"DCUM" like group in Chicago?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from Chicago. What area is she moving to?

Not sure if they know yet. Maybe around Oak Park. Any thoughts about neighborhoods?

PP here. Original Chicago poster. Oak Park is nice. There is a nice and not so nice area. It’s a little secluded from the city though. I would say if she wants a safe neighborhood but still in the city, I would check out Jefferson Park, Portage Park, Edison Park, Belmont/Cragin area, and Old Irving Park. If she wants to be more in the city, I say check Irving Park, North Center, Lincoln Square, Logan Square, and Avondale. These are very nice areas but more afford than downtown or Lincoln Park and Lakeview. It all depends if she wants the city life or feeling like she is living in a suburb.

I don’t really know if any online forums, but going to baby classes like Old Town Music, Bubbles Academy, feee library classes, etc., will help her meet other moms with kids her child’s age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NPN is similar, there's an annual fee but I think it's worth it, at least for the first year -- https://www.npnparents.org/

NPN is okay. You can find sitters on there.

[Anonymous]

PP here again. If she can afford it and wants to be in a suburb, I would look into Park Ridge. Very nice suburb of Chicago.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone explain how the school system works in Chicago? Is it partially geography based?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone explain how the school system works in Chicago? Is it partially geography based?

CPS sucks. Some of the worst schools. You’re better off home schooling or moving for the suburbs.

[Anonymous]

We left for the suburbs for schools. There are some good public elementary schools and a handful of good public high schools. But I understand it's incredibly challenging to get into the best schools if they aren't your neighborhood school (high property costs) or your test scores aren't high enough. Plus, you may get your kid into a school ten miles away and then it's up to you to get your kid there and back. No thanks.

There are good privates in the city, but other than parochial schools, they're often pretty exclusive and costly.

There are tons of Chicago suburbs with good schools.

And property costs are much less than in D.C.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We left for the suburbs for schools. There are some good public elementary schools and a handful of good public high schools. But I understand it's incredibly challenging to get into the best schools if they aren't your neighborhood school (high property costs) or your test scores aren't high enough. Plus, you may get your kid into a school ten miles away and then it's up to you to get your kid there and back. No thanks.

There are good privates in the city, but other than parochial schools, they're often pretty exclusive and costly.

There are tons of Chicago suburbs with good schools.

And property costs are much less than in D.C.

Typically, I disagree with most assessments of Chicago from people who moved to the suburbs but I pretty much agree with this. There are definitely *some* good schools, and some ok schools. Most people I know who went with CPS in my neighborhood are happy (none go to the neighborhood school but OOF the commutes can be a real crapshoot. Imagine needing to commute across town in terrible traffic to drop your kid off, and then back into downtown for work. No thank you.

I only have an elementary aged kid and a preschooler and I loathe "the suburban solution" in principal but I'm not sure what our plan is once we hit middle and high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We left for the suburbs for schools. There are some good public elementary schools and a handful of good public high schools. But I understand it's incredibly challenging to get into the best schools if they aren't your neighborhood school (high property costs) or your test scores aren't high enough. Plus, you may get your kid into a school ten miles away and then it's up to you to get your kid there and back. No thanks.

There are good privates in the city, but other than parochial schools, they're often pretty exclusive and costly.

There are tons of Chicago suburbs with good schools.

And property costs are much less than in D.C.

Typically, I disagree with most assessments of Chicago from people who moved to the suburbs but I pretty much agree with this. There are definitely *some* good schools, and some ok schools. Most people I know who went with CPS in my neighborhood are happy (none go to the neighborhood school but OOF the commutes can be a real crapshoot. Imagine needing to commute across town in terrible traffic to drop your kid off, and then back into downtown for work. No thank you.

I only have an elementary aged kid and a preschooler and I loathe "the suburban solution" in principal but I'm not sure what our plan is once we hit middle and high school.

If you did look into suburbs, which would you considering and why? I’m looking and am a little surprised at how far away the closest suburbs are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We left for the suburbs for schools. There are some good public elementary schools and a handful of good public high schools. But I understand it's incredibly challenging to get into the best schools if they aren't your neighborhood school (high property costs) or your test scores aren't high enough. Plus, you may get your kid into a school ten miles away and then it's up to you to get your kid there and back. No thanks.

There are good privates in the city, but other than parochial schools, they're often pretty exclusive and costly.

There are tons of Chicago suburbs with good schools.

And property costs are much less than in D.C.

Typically, I disagree with most assessments of Chicago from people who moved to the suburbs but I pretty much agree with this. There are definitely *some* good schools, and some ok schools. Most people I know who went with CPS in my neighborhood are happy (none go to the neighborhood school but OOF the commutes can be a real crapshoot. Imagine needing to commute across town in terrible traffic to drop your kid off, and then back into downtown for work. No thank you.

I only have an elementary aged kid and a preschooler and I loathe "the suburban solution" in principal but I'm not sure what our plan is once we hit middle and high school.

If you did look into suburbs, which would you considering and why? I’m looking and am a little surprised at how far away the closest suburbs are.

I'm the "left the suburbs for schools" PP.

I'm mostly familiar with the suburbs north of the city. Following the Lake north of the city: Evanston is quite diverse, beautiful housing stock, liberal, and some very good schools. It has some of the positives and negatives of a city, but you know what schools you're getting. Amazing farmer's market, and Northwestern is right there. Going north, next you're in Wilmette, which is far less diverse than Evanston and is in the New Trier school district. It's a well-regarded district, loads of history, and housing gets less costly the further you get away from the lake. Wilmette is the most diverse, and least expensive New Trier feeder suburb. The next three New Trier suburbs are Kenilworth, Winnetka, and Glencoe. The first two are quite expensive. Any further north and you're a good distance from the city.

I currently live in Glenview, which is west of Wilmette. Because it's not on the lake, it's far less costly. But I can be at Lake Michigan in 12 minutes. And I'm five minutes from the highway downtown, which means I'm all the way downtown in 25 minutes if there's no traffic. I work in the Loop and it's an hour door-to-door on the Metra commuter rail. We picked Glenview because of the good schools, proximity to the city, relative diversity, and cost of housing. I have half an acre in a lovely established neighborhood with huge oak trees and probably paid $200k less than if I were a mile closer to the lake (oh, and the lot would be half the size). I have a Whole Foods five minutes away and Costco is under ten. Our library, community center, and village services are wonderful. Village employees generally really seem to like their jobs. Things are set up for families and that makes life less stressful.

There are loads of other suburbs with good schools north and northwest (Northbrook, Highland Park, Vernon Hills, Buffalo Grove), but you can quickly get really far out. A PP mentioned Park Ridge, which is a great suburb and relatively easy for commuting to the city. We excluded it because the highway it's on (the Kennedy) is terribly congested and we didn't want to put up barriers to getting downtown. But it has good schools and housing. And there are great suburbs with great schools in other areas, but I'm not familiar (people like Hinsdale, Western Springs, LaGrange and others).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have a FTM friend moving there, and would love to link her up with an online/neighborhood group. Anyone know of one?

I doubt it. Internet cannot handle another Jeff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m from Chicago. What area is she moving to?

Not sure if they know yet. Maybe around Oak Park. Any thoughts about neighborhoods?

My daughter lives in Lincoln Square which is in the northern part of the city and she loves it. Safe, very diverse, many young families.

My sister lives in Lincoln Sqaure and she loves it too. She has a 6 year old and it's such a great place to be raising a kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We left for the suburbs for schools. There are some good public elementary schools and a handful of good public high schools. But I understand it's incredibly challenging to get into the best schools if they aren't your neighborhood school (high property costs) or your test scores aren't high enough. Plus, you may get your kid into a school ten miles away and then it's up to you to get your kid there and back. No thanks.

There are good privates in the city, but other than parochial schools, they're often pretty exclusive and costly.

There are tons of Chicago suburbs with good schools.

And property costs are much less than in D.C.

Typically, I disagree with most assessments of Chicago from people who moved to the suburbs but I pretty much agree with this. There are definitely *some* good schools, and some ok schools. Most people I know who went with CPS in my neighborhood are happy (none go to the neighborhood school but OOF the commutes can be a real crapshoot. Imagine needing to commute across town in terrible traffic to drop your kid off, and then back into downtown for work. No thank you.

I only have an elementary aged kid and a preschooler and I loathe "the suburban solution" in principal but I'm not sure what our plan is once we hit middle and high school.

If you did look into suburbs, which would you considering and why? I’m looking and am a little surprised at how far away the closest suburbs are.

I'm the "left the suburbs for schools" PP.

I'm mostly familiar with the suburbs north of the city. Following the Lake north of the city: Evanston is quite diverse, beautiful housing stock, liberal, and some very good schools. It has some of the positives and negatives of a city, but you know what schools you're getting. Amazing farmer's market, and Northwestern is right there. Going north, next you're in Wilmette, which is far less diverse than Evanston and is in the New Trier school district. It's a well-regarded district, loads of history, and housing gets less costly the further you get away from the lake. Wilmette is the most diverse, and least expensive New Trier feeder suburb. The next three New Trier suburbs are Kenilworth, Winnetka, and Glencoe. The first two are quite expensive. Any further north and you're a good distance from the city.

I currently live in Glenview, which is west of Wilmette. Because it's not on the lake, it's far less costly. But I can be at Lake Michigan in 12 minutes. And I'm five minutes from the highway downtown, which means I'm all the way downtown in 25 minutes if there's no traffic. I work in the Loop and it's an hour door-to-door on the Metra commuter rail. We picked Glenview because of the good schools, proximity to the city, relative diversity, and cost of housing. I have half an acre in a lovely established neighborhood with huge oak trees and probably paid $200k less than if I were a mile closer to the lake (oh, and the lot would be half the size). I have a Whole Foods five minutes away and Costco is under ten. Our library, community center, and village services are wonderful. Village employees generally really seem to like their jobs. Things are set up for families and that makes life less stressful.

There are loads of other suburbs with good schools north and northwest (Northbrook, Highland Park, Vernon Hills, Buffalo Grove), but you can quickly get really far out. A PP mentioned Park Ridge, which is a great suburb and relatively easy for commuting to the city. We excluded it because the highway it's on (the Kennedy) is terribly congested and we didn't want to put up barriers to getting downtown. But it has good schools and housing. And there are great suburbs with great schools in other areas, but I'm not familiar (people like Hinsdale, Western Springs, LaGrange and others).

Thank you for all this info! We are considering moving to the Chicago area and had really only been looking at Evanston, but there isn’t a lot of real estate there. I’m also interested in Wilmette and Glenview. Half the family is East Asian, so I’ve been looking at demographics and decided we couldn’t be in any of the western closer suburbs because the Asian population is like 1-2%! Seems like the north suburbs I’m looking at would be good because there seems to be a decent Asian population and Asian markets between there and Chicago itself (markets and big swathes of pop in Niles, Albany Park, for example).

Oak Park seems lovely but I’m not sure I could deal with the uncertainly of CPS. And there’s no Asian markets!

[Anonymous]

^Forgot to mention that Wilmette looks lovely but I’ve heard mixed things about New Trier and wonder if it would be alienating as a minority student. And whether it’s too pressure cooker an environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We left for the suburbs for schools. There are some good public elementary schools and a handful of good public high schools. But I understand it's incredibly challenging to get into the best schools if they aren't your neighborhood school (high property costs) or your test scores aren't high enough. Plus, you may get your kid into a school ten miles away and then it's up to you to get your kid there and back. No thanks.

There are good privates in the city, but other than parochial schools, they're often pretty exclusive and costly.

There are tons of Chicago suburbs with good schools.

And property costs are much less than in D.C.

Typically, I disagree with most assessments of Chicago from people who moved to the suburbs but I pretty much agree with this. There are definitely *some* good schools, and some ok schools. Most people I know who went with CPS in my neighborhood are happy (none go to the neighborhood school but OOF the commutes can be a real crapshoot. Imagine needing to commute across town in terrible traffic to drop your kid off, and then back into downtown for work. No thank you.

I only have an elementary aged kid and a preschooler and I loathe "the suburban solution" in principal but I'm not sure what our plan is once we hit middle and high school.

If you did look into suburbs, which would you considering and why? I’m looking and am a little surprised at how far away the closest suburbs are.

I live in River Forest which is the second suburb west of the city -- directly west of Oak Park (they share a high school). My daily commute to the Loop via Metra is actually 15-20 minutes quicker than if I lived in say, Lakeview and went downtown on the El. Miles away doesn't tell you the whole story.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone tell me why so many houses in the Chicago area seem to have baseboard heating? Isn’t that an expensive way to heat?
I’d love radiator (hot water) heating. Is it easy to buy a house that has baseboard or forced air and put in radiators?

How is traffic?