Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan
^ good point. pdxtex seemed to be making an erroneous connection between the most "bombed out" neighborhoods and the most unsafe neighborhoods, but as you pointed out, truly "bombed-out" urban prairies like one finds in detroit are so vacant and abandoned that there aren't enough people left for crime to be as big an issue as it is in a more populated area. neighborhoods like chicago's englewood, where the commercial strips are mostly destroyed, but the residential housing stock & population remain, are far more dangerous.
as of census 2010, englewood still had ~30,000 people living in about 3 sq. miles for a density of roughly 10,000 ppsm. that's not terribly high in the grand scheme of things, but it's way, WAY higher than some completely abandoned urban prairie. despite large population losses over the past half century, englewood is still home to enough people for there to be serious problems there.
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Some thoughts from someone who lives with his wife and two kids in a single family home that we bought in 2011 in Chicago.
I hear you on this. Having a single family home on the north side in a desireable neighborhood with the best rated schools (Rocoe Village, North Center, West Lakeview, Lincoln Park etc.) is incredibly expensive. The schools in these areas do not test "OK", they are 9/10 or even 10/10 on the greatschools ratings. They are some of the higher performing in the state. In these areas, a
modest single family home will run you 700k or significantly more, depending on the area. We didn't have that kind of money. Most people don't.
We moved here in 2008 and lived in the North Center/Lincoln Square area. We really loved it and wanted to stay as it is very family friendly, full of opportunities for kids. It was just too expensive for us to buy something there.
The Nortwest side of the city provided an option that let us stay in the city and avoid the suburbs which would have made my commute to work terrible. We bought a newly renovated bungalow with 4 bedrooms and three bathrooms as well as a huge back yard for 356k. The basement was newly and fully finished as well, providing as second family room/play area as well. The house was really beautifully done and we couldn't believe the price given where we came from. The house is in mayfair/old irving park on the nortwest side. We are a 7 minute walk (about 3 blocks) from the Blue line stop at Montrose. I take the train without difficulty to work daily. It also gives us very easy access to OHare. Mayfair Park is just down the street and offers a variety of programs for the kids that are low key (just our style) and have been great. We can walk there in a couple minutes without crossing any major streets. Our nine year old goes to Belding, the neighborhood school. This school does not look great on paper (4/10 on greatschools). However, my wife and I are both well educated (she is a teacher staying at home with our 9 yo and 9 month old for now) and figured we could supplement any shortcoming of the school. We reallly haven't had to.
When we lived in Northcenter/Lincoln Square he went to private school (stopped because we couldn't afford it after buying a house) and academically he has actually been more challenged and he has shown more improvement than he did at the private school. He is happy, learning, getting good grades, safe and doing well on the the necessary standardized testing which is all I really give a crap about. He walks to school everyday with his mom which is much better than getting in a car and schleping him through traffic to another school far off. The school has lower scores because there are a lot more poor kids and english as a second language kids compared to where we came from. There are other kids of his demographic there as well and they do just fine. I think the diversity is actually good exposure for them. We have found the principle and teachers to be invested, more than competent and hard working. They have been very responsive to questions/issues. If you just look at the ratings, it looks like another broken CPS school. When you look at the performance by demographic (eg. race and income, which I did but can't recall the website) kids in our demographic do just as well as kids in the high rated schools. Even so, Disney II, a magnet school with high ratings and test scores is also in the neighborhood and presents another option for people.
In the end, 350k is still way more than the 185k for Milwaukee, but think how much more money you will have in retirement in the form of the asset that is the house when it is paid off!
Sorry for the long response. I have other thoughts about living here I would like to share as well but don't want to make this post too long for people to read. There are definitely things I miss about our old hood. Just thought some of you might find our experiences interesting.