To live between Bloomington and Champaign? (Chicago, Monticello: homes, purchasing, schools) - Illinois (IL) - City-Data Forum

mattywo85 · 08-18-2010, 10:54 AM

What are some cities that are still within a half an hour drive to either city? I am flexible on the driving time and am really trying to get some ideas on what cities would have housing available between the two? Please let me know any information you can thanks!

linicx · 08-18-2010, 05:23 PM

Basically you are going to find miles of corn, beans and cows between the two. Most of the ccommunities that do exist will be small and farm/ranch orientated. If you do get lucky and find a place to live you will still need a 4x4 and perhaps even a blade in the winter to get to work/school as you will most likely living off a main county road that does get plowed. Snow drifts can get mighty deep on the prairie. You may also encounter white out blizzard like conditions and black ice while attempting to drive on back roads. It may or may not happen every winter but when it does you will rememver it.

Been there done that. It was the only time I did not finish deliveries, and the only time I knew I was going to kill 5 small children.

You're better off trying to live in the where you work. Even then, county roads are still a craps shoot in the winter.

Drover · 08-19-2010, 07:20 PM

There are only two towns of any size to speak of (that is, more than 2K) directly between the two areas, namely Farmer City and LeRoy. I don't think I've ever been to Farmer City and it's been probably 15 years since I drove through LeRoy, which seemed like a decent little town at the time.

As for the idea that you need a 4x4 with a blade, that's nonsense. Plenty of people live in rural Illinois with conventional cars and they get by just fine even in winter.

mdand3boys · 08-19-2010, 07:45 PM

Since the driving between the 2 cities will be done on I74, no need for 4x4. A Subaru or Honda CR-V or Toyota RAV4 would come in handy though and save a ton on fuel costs.

linicx · 08-20-2010, 03:37 AM

You are lucky; you live in a city that knows how to deal with winter. If you are rural, and you live in the county, only the most vital county roads used by emergency vehicles are plowed. The rest are left to local traffic. Last winter my plumber said if it was not for the 4x4 he would have never gotten out of his driveway. Most folks that live in the county have a truck. It is not unusual for your neighbot to plow out the driveway with his blade. More than one farm has a drivway a half-mile long. I cannot imagine living in the county on back roads midway between B-N and C-U without a truck. A blade has many functions in rural areas besides snow. It is a handy accessory to have when it is needed.

It was 45-years ago when O'Hare and Midway were snowed in. I drove to Chicago. The only reason I got 10 miles out of town was because I followed a snow plow nearly 50 miles to 1-55. Only one lane was open on each siode and the plows couldn't scrape fast enough to keep it clean.

There was another one of those winters about 10 years later but it only dumpted 18" overnight. I could not open an outside door. Federal highways take presidence over state, city and county roads. The interstate routes between the two cities will at the least have on lane open. It is little comfort if you can't get out of the driveway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drover

There are only two towns of any size to speak of (that is, more than 2K) directly between the two areas, namely Farmer City and LeRoy. I don't think I've ever been to Farmer City and it's been probably 15 years since I drove through LeRoy, which seemed like a decent little town at the time.

As for the idea that you need a 4x4 with a blade, that's nonsense. Plenty of people live in rural Illinois with conventional cars and they get by just fine even in winter.

chet everett · 08-20-2010, 06:25 AM

...this has come up before. If you choose to live in a rural area that is far from the routine services of a larger city you have to be very self sufficient. The tiny budgets of downstate counties means they simply do not clear more than a handful of routes.

If the OP is contemplating a situation thar would cause them to need to commute to both Champaign and Bloomington on a regular basis it is probably wiser to just nearer the one where it is less likely to need to just call upa say "due to weather I will not be making it in". People die on rural roads at a far greater rate than most folks account for...

Folks that spend any significant time dealing with rural life know that you just have to accept the pace that storms subside / roads are cleared or be very self sufficient and willing to face the risks that go with it.

rural_illini · 08-20-2010, 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linicx

If you do get lucky and find a place to live you will still need a 4x4 and perhaps even a blade in the winter to get to work/school

Overly dramatic and a bit untrue. I moved in last year, into Mahomet. 3 minutes from I-74, 4 minutes from I-72, and I work both in Bloomington (40 minutes door to door) and southern Champaign (20 minutes door to door). Driving to most other parts of Champaign is about 10-15 minutes (home depot, food, restaurants, shopping, etc). We only looked at Mahomet, and physically visited 20 homes in 2 days to make a purchasing decision. If we didn't have some strict requirements in what we wanted, there would have been 100+ we could have hit. Currently, 155 homes on realtor.com in Mahomet, the nicer ones starting at $150K, 50+ over $250K, all the way up to $1,000,000. I guess we "got lucky" finding our 4000+ sq ft, 5 year old home???

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drover

There are only two towns of any size to speak of (that is, more than 2K) directly between the two areas, namely Farmer City and LeRoy.

Again, not true. Mahomet is the same distance from Champaign that LeRoy is from Bloomington. Mahomet is 6000+ people. My coworker from LeRoy tells me Mahomet is bigger.

Mahomet has excellent schools (why we chose it, check it out), easily commutable to both cities, and locally an IGA grocery store, Dairy Queen, Arby's, McDonald's, at least 4 gas stations, a hardware store, 2 Chinese restaurants, 1 mexican restaurant, Walgreen's, CVS, 2 pizza places, 2 different banks, brand new large library, a fitness gym, dozens of private businesses, including medical and dental practices, and of course Lake of the Woods park. Google the park, it's very nice. And 10-15 minutes to champaign for lowes, home depot, the mall, best buy, etc etc.

Check out Mahomet. It's not 2000 people, one DQ, one cop, and 200 meth labs.

Drover · 08-20-2010, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linicx

You are lucky; you live in a city that knows how to deal with winter. If you are rural, and you live in the county, only the most vital county roads used by emergency vehicles are plowed. The rest are left to local traffic. Last winter my plumber said if it was not for the 4x4 he would have never gotten out of his driveway. Most folks that live in the county have a truck. It is not unusual for your neighbot to plow out the driveway with his blade. More than one farm has a drivway a half-mile long. I cannot imagine living in the county on back roads midway between B-N and C-U without a truck. A blade has many functions in rural areas besides snow. It is a handy accessory to have when it is needed.

It was 45-years ago when O'Hare and Midway were snowed in. I drove to Chicago. The only reason I got 10 miles out of town was because I followed a snow plow nearly 50 miles to 1-55. Only one lane was open on each siode and the plows couldn't scrape fast enough to keep it clean.

There was another one of those winters about 10 years later but it only dumpted 18" overnight. I could not open an outside door. Federal highways take presidence over state, city and county roads. The interstate routes between the two cities will at the least have on lane open. It is little comfort if you can't get out of the driveway.

It's not just a matter of me being lucky. I have family in small towns all over east central Illinois from Ogden to Monticello. Every single one of them who works commutes to a different town; most to Champaign, one to Henning and another to Onarga. And not a single one of them has a 4x4, much less one with a blade. Only one of them has ever ended up in a ditch, and that's because he had a RWD V8 with all-season tires, plus he's kind of a sucky driver. This past winter I drove from St. Joe to Monticello in the middle of the season's worst snow storm in a VW Jetta. It took me a while to get there but I made it without any difficulty.

A conventional car will do just fine. At most, snow tires are in order.

linicx · 08-21-2010, 10:27 AM

Drover, driving on county roads in the winter once in a while is not quite the same as living in a rural area for an exteneded time. Living 5 minutes from town or the interstate is a walk in the park in a snow storm. Problems arise when you are 10 miles from town and 50 from an interstate. Driving even 2 miles on country roads in a whilte out is dangerous. Not all county roads are flat and straight. Illinois is also blessed with some monster hills, low areas and bridges that flood, narrow roads, one lane bridges and some nasty tight curves - not to mention the occassional tornatodo or T-storms with high winds in rural areas that leave paved roads blocked with downed trees and debris. Depending upon your location you may have a 30 mile detour to get to work. It's not melodramatic, I live 50 miles from 1-55. There is a big difference in topography between the Mississippi River and the middle of the state., and Eastern Illinois.

Drover · 08-21-2010, 12:54 PM

Like I said, I have tons of family in the area he's looking. They don't do these commutes "once in a while." They do it every weekday.Not a single one of them has a 4x4, much less one with a blade on it. They get by perfectly well in their regular ol' 2WD cars. I used to live down there myself. Been there, done that -- in 2WD cars, three of which were even RWD.

The OP is looking to live in a city between Champaign and Bloomington. He's not going to be 50 miles from an interstate. He's probably not going to be more than 2 miles from an interstate. Where your "50 miles" comes from, I don't have a freaking clue. There are also no "monster hills" between Bloomington and Champaign. There are barely any bunny hills. He doesn't need a 4x4. If he wants one, that's his business. But he doesn't need one.