HappyHomie

We moved into the neighborhood after living in several West Loop lofts for a number of years. Having a taste for a single family home lifestyle with a growing family and dogs, we found the area to be convenient and close to our jobs and everything that we love about the city without being too detached. We love the proximity to everything while getting to own a house with a fenced-in yard for the dogs, space for our things, and a garage for our vehicles. We love that Taylor Street offers a huge selection and variety of food choices and the University system, South Loop, and Ukranian Village is very close. We like the convenience to the Blue Line without the congestion and limited selection of single family homes north of the I-290 and even near 90-94. We also like that the neighborhood is very safe and gang free which is becoming increasingly hard to find in the city. We scoped out the neighborhood for about 2-3 months before closing on our house and found everything about it to suit our needs. More growth in the area will help both industry and housing prices as developers build more single family homes and duplexes in the area. The older side of Tri-Taylor is filled with beautiful brick homes and the newer side has only been around for about 15 years. The demographics in the area are diverse as there appears to be many ethnicities of young professionals in the area mixed with university students as well as singles. Claremont Park is a wonderful addition complete with a huge dog park and new playground. I'd say the best thing about Tri-Taylor is it's location and proximity to everything while getting to own a piece of land in the city. I'd also say that the area still needs more businesses, both small and large, to bring more interest and foot traffic to the area off Western. However, many good things appear to be coming this way while still allowing the neighborhood to remain safe and quiet. There is a top-notch veterinarian, friendly tailor, mini-markets, and a handful of great restaurants, although there are no Starbucks Coffee houses, yet. My only advice is to stay east of the tracks behind Western Avenue as North Lawndale is like traveling into the distant past or third world country. Overall, we couldn't have made a better decision to move to Tri-Taylor, the furthest neighborhood still considered part of the Near West Side. It's like getting the benefits of suburbia within the city. Looking forward to seeing what happens as far as growth in the coming years.