Where is a nice place to raise a family IL? (Peoria: YMCA, schools)

[RichG]

Libertyville is a great spot too. rated in money magazine mainly for jobs and schools, its a graet place. old town heritage with all brick buildings in downtown area. well preserved. pricey homes, great acess to loop, ohare, milwaukee, etc.

thanks,

your pal,

rich

ps. Oak Park is a gerat little place too. cant beat the access to the loop, but to me its too close to the city to raise a family. depends on what you want.. safe-er upscale "mich ave" type lifestyle in a trendy "burb".. to me you may as well just pick your neighbor hood in chicago.

[IllinoisValley]

Originally Posted by Accesshorty

Hello everyone
Im really wanting to move (from our little Southern IL town) but I just need some direction on where. Im wanting to move somewhere that I can raise my family in a nice area. I would like to live in a mixed diversity community, wonderful school systems (with little league sports and tackle football for kids), lots of recreation (YMCA and more), shopping centers and/or malls, nice hospitals close to home (Im a nurse) and more. We are a very family fun oriented family and we just want to find a location that isnt a big, busy city and yet not a little small town (where everyone is in everyones buisness). I anyone would give us some help please respond. We were wanting to move within the next 2-3 months. Thank you

The "Illinois Valley" area is a great place to live and raise a family! For more INFO: Welcome to the Illinois Valley Area Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development

[nkroe]

Stay away from Belleville! You will save yourself the nightmare of a downward spiraling community, loss in real estate value, poor schools, and sky-rocketing crime. There are over 118 registered sex offenders in Belleville alone - one of the highest concentrations in the state. AND those are just the registered ones.

[illinoisnative]

Originally Posted by nkroe

Stay away from Belleville! You will save yourself the nightmare of a downward spiraling community, loss in real estate value, poor schools, and sky-rocketing crime. There are over 118 registered sex offenders in Belleville alone - one of the highest concentrations in the state. AND those are just the registered ones.

I have to respectfully disagree that Belleville is spiraling downward and would support it as a good place to live or I wouldn't be here. Median home prices are UP 4.5% this year through July despite a slowing market (and they were up last year, the year before, etc.). School testing overall looks pretty good with 18 of 20 Belleville public schools testing above state averages. The two remaining schools are the high schools, which I agree need some improvement, as do a lot of high schools in the state. But the lowest of these school's test scores are the same as your high school. What crime statistics are you specifically talking about? I'm sure some categories are probably up while others are down. Of course, most communities would say they would like to see less crime. Yes there are too many sex offenders as is the case everywhere. According to the state police website, there are 107 in Belleville which figures out to .25% (one quarter of one percent) of the population. Your town, by comparison, has 20 offenders for .21% of the population. Not that much of a difference when you consider population. Not aiming to knock your town because it's a very nice community, just checking the facts and putting them in perspective.

[jcp123]

BNL is OK...I never could stand the overly low speed limits and almost draconian police enforcement of them though (oh, wait, yes I can - it's called revenue ). It also never struck me as having a whole lot of personality, either. A lot of folks commute all the way to Peoria + surrounding areas working for Caterpillar. If you can live with that, BNL is a nice enough place to be, what with the ISU campus and University High School and all.

[nkroe]

Originally Posted by illinoisnative

I have to respectfully disagree that Belleville is spiraling downward and would support it as a good place to live or I wouldn't be here. Median home prices are UP 4.5% this year through July despite a slowing market (and they were up last year, the year before, etc.). School testing overall looks pretty good with 18 of 20 Belleville public schools testing above state averages. The two remaining schools are the high schools, which I agree need some improvement, as do a lot of high schools in the state. But the lowest of these school's test scores are the same as your high school. What crime statistics are you specifically talking about? I'm sure some categories are probably up while others are down. Of course, most communities would say they would like to see less crime. Yes there are too many sex offenders as is the case everywhere. According to the state police website, there are 107 in Belleville which figures out to .25% (one quarter of one percent) of the population. Your town, by comparison, has 20 offenders for .21% of the population. Not that much of a difference when you consider population. Not aiming to knock your town because it's a very nice community, just checking the facts and putting them in perspective.

First of all you need to examine the type of sex offenders that live in Belleville. That makes a huge, HUGE difference. I am not trying to justify or validate any sex crime but some that are more heinous than others and the offenders are not located in Highland, but Belleville.

Here is an interesting fact for Highland crime in comparison to Belleville crime - Highland Police Officers have not fired a shot in over 30 years.

As for public schools in comparison Belleville's schools are considered "low-income" schools with over 50% of the students on federal aid and discounted lunches - while Highland has only 11% of its students that are considered "low-income." That makes a huge difference in the quality of teachers that are hired, facilities offered, and sports & extra curricular programs available. The average class size is 17 to 1 in Highland. My son had 26 students in his first grade class in Belleville. That is insane!

Also, the median household income is almost $10k higher in Highland compared to Belleville.


You may brag about the growth of Belleville but it is the wrong kind of growth that will deteriorate that city faster than anything it has ever seen. Take a walk down Main Street. Look around at all of the beautiful light posts and sidewalks that are being installed. Now, go on down towards 17th Street and the Lindenwood Campus - it is a dump! Businesses are closing right and left and leaving vacant store fronts in the wake. The adults that I have encountered at Lindenwood are illiterate at best and yet they all went to school in Belleville and some how managed to graduate. Amazing, isn’t it?!

[anr_black]

I can think of a lot of towns in IL that would be a great place to raise your family. The exception is the "diversity" you stated you're looking for. As you know living in So. IL, you're not going to find that unless you live in or near a larger city. For that reason, I'd second Bloomington, Springfield or Champaign.

[ohjodi]

I have to vote strongly for Bloomington-Normal, for all the reasons previous posters have mentioned.

I'm originally from Chicago, and have lived in B-N for the last 18 years. Four colleges, two hospitals, State Farm insurance, two malls, GREAT schools, very close to other large cities, including Chicago and St Louis, very low crime, hundreds of restaurants, plenty of cultural activities (some are famous world-wide), very low unemployment, and EXCELLENT social services.

In the last ten years the community has gotten more diverse in a very positive way, IMO. When I first moved here it seemed very homogenized (I'm white, btw), but there are now small Hispanic, Indian, and Asian communities and they've opened a few stores/restaurants. There is also a small but growing Gay community.

In my job (at a grocery store) I've talked with literally hundreds of people on a daily basis, and I do believe the majority of people here are very tolerant and welcoming of minorities.

B-N offers nothing in the way of scenery, though, LOL

I really love this town.

[Juice13610]

Mascoutah, Shiloh, Fairview Heights, O Fallon, Swansea; all small towns only 15-30 minutes to St. Louis, giving you the job opps and plenty to do on the weekends.

[rkjk1971]

Mahomet is an awesome place to raise a family. the schools are great and the town is neat and clean. We are close to Champaign which offers alot of programs and events for all ages. also not far from chicago or indianapolis, if you need even more to do.