Moving to Chicago - best place for singles?
 

Can any locals suggest good neighborhoods for singles? The job is in the burbs, Oakbrook, but don't want to be stuck in neighborhoods with just families.
Thanks.

Living in the city would be great but a real commute out to Oak Brook. How about Oak Park?

Oak Park, Forest Park or Berwyn would be your best bets. They're vibrant urban communities with quite a few singles, and a reasonable commute to Oak Brook. On a map Oak Brook is straight down the road from these towns and looks like it's just minutes away. That's really only true at 2 am though. I would say a 1/2 hour commute would be typical, but be prepared for as much as an hour more often than you would like.

I have lived in the city for 7 years now (from MI) and I love it. Are you looking for city neighborhoods or 'burb neighborhoods. I have no suggestions for the 'burbs but have lots of input as far as the city neighborhoods go. You can always take a train out to work from the city!! Let me know if you want city neighborhood suggestions & I'll get back to you.

Lincoln Park
Old Town
Roscoe Village


Those are a few fun neighborhoods. Lots more to choose from too.

A great Chicago website for fun to do's is www.metromix.com

In the early 90's I lived in Schaumburg, IL. One of my clients McDonald's was in Oak Brook. Today Mapquest says it's 20 miles and 29 minutes. Like flamingomonkey says, maybe at 2am. In 1990 the fastest I did that commute was in 40 minutes. Typical time was 1:10. At least once a week it was 1:30. Snowstorm? It could be 2+ hours. (These are all one way travel times.) I've kept in touch with a couple of friends in Chicago. The traffic has only become worse today.

For every 10 minutes you add to your one-way commute that's another 100 minutes out of your life each week as you'll typically be doing it 10 times per week. It may be better to live closer to your job though more suburban and spend your time doing "singles" stuff a few nights a week.

You can check Metra the suburban commuter rail in Chicago. It's very good at what it does which may not be what you want. It can get you downtown Chicago in the morning rush hour. It can get you out of downtown Chicago during the evening rush hour.

It looks like the closest Metra stop is Villa Park which is still about 3 miles from Oak Brook. That may or may not be helpful. For example departing Chicago there's a train to Villa Park at 6:32am arriving VP 7:02. The next train departs at 7:40am arriving at 8:15. The 6:57 and 7:15 trains only go as far as Elmhurst.

www.metrarail.com

Mostly I think you should only rent your first apartment for 6 months with an option to renew. That way you can change your mind relatively soon about location.

I loved my 3 years in Chicago. I'm sure you'll have a blast as I did. I knew it was time to move out when when all I thought was, "I don't want to do that. It'll be heavy traffic and take too long to get there." Then all I saw as a little circle around Schaumburg and where my current client was located.

indytravel has made some good points. I've only been to Oakbrook once (would you believe it) and the drive from my neighborhood in the city (ukrainian village) took a very long time. It is not something that I would want to have to do everyday. If I were you I would look at a inner-ring 'burb such as the recommended Oak Park (an older burb close to the city and public transportation with a decent walkable downtown of its own) on a train line so you could get to the city easily and get to your job (I don't think oakbrook has decent public transporation options) via auto easily. Traffic has done nothing but get worse around these parts and I've often thought that if my job were to move to the suburbs and I had to commute out to it, I would probably start looking for a new job just so I would have to deal with the traffic nightmare that would entail.

Now if you really want to live in the city and commute, then I too can offer some neighborhood suggestions.

I lived in Lincoln Park for 8 years and loved it! I wonder if it's possible to take the train to Oak Brook and leave a car out there to drive you to and from work? While Lincoln Park, Roscoe Village, and the other neighborhoods are all really nice it will also take time to get from them to Union Station (unless there is another location to pick up the train but I never took it so I don't know). Union STation is downtown but there are a lot of great buildings going up/renovated although it's been a while so I am not up to date on the real estate/apartment availability in that area. It was being revived when I left in 2000 and was a cool downtown vibe. Or how about living west in the city like Ukranian Village so you are close to the highway? What about carpooling?

The reverse commute on most expressways is worse than the traditional one now. There are so many people living in the city and so many jobs in the suburbs. The problem is you can take the train into the city for work, but it's not really feasible for most suburban jobs. There was another recent post about commuting from the city to Lake County, and the consensus was the same, it's really not a good idea. Living in the city may seem great, but examine your priorities. Are you really going to be going to clubs and the theater every night after work? I'm single and live in an inner ring suburb southwest of Chicago and commute to a suburban job. Even if I lived in the city, I'm tired when I get home from work. I have laundry to do, housecleaning, running errands, posting on Fodor's. :)

It makes a lot more sense for me to commute to Chicago for recreation when I have a chance than to live there. Part of it is personal preference to. I find the city too congested to live in full time. In my inner suburb I feel I have the perfect balance of city and suburban lifestyles.

flamingomonkey has a very good point. I live in the city mostly for economic reasons (I've got a great deal on an apartment and I don't own a car) and to be close to work which is important to me as I hate commuting. I'm single too, but I'm in my 30's and have no desire to go out every night of the week, work long hours sometimes, and have my daily life to live that sometimes involves an evening out, but often involves an evening at the grocery store, doing laundry, etc. If I were you I would be more concerned about spending hours a day on the road than whether or not I live in the 'most happening neighborhood' because I actually do live in what is considered a rather hip/trendy area, and well, I'm sitting home drinking a glass of wine tonight because I'm exhausted from a long day at work and just put away all my groceries. Don't get me wrong, it is nice to have all this at my fingertips, but I don't think I'd be willing to have a killer commute just so I could live here.