Post-doc at Northwestern and look for apartment rental recommendations (Chicago: best neighborhood, brokers)

[reincarnate]

I am a doctoral student in Indiana and will start a post-doc at Northwestern University at the end of August. I will work on Evanston campus four days a week and Chicago campus one day a week. I have been looking at craigslist and haven't found it helpful. Several things that are important for me:

1) safe neighborhoods. As a foreigner, I hope to see some diversity in the neighborhood. I don't usually go to bars etc.
2) convenient commute via public transportation to both campuses
3) price. I do have limited budget (<$800).

I am thinking about getting a studio or sharing with someone in a 2bedroom 2bathroom apartment (though it is a headache to look for roommate and I wonder how people usually do this in Chicago if I go this route).

Any recommendation regarding 1) possible safe neighborhoods; 2) where to look for rental information; 3) how to find a roommate will be very very appreciated!

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by reincarnate

I am a doctoral student in Indiana and will start a post-doc at Northwestern University at the end of August. I will work on Evanston campus four days a week and Chicago campus one day a week. I have been looking at craigslist and haven't found it helpful. Several things that are important for me:

1) safe neighborhoods. As a foreigner, I hope to see some diversity in the neighborhood. I don't usually go to bars etc.
2) convenient commute via public transportation to both campuses
3) price. I do have limited budget (<$800).

I am thinking about getting a studio or sharing with someone in a 2bedroom 2bathroom apartment (though it is a headache to look for roommate and I wonder how people usually do this in Chicago if I go this route).

Any recommendation regarding 1) possible safe neighborhoods; 2) where to look for rental information; 3) how to find a roommate will be very very appreciated!

First of all, congratulations. Now for the fun part.


Since you mentioned public transit to both campuses, you would probably either want to live on the Purple Line starting around the Howard stop or on the Red Line south of that. Purple and Red run the same track for a long time, but Purple does not have any stops between Belmont and Howard, for which Red has many stops between there.

Northwestern in Evanston is on the Purple Line, while Northwestern downtown is near the Red Line. Luckily there's transfer points no matter which you live on. For example, if you were to live in say Rogers Park and are going to Evanston, you could transfer to Purple at Howard. If you live on the Purple Line and are going south you could transfer at Belmont to Red. These transfers mentioned are free.

For neighborhoods, maybe Rogers Park near the Red Line (Loyola, Morse, Howard, Jarvis stops) and the lake. Edgewater which is south of Rogers Park..Both are fairly diverse and much more diverse than areas of town like Lakeview, Lincoln Park, etc. You should have no problem finding a place for that amount of money IMO. If you're looking for a legitimate apartment, no roommates, never start with Craigslist. It's a bunch of brokers. I would suggest starting with rent.com and searching only particular neighborhoods within your price range. If you want to do the roommate thing, then you can use craigslist for that. Honestly though, start with Rent.com... In those neighborhoods, you could easily get a 1 bedroom for under or around $800/month. I did a search just now in Rogers Park and Edgewater, and found numerous results matching what you'd want. Studios would be even cheaper in the areas if you want to save even more money.

For commute times, if you lived near the Jarvis red line for example, you'd take the train one stop to Howard and transfer to the Red (that's easy). Total train ride is around 10 minutes, and there might be some waiting for the Red Line train going there (depends on how you time it)..then some walking to campus, etc. If you wanted to go to the downtown campus, it's a 30 minute train ride straight down, then you factor in a few blocks of walking.

If you want to live in Evanston too, I think your budget would cut it too closer to campus of course. Same kind of thing with the trains too, and maybe you don't even have to ride the train to the Evanston campus, you could just walk.


Also, you mentioned you don't go to bars much, but do you go out to eat ever? Do you *always* cook for yourself?

[kafka_on_the_shore]

What post-doc program are you enrolled in? If you choose to live somewhere near the Chicago campus (Streeterville) you'll have immediate access to the shuttle services that run between its Chicago campus downtown to Evanston campus, it even makes frequent stops in Rogers Park in front of Loyola University if you choose to reside within Rogers Park or Edgewater. Here's a linkto the shuttle services provided by Northwestern.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by kafka_on_the_shore

What post-doc program are you enrolled in? If you choose to live somewhere near the Chicago campus (Streeterville) you'll have immediate access to the shuttle services that run between its Chicago campus downtown to Evanston campus, it even makes frequent stops in Rogers Park in front of Loyola University if you choose to reside within Rogers Park or Edgewater. Here's a linkto the shuttle services provided by Northwestern.

I don't think < $800/month near the downtown campus is going to cut it anywhere near there...you could probably find some studios in Lincoln Park, but that's not too diverse If they are going to be in Evanston 4 days/week, it probably makes more sense for them to live closer up there.

[kafka_on_the_shore]

Originally Posted by marothisu

I don't think < $800/month near the downtown campus is going to cut it anywhere near there...you could probably find some studios in Lincoln Park, but that's not too diverse If they are going to be in Evanston 4 days/week, it probably makes more sense for them to live closer up there.

My mistake, I somehow must've skipped over the part about his budget limit.

[emathias]

If I were you, I'd probably just live in Evanston if you can find a place near campus that's affordable, despite the lack of diversity (there will be some diversity, though). That gets you easy commute 4 days a week, and access to either the Purple Line or Northwestern's own inter-campus shuttles for your downtown days.

Otherwise, I'd probably try to live in Rogers Park near the Howard stop. It's not the best neighborhood, but it's far from the worst. It's one of Chicago's most diverse neighborhoods with everyone from average white folk to Latino families, Russians, Caribbean people, Indians, African Americans, gay couples of various ethnic backgrounds, and even a few East Asians.

Keeping it walking distance to Howard reduces the transfers you'll have to make. Howard has the Purple Line to Evanston, and if you go downtown during weekday rush hours, the Purple Express to downtown, or the Red Line downtown or the rest of the north lakefront 24 hours a day. You also have the Yellow Line to Skokie, although I don't see that being a big part of your travel plans. You would also be near the 147 bus, which gives you the most direct option to North Michigan Avenue.