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Good buildings in both locations, pretty much the same area. Not much going on downtown there at nights, but in Streeterville you're closer to Rockit, Hub 51, etc.
Yea I got that feeling just from looking around. Anybody have any thoughts on Millennium Park Plaza?
Don't do lakeshore east. It's mostly people who are 50+ or people in their 30s with families.
How old are you? I recommend LP, Lakeview or Old Town. From what you are telling me, it sounds like you may also like River North and Gold Coast.
First year analyst in July. Living w a guy who's gonna be a 1L at Northwestern Law.
Thinking LP might be a little too much for a commute.
Commute is pretty negligible if you live by the EL.
Same here dont know where to live. Want to live close to the office, was thinking South Loop?
Not recommended. Commute will be short yes, and it is relatively less expensive, but there is not much night life and you really need to know where you are looking. Can be sketchy from block to block crime wise. Also, you will find yourself, dropping $50 a weekend on cabs driving north completely negating any money you saved.
I live in South Lincoln Park and its 18 minutes to Wacker and Madison.
If you live within a couple blocks from the the EL in Lincoln Park or Lakeview you'll have a comparable door-to-door commute to most places in Streeterville or River North, where you'll either be walking to work or dealing with the variable commuting time of taking a bus (variable because of how long you'll wait some times for buses or how bad traffic is).
Seconded. It's exponentially more difficult to travel East-West in Chicago than it is North-South
This is just a real headache to get done.
Google maps is telling me public transpo from Lakeview, LP, Gold Coast, would all take about 30 mins. Does that seem realistic? And how big of a pain is that type of commute?
Yes, very realistic.. Gold Coast might be shorter than 30 mins (more like 10-15 minutes) but when you're getting on el it will be much more crowded and may occasionally have to wait for next train.
Wrigleyville is about 30mins Lincoln Park 20-25mins Old Town 15-20mins Gold Coast/RiNo 10-15mins To the LOOP
I would definitely live in one of those 4-5 neighborhoods instead of Streeterville for a number of reasons.
I live in RN and it takes me 10 mins to walk to my office in the loop....
So you're saying 10min walk on top of those estimated times?
Here's a rough estimate of how long it takes to get from a handful of Brown Line EL stops to Washington and Wells, the first stop in the loop and the one you'll most likely be getting off at if you're working at any Chicago office in investment banking:
Sedgewick (in Old Town): 10-13 minutes Armitage (Lincoln Park): 14-16 minutes Fullerton (Lincoln Park): 15-17 minutes Diversey (Lincoln Park/Lakeview border): 16-18 minutes Wellington (Lakeview): 17-19 minutes Belmont (Lakeview): 18-20 minutes Southport (Lakeview): 21-23 minutes
Commuting time isn't going to be driven by how long your train ride is from any of these neighborhoods -- it's going to be driven by how far you live from one of the stops and how long you wait for the train, which isn't long during rush hour. That said, if you're getting to the office between 8:30 and 9:00am and you live by one of the closer stops, such as Armitage of Sedgewick, you'll probably pass up overcrowded trains about 5-10% of the time and wait a few minutes for the next train.
And if you're going to be taking cabs home from the office late at night on a regular basis, it shouldn't take you more than 15-20 minutes to get home if your cab driver knows where he's going. I always tell cabbies what route to take because they -- shockingly -- often try to default to the higher fare route that involves driving east to Lakeshore Drive and heading up north from there.
And I second what an earlier poster said about the South Loop -- don't live there. While it's close to downtown, it feels like kind of a ghost town at times and you'll regret living so far from the neighborhoods where you actually to spend time in and the areas where you want to go out. My approach has always been that living close to the bars I want to go out to on the weekend isn't that important to me -- I don't have a problem taking cabs on weekend nights. What's more important is that my neighborhood has a lot of options close by that I like to hit up for lunch, breakfast, coffee, etc.
For me, I would live in River North (more west side, though) and be at a place within 10mins walking from the El (best of both worlds). Kingsbury Plaza would be a good choice and its only 7 minutes or so from Merch Mart.
Everyone will have their own opinion on the best place to live, frankly because there are a lot of really good places to live. You need to decided what you can afford and what you must have for your apartment first (for instance, if you need it to be fully furnished that will dramatically cut down your available options, do you want central AC, washer/dryer etc) and then worry about which neighborhood.
So Lincoln park or River North are the best places for analysts? I really dont care too much about night life, I just want to sleep when I get home. Rent cap at 1500$ for a single a month but preferably lower as thats NY price.
I'm looking really closely at River North and Gold Coast now as frontrunners.
And I know some kids who rent studios for more like $1000, that $1500 number is too high.
Gold Coast has a lot of solid High Rises but they may be a little more costly $1,200/1BDRM
The one that I am most familiar with is One West Superior, It has a Gym inside the building (small), outdoor pool/deck area, new building that had the interior remodeled like 18 months ago and looks great. Also, a Whole Foods connected to the ground floor so won't have to go outside in the Winter on Sundays to do some shopping
Lots of units so shouldn't be too difficult to find a place there.
1300-1600 is how much you pay for a decent 1 bdrm in lincoln park. Studios will feel way too small and the extra $2400 annually was worth it for me.
fuck. i meant to say river north. my bad.
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