Chicago neighborhood or suburb like Brooklyn? (Arlington Heights, Oak Park: cliquey, schools, live)

[melissagrayce]

Originally Posted by Larry Siegel

The similarity is not that close but I don't think the OP was expecting a miracle.

Correct - thanks everyone. Appreciate the feedback. Sounds like we need a walkable suburb close to Itasca. So far I've read recommendations for Glenn Ellyn, Oak Park and Forest Park. Are there others we should consider? Schools will eventually be important.

[chet everett]

If schools are important scratch Forest Park off the list.

To the list of towns with good schools I would add Wheaton, Elmhurst, LaGrange, Hinsdale/Clarendon Hills and Western Springs. All have charming older homes, a walkable core, very family oriented lifestyle (as opposed to nightlife oreintation) with affluent residents that care about things like well thought of resturants, Farmer's Markets / organic produce... If that is really the extent of the what is really important then the Brooklyn angle is not really relavent.

Given the desire to keep open the option for rail commute to Loop and still have tolerable commute to Itasca via personal vehicle you will want something close to the UP-W line or the even faster BNSF as well as having good access to 355 /Rt53 and/or Rt 83& 290...

[treemoni]

Coming from London and wanting to live in a place similar to Brooklyn...I don't think you'll enjoy Glen Ellyn.

[sfcambridge]

Originally Posted by treemoni

Coming from London and wanting to live in a place similar to Brooklyn...I don't think you'll enjoy Glen Ellyn.

I agree... I have a feeling outer Suburban Chicago will be a bit of a shock.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by treemoni

Coming from London and wanting to live in a place similar to Brooklyn...I don't think you'll enjoy Glen Ellyn.

Agreed. Really none of the suburbs for that matter, but areas within Oak Park, Forest Park, or Berwyn might be the closest you're going to get suburbs wise that fits in with the commute deal, if you had to pick some suburbs over parts of the city.

While a place like Glen Ellyn or Geneva may have a "cute" little walkable area, the rest of the towns are really not going to be what they want. They're coming from living RIGHT in an urban setting, not 2 miles away from one that they can stroll around for an hour every sunday.

[chet everett]

First off the OP almost certainly used "London" in the metropolitian sense. Even if they do live in one the 12 "inner boroughs" where desnity AND cost is highest the OP did not express any particular desire for something that exactly duplicates "home". If one has been "off the tourist paths" while in "London" the various subboroughs like Addington or Selhurst look a lot more like "Rosemont" or Glen Ellyn than they do like any hipster neighborhood inside the governmental limits of Chicago...

The OP will need to decide what compromises they want to make and the for their family with one partner working in suburban Itasca while the other tries to find professional employment AND childcare / schools they wouild be foolish to rule out anything that may be suitable...

[marothisu]

^ Even if they are, it doesn't matter. The title of the thread is asking about a part of the city or suburb that is like Brooklyn. Brooklyn is a very dense area of NYC, and not many census tracts in Chicago come near the density that you will see in much of Brooklyn. I'd bet money they are looking for an area that is semi dense with mixed use stuff around them and not a suburb where there's a cute little 8 square block walkable downtown with the rest of the town not being necessarily mixed use, not terribly dense, or walkable.

They will most definitely need to make a compromise in this, but at least there are some options where a few suburbs are not 100% sparse by normal American standards and you can live near some mixed use things in those suburbs. Other suburbs may have walkable areas here and there, but it's nothing compared to most of Brooklyn.

[chet everett]

I think the OP has clarified that they citied Brooklyn mostly because it was their stateside frame of refernce...

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by chet everett

I think the OP has clarified that they citied Brooklyn mostly because it was there only frame of refernce...

What's your point? Yes, it's a frame of reference because it's something for what they want. The title of the thread is "Chicago neighborhood or suburb like Brooklyn?" One of the first things they say is:

We currently live in London but previously lived in Brooklyn and would like to find something similar in Chicago or Chicagoland

Then

We also like walking to local shops and restaurants, like older homes, and enjoy a good farmers market.

They never said anything about just stating where they lived to state it. She specifically mentioned it as "hey we want to live in an area like you'd find in Brooklyn."


While there are walkable areas of various suburbs around the area, it's misleading to make them believe that they can live anywhere in these suburbs and have stores at the end of their block or be within a 5 minute walk of stores no matter where they live in that suburb. Some are better than others about it, but there are many that do not offer that and only offer some small walkable downtown that is away from the average number of homes in said suburb. They should be aware that if they pick the suburbs, that they should do their research for what the specific area is like around the homes/buildings they're looking at.

When people say "we like walking to shops, restaurants, etc", many times they mean they want to walk there from their homes, not necessarily drive 2 miles to an area and THEN stroll around. That doesn't mean that most of the city/town is walkable. It means that part of it is, but not everywhere (or in many cases, not most of the location).

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by melissagrayce

Correct - thanks everyone. Appreciate the feedback. Sounds like we need a walkable suburb close to Itasca. So far I've read recommendations for Glenn Ellyn, Oak Park and Forest Park. Are there others we should consider? Schools will eventually be important.

I am going off what the OP has added to the thread.

You make it sound like Darth is using the dark force to choke young Luke here or something...

If they want to be walkably close to Farmers Market in Glen Ellyn, Western Springs, Hinsdale or Elmhurst that can be achieved. And they will have excellent Metra service to potential job in Loop and easy drive for partner to Itasca.

If they want to be walkably close to Wicker Park / Bucktown farmers market the most obvious trade off will be considerably longer drive to , and especially from Itasca.

Clear?