Chicago & Brooklyn- which areas to stay in?

Bonjour fellow V-Flyers.

Myself and OH are considering a 5 night break either in August or first week of September.
Choices at the moment are either New York or Chicago (we've been to NY before but not Chicago).
We're wanting to rent an apartment rather than a hotel. Budget is limited to ideally $200 a night, very much max $250 a night, as I've just blown most of my bonuses on home improvements.

Question about Chicago - which areas are 'good' are which 'not so good'?

Not bothered about night-life, just wanting somewhere safe, convenient, etc.

Have seen so far this - http://www.vrbo.com/17248 - and he has availability on our preferred dates, or this company - http://www.spsuites.com/
Any V-Flyers able to give feedback about the locations?

Alternatively if we're going to NY we seem to be limited to Brooklyn to get a fairly decent apartment. Have found a couple of possibles in Park Slope.

Again, any suggestions for nice-ish areas of Brooklyn would be great.

Thanks :)

AFAIK, the area around the courts/downtown Brooklyn or the adjacent Brooklyn Heights are probably the best areas in Brooklyn. Both offer easy access to Manhattan via Brooklyn Bridge or the subway.

45

I've never really thought about an apartment instead of a hotel room, though the prices do look better. I rarely order room service anyway, so may look at this when I do Chicago in March, so any comments or experiences welcome