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I'm a 51-year-old single woman. My company is moving my department and I will be moving from Virginia to either Arizona, Texas, or Illinois. (Atlanta is a choice, too, but I already know that will be my last choice due to the horrible traffic.)
If you live in any of the cities in the title of this thread, I'd love to hear your pros and cons of living there. I have to give my preferences in a couple of weeks.
Someone works for a big insurance company, that shall remain nameless.
You may want to reconsider your rejection of Atlanta. This is the only new complex going up that has a direct connection from the lobby to the adjacent train station. If you can land in the right neighborhood, you will literally fly above the gridlock at a pretty high speed!
Someone works for a big insurance company, that shall remain nameless.
You may want to reconsider your rejection of Atlanta. This is the only new complex going up that has a direct connection from the lobby to the adjacent train station. If you can land in the right neighborhood, you will literally fly above the gridlock at a pretty high speed!
Good luck with your decision and move.
Did the Illinois location give it away? Normal and maybe some communities just east of Peoria may work too.
Did the Illinois location give it away? Normal and maybe some communities just east of Peoria may work too.
Yes, ckhthankgod! That, and the fact that they are basically consolidating everything other than the IL HQ's into three huge new centers in the aforementioned places.
Being of a similar age and also not a fan of traffic congestion I think I would lean more toward Bloomington than the other options of Richardson or Tempe which have about 6-7 months of fairly excessive summer heat versus a variable four season climate. Both Richardson and Tempe are places that are built on sprawl development versus Bloomington which is more typical of a core downtown city with concentric outward development which makes getting around or to/from work easier.
I'll second kyles opinions as seen above.
If you are concerned about traffic, the small-sized Bloomington-Normal metro is easily the place for you.
The heat in Tempe & Richardson is ungodly awful & longlasting while Atlanta's heat is bad but noticeably better than those 2 cities. On the plus side, those 3 locations would be better than Bloomington in the winter for the tastes of many people but personally I'm really a big fan of 4 seasons weather & would pick Bloomington over Tempe & Richardson anyway.
Kyle is correct too about the sprawl factor. A short commute could add considerable time at home to both ends of your work day. I've recently made a change in my own commuting methods & brought my slog in and out both down to 1 hour each way. You'd have to live a long ways out from Bloomington to spend anything like that amount of time in a 1 way commute.
So really, it might come down to whether you want to live in the midst of a big urban mess or in a much smaller & more manageable urban seting. It's all a matter of preferences & I know that many would disagree with me but I am midwestern born & bred & after 35 plus years in the midst of a big southern urban mess, I'm over it.
What seems to be nice about Bloomington is that when combined with adjacent Normal, the population is a decent 130,000. So, it isn't necessarily a small town and you have similar sized urban cores in Peoria and Champaign-Urbana within 50 minutes, as well as Chicago only a couple of hours away or so, for that major city fix.
Besides State Farm being HQ'ed in Bloomington, Normal is home to Illinois State University. So, it has a college town vibe in part of the core.
Bloomington is a nice place, very white collar, healthy economy, and growing at a decent clip. Quick and easy access to Chicago via train, interstate, or even the regional airport that is right there (CIRA).
Bloomington is a pretty decent place. 4 solid seasons, relatively close to Chicago, and a better community than Tempe. Not sure about Richardson, TX, though. Id go with Bloomington!
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