Moving to Chicago - Commute times to suburbs (Berwyn, Oak Park: best neighborhood, apartments)

[IamDebMorgan]

Hi Everyone,

We will be moving to Chicago next month. One of us will be working in Oak Brook and I'm still looking for a job. We are both professionals in our thirties and would like to be downtown. I've been reading posts about traffic and keep checking google maps traffic, its clear to see traffic is bad. We are looking for city life, the suburbs are not our style. We don't have kids and we will have one car between us. We go out fairly often, as we like trying new restaurants.

So my questions is, what is the best neighborhood that would help keep commute times reasonable 25-30 minutes (45 with traffic) and still offer the amenities of living in the city.

Our budget is $1500-$2000

Thanks! Looking forward to the move.

DM

[chet everett]

If you must drive to an office in Oak Brook and want to keep commute times at 25-30 minutes while still having access to CTA so the other half of the couple can get by w/o a car I honestly doubt that there is anything inside Chicago that would meet you requirements, even absolute best case to residential areas near United Center or Med Center are likely longer than 45 minutes in evening rush hour...

Consider Oak Park / Berwyn /Forest Park all of which gave CTA access.

[marothisu]

I'd normally agree with you on this one Chet, but they specifically said they don't want to be in the burbs. The only problem is that downtown is not within a 25-30 minute range without traffic.

I don't know about the 45 minute thing WITH traffic (though it should be about 30-35 minutes without depending on your speed, maybe less if you like to go fast), but my suggestion is to look at an area like Wicker Park. It's not downtown, but it's close. The area used to be crappy, and then it went hipster, and now it's gentrified/gentrifying. There's a good mix of things there - both nice and divey. There are a number of nice apartments there in your price range if you're talking about 1 bedrooms. It's also on the Blue Line train which runs 24/7 and into the Loop (central business district) in about 10 minutes, and it also runs to O'Hare airport. South of that is Ukrainian Village which is in the process of gentrification. It will get you a few minutes closer to work, but not drastic. You could get a 2 bedroom in that area for the price. There isn't a lot of nightlife in the Loop by the way. Most of it is north in areas like River North and Gold Coast, and some south and west in West Loop and South Loop. You can get to it via the train, or bus+train, or it's usually just a fairly short cab ride away.

If that doesn't work for you, then I'd listen to Chet's advice, because there's not really any place closer for the sake of your commute that is going to work well based on what you want. Oak Park and Forest Park may be in the burbs, but they do have bars, restaurants, etc and they are on the Blue Line which runs 24/7 and into downtown as well (also on the Green Line but that's not 24/7).

[chet everett]

No way to get from Wicker Park to Oak Brook in AM rush in anything even close to 30 minutes and the only way to get back home in 45 in the PM rush is with a helicopter....

The layout of the Ike might give the OP a shot at making it from Med Center / United Center if conditions are perfect in AM in under 30 but forget the ride back in....

[chirack]

No city neighborhood fits that bill in terms of travel time but Oak Park, Forest Park and Berwyn are pretty dense urban burbs that have good access to the city for going out and so forth and from those burbs you can get to Oak Brook within a reasonable amount of time.

[treemoni]

Originally Posted by chirack

No city neighborhood fits that bill in terms of travel time but Oak Park, Forest Park and Berwyn are pretty dense urban burbs that have good access to the city for going out and so forth and from those burbs you can get to Oak Brook within a reasonable amount of time.

Yep. You'll have to choose one of these 'burbs, Austin, or accept a longer commute.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by chet everett

No way to get from Wicker Park to Oak Brook in AM rush in anything even close to 30 minutes and the only way to get back home in 45 in the PM rush is with a helicopter....

The layout of the Ike might give the OP a shot at making it from Med Center / United Center if conditions are perfect in AM in under 30 but forget the ride back in....

I said with no traffic, Chet. In no traffic, you can get there in 30-35 minutes easily. With traffic? Obviously not and it will be longer than 45 minutes. It depends on what time they leave in the morning and it is possible if you do leave early enough unless they're very slow drivers.

[treemoni]

"No traffic" is unrealistic. Take it from someone who is very familiar with this route.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by treemoni

"No traffic" is unrealistic. Take it from someone who is very familiar with this route.

I know, though if you were on 290 at 6am you'd be OK, but by 6:30 it would not be OK. I guess maybe you could look along I-55, which fills up a tiny bit (not much) later than 290. At least they could get their "downtown" wish, but there's still traffic here and 45 minutes in traffic is not realistic.

The OP will either have to up their allowed commute time during traffic, leave at like 6am (or maybe 6:30am depending on 290 vs 55), or live in a suburb like Oak Park or Forest Park which has city train access and is closer to work.

[chet everett]

Wicker Park is very poorly situated with respect to the Ike. Honestly even at like 4AM there one would have to drive signficantly faster than posted limits to get out to Oak Brook is the specified time.

Folks that do not drive on a routine basis might not be the best source of infomation about getting to / from Oak Brook -- there is no convenient, reliable way to drive to Oak Brook from to any of the hipper neighborhoods that are on other than the Forest Park branch of the Blue line...