“It’s like you are in a rainforest,” Maureen O’Brien said, describing the water trickling from trees.
The rainforest is Oak Park, the water is from the fire department spraying hoses from hydrants, and the trees line O’Brien’s street, where her neighbors host an annual summer block party.
Before her family’s move to Oak Park two years ago, O’Brien, 37, was skeptical about suburban life. But now she’s gushing about her block (“we really lucked out”) and quick to recall the fun moments she looks forward to every year.
After her daughter Aoife, now 4, was born, the corporate governance director for a financial advisory firm started looking for a home that felt part of a community. She says her family got lucky by settling in Oak Park, a village just west of Chicago.
O’Brien and her husband, Matthew Murray, 38, were drawn to Oak Park — a straight shot from downtown Chicago and connected on the CTA’s Green and Blue lines — for its proximity to the city, good schools and affordable prices, among other features.
“It doesn’t feel that far away,” she said about Oak Park, and added that it has “more of an urban feel.”
The couple moved to the Chicago area with then 5-month-old Aoife 3 1/2 years ago after nine years in Washington, D.C. O’Brien is from Wood Dale and has family in the Chicago area. She said she started looking at Evanston and other places outside the city, but the northwest suburbs felt isolated.
While looking for a house to buy, they rented in the Logan Square and Lakeview neighborhoods and decided the pockets in the city with good schools were out of their price range. Oak Park stood out with a tot-lot playground nearby, a short walk to a day care center and the convenience of the Blue Line.
“Those three things came together,” she said, “and sealed the deal” on a house O’Brien described as a 100-year-old or so “little tiny house” with “a lot of character but a lot of things we have to fix.”
With the neighborhood came a block filled with young families. “We don’t have to go far … the kids all play together,” she said. It’s a good sense of community, especially with the fall and summer block parties. A bounce house is usually the “big-ticket item,” neighbors put together a potluck and one family always taps a keg. The fire department sometimes provides the instant rainforest experience.
O’Brien had a brief stint volunteering on the city’s Community Relations Commission and learned more about what she considers the city’s reputation as a diverse community with a low crime rate. She lauded the public library, free Wi-Fi at a main city park, a compost program and other free or low-cost civic programs.
“It’s a really well-funded and well-organized community,” she said.
Oak Park offers plenty for a young family. “We basically live here for (Aoife),” O’Brien said. Two community pools are summertime favorites. In the winter, Aoife enjoys the indoor ice rink. The park district also offers affordable extracurricular activities.
The Avenue Ale House with a rooftop deck is the family’s favorite hangout for dining.
Another must-do activity is the Saturday farmers market in the parking lot of a church. There are other attractions and goodies to be found from local bands playing bluegrass tunes to the local produce.
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Oak Park has a slew of special events from A Day in Our Village open house in June to a July Fourth parade to Thursday Night Out weekly summer celebrations.
The village is also on the map for its famous residents and architecture. Ernest Hemingway was born in the Chicago suburb, and visitors can go to a museum about the famous author. O’Brien was quick to point out that Betty White is from the city too.
Frank Lloyd Wright left his mark in the western suburb as well. The home and studio that he built and where he raised his family is now a historic landmark. Another impressive architectural structure is Oak Park’s Unity Temple built by Wright in the early 1900s. The concrete building is home to the Unitarian Universalist church.
Although the pull of city life with trendy Chicago restaurants, art museums and Lake Michigan beaches does win out sometimes, O’Brien said, “It’s very easy to spend a weekend in Oak Park.”