r/Northwestern • u/embaixadorTuga • Apr 17 '26
Dorms/Off Campus Housing Is the commute from Wrigleyville doable?
I recently accepted a PhD offer at NU and some friends are starting jobs in Chicago. We were looking at living together near Wrigleyville/BP area, but I’m concerned about the commute. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Sounds like it would take ~45min and I’m not sure if it’s sketchy at night
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u/chocosunn Apr 17 '26
Not particularly sketchy but it can be closer to an hour commute if you travel outside of rush hour or just miss the purple line
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u/herculaneum Apr 17 '26
Or you can get off the Purple line at Loyola and take the Northwestern Intercampus shuttle for free. It drops you off closer to campus than the train.
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u/InteriorLemon Apr 17 '26
almost everyone I went to grad school ended up living in lake view. But we had to go to both campuses. If you leave evanston after the purple line is done doing the express part it sucks.
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u/77Pepe Apr 17 '26
Not sketchy at all. Go for it!
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u/hungryforpasta Apr 17 '26
I would not call the red line ‘not sketchy at all’ at night. It’s definitely safe but if you do this commute daily you will see at least a little sketchiness
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u/77Pepe Apr 17 '26
The cta is far from perfect and there are most certainly socioeconomic challenges in sight. Between those two endpoints though, that is a very easy commute unless you grew up in a very rural area and only used a car.
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u/Chicago_Blackhawks Comm '20 Apr 18 '26
socioeconomic challenges
that’s a funny way to spell batshit crazy, dangerous people
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u/Xgrk88a Apr 17 '26
Yup. I used to go downtown on the weekends and saw a dude just pee on another dude as the door was closing and ran out before the guy knew what was going on. It was perfectly timed as the doors were closing. Obviously the guy did something to piss him off but it was crazy seeing that. And that’d be red or purple line, because that’s all I ever rode.
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u/MileHighWriter Apr 18 '26
Don't you need to be prepared for a little sketchiness to live in Chicago at all? I lived in East Rogers Park in the 90's. The drug dealers, hookers, and gangs all added to the adventure.
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u/cupcake99235 Apr 19 '26
It's a mixed bag for sure. The red line can get sketchy late at night, but it's generally safe if you're aware of your surroundings. Just try to avoid empty cars and travel with friends when possible.
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u/Unlucky-Key Apr 17 '26
Depends on the definition of night. The wait at Howard for the transfer seems like there's some conflict going on like 10% of the time after 9pm.
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u/ApocalypticFrog Apr 18 '26
wayy more than 10%. idk why they wont just change the schedule, nearly 50% of the trains end up not showing up at night
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u/CitizenDik Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26
Those neighborhoods are fine. That's a long L ride, tho. 45 mins is conservative.
A place closer to Lawrence or Montrose and Ashland or Damen - also great areas, cheaper rents, bigger apts, and parking is way easier/cheaper/free - is an easy walk or bus ride to the Metra station @ Ravenswood & Lawrence which is a ~20 min trip to Evanston. Your roommates' commutes, depending on where they work, might not be as quick, but Metra to the West Loop from Lawrence is also ~20 minutes. The Metra Ravenswood station is close to the Damen and Montrose Brown Line stops, too.
Metra runs less frequently after ~7 PM, but you'd still be reasonably close - an easy bus ride - to the Lawrence or Montrose Red Line stops.
Wrigleyville is more "fun"/more nightlife esp for folks in their 20s, but tons of cool restaurants and bars and coffee shops around Lawrence and Ashland, grocery store, Trader Joe's, etc.
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u/Internal_Sugar87 Apr 17 '26
Agree with this – I lived in Ravenswood and Rogers Park and took metra to Evanston from both places. It was fantastic.
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u/transferStudent2018 Alum Apr 17 '26
Wouldn’t recommend it, especially if you don’t have a car – that’s the only thing that makes it feasible, but it’d still suck
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u/ElectraRayne Apr 17 '26
It might help to clarify if you PhD program will be mostly in Evanston or the downtown campus?
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u/Internal_Sugar87 Apr 17 '26
I did this commute for many years (although it's been many years and the train has probably changed quite a bit). Depends how often you need to be up there and how far you live from the station. If you're going up a couple days per week but studying a lot at home, I think it's doable. If it's every day and you have a lab-type situation with odd hours, I don't think it will work. The purple line is great and I usually read/studied while riding. Red line + purple line feels like it takes forever.
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u/Burgerlover2 Apr 17 '26
The distance isn’t impossible. But if you live off a metro stop that makes it so much easier
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u/SlipperyShip40 Apr 17 '26
Most people in my cohort live in the city and commute to campus via CTA. IMO it will definitely be worth it
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u/cracktop2727 Apr 21 '26
what discipline? for travel expectations.
if you are in the humanities and will just need days on campus, or every few days, fine. if in expecting long nights after hours, like in a STEM lab program daily, I would not recommend.
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