Best Places to Live in Chicagoland

CHICAGO, March 17, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- With home values in Chicago finally taking a turn for the positive, Chicago magazine editors pored through information galore to compile a list of The Best Places to Live in and around Chicago, with a focus on families with kids. The list, featured in the April issue of Chicago magazine, includes 12 city neighborhoods and 12 suburbs that boast low crime rates and great amenities to help those in the market find their perfect home. The Latest Home Price Data also provides essential statistics for the entire six-county metro area, including sales prices and changes over time in the median home in 77 neighborhoods and 214 towns.

The photo essay Still Standing showcases five dwellings on the South and West sides that escaped being demolished during the real estate craze, where developers tore down old houses to make room for the new, which never ended up getting built. What resulted were these houses and apartments surrounded by vacant lots, eerie in their isolation.

On newsstands Thursday, the April issue also includes the winners of the eighth annual Green Awards – honoring individuals whose eco-conscious efforts challenge conventional wisdom and refuse to accept the status quo. The 2014 winners include:

• Chef Rick Bayless, for creating a new farm economy
• Financier Bimbola Adisa, who sees Africa as the next clean energy frontier
• Atmospheric scientist Elisabeth Moyer, with a sky-level perspective on global warming
• Furniture designers Erin and Jason True, on promoting sustainable design
• Biologist May Hennen, who helped save an endangered species

In Hannibal Off Center, Chicago profiles the 31-year-old Chicago-born comedian, Hannibal Buress, who is conquering America with a style all his own. Named for a legendary Carthaginian general who marched on Rome with a pack of elephants, Hannibal is fashioning his career after such comedians-turned-entertainment-moguls as Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow. He has made his mark writing for Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock and performing at such Chicago venues as the Vic and Zanies.

Other stories from the April issue of Chicago magazine include:

• Music: Second Coming of Soul – Highlights the best soul revivalists – all over the age of 50 – who are bringing back the '60s sound. Includes download recommendations by each artist.
• Dining Trend: The New Whoppers – A superlative list of the over-the-top new burgers to check out now, including the messiest, wildest, fanciest, and porkiest.
• Restaurants: 12 Great Places to Eat After Curfew – These top-rated restaurants don't stop serving just because the clock has struck 11 p.m. Dine late into the night at such popular spots as Au Cheval, Avec, and Pizano's.
• Vox: Senate Confidential – Chicago's exclusive interview with Dick Durbin's former staffer, Kathleen Ronney, on her dishy new novel, O Democracy!, starring a protagonist who's an aide to a "workhorse" Illinois Senator. It's getting buzz as the Devil Wears Prada of the political set.

Chicago magazine's editor-in-chief Elizabeth Fenner and other members of the magazine staff are available for on-air interviews about stories in the April issue. Contact Carmen Rivera at 312-832-6763 to schedule an interview. For more information on Chicago magazine, visit chicagomag.com

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About Chicago magazine
Chicago magazine, the nation's largest city monthly, launched in 1970 and has been owned by Tribune Company since 2002. Together with its website, chicagomag.com, Chicago spurs intelligent conversation about the city's influencers, zeitgeist-defining trends, and civic controversies through award-winning, in-depth journalism.  Just as important, it helps readers live better by producing the area's most authoritative coverage of the best in food, art, and urban life. Always insightful, at times provocative, Chicago magazine is as dynamic as the city that inspires it.

About Chicago Tribune Media Group
Chicago Tribune Media Group publishes the Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Tribune as well as related print and interactive media serving Chicagoland such as RedEye, Hoy, Triblocal, TheMash, Naperville magazine, chicagotribune.com, triblocal.com and metromix.com.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140317/CG84535

SOURCE Chicago magazine