Information on Oak Park

Oak Park is a great place to live.
I'm a single mom and have lived here for the last 20 years.
I've raised my 4 kids here and only have one left at home.
The area is great, the education is awesome.
I'ts a little bit pricier on the north end of oak park,but
Central and south is of medium prices for houses.
There is so much to do from toddler to teens. There are alot of programs for everyone.
I don't really know about transportation as I don't use, but I do know they have a shuttle to take you places as my son and his friends have used it when they don't feel like walking.

Hello M.,

I live in Riverside,about 2 miles away, and its great. The elementary school acoss the street from me (Blythe) is rated 5th in the State. Its a lot less city like than Oak Park, taxes are less, theres a lot less congestion, the neighboring communites around Riverside are much safer than the Austin neighborhood of Chicago(OakParks eastern border).Public transit is minimal (metra train downtown is good, but no busses through town, only on border streets like harlem ave, 1st ave, 22nd street, ogden ave). But its small, you can easily walk to the underwhelming but useful downtown. The library is great, and there are a couple of decent coffee shops that a lot of the SAHM's frequent between scooting the kids from here to there. Its a very, very nice place to raise a family. Check it out. The nice thing is you are central enough that if there is something in Oak park that you want to make part of your life, its a 10 minute drive away. Like wise with La Grange. Good luck with your house hunting.

Keith.

I live in Berwyn... just south of Oak Park. I'd love to live in Oak Park but cannot afford it!

Great place to raise kids. I love my fantastic and affordable chicago bungalow in Berwyn and love being close enough to Oak Park to take advantage of a lot of the resources there too!

We lived in Oak Park before we moved this fall. Quite frankly, we are moving back as soon as we can find jobs in the area. Oak Park is a wonderful communit-great schools, great older homes, and great activties. All you could want in a community.

We've been here for 12 years raising three children, and think it is a wonderful community, though the property taxes are ridiculous. It is a very diverse, child friendly community, with nice parks, pools, schools, libraries, etc. There's the Farmer's Market, outdoor concerts and children's theater. It's a very active, involved community, which is nice when it is possible to 'fight City Hall', and have an impact. Everyone has an opinion on everything, but usually folks don't take themselves too seriously. I would say the housing east of Ridgeland, both north and south, is a little more affordable.

We have lived in Oak Park for a little over two years (moved from the north side of the city) and we love it. We specifically chose Oak Park because it was where we wanted to raise our children as it reflects everything we believe in. I could go on, but Jen pretty much said it all perfectly. Only downside of Oak Park is indeed the taxes, but it's worth it! Love it, plan on never leaving!

Hey M., I am a new-ish resident of Oak Park, and I would highly recommend it! I second everything written by Jen, below. It's just a great place to be a SAH parent. There is so much to do! And if you do end up moving here, let me know... I am trying to see if I can get a few folks together to start a new playgroup for 2-yr-olds.

Hi M.. We moved to Oak Park about 7 years ago and we have a 6 yo in first grade in the public school here. My younger son is almost three and is in a home-based daycare right now. Oak Park is everything I ever wanted in a community - public transportation, walkable neighborhoods, access to everything, lots of kids and things for them to do, and an involved, warm, intelligent, diverse (economically and racially) community. We're south of the Eisenhower, where housing is a little more affordable but lots and houses are smaller. The people in the neighborhood tend to be an interesting mix of ages and professions although not wealthy - the parents of our kids' school friends are teachers, web designers, scientists, architects, professors, police officers, etc. Further north in town you see more bankers, CEOs, lawyers.

I work (mostly at home) but there are plenty of SAHMs here too - I would guess more than half. You could stop in at Parenthesis (they have a childcare drop-in for parents to socialize, etc.) http://www.parenthesis-info.org/ to meet some mothers. Or stop by the Buzz Cafe (Harrison and Lombard) any weekday morning and strike up a conversation with the owner, Laura, or any of the mothers and kids that come in for coffee and conversation.

Drawbacks of Oak Park are that you pay quite a bit for smaller, older houses and the property taxes are really high. We just had our 3-year assessments, so when you're looking at properties, make sure you get the 2005-2006 information.

There's a visitor's center in downtown Oak Park where you can get all sorts of free maps and information (look for the Answer Book), or check out http://www.oak-park.us/, the village's web site.

Not sure how to answer all of your questions briefly (and I can see this is getting really long!) but I'd be happy to answer more by e-mail -

We are rich in public transportation. (2 L lines, green and blue, plus Metra that runs right through town and just north of here in Galewood.) We also have Pace buses and a free village shuttle bus.

We have dozens of great pre-schools (I'm familiar with many of them) and private schools. We have a beautiful new library with lots of children's programs and great parks and programs (see "property taxes" though :-) We've been very happy with the quality of the public schools so far.