questions about the peoria area!!please help! (Chicago, Bradley: apartments, renting)

[devorich]

hi everyone!
my dh has a potential job opportunity at a hospital in peoria and we would like to get more info on the area from a local perspective.
info: we have one young child so we would like opinions of safe, family friendly neighborhoods, crime in the area, and fun stuff for kids to do etc.
also what is your weather like? how hot and humid does it get, how bad are your winters and do you get tornados or anything else prone to the area we should know about?
last but not least-bugs??? do you get nasty bugs in the houses...???
any help would be greatly appreciated!
thanks!!!!!

[prairiestate]

Well, first thing to know, Peoria is not a suburb of Chicago.

[peoriashows]

Everyone says if you don't like the weather in Central Illinois, wait an hour. We go from extreme to extreme. It's hot and humid in the summer, but nowhere near as bad as Louisiana or Florida. It gets bitter cold in the winter, but only for a few days at a time. We get bugs, but not the giant roaches like they get in the south. The scariest bugs are the prying Mantis' but I only see one or two a year and they're only bad on the outskirts of town because of all the flora.

Which hospital will you be working at? Randolph Terrace, right behind Methodist hospital is a great historic neighborhood with a lot of families and young professionals who live on the street. Other great neighborhoods near the hospitals downtown are Moss/Bradley, The Uplands, Armstrong ave and High st. They all have nice, historical homes and apartments occupied by well-established families or Bradley University students who are renting. University East, The Orchard district & Heart of Peoria neighborhoods are re-developing neighborhoods near the hospitals that have spent a few decades in despair. It's probably not the best place to move to right away unless you're interested in restoring old homes. The East Bluff, Old Town North and the Southside have higher crime that other parts of town. Unfortunately St. Francis is near East Bluff & Old Town North and I wouldn;t recomend walking too far from your house after dark in those neighborhoods. They are also re-developing, but at a much slower rate than the West Bluff neighborhoods I mentioned above.