Goober
Premium
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL
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1 edit | reply to RadioDoc
Re: Do you commute?
I'll take my Naperville anyday.
I stopped commuting about a year ago and absolutely LOVE it. I couldn't stand the train and the crowds and the cold and the heat and the morons who wouldn't cover their mouths before coughing on the back of my neck and the loud talkers and the throat clearers, etc. I used to catch a cold 2-3 times a year. Now, I barely catch anything once a year. My kids are healthier too.
And, although we (my wife and I) used to make a few jaunts into the city every month, I find Naperville has quite a bit to offer. Especially when compared to about 12 years ago. Although, the crowds are annoying. But, with having kids now, and downtown Naperville being less than a mile from my house, it's much more convenient and much less stressful.
Give me a nice burb anyday. |
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cybermud
join:2000-08-25
Chicago, IL | I live in the west loop, very close to the Tasting Room that Radio Doc mentioned, which is a GREAT place. My walk to work in the loop every day takes 20 minutes regardless of weather or traffic, and my commuting costs are zero! |
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lionelgroulx
join:2001-11-27
Chicago, IL
| reply to Goober
said by Goober  :
I'll take my Naperville anyday.
Yuck.
Naperville is just like any burb. If you want to ride a bike or walk? Tough, there are no developed sidewalks in many parts of Naperville.
See any sidewalks along Route 59? Nope.
Want to go out and get sauced and take public transportation back home? Good luck.
Ogden avenue is a parking lot during rush hour. Naperville road, Route 59 and I-88 sucks as well. I'll take the train over that.
Naperville is still not as worse as the south west suburbs (Orland Park, Tinley Park..etc.). I'd rather eat glass than move back to towns where the police are out of control.
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alcohol, the cause of and solution to all of lifes problems |
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Goober
Premium
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL
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| Naperville is definitely not like any other burb. In fact, I think this statement that all suburbs are plain vanilla and generic is a very bad mis-characterization.
I love the downtown riverwalk and the downtown itself. That's what won me over when I first came here.
Also, the things that appeal to me in Naperville are the fairly low incidence of crime, the high quality schools and the fairly quiet conservative nature of the city. And it's affordable to boot.
Chicago proper is just too crowded, too noisy, too crime-ridden and too dirty for my tastes.
I didn't mind working in the loop, but I didn't like the inconvenience of not being able to hop in my car and go where I want and park wherever I want.
Also, there are tons of sidewalk everywhere in Naperville and all over the place. I guess I haven't been to places where there aren't any. Well, yeah I guess can't recall seeing sidewalks on 59. But, who walks along that street? And, I like to stay away from that area generally. It's so commercial and crowded. Luckily it's like that only on the very far western portion of Naperville. You can't characterize a whole city based on one commercial zone. |
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lionelgroulx
join:2001-11-27
Chicago, IL
| said by Goober :
Also, there are tons of sidewalk everywhere in Naperville and all over the place. I guess I haven't been to places where there aren't any. Well, yeah I guess can't recall seeing sidewalks on 59. But, who walks along that street? And, I like to stay away from that area generally. It's so commercial and crowded. Luckily it's like that only on the very far western portion of Naperville. You can't characterize a whole city based on one commercial zone.
There are tons of sidewalks in the downtown and immediate surrounding areas. But on Diehl for example? Naperville road? What about the bridges over I-88?
So if someone without a vehicle who lives north on Route 59 wants to walk to the mall they are SOL? (And have to walk into the train station, under the tracks, out of the train station, through the parking lot without getting hit, and then into the parking lot of the red lobster..etc.)?
There are a lot of homes & apartments North & Northwest the Route 59 train station.
I do have to admit, the Naperville police were actually pretty decent.
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alcohol, the cause of and solution to all of lifes problems |
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Goober
Premium
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL
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| True on all accounts. In that way, Naperville is a typical suburb--not designed for being walker friendly unless you're in a neighborhood or park area.
My baseline assumption is that a suburbanite must have a car. Obviously that's not true in the city. |
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RadioDoc
58ef2c0
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
 ·AT&T Midwest
| reply to Goober
We went to the Naperville Ribfest for 10 years, and finally gave up because:
1) Traffic and parking pandemonium which makes Lincoln Park on a Saturday night a breeze by comparison.
2) More drunk people pissing in the bushes than there ever was after a weekend night game in Wrigleyville.
3) Enough rude assholes to fill Comiskey Park. Taste of Chicago is Ravinia by comparison. These (adult) jerks have no problem cutting in line, stepping on you, spilling beer on or knocking down kids who get in the way of their quest for corn-on-a-stick or elephant ears.
4) Probably the worst crowd control this side of Altamont.
Naperville is overbuilt, overhyped, and far worse than the Loop. You can keep it. I quit going anywhere near downtown Naperville once it got a fatal case of the "cutes". 15 years ago there were real restaurants owned by actual, creative chefs. Now it's Just Another Mall. Too crowded, noisy and the ass-holiness is unbearable. Sorry. One of my best friends lives out there and he's about to slit his wrists working at home. "Stepford" is real; it's a subdivision in Naperville...
You stay out there...that makes one more parking place for me in Chicago.  |
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schja01
I need to get a life.
Premium,MVM
join:2000-04-27
Morton Grove, IL
clubs:  
 ·AT&T U-Verse
·AT&T Midwest
| said by RadioDoc :
Naperville is overbuilt, overhyped, and far worse than the Loop. You can keep it.
Don't hold back your feelings Doc. I am getting a sense you might not like Naperville.
J
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There are only 10 types of people in this world . . . Those who understand binary, and those who don't. |
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lionelgroulx
join:2001-11-27
Chicago, IL
| reply to RadioDoc
said by RadioDoc :
We went to the Naperville Ribfest for 10 years, and finally gave up because:
Ahhh ribfest. Good eats...but I've only found luck going the last day and avoiding the crowds and fools. I don't know what it is about the other days.
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alcohol, the cause of and solution to all of lifes problems |
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Goober
Premium
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL
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| reply to RadioDoc
I haven't gone to the ribfest in about 12 years. I stay away from that event. I was also glad when the Chicago Fire or whatever soccer team left as well. I didn't like all the people pouring in. I'm not a big fan of crowds, hence my dislike for the crowds of big cities.
I still love Naperville. Yes, it's more crowded than 10-15 years ago, but it's still a beautiful, vibrant, fairly wealthy community. Every time I walk the Riverwalk with my family, I'm amazed by how nice the city truly is. I go to other western suburbs when my family and I consider what other suburb we could move into, but Naperville just has this charm that we can't find anywhere else. I guess we're lifers.
As for restaurants, I think you'll find very few people in agreement with you. I think some of the best restaurants in the western suburbs are to be found in Naperville. |
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RadioDoc
58ef2c0
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
·AT&T Midwest
| Well you can't argue with a lifer...
Montparnasse was great in it's time when Suzy Crofton was there, and Emilio's Meson Sebika has it's good days when Emilio is there.
There's restaurants, and there's great restaurants. One in Naperville, Montage, making an effort to be the latter is out in the sticks on 59 in a strip mall. As for the rest, I guess I have a different idea of what qualifies as "best", and will agree to disagree. You can't find anything approaching the quality of several in Wicker Park or the Loop anywhere near there though. Sorry. I've pretty much tried them all. |
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Goober
Premium
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL
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| I can't argue that Chicago has great restaurants. I think, though, as suburbs go, Naperville has some of the best. That's not to say they are better than the ones in Chicago. That was the reason my wife and I (before kids) used to go to Chicago. But, since having the "li'l darlings" I think we don't have to go very far to get above average eats.
Although, I'm not sure that loop restaurants can be blanketly called good. Yes there are a few higher-end ones that are nice, but on a day to day basis (having done it for about 12 years), my co-workers and I never could find anyplace that was very good for just regular lunches. The loop is just rife with awful Chinese restaurants.
My workplace was located at LaSalle and Adams. Maybe there's better in some other parts of the loop. |
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RadioDoc
58ef2c0
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
·AT&T Midwest
| No, there are quite a few bad restaurants in the Loop. I didn't mean to give them all a blanket endorsement. It's the great ones there which overshadow most in the burbs I'm talking about.
Anyway, the point was that there are far more reasons to head into the city than there are to stay in sub-bore-bia. |
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insomniac
Oh Yeah
Premium
join:2002-09-22
Naperville, IL
clubs:
·AT&T Midwest
| said by RadioDoc :
Anyway, the point was that there are far more reasons to head into the city than there are to stay in sub-bore-bia.
Not to add fuel to the fire here, but as a Napervillian myself, I agree. That's why I head into the city at any possible opportunity. I only live in the suburbs because right now, it's far more convenient for work (Fermilab) and school (North Central College). However, as far as the western suburbs go, I'll take Naperville over a lot of them. I weighed the pros and cons of living in Aurora or the Tri-Cities instead of Naperville, and it was a pretty easy choice.
But it's still my goal to be living and working in Chicago (where there's actually some culture after dark) by the time I'm 30. And don't even get me started on driving in Naperville. Ugh.
--
If everything seems to be going well, you've obviously overlooked something. |
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trs23
join:1999-07-24
Chicago, IL
1 edit | I've seen much worse traffic in the burbs than the city. Try heading down golf road in Schaumburg on a Saturday.
I like how people say they would have to give up their car in the city. I live in a 4bedroom 3bath townhouse with a 2 car garage. I have the EL 3 blocks away and tons of bars / clubs / restaurants within an easy cab or walk away.
I also pay less per month than people living in Lincoln Park and paid less for my house than many Suburbs.
And my house just appreciated 84% in the last 5 years! Try that in the burbs!
Where do I live? Wicker Park / Bucktown / Logan Square. |
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Goober
Premium
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL
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1 edit | reply to insomniac
I think for the younger and the older crowd (or rather the crowd with no or older kids), the city is probably the place to go and be. But, with 3 kids under the age of 8, I am certainly not heading into the city given every opportunity (although we have done so on several occasions).
Living and working in Naperville to me outweighs all the things that I'm supposedly missing by not being in the city. To have my commute cut by an average of over 2 hours a day makes my life so much better. I went from a 1.25 hour one-way commute to a .25 hour commute (Naperville to far west Lisle) After 10 years of the commute, give me suburbia and local commutes any day. |
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Jon
Premium
join:2001-01-20
Lisle, IL
1 edit | reply to trs23
said by trs23 :
And my house just appreciated 84% in the last 5 years!
Where do I live? Wicker Park / Bucktown / Logan Square.
I live in Logan Square too,
Have you gotten your property tax bill yet?
Our property taxes went from $3200 last year to $6100 this year!
Try that in the burbs!
I love living in the city but I need to get the hell out of cook county!
*edit* sorry 6100 not 6800 |
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drmorley
Premium,MVM
join:2000-12-20
Park Ridge, IL
clubs:
| We just looked at a couple of houses in Prairie Crossing in Grayslake where the property taxes were $7500.
It looks like the wife and I might be moving out of our beloved city this spring. Not to Grayslake though |
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Jon
Premium
join:2001-01-20
Lisle, IL
| said by drmorley :
We just looked at a couple of houses in Prairie Crossing in Grayslake where the property taxes were $7500.
It looks like the wife and I might be moving out of our beloved city this spring. Not to Grayslake though
Yeah that's a lot, I suppose some burbs are pricey but it's one thing when you go in knowing that and another when they suddenly double with little or no notice.
I wouldn't even mind so much if I thought there was something good coming of it but where is it going?
They don't plow the side streets in the winter, our street looks like it hasn't been repaired in 50 years, the schools suck, the police don't come when you call them, Water bills have gone up, city sticker prices are going up, meters, tickets, etc, etc, etc...
I wouldn't really mind it if I thought it was going for something other than putting in bicycle lanes on the major roads.  |
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RadioDoc
58ef2c0
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
·AT&T Midwest
| reply to Jon
said by Jon :
Try that in the burbs!
I love living in the city but I need to get the hell out of cook county!
Tell me about it...Crook County is more like it. We were up to $5,500+ in property taxes on our house and $13,000+ on 5000 sq. feet of commercial property with three storefronts on it before we hired a lawyer to go beat it down. They got it reduced to about 50% of the original assessment. It's a racket. Appeal that sucker...there are law firms which do this on a contingent fee basis for 1/3 of the tax saved. It's well worth it if you see those kinds of increases. |
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