer since many of the main arteries are not very conducive to bike travel.

I have two potential concerns about the Edison Park/Park Ridge recommendation: First, while both have convenient train access to downtown, you should know that the vast bulk of the city's nightlife happens in parts of the city other than downtown. Getting from Edison Park or Park Ridge to the city's prime nightlife areas and back via public transit can be cumbersome, particularly in late evening hours. Getting into town may not be such a problem, but getting back at night could require a cab. That can be particularly expensive if they take you to Park Ridge because they can add a 50% surcharge outside the city limits.

Second, there are no sidewalks from Touhy to Howard on the vast majority of both Caldwell and Lehigh so you may be forced to walk on the shoulder or actual street for lengthy stretches of either. That can be a genuine pain in winter when snow banks have built up along the sides of the roads. Maybe bring your bike with you -- the buses have bike racks on them.

All that said, there may be a better alternative. There is a Pace bus route (225) that runs right past your place of work that departs from the Jefferson Park transit hub. (This is a hub where about 12 bus lines, a CTA train line, and a Metra train line all interconnect.) Because of this, and despite admonitions above not to walk around late at night, Jefferson Park would be another good place to look. There is a good handful of little shops and restaurants and bars and the like along Milwaukee Avenue, clustered particularly around the Blue Line. Another advantage to living near the JP transit center is that you'll have much better access to the city's prime nightlife locations (or just about any other part of the city) than you would from Edison Park/Park Ridge. The disadvantage is that the Pace bus route that takes you from the transportation hub up to Howard operates during rush hour only, so if you ever have to stay overtime or if you work odd hours this line won't serve you.