I may be moving to Chicago! but I need help

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uncleben113

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I just found out that I was accepted into Roosevelt University's graduate school and I'm planning on moving within the next couple of months. I've been doing a lot of research on the city and surrounding neighborhoods but I'm not really sure where I should move.

What are some good places to live that I'm not going to pay out the wazoo for? I'd like something close to the campus which is next to millennium park or something close to some good transportation

I'm actually visiting the school and city this weekend so I plan on checking out the neighborhoods while I'm there.

So far I've found some cheap places that seem pretty nice in Wrigleyville, Ukrainian Village, and Edgewater. Are these ok places to live?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Cheers!
 
Those are fine neighborhoods. UV is a little dicey in spots, but overall good. Check out Ravenswood, the east parts by the red line are inexpensive and quiet. I live very near Edgewater and its quiet and cheap. Andersonville is an expensive section of Edgewater and where all of the nightlife is at.

Congrats and good luck in school.
 
Thanks for your help. I've heard that a little about UV but I've also heard that it is great.

I'm also interested in Lakeview. It seems like a nice place and I've found a few cheap spots. What's it like there?
 
Lakeview and wrigleyville are interchangeable. They are too expensive for my family and not really my scene either. I enjoy hanging out there occasionally, but prefer quiet and homebrew more than the party scene.

Uptown has some good areas and is on the red line too. Rogers park is far north but cheap and is gentrifying quickly.
 
I'd bypass Uptown unless you are really budget limited. Nice residents for the most part, but too many transients and crime for a northside neighborhood.
 
I know that uptown has problems. I wouldnt live there, but not everyone feels the same obviously. For OP, you should obviously focus close to school or transit, unless you plan on driving everywhere. I think the area around damen and wilson is a great neighborhood, right on the brown line, and still pretty cheap.
 
I recommend Avondale. It is a great place, still 'up and coming'- unlikely to majorly gentrify anytime soon (and thus get more expensive). It has plenty of culture and is very diverse (one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Chicago) Polish, Hispanic, Asian, lots of college students, lots of families. It is relatively safe (don't walk down dark alleys at night by yourself obviously, but that applies to any neighborhood in a major metropolitan area). Avondale intersects the blue line which will take you directly downtown (you can transfer to the redline to get to Roosevelt easily). Not to mention, we have a fantastic homebrew and hydroponics shop, the Brew and Grow on Kedzie which is very handy!
 
acidrain23 said:
I recommend Avondale. It is a great place, still 'up and coming'- unlikely to majorly gentrify anytime soon (and thus get more expensive). It has plenty of culture and is very diverse (one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Chicago) Polish, Hispanic, Asian, lots of college students, lots of families. It is relatively safe (don't walk down dark alleys at night by yourself obviously, but that applies to any neighborhood in a major metropolitan area). Avondale intersects the blue line which will take you directly downtown (you can transfer to the redline to get to Roosevelt easily). Not to mention, we have a fantastic homebrew and hydroponics shop, the Brew and Grow on Kedzie which is very handy!

I have several friends in Avondale, right by brew n grow. I like that area too, but didnt even think about it since its pretty far west of OP's school.
 
Honestly anything near the redline would be great for you. Don't do Uptown as others have stated. That place is sketchy. I live in east Lakeview and it's an easy commute downtown. Tons of buses take you straight down Michigan Ave and the redline is 3 blocks away. If you have some time to kill today my brew club here in Chicago is having a shoot out style brew competition. It's in West Town by the Twisted Spoke. PM me if you're interested. It's a quick bus ride west on Grand Ave. it's at our community brew house!
 
Thanks for all the great info. I'll try to stay away from uptown but avondale does sound nice. Anything with a homebrew shop is a big plus.

I'll have to look into the public transportation up there as I am clueless about it right now but anything close to a line that would take me close to Roosevelt would be great.

I found a few nice apartments in east Lakeview yesterday. I think I'm getting a tour of one on Monday.

How are the areas south of Chicago? I've heard a lot of mixed reviews
 
Niilo said:
Honestly anything near the redline would be great for you. Don't do Uptown as others have stated. That place is sketchy. I live in east Lakeview and it's an easy commute downtown. Tons of buses take you straight down Michigan Ave and the redline is 3 blocks away. If you have some time to kill today my brew club here in Chicago is having a shoot out style brew competition. It's in West Town by the Twisted Spoke. PM me if you're interested. It's a quick bus ride west on Grand Ave. it's at our community brew house!

That sounds great but I won't get in town until later tonight. I'll definitely be looking for a homebrew club and stuff like that once I move so maybe when I move in August we can work something out.

Thanks for the invite
 
Don't bother with anything South of the Loop. The newly gentrified South Loop area is pretty expensive and there isn't all that much to do on the evenings or weekends. Further south, everything close to the Red Line is sketchy, except for a few insulated pockets of "nice" neighborhoods, but those places (like Bridgewater) are often really unfriendly to outsiders.

Just about anything close to the Red Line or Blue Line on the North Side will be nice (with a few exceptions, of course). There is a tunnel connecting the Red and Blue line trains at Jackson, which is only a couple of blocks from Roosevelt, so places like Bucktown/Wicker Park are just as convenient to the school. Lincoln Square is another nice area that is relatively inexpensive, at Lincoln Avenue (which runs NW-SE), Western, and Lawrence. There is a Brown Line stop there, which also goes downtown a couple blocks from Roosevelt.

I lived in Wicker Park, Lakeview, close to Lincoln Square and Rogers Park. Assuming you are a typical post-college single guy in your 20's, I'd advise any of them except RP, it's just not that close to most things you would want to do and is a long train ride to downtown. If you are looking suburban, though, Evanston is awesome. Just north of Rogers Park, still serviced by the train.
 
Thanks for all the great info. I'll try to stay away from uptown but avondale does sound nice. Anything with a homebrew shop is a big plus.

I'll have to look into the public transportation up there as I am clueless about it right now but anything close to a line that would take me close to Roosevelt would be great.

I found a few nice apartments in east Lakeview yesterday. I think I'm getting a tour of one on Monday.

How are the areas south of Chicago? I've heard a lot of mixed reviews

The Hegwisch area (just south of the city), as well as NW Indiana are very close to the South Shore train, which will get you downtown, and very affordable. (This is coming from someone who lived on the north side, in many of the neighborhoods that you're looking at, for 35 years.)
 
kjung said:
The Hegwisch area (just south of the city), as well as NW Indiana are very close to the South Shore train, which will get you downtown, and very affordable. (This is coming from someone who lived on the north side, in many of the neighborhoods that you're looking at, for 35 years.)

So are you saying you'd rather live south rather than north?

After visiting several neighborhoods, here are my findings:
-the Lakeview/Wrigleyville area is bad ass! I want to move there bad
-not impressed with uptown. I heard some girl scream "I'll bust any bitches head that come out yo apartment". This was after I decided I wasn't crazy about the area though so that definitely didn't help.
-Andersonville is pretty sweet too. Looks like a nice neighborhood and cool place to live.
-as for Avondale, I wasn't really impressed. Maybe I didn't dive through it long enough or in the right parts but from what I saw, it was mostly pretty run down except for one cool little area.
-Overall, Chicago seems great. I think the Lakeview area takes the cake though.

One thing I didn't realize is how expensive it is just to park your car. All of the apartments I looked range from 100-150 a month just to park it! I'm not going to drive much at all, probably mostly to concerts outside of the city so I'm thinking I'll just sell my car. I hate to do it but that's another big bill that I don't need. And I'm getting a cta pass through school so I think my transportation is going to be free.

Well if anybody knows of a place in Lakeview for rent that isn't crazy expensive, let me know

Thanks for all of your help and let me know if any of this seems misinformed.
 
I've lived in Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Logan Square, North Center, and now Wrigleyville (actually Southport - a great street between Belmont and Irving). I work in North Center/Ravenswood area. I've lived on the North side 25+ years. So much for qualifications. On to your question.

Yes it is expensive to park in Lakeview unless your apartment comes with parking, and not many of them do. And finding a place with decent street parking is kind of a trade-off. Do you want to be in the thick of a great area, with restaurants, bars, shopping, grocery, etc? It will be more expensive and harder to get parking. If you are willing to live on the edges of those places, where it's more residential, parking will be easier. But pretty much any place in Lakeview you will be fighting for street parking. Wrigleyville is kind of the same.

Cars, parking, insurance, even gas...all expensive in Chicago.
 
I was going to add that if you want street parking you could look at the North Center. More residential, not far from the Brown line, but still with a nice little happening area along Lincoln between Montrose and Lawrence. When I say "street parking" I mean "you can't always find parking but drive around a while and you will eventually".
 
So it's looking like I should just sell my car. I'd like to be close to the restaurant's and all but I just can't pay for parking and I don't want to just rely on street parking. I think if I sell my car, I can just rent a car when I need to drive to shows outside of town or whatever I want to do. With the money I'd save by not havinga car, I should have more than enough to spend on rentals as I would need them, which will be maybe every few months
 
uncleben113 said:
So it's looking like I should just sell my car. I'd like to be close to the restaurant's and all but I just can't pay for parking and I don't want to just rely on street parking. I think if I sell my car, I can just rent a car when I need to drive to shows outside of town or whatever I want to do. With the money I'd save by not havinga car, I should have more than enough to spend on rentals as I would need them, which will be maybe every few months

Or you can use car services like zipcar.
 
So are you saying you'd rather live south rather than north?

Oh, HELL no!!! I just mentioned living south because it is a LOT cheaper.

After visiting several neighborhoods, here are my findings:
-the Lakeview/Wrigleyville area is bad ass! I want to move there bad
-not impressed with uptown. I heard some girl scream "I'll bust any bitches head that come out yo apartment". This was after I decided I wasn't crazy about the area though so that definitely didn't help.
-Andersonville is pretty sweet too. Looks like a nice neighborhood and cool place to live.
-as for Avondale, I wasn't really impressed. Maybe I didn't dive through it long enough or in the right parts but from what I saw, it was mostly pretty run down except for one cool little area.
-Overall, Chicago seems great. I think the Lakeview area takes the cake though.

Wrigleyville/Lakeview is a great area, (especially for bar-hopping) but expensive (especially for bar-hopping) and virtually impossible to find parking.

One thing I didn't realize is how expensive it is just to park your car. All of the apartments I looked range from 100-150 a month just to park it! I'm not going to drive much at all, probably mostly to concerts outside of the city so I'm thinking I'll just sell my car. I hate to do it but that's another big bill that I don't need. And I'm getting a cta pass through school so I think my transportation is going to be free.

The CTA is the way to go. I didn't own a car until I got married in my mid-20's, relying on either the Big Green (CTA) or my bicycle to get everywhere that I couldn't walk.

I was going to add that if you want street parking you could look at the North Center. More residential, not far from the Brown line, but still with a nice little happening area along Lincoln between Montrose and Lawrence. When I say "street parking" I mean "you can't always find parking but drive around a while and you will eventually".

Northcenter is a great neighborhood, but also on the expensive side. Great bar scenes, though! There's also a new-ish HBS store in the area.

:off: Where in NorthCenter did you live and work? I grew up around Irving, Lincoln & Damen.
 
Northcenter is a great neighborhood, but also on the expensive side. Great bar scenes, though! There's also a new-ish HBS store in the area.

:off: Where in NorthCenter did you live and work? I grew up around Irving, Lincoln & Damen.

I lived basically at Damen and Cullom, block south of Montrose. Right in that same area.

As far as HBS, I go the the Brew and Grow on Kedzie just north of Addison, that place is most excellent and they will work with you to get stuff they don't have in the store. Where is the store you mention?
 
dbrewski said:
Or you can use car services like zipcar.

I'll have to check this out a little more. I'm trying the check out their website but I'm in the middle of nowhere Arkansas. What sets this apart from other rental places?

I'll have to check out north center too. As long as I have some things to do within a few blocks of biking distance as well as pretty close to one of the major transit lines then I would be happy.
 
I lived basically at Damen and Cullom, block south of Montrose. Right in that same area.

As far as HBS, I go the the Brew and Grow on Kedzie just north of Addison, that place is most excellent and they will work with you to get stuff they don't have in the store. Where is the store you mention?

I've had some bad issues at the Kedzie B&G, getting bad advice and info from them.

The place in NorthCenter is called Brew Camp. They're on Belle Plaine, between Lincoln and Hoyne. I haven't been in there yet, (I haven't had time to venture up to the old 'hood lately) but I have heard good things about them. They're on FB, also.
 
I've had some bad issues at the Kedzie B&G, getting bad advice and info from them.

yeah, they're nice folks, there are some of them more knowledgeable than others. I wouldn't say go there for advice, but the supplies are pretty complete.

I will check out the other place, thanks for the tip!
 
I've had some bad issues at the Kedzie B&G, getting bad advice and info from them.

The place in NorthCenter is called Brew Camp. They're on Belle Plaine, between Lincoln and Hoyne. I haven't been in there yet, (I haven't had time to venture up to the old 'hood lately) but I have heard good things about them. They're on FB, also.

I also have bad luck going to B&G. They never seem to have time to help out and make out like is an inconvenience to answer questions. There is really only a couple people who work on the brew side and are not always available.

I have started buying at Brew Camp. The staff is super friendly and helpful. I email my order to them and they have it waiting for me to pick up when specified. They offer a 5% discount if you check in on Foursquare, which adds up pretty quick when you brew often enough. The selection has greatly improved since they opened as well. Their website sucks unfortunately and doesn't offer any kind of inventory information, but maybe that will change.
 
Check out Logan Square, somewhere along the blue line. You'll have Revolution and Boiler Room not too far from you (two excellent beer places) and you can be downtown at school in 20 minutes.
 
Another vote for Logan Square. Good restaurants and bars (although not nearly as many as in Wrigleyville/Lakeview), easy street parking, and the fastest EL trip downtown via the Blue Line. Plus, the Blue Line goes straight to O'Hare for when you're traveling or have friends visiting.

On the other hand, Wrigleyville and Lakeview are a lot of fun, particularly if you're in your (early to mid) 20s.
 
I live up in the Ravenswood area by Ashland and Montrose. This area has good street parking with relatively cheap rent. It's close to Wrigleyville, Andersonville, Lakeview, and some of the more highly populated areas, but without the cost. The brown line gets me downtown or there's an express bus with a route that starts only a block away so the seats are always open.
 
Another vote for Logan Square. Good restaurants and bars (although not nearly as many as in Wrigleyville/Lakeview), easy street parking, and the fastest EL trip downtown via the Blue Line. Plus, the Blue Line goes straight to O'Hare for when you're traveling or have friends visiting.

On the other hand, Wrigleyville and Lakeview are a lot of fun, particularly if you're in your (early to mid) 20s.

I'll definitely have to look into logan square. Easy access to O'Hare is a big plus for me but I also would love to be in Lakeview/Wrigleyville. I've still got about 3 months to decide, though.

I thought about trying to find some roommates for a few months until I find a place that I liked and can afford. Since I currently live 13 hours away, touring a lot of apts isn't really an option and most leases run for a year so I'd rather not be stuck in a place I don't like for that long
 
I live up in the Ravenswood area by Ashland and Montrose. This area has good street parking with relatively cheap rent. It's close to Wrigleyville, Andersonville, Lakeview, and some of the more highly populated areas, but without the cost. The brown line gets me downtown or there's an express bus with a route that starts only a block away so the seats are always open.

You and I are only about a mile apart. Maybe we should get together sometime and swap some homebrew...I am near Foster and Leavitt
 
I just want to say thanks for all of the advice you guys gave me a while back. I've moved up to Chicago now and been living here for about a month. I wound up in Lakeview and I absolutely love it.

Unfortunately I couldn't bring any of my homebrew equipment so I'm kind of out of the hobby for the time being. I'll still be looking for a club though to join soon because I miss it a ton already.

Well thanks again and maybe I'll see some of you around
 
Lakeview is nice. You will like it. Check out Brew Camp at Lincoln and Belle Plaine in Northcenter for brewing essentials. Their selection has expanded significantly this year and they are competitive with prices. I brewed a pale with stuff I bought there on Sunday for only $17 since I already had hops.
 
Lakeview is nice. You will like it. Check out Brew Camp at Lincoln and Belle Plaine in Northcenter for brewing essentials. Their selection has expanded significantly this year and they are competitive with prices. I brewed a pale with stuff I bought there on Sunday for only $17 since I already had hops.

Thanks I'll have to check it out. I'd love to get back into it even if I go back to stove-top brewing.
 
I just want to say thanks for all of the advice you guys gave me a while back. I've moved up to Chicago now and been living here for about a month. I wound up in Lakeview and I absolutely love it.

Unfortunately I couldn't bring any of my homebrew equipment so I'm kind of out of the hobby for the time being. I'll still be looking for a club though to join soon because I miss it a ton already.

Well thanks again and maybe I'll see some of you around

Not to pimp our homebrew club too much...

Check out CHAOS Brew Club. We offer space to brew and ferment your beer, and the only equipment you need is a fermenter (bucket or carboy). The club has burners, pots, and mash tuns. PM me if you'd like some more info.

-Adam
 
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