My suggestion to you then is to live in DuPage or Will County. If you are not driving, you can live near the UP-W train in DuPage County(Wheaton, Lombard, Glen Ellyn, Elmhurst) or live near the SWS train in Will County(Manhattan, Monee) and commute.

I live in Wheaton and UP-w would be a ride to Oak Park and a transfer to the Green line that lets off right at IIT

Another update...

I'm still really enjoying living in Chicago, but I haven't decided if I want to buy a home in Chicago. If I decide against it, I'll likely just move to another state with a lower cost of living. It's been nice walking or taking my bike to work. It takes me 10 minutes to get to work. Can't beat that!

But one really annoying thing about living in IL and especially Crook County is buying anything gun related. Some online gun retailers won't ship certain things to Cook or Chicago, even if they are perfectly legal. I miss being able to just buy shit online and have it show up to my door or FFL without any BS.

If you have a good job in the city move to Indiana or Wisconsin.

If you live in NW Indiana or SE Wisconsin you can drive to the commuter trains(South Shore or Union Pacific North, respectively) and commute downtown.

Both states allow CCW and NFA goodies, so you can enjoy your life and a good paying job.

If my or my wife's job ever moves north or south enough I'd move to one of those two states.

Your other option if you don't like living in Chicago city limits is to move to a surrounding county.

I've got a coworker who lives in Whiting, IN. He said it takes about 30min to get to work. That's probably the area I'd move to.

Another coworker commutes from Palatine. NO WAY would I ever make that commute.

My sister and BIL live in Highland.  Good schools, nice little town.  Griffith, Dyer, Munster and Schererville are good towns as well.

I only have been to Whiting once for the Pierogi festival.  Seemed like an older but not that bad of a town.  Towns to avoid are Hammond, East Chicago and Gary.

The Indiana Hometown forum would have more info if you choose to live in Indiana.

The other side of Indiana is that it's boring and lacking in some features IMO.

One of the things I love about DuPage County, IL is there are lots of variety when it comes to things like restaurants and in some cases, things to do.  If you use public trans to get to work, it's there.  In Indiana, it's pretty much nonexistent save for the less, ahem, desirable towns like E. Chicago and Gary.  

It's really all about what you deem important.

If I were in your shoes, I'd live where I live(DuPage) and take the trains to work.

How do you get to the METRA station in the burbs? Don't most people drive and park at the station?

NW Indiana, or 'the Region' as it's known to locals, is booming right now.

Everyone trying to stay near Chicago for business reasons is jumping to the other side of the border. We are absolutely slammed with work right now at the office (located in Merrillville).

Id guess most do drive and park.   I know some who walk if close enough, others who take a bus, some commute with neighbors, and others who ride a bike.

Some of the suburbs have bus service that connects to the METRA.

I saw my former supervisor from Texas at a conference over the weekend. She offered me my old job back with a salary slightly under what I make here in Chicago.

I'm actually considering it...

So, where'd you pick to live?  Culture shock? What you expected? Give us an AAR

I live in Bridgeport. I really like my neighborhood, although it does feel a little run down. I've got all sorts of restaurants around me, cool shops, and the people are really down to earth. To be honest, I really like Chicago and all it has to offer. There was definitely some culture shock at first. Not being able to park directly in front of my building was the first culture shock I noticed. Creepy people everywhere is the next thing I noticed. Being able to actually walk to the grocery store, CVS, library, etc has been very nice.

The girlfriend and I have spent a lot of time on the weekends going to different neighborhoods and checking out the sights.

However, there have been some negatives. I wouldn't say I feel unsafe in my neighborhood, but I do feel uneasy at times. I hear people yelling in the streets until early in the morning, and sometimes there are random drunk people walking around late at night. Even right now I hear music blasting outside. I guess someone is having a party.

But is what kills it for me is when I think about the future. I can get more home for the money elsewhere, but also not have to worry about shitty gun laws or constant tax increases.

I'm thinking I'll stick around for another year or two, then try to move back to Missouri. I couldn't deal with the heat in Texas.

You live in Bridgeport. What did you expect? It's not like you picked Lincoln Park or Wrigleyville.

You chose to live in Shitcago after all advise not to.

So I'm going to say, told ya!

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Those neighborhoods would likely be a lot worse. There are 4x as many people who live there. Surprisingly, Bridgeport is one of the safest neighborhoods in the city. But it's still in the city, so there will always be city noise.

You chose a working class neighborhood.

Lincoln Park and Wrigleyville are much nicer and more upscale.

When you get here; go to   aurorasc.org   frontpage contact list, Rifle/pistol committee. Give us a call. We have been active in clubs for 35 years and would be glad to give you the tour