Hi, my name is Luis. I'm 18. I'm a vegan since I was 5.
I'm from South America. I think I'm going to move to Chicago next year.I know that this place is not for these things, but what are the best neighborhoods to live in Chicago? It's hard to get some informations here about this things...I'm looking for a neighborhood near Blues bares, Rock bares...cheap places....near bus station or train...

I know: that ain't a place for this, but I only trust you.


Stay Rude!

Busses go everywhere in Chicago. Being near the El is better, since it's faster. Near red and blue lines are best since they are 24 hours. I moved here a year ago with my wife, and we looked at places near Chicago Diner, since we liked that place and we didn't know much about the neighborhoods. We moved into wrigleyville, which was cool. A little crazy on game days though. A nice feature of that area is that boystown, wrigleyville, southport, Belmont, and lincoln park are all in walking distance and all different vibes, so if one doesn't suit you, a few blocks away is a whole different place. If I got another apartment i'd live there or in wickerpark/bucktown.

Now i have a house in Oak Park. It's one of the few suburbs (only Evanston comes to mind) that has a good amount of it's own scene going on, as in people would go there who didn't live there. In some ways it's more chicagoey than many parts of the city (like maybe Beverly?)

If you just find a tolerable place close to transit with a short lease you can explore and find the perfect place for your next lease. Good luck

Nessie pretty much summed everything up, but I also wanted to add to check craigslist and the reader for apartments. You can find really awesome places at great prices. I found my last two apartments on craigslist, and both were 3 bed/2 bath for around 1100. Good luck!!

Luis, I've lived in Chicago my whole life and still love it. The cold takes getting used to but it's really not SO bad. :-P

1. Commute: Like Nessie said, I would definitely live by a red or blue line train station: http://www.transitchi... You can also read up on each neighborhood on this site (and there's a map of all of them): http://www.explorechi...

2. Restaurants: There are more vegan/vegan friendly restaurants up north. The Chicago Diner (Lakeview) is definitely my favorite but there are tons of Asian restaurants everywhere that can easily accommodate vegans and you'll also find a good number of Mediterranean ones all over the city. Here's a site to get you started: http://www.happycow.n...

3. Blues Bars: I've lived in Chicago my whole life but never really frequented blues bars but this list looks pretty standard: http://www.10best.com...

4. Grocery: I do most of my grocery shopping at a Whole Foods (5 locations: South Loop, East Lakeview, West Lakeview, Lincoln Park, River North) - while it is pricey, it also has the most variety for vegan foods. You can also find a lot of mock meats for cheap at Asian grocery stores (Chinatown in the south side, Viet Town on the north side). Jewel is also starting to become pretty vegan friendly and Jewel is everywhere for the most part.

5. Renting: Craigslist is a good place to start to hunt for apartment rentals - there are temp stays if you want to stay somewhere for a month before you pick a more permanent spot. My friends have also used Apartment People.

I currently live in Lakeview by Boystown and love it because there is always so much going on - tons of festivals in the summer and living across the street from the lake gives you access to running/biking paths, tennis courts, softball fields, golfing, and more. If you're into baseball, it's also close to the Cubs stadium. And there's always Wrigleyville - a strip of bars by the Cubs stadium in Lakeview and by the Red Line Addison stop.

The closer you live to downtown, the more expensive it will be, ie River North/Streeterville but that's also where you'll find tons of bars/clubs/restaurants every block. But the train system is pretty easy to follow and you can pretty much get anywhere with it.

Please dont hesitate if you have any specific questions! And I hope you find a great home in Chicago. :)

-Sophie

Hey folks,

Thanks, people.
These informations are really helping me.
I have been reading many things about Chicago.
It's great to know these informations by people who live in this city.

Thanks, Nessie, Nicole and Sophie

=)