I’ll be moving to Chicago shortly, and subletting a friend’s apt until spring. At which time I’m planning to buy somewhere in the city.
I already know about Wicker Park, Logan Square, and Lakeview/Wrigleyville.
What I’m looking for is your opinions about other neighborhoods:
Uptown…Rogers Park…Buena Park…the Loop…
Where should I look, and why; where should I avoid, and why.
Thanks,
Happy
Well, for starters, what kind of a place are you hoping to buy? Condo? Single-family home? New construction? Rehab? Fixer-upper? Price range? A good friend and her husband have a real estate brokership, and I’d be happy to pass along their info if you’re interested. What are your priorities in a neighborhood? Quiet? Convenience? Hipness? Flowers? Distance from public transportation? Diversity?
I live in Andersonville, and I love it. Andersonville is a neighborhood whose borders are creeping – stuff that is really properly Uptown is called Andersonville South by realtors. I live on a nice, quiet one-way street, but within a few blocks of the El, and half a block from a supermarket and a great produce stand, and within a few blocks of about half a zillion different ethnic grocery stores and restaurants.
Uptown and Rogers Park: these both vary a great deal in safety, sometimes within a few blocks. Be careful, and visit any place you are considering after dark to see who is hanging out there (although I guess that goes for any neighborhood). Also keep in mind that there is a big difference sometimes between West Rogers Park and East Rogers Park.
Lincoln Square: you might want to check this out. It’s gentrifying like crazy, close to public transportation, and you get the bonus of the Old Town School of Folk Music.
Give us some more detailed criteria, and we’ll give you lots of opinions. Because believe me, there is no shortage of opinions among the ChiDopers.
Good point…
I’m looking at condos, $185,000 or less (one br or studios, obviously). Proximity to an el and/or things to do. Quietness isn’t really important, so I guess hipness and convenience are the things I’m looking for. And relative safety.
Uptown’s not really safe? I had a friend who lived on Magnolia off Lawrence and, aside from that one homeless guy who pissed in her alley quite regularly, it seemed okay.
Rogers Park: East bad, west good?
I haven’t really looked into Lincoln Square much.
I like access to ethnic things. My work put me up in a apartment near O’Hare for the past year, and, well, I’m looking for a complete 180 of that area. (Although I was walking distance to the Blue Line, which was nice)
I agree with Eve about Lincoln Square, but your price range may be an issue there. A few blocks west, though, might do for you. There’s a lot of condo conversions on Montrose and Lawrence just west of the river.
Edgewater has little Saigon (vietnamese/chinese restaurants/shops) and a bunch of ethnic hole-in-the-wall restaurants (mexican, ethiopian, croatian). It’s east of Andersonville, and you can walk down there to go to the bars/restaurants as well. (Don’t miss Hopleaf in Andersonville for Belgian beer and frites with aioli). There are three large supermarkets, several video stores, coffeeshops, the usual. It’s next to the lake, so there’s beaches and the park and a bike trail. There is the red line and the 147/146/151 bus to go downtown. Cops regularly patrol the park (full of families having bbqs, playing soccer, walking, biking until quite late) and hang around outside the el stops.
185k will get you a very nice 1br or an OK 2br.
That would put you in Albany Park, which is a extremely interesting neighborhood. Lots of Mexican/Latin American and Korean establishments next to each other.
I live in Ravenswood, which is the neighborhood next to Andersonville (where Eva Luna lives). I really like it. It’s gentrifying, big time, but there’s still a lot of interesting stuff. I’m only three blocks from Lincoln Square in one direction and six blocks from Uptown in the other. When my former roommate and I went our separate ways and each got new places, we both stayed in the the neighborhood.
I’d stay out of Uptown, unless you’re a single guy with no desire to date or have children ever. My husband lived there when we met, and I was terrified to leave his apartment after dark. I made him walk me to my car, even when I found a space right out front. I was constantly hassled there.
(And I worked in East Rogers Park for years and loved it there, so I’m no ninny!)
West Rogers Park might be a great place to look. It’s from Ridge to Kedzie and Devon to Howard. There are some dicey spots, but it’s a really nice ethnic, family friendly area overall. There’s a huge Indian and Pakistani community (no, I’m not confusing the two, they really do both live and work in the same area) on Devon with incredible restaurants, Sari shops, local grocers and “stuff stores.” There’s a Hassidic Jewish neighborhood along Touhy (really neat to drive there on a Friday night when it’s DEAD-OLA after dark 'cause everyone’s inside. It’s the only time a drive down Touhy is worth it.) with the attendant bagel shops, kosher chinese take-out and some more great little markets. It’s within an easy walk or bus ride to Thai and Ethiopian areas, as well.
It’s within a stone’s throw of Evanston and Northwestern University, where there are some great student performances, if you’re into plays, music or art. Never know when the next big star is going to show up with Northwestern on their resume! You could have some great “I saw him when he was a nobody!” stories in a few years. There’s also a fantastic shiny new movie complex in Evanston, half of which is mainstream stuff and the other half devoted to artsy and independant films. It’s so lovely to see art films in a theater where you don’t stick to the floor. Shopping in Evanston is sublime, with hundreds of tiny independantly owned stores, as well as the big three: Borders, Starbucks and Barnes and Noble. (Ick. There’s also some great independant booksellers, including this wonderful little old Chinese man who can get you anything under the sun.)
Need to do a little home improvement? No problem, you’re within an easy ride to Home Depot, Lowes, Ace Hardware and countless little mom ‘n’ pops.
And of course, there’s Target. Right at Howard and Kedzie. Aaah. Consumerism.
Like parks? Indian Boundary is a wonderful place with a small walking trail, a tiny zoo and a really cool “jungle gym” designed by an actual kid! It totally rocks, even if you’re a little older than the average “kid.” 
There’s lot of community theater art classes there, for kids and adults. (damn, I can’t get Indian Boundary to hyperlink correctly. You can search for it at the Warren Park listing ->)Warren Park is the one to check out if you’re into walking, jogging, biking or golf. It’s 90 acres of beauty in the middle of the urban bleak. They also have batting cages, professional level skateboarding setup, in-line and ice skating. They even have West African drumming classes!
If you like your culture on a small scale, there are innumerable coffee shops that attract local talent, drum circles, etc. Larger, of course, is a short train ride to all of Chicago’s fantastic theaters, museums, etc.
No matter what your religious or spiritual background, there’s bound to be a place of worship really near by. (Including a pretty thriving neo-pagan community, but you didn’t hear that from me! 
)
I always thought Roscoe Village would be a nice area to live.
I lived in East Rogers Park around 15 years ago… every time I come back to Chicago for a visit I’m always surprised at how much that neighborhood has deteriorated. The area along the lake, east of Sheridan from Loyola north to the border with Evanston is still beautiful. That said, a friend of mine used to live at Sheridan and Howard, which is a nice area, but he’d get hassled almost every time he tried to walk to the Howard El station.
I think Lakeview is the best neighborhood in the city, especially near Wrigley Field. Tons to do, and it’s all walking distance!
I live in that area, right on the lake at the upper edge of the city. It’s still nice in my area, but I don’t care for going over to Howard street.
Like any neighborhood, there are beautiful, nice areas and sad, dangerous patches too. From what I hear Ukranian Village and Pilsen are also pretty nice areas in general. Lakeview is getting quite expensive and I wouldn’t go to Wrigleyville unless I had access to a garage and was at least 4 blocks from the ball park.
The area by the lake is still beautiful. When I was a kid we used to always go to this health food restaurant on Morse (can’t remember what it was called). But there was always that neighborhood north of Howard that the Evanstonians referred to as “The Jungle.” It seems like it’s expanded south a bit.
Or Pratt if you’re afraid of the goons.
Ex Loyola student checking in…
Are you thinking of The Heartland Cafe on Glenwood? Big time hippie vibe with excellent, healthy food. I haven’t been in at least 10 years but IIRC their cornbread kicks ass.
How’s Buena Park?
Mr. Jones might also be thinking of Morseland, an alternative food and music venue. I’m not sure if they even serve food anymore, they used to have some stuff but the place closed for a couple of years.
I would agree with the other posters on neighborhoods, I live in Evanston a couple blocks West of the Main St el stop. I love it, it’s close to the city, quiet, my kids go to great schools, and if for some reason I forget to move my car on street cleaning day, the ticket is only $20 instead of $75 or $100 like in Chicago! Oh yeah my car and homeowners insurance is a lot lower as well.
I lived in Rogers Park on Ridge south of Howard. I would stay away from the central part. If you are right around Sheridan or west of Western you should be fine. If you choose the western part getting to the el is a pain.
I also lived in Uptown on Malden between Lawrence and Wilson. You can find some amazing apartments with great space but the area can be a bit sketchy. Someone tried to mug me once under the Wilson el stop.
Buena Park is a tiny lil enclave right around Montrose and the lake that is nice but pretty darn pricey. You have to go to Uptown (Wilson) to get to the el unless you head up Irving Park to the Sheridan stop which is just a couple blocks north of Wrigley field.
You’re thinking of the Heartland Cafe and Jarvis St., respectively. I still love the Heartland, but wouldn’t want to bike or take the El there at night without some large and imposing-looking company. Although you may recall that even 10 years ago or so, our mutual karate black-belt friend who now lives in San Francisco volunteered as a Guardian Angel there one summer.
lived on Sheridan and Pratt in a grungy studio apartment about 12 years ago, and was burglarized. The cops and building management were less than sympathetic. That’s when I decided to get the hell out of there and moved to Andersonville.
However, I second the recommendations of Ravenswood and West Rogers Park, depending on your commuting issues - Ravenswood is more convenient to downtown if you’ll be taking the El, but West Rogers Park can be a bit complicated (you’d either have to take a bus to Loyola first, or drive/bus to the Brown Line or Metra). But you sure can’t beat the ethnic diversity and cool grocery shopping - I was just there last night for some killer and cheap Afghan food. Once you get here, even if you don’t end up living there, I highly recommend taking a weekend afternoon to stroll down Devon Avenue.
Where’s the Afghan place?
It’s called, creatively enough, Afghan Restaurant. If you go, see if you have any better luck than I did figuring out whether the owners are actually Afghans, or whether they are Iraqi Kurds (as I think the father was trying to tell me, but well, we were having some hardcore language issues). I was trying to find out more specifically the ethnic origin of the food. In any case, though, it’s cheap and yummy.
Metromix review:
http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/search/44509,0,1080975.venue
I grew up in north Evanston, and I want to second all the good things being said about it. Plenty of nice neighborhoods in the south too.
Re: Morseland, it has reopened! The elder brother of a friend of mine is part owner now, actually. I may be biased, but the food is quite good and they have a nice wide selection of beer.
Cheers,
Daphne
I recently moved to Edgewater (a couple blocks from the Bryn Mawr red line stop) and I’ve been pretty happy with it. The rent is pretty low ($1300/m for a 2BR) and our place is enormous. 2 blocks from the lake and 2 blocks from the red line is nice, and there are grocery stores just down Broadway. It’s a really diverse neighborhood also (Eastern European, Asian, Black, a few yuppies) so if that interests you, you might want to check it out.