Help smaller towns wanted! (Chicago, Naperville: sex offenders, big house, movie theater)

[bsoe five]

ROWVA is a Bright Star School.....Great family home for sale there right on edge of town--very family friendly--if you are still interested--let me know.........(15 minutes from G-burg)

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by Scribbler

You also don't need access to grocery stores with pricey organics when you have the space to grow your own produce and farm stands at your fingertips.

To the OP, you mention you're a Galesburg native; are you seeking something of that general size, or something really small?

If you know nothing about gardening, it will be hard at first to grow your own. Plus you have to have the time to put into canning, freezing, etc. I was very disappointed when I lived in Champaign that there weren't very many farm stands. It was all agri-business there back then (1970s). Perhaps things have changed.

[arpschneider]

Originally Posted by Schmoo

Lindsay, I might caution you not to go too rural if you are big into environmentalism and organics. You will get wide open spaces and gorgeous stars, but you will not get any recycling programs, and a lot of studies are suggesting that rural areas may be more polluted than urban. Rural areas have no emission testing, pesticides and herbicides are still sprayed all over in crop dusters. Farm implements are not 'eco friendly', nor are hog farms, everyone drives a pick-up. You won't want to take a big breath of clean air in on fertilizing day when the whole town stinks of liquid pig poop. And last week I came home to a front yard covered in some sort of blue foam agricultural pesticide that blew over & couldn't let my dogs onto the grass for a week.

So if living a green lifestyle is important to you, like it sounds, you may want to look at some larger small towns, or at least take a good hard look at very rural communities. There are certainly perks, but certainly drawbacks too. Good luck to you.

Most rural areas I am familiar with have some form of re-cycling. DeWitt County in Central IL is about as rural (read: "hick") as you can get and yet they have a thriving re-cycling business. The only "catch" is that you take it to the green boxes, as there is no curbside pick-up!

Faithfully,

G.A.

[ndb]

Take a look at Champaign-Urbana and the communities surrounding it (Mahomet, Monticello, Clinton, Tolono, St. Joseph, Etc.). The university lends a lot of diversity and "green" nature to the area but it still has the smaller town feel. I've lived in the area my whole life and, although I wouldn't mind moving to the pacific NW, I certainly like it here.

BTW, I grew up in DeWitt Co. (Clinton) and it's not NEARLY as "hick" as some of the other smaller town around Central, IL. It's actually pretty progressive for a town of less than 10,000.
nb

[arpschneider]

Originally Posted by ndb

I grew up in DeWitt Co. (Clinton) and it's not NEARLY as "hick" as some of the other smaller town around Central, IL. It's actually pretty progressive for a town of less than 10,000.
nb

In some ways, yes, but when it comes to the building/electrical codes, they are (thus far, anyway) nonexistent!!

My daughter just recently bought a house in Clinton and we were "sandbagged" with so many things wrong with it that were carefully hidden behind sheetrock (so that even home inspectors wouldn't be able to discover them!) that it turned into a complete travesty. We found ourselves having to take a house from a "two week remodel" to a complete gut due to mold, water damage and faulty mechanicals (electrical, plumbing, etc.) -again: all concealed.

I HOPE it changes and that Clinton will get progressive enough to do like the City of Detroit does, and not allow any "grandfathering" on houses being sold. Detroit requires ALL property to be up to current codes before it can be even listed on the market for sale.

Unfortunately, that means that about the entire east side of Clinton would have to be demolished and built over again.

Ever wondered about the cause of most of the electrical fires in rural Illinois are? Electrical. My "ideal" job would be the electrical inspector for DeWitt County. Actually, all I'd have to do is just walk down the street from house-to-house and "red-tag" every one because there would be an amazing amount of code violations without even really "digging" to find them.

In that way, at least, Clinton has a WOEFULLY LONG ways to go to get away from "hillbilly" ways of doing things. The house we re-wired for our daughter had 3' pieces of wire buried in the walls that consisted of 3-1' pieces of wire taped together, amongst many other "sins" of omission and commission.

Cordially,

Richard Schneider (who has lived in DeWitt County and central IL for over 35 years)

[Schmoo]

arpschneider, speaking of fires:

In the LaSalle County town I am in, there is no fire code, no inspections of businesses, no yearly fire extinguisher inspection, no smoke detector inspections in apartments. Our downtown area is a series of very, very old joined buildings. If (WHEN) one of them goes up, the entire block will go with it.

When I opened my business here, I was appalled when the city told me we needed no building permits or inspections whatsoever, and in 3 years, the fire department has never once paid us a visit to inspect anything.

There are MANY, MANY backwards instances like this to take into consideration in these rural towns.

[arpschneider]

Originally Posted by Schmoo

arpschneider, speaking of fires:

In the LaSalle County town I am in, there is no fire code, no inspections of businesses, no yearly fire extinguisher inspection, no smoke detector inspections in apartments. Our downtown area is a series of very, very old joined buildings. If (WHEN) one of them goes up, the entire block will go with it.

When I opened my business here, I was appalled when the city told me we needed no building permits or inspections whatsoever, and in 3 years, the fire department has never once paid us a visit to inspect anything.

There are MANY, MANY backwards instances like this to take into consideration in these rural towns.

Agreed, which is why we really need state-wide inspections like many other states, such as Michigan do.

I wish Blago would worry about something that actually MATTERS for once!

[ndb]

Originally Posted by arpschneider

In some ways, yes, but when it comes to the building/electrical codes, they are (thus far, anyway) nonexistent!!

My daughter just recently bought a house in Clinton and we were "sandbagged" with so many things wrong with it that were carefully hidden behind sheetrock (so that even home inspectors wouldn't be able to discover them!) that it turned into a complete travesty. We found ourselves having to take a house from a "two week remodel" to a complete gut due to mold, water damage and faulty mechanicals (electrical, plumbing, etc.) -again: all concealed.

I HOPE it changes and that Clinton will get progressive enough to do like the City of Detroit does, and not allow any "grandfathering" on houses being sold. Detroit requires ALL property to be up to current codes before it can be even listed on the market for sale.

Unfortunately, that means that about the entire east side of Clinton would have to be demolished and built over again.

Ever wondered about the cause of most of the electrical fires in rural Illinois are? Electrical. My "ideal" job would be the electrical inspector for DeWitt County. Actually, all I'd have to do is just walk down the street from house-to-house and "red-tag" every one because there would be an amazing amount of code violations without even really "digging" to find them.

In that way, at least, Clinton has a WOEFULLY LONG ways to go to get away from "hillbilly" ways of doing things. The house we re-wired for our daughter had 3' pieces of wire buried in the walls that consisted of 3-1' pieces of wire taped together, amongst many other "sins" of omission and commission.

Cordially,

Richard Schneider (who has lived in DeWitt County and central IL for over 35 years)

::shudders::
I guess I'd consider that more bad handyman work than anything else (really just semantics, it doesn't matter, it's still bad).
I had no idea. I left there when I was about 21 to finish college and just get a little more culture. My family all still lives there.
If there is one thing that I hate it is poor workmanship. My dad and grandfather always taught me to do things correctly and to take some pride in any work I did. Apparently that isn't the norm.
I was speaking as far as things to do, culture (for a smaller town), a little more progressive attitude, etc.
My wife grew up in Wapella and, as I said, I grew up in Clinton so I'm pretty familiar with the entire area circa 1993-94 (not so much anymore I guess). It apparently needs a little update in it's city code and enforcement.

nb

[rgb123]

seems to be an old thread....but my 2 cents. I passed through Princeton for the first time this weekend (except for the few times I passed through on Amtrak) and I thought it looked like a great little town, and with the amtrak going straight to Chicago. I was compelled to look it up on here and that was mostly confirmed, lots of good things said about it....the kind of place I might like to end up if I had kids or worked from home...would like to grow some veggies too

[Bugqueen]

I would suggest you look into organic food stands in Illinois. I live in Taylorville too, nice little town. Has several pick your own strawberry farms, xmas tree farms, apple farms, and a farmer market on the square during the summer. I have friends who grew all kinds of veggies and sold them as pick-your-own outside of Taylorville for 30 years.
Beardstown along the Illinois river is known for produce stands, growns tons of watermelons. If you want to live off the land, contact the Illinois Dept. of Ag. for information re: organic food and pick your own and farmer's markets. Location, Location, Location as they say in real estate. You got to have a market.