Can you tell me about living in Jacksonville or Springfield? (Chicago: schools, college)

[PinkDenial]

My husband is considering a job in Jacksonville, IL. If anyone lives there (or used to), can you please tell me more about it?

But of course working in Jacksonville doesn't necessarily mean living in it. I would also consider living in Springfield, but I'm very confused by what areas would be best for us to raise a family.

I appreciate any feedback you can offer!

[linicx]

There is old farm expression that says, "There is more than one way to cut the fat hog."

Jacksonville is a nice enough town of less than 20,000 people. If you want more bang for your book live in Springfield. It is*more*diverse*because it is*the State Capital. You will have better services from top to*bottom, more doctors, more entertainment, bigger parks, Kight's Action Water Park, better snow removal, better Interenet connection, better shopping, better selection and more.*You will also have a broader selection of schools from K to College. In short Springfirld offers more ammenities.

Central Illinois is farm country from border to border. Jacksonville is surrounded by corn and cows. So is Springfireld. If you like small towns and farm life you will love Jacksonville. If you don't you won't.

[PinkDenial]

Thank you. I'd like to add that we currently live in a community adjacent to Kankakee. How different/similar is the Springfield or Jacksonville areas to where I currently live?

[linicx]

The last time I was in Kankakee it was a sleepy farm town that didn't offer too much. I don't know what it is today.

There are two easy and very different routes to take into Springfield. One is I-55 It is the concrete ribbon that passes through miles and miles of cornfields and replaced the Mother Road that began in Chicago. The other begins south of Princeton on IL 26 and connects to IL 29. The scenery is entirely different. You enter the Heart of Illinois in Marshall/Stark Counties that ends in Sangamon County at Pana which is a few short miles past Springfield. At one point in the journey you will be less*than 20*miles from the largest Inland Wetlands Refuge in America, three zoological parks and some very nice State Parks,. You will pass thought towns large and small.

When you reach Springfield you will have a much better idea of what the difference is between Chicagoland and downstate. You can find a half-dozen malls but you cannot find Trader Joe's or Costco. Jacksonville is closed to St. Louis and 1/10 the traffic than in Chicago. Springfield is four times larger than Jacksonville. When you live in a truly rural area, which Kankakee is not, you find all the big events, malls, semi-pro teams, country clubs, and the stuff your kids want to do are in the larger towns as are the hospitals.

The only reason to mention the following is because you said in one of the your threads that you have a child. The only hospital in Illinois that is affiated with Easter Seals, Shriner's Hospitals and St.Jude's Research Hospital is Cildren's Hospital of Illinois in Peoria. The only Top 25 ranked hospital in the southern half of the Midwest is Barnes-Jewish in St. Louis. I have zero*experience with my children in a Springfield hospital.