I’d be Evanston all the way, OP, but I’m biased as a Northwestern grad. It’s a great town, though, with plenty of diversity and an easy commute for both of you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The north suburbs of Chicago are very nice. Also, very white and very rich. Verrrrrrrrrrrrry white. If you like that kind of thing, you'll love it. If you don't, you will not. I would hate living in Winnetka or Wilmette. Evanston would be okay with me. Currently I live in a western burb for my spouse's job and miss living in the city of Chicago terribly.

Aren’t a lot of the north suburbs like 20% Asian though?

-Asian american thinking about moving to a Chicago suburb

It depends on which direction you're headed. Go north along the lake, and it gets whiter and whiter the farther north you go. Wilmette is about 10% Asian, but go north of there and you're looking at <5%. If you look more to the northwest, Skokie, Morton Grove, Niles, Glenview, Northbrook all have a significant Asian population, and I think that remains true even as you go farther west.

How safe is East Oak Park? I’m looking at a few rentals. One is right near Christopher Columbus Park. The other is near Augusta and Austin Blvds.

Anonymous wrote:Where are the less starkly white suburbs with excellent schools and safe neighborhoods? Is Evanston my best bet? How are Albany Park, Skokie, and Oak Park?

Albany Park is not a suburb. It's a very diverse neighborhood on the north side of Chicago.

Anonymous wrote:The north suburbs of Chicago are very nice. Also, very white and very rich. Verrrrrrrrrrrrry white. If you like that kind of thing, you'll love it. If you don't, you will not. I would hate living in Winnetka or Wilmette. Evanston would be okay with me. Currently I live in a western burb for my spouse's job and miss living in the city of Chicago terribly.

Aren’t a lot of the north suburbs like 20% Asian though?

-Asian american thinking about moving to a Chicago suburb

Living in a town with lake access is really lovely!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are wealthy and white go for it. If your non-white and wealthy its a risk. I'm one of them and count on your family being pulled over by police regularly and residents assuming you're the help.

This. It is a beautiful hamlet as others have mentioned. I will never forget, however, taking my son to a swim meet at Lake Forest High School in October 2016. There were Trump yard signs everywhere. Quite the shocker, as I live(d) in progressive Evanston where Bernie, and to a lesser extent, HRC signs were all the rage.

Lake Forest is one of the few reliably red suburbs of Chicago.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are the less starkly white suburbs with excellent schools and safe neighborhoods? Is Evanston my best bet? How are Albany Park, Skokie, and Oak Park?

The closer you are to the city the more diversity you will find. Being near a rail line into the city is also important. COVID and the recent violence in the city are pushing people out and I’m sure some of the corporations that moved into the city over the past ten years are beginning to reconsider.

Oak Park and Skokie are both diverse, but if you're both working on the north side, not sure why you'd want Oak Park. OP and Evanston both have nice downtown areas that are distinctive from the rest of the suburb. Skokie to me just feels like a continuation of the morass of the rest of the northern suburbs.

Oak Park would be a bad commute to North Chicago. Evanston is diverse as is Skokie. Evanston I think is a prettier town with a better downtown area and access to Lake Michigan. The western edge of Evanston that borders Skokie feels very similar in terms of housing stock and layout. Both of those towns have lower test scores than some of the more homogenous suburbs but if you break it down by demographics, you’ll see the similar pattern that white non-economically disadvantaged kids have high test scores. In fact I think Evanston schools are quite strong due to the high number of Northwestern faculty families.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are the less starkly white suburbs with excellent schools and safe neighborhoods? Is Evanston my best bet? How are Albany Park, Skokie, and Oak Park?

The closer you are to the city the more diversity you will find. Being near a rail line into the city is also important. COVID and the recent violence in the city are pushing people out and I’m sure some of the corporations that moved into the city over the past ten years are beginning to reconsider.

Oak Park and Skokie are both diverse, but if you're both working on the north side, not sure why you'd want Oak Park. OP and Evanston both have nice downtown areas that are distinctive from the rest of the suburb. Skokie to me just feels like a continuation of the morass of the rest of the northern suburbs.

We use to live in Lake Forest and it was wonderful except for the lack of diversity. Excellent schools, a beautiful down town area, a great town beach and very nice people. It’s about an hour train ride into the city. The driving commute can be miserable. There are a lot of corporate HQ’s in the area and for those -woolens LF is perfect.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are the less starkly white suburbs with excellent schools and safe neighborhoods? Is Evanston my best bet? How are Albany Park, Skokie, and Oak Park?

The closer you are to the city the more diversity you will find. Being near a rail line into the city is also important. COVID and the recent violence in the city are pushing people out and I’m sure some of the corporations that moved into the city over the past ten years are beginning to reconsider.

Oak Park and Skokie are both diverse, but if you're both working on the north side, not sure why you'd want Oak Park. OP and Evanston both have nice downtown areas that are distinctive from the rest of the suburb. Skokie to me just feels like a continuation of the morass of the rest of the northern suburbs.

Anonymous wrote:Where are the less starkly white suburbs with excellent schools and safe neighborhoods? Is Evanston my best bet? How are Albany Park, Skokie, and Oak Park?

The closer you are to the city the more diversity you will find. Being near a rail line into the city is also important. COVID and the recent violence in the city are pushing people out and I’m sure some of the corporations that moved into the city over the past ten years are beginning to reconsider.

Where are the less starkly white suburbs with excellent schools and safe neighborhoods? Is Evanston my best bet? How are Albany Park, Skokie, and Oak Park?

My grandparents lived in Lake Forest. Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, and Highland Park would all be easy commutes to where you are working and nice places to live. Glencoe, Winnetka, and Wilmette too, if you want to be closer to the city. They are all pretty affluent and white (although Highland Park is slightly more diverse with a larger hispanic population). I think living near the lake is nice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are wealthy and white go for it. If your non-white and wealthy its a risk. I'm one of them and count on your family being pulled over by police regularly and residents assuming you're the help.

This. It is a beautiful hamlet as others have mentioned. I will never forget, however, taking my son to a swim meet at Lake Forest High School in October 2016. There were Trump yard signs everywhere. Quite the shocker, as I live(d) in progressive Evanston where Bernie, and to a lesser extent, HRC signs were all the rage.

I guess it’s still early but I haven’t seen a Trump sign in LF this year. Nor a Biden sign.

I'm a brown person living in LF and have admittedly hypersensitive to the Trump stuff. I haven't seen any signs or MAGA stuff since I moved here in 2017. Nothing now which makes me happy to see.