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Portage Park offers affordable housing, convenient shopping, and one of the lowest crime rates in the city. O'Hare airport, area expressways, abundant shopping and public transportation are all nearby.

Most residents live on the quiet side streets west of Six Corners, one of the most successful neighborhood shopping areas in Chicago, and the hub of the neighborhood.

Portage Park has Chicago- and California-style bungalows, vintage Victorian homes, 80-year-old frame and stucco homes, brick two-flats and owner-occupied apartment buildings.

Portage Park is one of the finest water complexes in the Chicago Park District. From its beginning in 1915, the park itself has grown both in size and stature. Today, it provides area residents with a wide array of activities. The Aquatic Center features an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a diving pool with platforms (the only one of its kind in the Park District), a play pool for young children and an adult sun area. Portage has other athletic facilities, including two football/soccer fields, nine tennis courts, three baseball and two softball diamonds, eight horseshoe pits, two playground areas, a gymnasium and a bicycle path. In addition, early development courses in art and recreation are available for preschoolers, while older kids can attend after-school programs in dancing, gymnastics, tumbling, woodcraft and music. For adults there's boxing, woodcraft, low-impact fitness workouts, and home repair workshops.

The CTA's O'Hare-Congress-Douglas Line rapid transit trains stop at Montrose east of Cicero. There is CTA bus service on Belmont, Addison, Irving Park, Montrose, Lawrence, Milwaukee, Cicero, Central and Austin. The Kennedy Expressway (I-90/94) is a few blocks east of the neighborhood.

updated 02/05/2005 | comments