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On the lake's street (Lake Shore Drive), there are a few express buses that pick up right near there. Not much further is the Red Line train (runs 24/7). So there's something like this, which is $1095-$1185 for a 1 bedroom right near the lake, and quiet, but it's 3 minutes from a ton of restaurants and shops on Broadway, and another 3 minutes to Boystown walking. Good food up there, but no area for the amount of gay things beats Boystown here. Still has a handful of gay bars and it's a mix of gay and straight, laid back, etc. The other major scene (but still nothing compared to Boystown) is in Andersonville/Edgewater, which I would say is for a little older folk to live in (i.e. If you want a 2 bedroom for that $1500/month, you could live in an area like Lincoln Square which is a 7 minute train ride to the beginning of Boystown and you may get lucky and find a 2 bedroom for like $1300 or $1400/month. You could get a decent 1 bedroom for $900-$1200/month in Lakeview too. Maybe not the norm, but it's definitely possible if you're good enough. I've never really hard any negative comments about my friends when they've been out (some you can tell are gay, others you cannot).Īnyway - There are some 2 bedroom places in Lakeview not far from Boystown, in low rises, that you could mayyyyybe get for $1500/month.for an entire 2 bedroom. I'd say in a number of areas, nobody really gives a **** about this stuff. In any case, I'm not gay but have a lot of gay friends here. That's actually the one thing my gay friend from Manhattan who moved here 4 months ago noticed - size of some of the gay bars (no, not all). I've heard people from SF, Los Angeles, NYC, etc say it's the biggest gay bar they've ever been in. By the way, the bar here called Sidetrack is humungous. That's the best way to know since we can tell you whatever, but until you experience it - you may never know. To the OP, I'd say if you can to visit Chicago (preferably before middle October) to see if you like it, then do it. I was applying to a job in LA and I had to request $15k more than what I was currently making in order to match my current salary and COL! While that's not typical you can find easily one bedrooms in the $800-$1000, with the exception of the priciest neighborhoods. Yeah, I pay like $760 for a real nice one bedroom. $1500 could get you a 2BR in the middle of Lakeview from what I understand. It's true that Chicago attracts a lot of Midwesterners but that is not to say it does not also attract people from the coasts as well.Īs someone who has spent a good deal of time WeHo, Hillcrest (San Diego), and to a lesser extent the Castro, I will say in my experience, nothing exists in those areas that you couldn't also find in Chicago except maybe not the same extent of super high end gay clubs that apparently exist only in NYC and LA (not my scene so I don't really know).Īll in all, I think Chicago is a great city for gay guys and gals and you'll definitely save a lot of $$ coming from SF. My best friend (who is also gay) has gay friends there from Texas, California, Florida, and the East Coast. I've been to Boystown many times and have many friends who live there.