Recent thoughts on Chicago burbs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look at La grange.

If OP didn't think Oak Park was progressive enough, LaGrange is never going to make the cut.

I live in Oak Park. It's very, very progressive. People just aren't as into signs on their houses, as they were where we used to live in Capitol Hill.

Yeah, Oak Park is pretty liberal. They are now talking about a ban on honors classes at the high school because they are racist.

[Anonymous]

I would look in the Oak Brook/Hinsdale/Clarendon Hills area

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would look in the Oak Brook/Hinsdale/Clarendon Hills area

Raised in Deerfield. Certainly farther away from the City but the schools are excellent - really among the top in the state. Not diverse at all. But Chicago typically is segregated. Lake County has even higher taxes than Cook County, but services are better. I was the rare poor person in the town. The schools met a key metric very few schools accomplish, that is, can a school serve a poor but ambitious student well? Deerfield did just that - went to among the best colleges in the nation and was very well prepared. Socio-economically at these schools, I was an outcast but within the four corners of the classroom was consistently surprised at how well Deerfield prepared me. Two classmates from high school went to my top rated school and they found university studies very manageable as well. Class back then of 740 and only went person I know didn't go to college - he went into the military and eventually earned his degree. Again, Deerfield is not diverse and a little thin on restaurants and culture but a low crime high education suburb.

I was a national champion track runner and so long as you traveled north and east when running (into Lake Forest or towards the lake in Highland Park) it was a great place to run. South into Cook County not so much as it was busier and involved crossing tollways or expressways. Illinois is flat so if you want hills go to the ravines on the lake or up to the northern parts of Lake County where the glaciation ended. The forest preserves in Lake County are excellent and so long as one stayed away from the Des Plaines River flood prone areas were a joy to both run in and to walk a dog. My cocker spaniel would sleep for an entire day after an outing in Daniel Wright forest preserve, just down the road from Adlai Stevenson's estate. Deerfield was not a great place for a sport like track - to get sprint exposure I trained often in Waukegan, a tough town with yet a significant number of good hard working people. Another plus for me, and have lifelong friends from that experience. But for Illinois's looming huge financial disaster and its corruption, the area is still a great place to live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I recommend the western suburbs. Hinsdale, Naperville, Downers Grove, Clarendon Hills.

Aren't these areas all an hour or more away from downtown Chicago? That would not be doable to me.

Express train from Hinsdale is like 20 minutes.