Pros and Cons of Living in Oak Park

Thinking of Moving to Oak Park Illinois? This is the BEST Pros and Cons of Living in Oak Park video addressing everything you need to know about living in Oak Park. I cover everything from Oak Park real estate to the Oak Park school district to cost of living in Oak Park. Can you handle the good and bad about living in Oak Park? Watch to find out!
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About Oak Park Illinois:
🟧 www.oakpark.com/Home/About-Oa...
🟨 www.visitoakpark.com/
🟩 oprfmuseum.org/brief-history-o...
🟦 www.downtownoakpark.net/
🟪 livability.com/il/oak-park
🏠 bit.ly/ForSaleSignsBannedinOak...
🌎All About Oak Park Schools:
📚 K-8: www.op97.org/
📚 OPRF High School: www.oprfhs.org/
📚 www.greatschools.org/illinois...
📚 www.schooldigger.com/go/IL/ci...
📚 www.niche.com/k12/d/oak-park-...
About the Chicago Suburbs:
🟧 bit.ly/BestChicagoSuburbs2019
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🟩 bit.ly/FriendlyChicagoSuburbs
🟦 bit.ly/SafestChicagoSuburbs
🟪 www.chicagosuburbanfamily.com
⏰ Chapters ⏰
0:00​​ Introduction
1:00​ Oak Park Community and Diversity
2:13​ Things to do in Oak Park
3:26​​ Oak Park Map
4:23​​ Property Taxes in Oak Park
5:11​ Downtown Oak Park
6:28​ Oak Park Real Estate
7:01​ Houses in Oak Park
8:01​​ Oak Park to Chicago
9:18​​ Cost of Living in Oak Park
10:04​ Oak Park Schools
🎵 Music & Sound:
🎤 Video Editor - Movavi Video Editor
🎬 Sound Effects: Computer Mouse 6028_42_3 - Audio Hero Sounds
FTC DISCLOSURE: This video is not sponsored.
#livinginoakpark #oakparkillinois #oakparkrealestate

[@favouritepearl]

Inflation and Recessions are part of the economic cycle, all you can do is make sure you're prepared and plan accordingly. I graduated into a recession (2009). My 1st job after college was aerial acrobat on cruise ships. Today I'm a VP at a global company, own 3 rental properties, invest in stocks and biz, built my own business, and have my net worth increase by $500k in the last 4 years.

[@MargaretWeir-sw3er]

Let's face it... buying more stocks & index funds during stock market corrections and bear markets is scary. Which makes it really hard to do for most people like me. I have 260k i want to transfer into an s&s isa but its hard to bite the bullet and do it.

[@BryanMcCann-ks9jh]

You need a Financial Advisor my friend so you don't get ripped off in the market. They provide personalized advice to individuals based on their risk appetite, placing them among the best of the best. There are bad ones, but some with good track records can be very good.

[@MargaretWeir-sw3er]

I agree with you totally, Yes they can be positively impactful to an individual's portfolio. I started with a trust Financial Adviser named " Jenny Pamogas Canaya She is verifiable and her work ethic complies with the US Investment Act of 1940. Her approach is transparent, allowing full ownership and control of my portfolio with very reasonable fees relative to my portfolio earnings.

[@BryanMcCann-ks9jh]

I know I've wanted to start investing for a few months, but just haven't had the courage to start because the market has been down for most of this year. Please how can I reckon with such skills and what are his services like?

[@MargaretWeir-sw3er]

She covers things like investing, insurance, making sure retirement is well funded and looking at ways to have a volatility buffer for investment risk, lots of things like that. You can take a look at her full name on the internet. She is renowned. So it shouldn't be difficult to find her official webpage.

[@KellyLamich]

Watching this makes me miss oak park! It’s such a great, beautiful, and diverse town! Love it’s proximity to downtown too 🤩😍

[@trainliker100]

While the "downtown" district centering on Lake and Marion he describes is the largest, it is not the only one. There is also what is now called the "Hemmingway District" on Oak Park Avenue between Grove and Euclid (Oak Park Ave. being four blocks east of Marion). Then there is the "Arts District" in south Oak Park with galleries and restaurants and more on Harrison Street and also called the Harrison Street Arts District.

[@AnthonyHasbun]

Super helpful, appreciate the info!

[@robertw.previdi5450]

Great video, however, the #3 item that you list as a bad thing, small yards is - for me and I'm sure others is NOT a bad thing. Living on top of your neighbor is what makes for quaint experience. Also, not everyone wants a big yard. I live in Philadelphia across the street from a city park and the city cuts the grass, which I love :) Having lived in NYC and Philly I like Oak Park because it reminds me of Forest Hills, Queens and Chestnut Hill, Mt Airy a place where houses are tight, people are friendly and walk and kids bike to school and parks. Real community comes when you can see your neighbors and say hi, not drive all the time.

[@AustinWeiss]

Great insight and thanks for watching 🤙

[@JR-gh8lp]

Thats good news about Cicero , Breywin and Austin neighborhood improvements

[@garagegains5285]

I’m right off of Home and Stanley in Berwyn (southwest corner of Berwyn, and a few blocks east of Harlem Ave). Oak Park is awesome, but can also be real expensive. Affordable rent (from what I have found) in Oak Park is usually anything that borders Austin, which is still rough (for now), or the south side around 290. If I were buying/renting, it would be in Berwyn. Blue line runs just to the north, and BNSF runs through it on the south side. 290 runs just to the north, 55 just a couple of minutes south. It’s on the cusp of becoming the next Oak Park, and it’s an easy drive to Oak Park. There’s a lot of beautiful homes here, too. Tons of diversity as well. Super easy to get to the city also. This video is spot on!

[@AustinWeiss]

You are right about Berwyn, it has some great things going for it and quite a few young people and families moving their for its affordability and proximity to Chicago.

[@trainliker100]

He touched on the older houses being rehabbed. A lot of Oak Park houses, especially in South Oak Park, are of the "American Foursquare" design or similar and typically built circa 1920's. North Oak Park tends to have quite a few larger houses and lots and, in that respect, is a bit more like River Forest. If you look at real estate listings, you will see quite a few where the "rehab" is very substantial. There are many houses where people have spent a LOT of money fully finishing basements, finishing attics, adding bathrooms in basements and sometimes attics, and so forth. I suspect that in many cases they don't recoup all the remodeling costs in the selling price. And some larger houses that had been converted into two flats have been converted back into single family homes. Also, many of the old "3 story walk-up" apartment buildings have been converted to condos. And it is typical that they have been upgraded (such as having a washer and dryer in the unit). I happen to have grown up in the one at the northeast corner of Washington Blvd and Kenilworth. And when they converted it condos, they couldn't think of a name for the project so named it after the tenant who had been renting there the longest. That was my mother (lived there since WWII). So it is called "Kinzer Court".

[@NWKohout]

1:22 I REMEMBER THAT GROWING UP I HAD THAT

[@christophermathew7934]

Hi, I was curious where I could find that map in your channel tab, the one at the top that says "western suburbs"?

[@AustinWeiss]

Not sure where I got it from but you could probably make one on picmonkey or canva

[@NWKohout]

7:08 I have a 100-109 year old house and it’s really good. W

[@trainliker100]

I think he might have touched on the "con" of difficulty parking, but perhaps not enough. Oak Park was highly built up by the 1930's before there was a notion of how many cars would eventually be seeking places to park. All of those many three story apartment buildings have no parking at all. And Oak Park doesn't allow parking from 2:30 am to 6 am on the streets (except by permit or pass). So it can be a real problem. So this means if you live someplace with no parking place, you might have to get a permit to park on the street. Or might have to pay to park in a parking lot. Or perhaps rent private garage space in a homeowner's garage. Some have built extra garages just for that purpose. I remember the house just north of the apartment building at Washington and Grove had TWO four car garages. Newer buildings tend to have parking on the bottom level under the building. And, as another annoyance, if you visit somebody in Oak Park, you need to get a permit to park on the street overnight. Or find some place to park such as the lot at the Oak Park Arms.

[@carolnewton496]

I grew up in Oak Park, but never bought there as the taxes are too high, especially considering a lot of the homes needed rehabbing then. My parents left in 2000 when they retired, also because of taxes. The high school's rating has gone down from my time, but is still pretty good.

[@ericastanton2010]

do you need parking permit from the city if you have already have off street parking set up

[@AustinWeiss]

If you are parking on the street overnight you need a parking permit, and off street parking does not require a permit - I use to rent a parking space from my neighbor in the alleyway.

[@DarkroomZombie]

I lived there for a while. One of the worst places I ever lived at. I have a physical disability and walk with cane. Me and my family where physically attacked, harassed, had our property vandalized and destroy daily by our mean, narcissistic and toxic neighbors who did not like people with disabilities. They even came over and told us they wanted us to leave Oak Park because people like me with disabilities knock down their property value. It was just insane to have to deal with nonsense like this. They also made up a bunch a lies trying to get others in area to also attack us. It was so horrible having people be this disrespectful, rude and down right mean. Specially after hearing Oak Park was a good area for people with physical disability to live at. It was not the case. Chicago and the rest of the area have been awesome, never had a problem like in Oak Park.

[@charlesh1735]

Our GPS sent us through Oak Park when we were visiting Chicago back in 2015. The South end of Oak park was littered with gang bangers and normal low level drug dealers. Then as we traveled a few miles North the neighborhood turned into upper class historic Holmes that had good size lots on them. It was like night and day just traveling a few miles North in Oak Park.

[@trainliker100]

Oak Park has a very interesting history of integration. Traditionally it had been all white with the notable exception in the 1950's of Dr. Percy Julian and his family. (Dr. Julian was a research chemist and developed medicinal drugs from plants and has appeared on a U.S. postage stamp.) Dr. Julian's son was the same age as my older brother and attended Oak Park and River Forest Township High School. They were harassed by a few and Dr. Julian even stood on his front lawn once with a shotgun to make the point that he wasn't going anywhere. But notably, most people in Oak Park rallied around Dr. Julian. As things moved into the 1960's and all the various racial turmoil, many in Oak Park had fears of "white flight" and property values dropping if blacks moved into Oak Park. All they had to do was look at the Austin neighborhood on the east side of Austin Blvd. to confirm their fears. This was a common fear in many white communities throughout the country and certainly not just something local to Oak Park. Also as was done across the country, there was "redlining" which meant that blacks could not get a mortgage or buy a house in Oak Park. In 1965, a white Presbyterian Minister made a straw purchase of a house and immediately sold it to a black family (McLouis and Harriette Robinet). Since this was actually illegal, the minister when asked about it said that he did it for a greater good. What isn't as widely known is that a white Oak Park lawyer named Jim McClure handled everything for the minister and family. Jim McClure was also scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 16 at the First Presbyterian Church and I was a member of the troop. Jim McClure was also a good friend of my father who had been a Boy Scout Council Commissioner and District Commissioner (volunteer positions). But there is more. Jim McClure helped lead Oak Park to integration that was done in ways to preserve the community. Arguably these efforts were the leading efforts in the country. Oak Park passed a "Fair Housing Ordinance" in 1968. And Jim McClure was President of the Village of Oak Park from 1973 to 1981. One of things Jim McClure stressed was that when it came to discussing problems and solutions, you needed EVERYBODY of all sides and races represented around the table. Today, Oak Park is 21.13% black and the Illinois average is 14.30% and nationally 12.63%. That's quite a change in just fifty years or so. The village is as vibrant as ever, probably more so, and property values are rather good. The quality of schools has deteriorated some, but I think that is tied more to nationwide trends than anything local to Oak Park.

[@trainliker100]

@Dark Roast ☕️ I can tell you another story from back in the day (1963 actually) of which there was a lot of press, but I also have personal knowledge. Milton Preves, a guest conductor of the Oak Park Symphony, had invited violinist Carol Anderson to sit in and play with the orchestra. She was black. And he didn't ask the symphony board first. The chairman of the symphony board was Marie Dock Palmer who was also principal cellist. She also played cello in my mothers piano trio (my mother was also a professional concert pianist) and was my mother's best friend. We saw the Palmer's quite often and I was at their home many times. Marie balked at having the violinist play and the guest conductor resigned over it. BIG news story at the time. Marie was not really racist herself, and a retrospective in the Oak Leaves many years later pointed this out. At least, no more racist than the average white person who was a child of their times who might say, "but I have a good friend that is - whatever." My mother told me Marie had nothing personal against the violinist, but didn't think it was the role of the symphony to take the lead on integration. Marie just didn't want the symphony involved in what was a huge controversy at the time. And she ended making a big controversy unintentionally. She actually told the violinist when withdrawing the invite that the orchestra would lose community support and that "as a Negro" she would understand. Carol Anderson apparently did NOT understand and neither did the guest conductor who was Jewish and had a few strong opinions of his own about such things. At that time, quite a few people were not necessarily against integration, but perhaps were more comfortable if "somebody else" stepped up to lead it. At any rate, today we use the term "start a conversation" and this started a LOT of conversations in Oak Park. This event was actually another big catalyst in Oak Park moving more aggressively toward integration.

[@charliestuff3684]

I live there lol

[@vincetorres7805]

Riverside il is a 5min drive away and way nicer and big lots with no almost no crime

[@AustinWeiss]

I like Riverside - smaller suburb and the curvilinear streets are fun.

[@Bigkingmonster408]

You sound like an army guy, were you ever in the army, man?

[@AustinWeiss]

Nope, can't say I've ever been asked that question before either. You live in Oak Park?

[@NWKohout]

My sister stole a sign from the L

[@NWKohout]

Hehe

[@OPRF]

LOOK UNDER YOUR BED

[@AustinWeiss]

I did, there wasn't anything there

[@bevwilliams3739]

in 2019 it started to be a little bet PRIVILEGE!!!