Roscoe Village gay friendly? (Chicago, Lincoln: apartments, lease, transfer to)

[SDtoChicago]

My partner and I will be moving from San Diego to Chicago in September and I was curious about the Roscoe Village neighborhood. Is it gay friendly? Is street parking hard to find...permitted....guaranteed to be broken into? Can I get a nice 2BR in a non-highrise for $1,600? We have been thinking about the eastern end of RV so that it's near the Brown line. How long does it take to get downtown from the Paulina stop?

Are there other areas we should be considering that are safe, gay friendly and close access to the El....besides the obvious Boystown and Lakeview?

One more thing. I've been trying to find an apartment finding service to help us out. We plan on flying into Chicago for three days mid July to find a place, so we don't have a lot of time in Chicago to find a place, put in an application and sign the lease. Anyone heard of or used RentHereRealty or can you recommend a company that does a great job helping find places on the North Side?

Sorry for so many questions. Appreciate your help.

Thanks.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by SDtoChicago

My partner and I will be moving from San Diego to Chicago in September and I was curious about the Roscoe Village neighborhood. Is it gay friendly? Is street parking hard to find...permitted....guaranteed to be broken into? Can I get a nice 2BR in a non-highrise for $1,600? We have been thinking about the eastern end of RV so that it's near the Brown line. How long does it take to get downtown from the Paulina stop?

Are there other areas we should be considering that are safe, gay friendly and close access to the El....besides the obvious Boystown and Lakeview?

One more thing. I've been trying to find an apartment finding service to help us out. We plan on flying into Chicago for three days mid July to find a place, so we don't have a lot of time in Chicago to find a place, put in an application and sign the lease. Anyone heard of or used RentHereRealty or can you recommend a company that does a great job helping find places on the North Side?

Sorry for so many questions. Appreciate your help.

Thanks.

Don't worry about so many questions. I think of Roscoe Village as more families nowadays. I'm not sure if there's any gay bars itself in the area, but I would imagine most people living there are open minded and okay with gay people. Remember, Chicago has a huge gay population and there are many living fairly close to Roscoe village in Lakeview and stuff. IMO a lot of the northern neighborhoods (i.e. Lincoln Park, Lakeview area, Ravenswood, Irving Park) and the Western ones like Wicker Park, UK Village, West Loop, University Village, and Logan Square would be pretty gay friendly. Just my opinion on that matter. There are a lot of gay bars in Lakeview though, and a few downtown (in River North). I think there are apartments for what you ask in RV for under the price, and for sure you can find that in Lakeview I think. Street parking in these areas I believe is zone ($25/year max)...parts of Lakeview can be hard to park in (i.e. if it's near a main road like Halsted, Belmont, Clark, Broadway, etc), but other areas aren't terrible.

As far as "downtown," it depends on your definition of downtown. I'm going to assume you mean where restaurants and stuff you'd want to go is, which we'd refer to as River North and Gold Coast. To get to River North and end up more east (Grand & State), it would take you 15 minutes of train riding, but you have to transfer to the Red Line. If you don't want to transfer and ride straight down to a more western area of River North (i.e. Merchandise Mart), it would be around 20 minutes. Gold Coast is a little less, and the Loop (where the Bean, Sears Tower, etc is) would be a little more than what I just mentioned before.

As far as agents, I think a lot of people have had success with either Chicago Apartment Finders or Apartment People..

[jsk1983]

Look at Andersonville. Its a bit more mature version of Boystown. The L doesn't go right through the neighborhood but it can be as little as a five minute walk depending on where you live.

[emathias]

There are very few parts of Chicago that are what you might call "gay-intolerant." The vast majority of the city is, at least, gay-tolerant, by which I mean people won't hassle you or cause you problems and they'll treat you more less like any other neighbor.

Beyond that, every place I can think of that people moving to Chicago generally want to live - gay or straight - is gay-friendly. Pretty much anywhere on the North Side within walking distance of the Brown or Purple or Red or Blue Lines is going to be fine. Even on the South Side, anything north of and including 35th on the Green or Red Lines will be fine. The Orange Line would be fine. The west branch of the Green line is fine east of and including Ashland, and the non-O'Hare branch of the Blue Line is fine east of and including the Western stop. Any downtown area is gay-friendly.

You will see more public displays of affection in Boystown and Andersonville, but you will see obviously gay couples in just about any part of the city that you're likely to consider just based on other factors. That obviously includes an area far bigger than the areas you're seriously considering already.

Basically, I'm telling you not to worry about it. You'll be fine anywhere in Chicago that interests you.

(I'm a gay man who has lived all over the North Side and in the West Loop and who has spent a fair amount of time in many other parts of the city as part of a couple)

[ToriaT]

I think what the prior posters are saying is true. I do not think of Roscoe Village being gay oriented but would describe it as gay tolerant as generally the north side is. If you want to live in an area that is more gay oriented Andersonville would be a better choice. I do think RV is nice though.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by jsk1983

Look at Andersonville. Its a bit more mature version of Boystown. The L doesn't go right through the neighborhood but it can be as little as a five minute walk depending on where you live.

Somehow I missed Andersonville, but yeah...definitely agree with this. The L (Red Line in this case) doesn't go right through it, *but* it goes right on the edge and isn't that bad of a walk (10 minutes walk to Clark for example). I would say this and Lakeview are the two largest gay communities in Chicago. Andersonville is a nice area, and if you want more gay neighbors, not in Lakeview, I'd look at Andersonville. I"m actually a fan of that neighborhood. It's quiet but at the same time there's an ample amount of restaurants and shops especially on Broadway and Clark. Argyle is right south of there too which has some great Vietnamese and a great dim sum place (and a good sized asian grocery store). A little south of that on the El at Lawrence are a few music venues (Aragon and Riviera) and the Green Mill is near there too for jazz. etc etc..

[Chicago60614]

As a gay guy with lots of friends in Roscoe Village, it's certainly not a hotbed of gay nightlife or anything, but it's certainly tolerant. No one would care in the slightest. Honestly you'd have to get out into the west or south side before you really start to see hostility on any level.

[SDtoChicago]

Thanks for all the responses. I had really not heard anything on Andersonville. So it's in between Uptown and Rogers Park? But it's safer than both of those neighborhoods?

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by SDtoChicago

Thanks for all the responses. I had really not heard anything on Andersonville. So it's in between Uptown and Rogers Park? But it's safer than both of those neighborhoods?

Yep, it's between Uptown and Rogers Park. Technically, Andersonville is part of Edgewater, but I think a lot of people think of it now as its own neighborhood separate from Edgewater.

It is safer than both those areas, although I would say that both Uptown and Rogers Park depends on where you are. There are areas in both Uptown and Rogers Park that can be shady, but I don't think they are near Andersonville.

I used to go up to A'ville a decent amount and the last thing on my mind was being unsafe. It's very safe in my opinion, and I think a lot of people on here will agree with you on that. I have a few friends who live up there too who definitely wouldn't live there if it wasn't safe knowing them..

Andersonville is the "Swedish" part of town too i.e. there's more Swedish restaurants there than anywhere else in the city. Every summer they have Midsommerfest too, which attracts 50,000 people. A lot of gay people attend this festival actually. It happened just this last weekend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgewat...#Andersonville
Midsommarfest - 47th Annual Midsommarfest


I will say, that it DOES seem like a small-ish town inside of a big one, but with all the diversity.

[Chicagoist123]

Yeah I think Andersonville is your best bet. Roscoe Village is very very nice, but it is very very family oriented. Overwhelming so. They will certainly tolerate you, but the question is can you tolerate all thos strollers?

I think Andersonville, Ravenswood and even the western portion of Lakeview are all good places for you.