Hellobee Boards

Downtown's hella expensive to live. Most families live in neighborhoods off the Blue, Red, Brown, Orange, and Pink lines. Logan Square, Wicker Park, Bucktown are crazy hip neighborhoods off the Blue line. Red line has Uptown, Buena Park, Rogers Park, Evanston. Brown line has North Center, Lakeview, etc. Pink Line has Pilsen. Depending upon which part of the city you chose to live in, there's parenting groups for it. The big FB Mommy group for the city is MamaTribe Chicago: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mamatribechicago/

I only know childcare options in Logan Square where we lived for 6 years. There's also Neighborhood Parents Network as well as a resource: http://www.npnparents.org/
https://www.facebook.com/NPNparents

@LindsayInNY: Most neighborhoods are about 15-20 minute commute on the El away from downtown. Downtown is the Loop, South Loop, West Loop areas. I haven't lived downtown in some time, but our rent back then wasn't anything to sneeze at.

@cascademom: will you add me??

I lived in Logam Square as well but before we had kids. If you're not opposed to living in a nearby "urban" suburb, I highly recommend Oak Park. It's about 8 miles from downtown. Green line runs along the north side, Blue line to the south, and the schools are great. There are plenty of affordable apartments. OP has its own little downtown area.

I moved to the area from Ohio for work a few years ago. I highly recommend visiting the city and scoping out the neighborhoods, public transit, and downtown area. Downtown is big!

@LindsayInNY: Here's Loop Apartments: http://loopapts.com/ to get an idea of prices. We lived in the Loop close to the West Loop. K Station and apartments near there are nice. Gold Coast is expensive and not terribly family friendly. It's a bunch of old stately homes with a crappy Jewel Osco nearby. West Loop and River North are more family friendly of the Loop areas.

Fellow Chicagoan here. We moved to the Northern suburbs last year but lived downtown near the city for 14 years. Most recently we lived in the West Loop with our toddler and it was a VERY great family neighborhood. Tons of parks, restaurants, good childcare options. It's about 10-15 minutes on the Blue Line into downtown. Some other good family neighborhoods would be Roscoe Village, Wicker Park/Bucktown, South Loop, Lincoln Park, Lakeview. Fulltime daycares anywhere in these areas would run about $2K a month or more. Chicago is a great place to live! Let me know if you have any other ?s

@cascademom: Hi neighbor! We sold our condo in the West Loop in ONE DAY, the area was booming so much. We love living up here. We are in Highland Park.

We love Chicago - live in the Lincoln Park neighborhood and LOVE it. It borders the lake, is walking distance to the free zoo, short commute to downtown (about 5-10 mins on the Red Line). There are tons of shopping, restaurants and parks for the littles. It's comparable to the feel of Park Slope but is a shorter commute.
Are you looking to rent or buy? If you want to buy, 3 beds in Lincoln Park range from mid 400s to 900k depending on the square footage and rehab status. I'm not as familiar with the rental market but would guess 2.5-3k/month for a 3 bedroom.
I'm happy to answer questions/help.

@LindsayInNY: You won't want to be actually DOWNTOWN. Downtown is more for tourists, shopping, and office buildings. The neighborhoods around the city is where you'd want to be, espcially with a young a child. All of the areas I listed are about 10-30 minutes from the actual downtown area and are great for young families.

@Worrywart: @LindsayInNY: Downtown gets quiet on the weekends too. Even West Loop which is pretty active gets on the quiet side when everyone's in the neighborhoods going out for brunch, etc.

I live in Chicago but I probably wouldn't recommend the Loop for living as much of it closes down on the weekends and other than Millennium Park, there won't be many options for playgrounds, etc. River North, West Loop and South Loop might be good options as they border the Loop but offer a bit more of a weekend life. Also, I lived in Roscoe Village for several years and it took me 30 minutes door to door to get to work on the brown line, which isn't bad. When I lived in River North, I was able to walk to the office in about 15 minutes. I would just consider an area with parks and restaurants and things to do on the weekend. Chicago is not as sprawling as cities like NYC so living in Roscoe Village or Lakeview or Lincoln Park is not like living in Brooklyn.

@LindsayInNY: We loved living in the West Loop, especially with a child! There are so many parks and amazing restaurants you can walk to. Tons of young families. It's the most up and coming neighborhood in Chicago right now and very very close to downtown. You'd be happy there! We miss it all the time.

@LindsayInNY: My sister is in River North and really likes it there. She enjoys living right downtown. Personally I like Lincoln Park, though from what I understand they don't have great high-rise options.

ETA - I forget where you are in NY at the moment, but I think you'll be able to get a lot more bang for your buck wherever you end up in Chicago - it makes me so sad to hear about real estate prices there compared with NYC!