Tell me about Illinois (Chicago, Naperville: insurance, income, work)

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Xing

LOL. My God, what garbage have you been fed?

Buddy, I live in Chicago proper. I'm surrounded by illegal aliens. Yes, most are harmless. However, some are not, and the damage they do to certain parts of this city are horrendous, incalculable, and laid out to bare for all who are close enough to it to see. What kind of watered-down sugar-coated nonsense have you been fed?

[cdrobert]

Want to talk about damage? Why not talk about working class jobs in Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, and Ohio that have been outsourced to other countries, and than how people in places like DuPage County intern vote Republican to speed up this process.

[hamiller]

I'm a student at the U of I and I love this town. There are gangs, but for the most part they stay in their own part of town . As far as illegal immigrants go, the only ones are my TA's who cant speak english all that well... Best of all, if you get bored, Chicago's ~2hrs away by train or car!

[Drover]

Originally Posted by hamiller

I'm a student at the U of I and I love this town. There are gangs, but for the most part they stay in their own part of town . As far as illegal immigrants go, the only ones are my TA's who cant speak english all that well... Best of all, if you get bored, Chicago's ~2hrs away by train or car!

Chambana's idea of "gangs" is wannabes who hang out on the street corner, look surly, maybe tag the back of a restaurant when they're excessively bored, or in a fit of true criminality, rob a convenience store. Yeh, some parts of Chambana are a little shady, but I can't think of any section that isn't at least safe enough to roam around during the daytime. Chambana folks have no idea what real gangs are like, and trust me, they're better off for it.

As for your TAs, chances are they're here on student visas, which makes them neither illegal nor immigrants, though they may become immigrants -- legal or illegal -- if they decide to stay after graduating. Most foreign students end up going home.

[Switch625]

I've noticed you are very critical of anywhere outside of Chicago, Drover, but in this case you are correct. There isn't a "gang" scene of note in Champaign-Urbana. The most organized are more like farm teams for the Chicago gangs who recruit the more "promising" members out of the area. The real criminal problems here come from meth-heads who rob and steal to feed their habit. Murders happen, but they are more random acts than due to anything organized.

The shadiest area of the cities is the part called 'the north end,' which is where the low-income neighborhoods are. It's kind of a misnomer anymore, as both Champaign and Urbana have grown to the north of 'the north end' and the areas of new growth are relatively prosperous. Even the worst parts of 'the north end' are safe to travel through in the daytime.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Switch625

I've noticed you are very critical of anywhere outside of Chicago, Drover

Then you must not have read my other posts where I speak highly of Wisconsin in general and Madison in particular, or of Pittsburgh; or where I describe smaller cities in Illinois as having dignity, et cetera.

[sprngfldnwt]

I would say that downstate is a little warmer that Chicago due to the lack of Lake-Effect. The farther you get away from Chicago and the St. Louis area, the less gang-crime and not as many illeagal immigrants in the city (except Beardstown). Non-Chicagoland schools are ussualy just as good too.

[ILguy]

In response to the orginal posting, the Dunlap School district in north Peoria is outstanding. The weather in Illinois - at least the top half of the state - is realatively the same. This is also the most populated part of the state. As for wealth and keeping up with the Jones' can be found anywhere but seems to be more prevalent in the wealthier suburbs of chicago - won't name names. The chicago suburbs are more isolated based on economic factors - just the nature of the suburban migration. Peoria, as well, has alot of wealth as well as poverty, but due to its size you have more balance and exposure to all walks of life. I found this particularly attractive now, realizing this has helped me to deal with many types of people and be able to see value in all.

[ILguy]

Also, in response to the smaller cities seeing better days. It is true several of these cities have been struggling in the 80s and 90s, but many are thriving today. Bush is in Peoria today mainly due to the success of Caterpillar in making record profits while maintaining strong US base employees. Of course, Peoria has learned form the past not to put all their eggs in one basket. The economy is very diverse in biotechnology, medicine, logisitics, as well as manufacturing. It is thriving today and many of these other cities are doing the same. So don't think they don't have a second life.

[doll lady]

I really like Peoria....and that's coming from someone who has lived by Springfield and worked in Springfield all of her life. Peoria not only has a lot to do, but as the previous poster indicated, they have had a regrowth in the manufacturing world and the city seems to be prospering.

Unfortunately Springfield has lost a lot of businesses. For a few years there was a lot of construction growth on the west side but that has slowed. Lots of folks out that way have big houses, but mortgaged to the hilt as my mortgage company friend says. (If one of the spouses loses a job, everything will be lost.) Last year's horrible tornado closed some businesses. A fairly recent city wide smoking ban has cause closure of some mom and pop pubs. Several others went belly up due to the economy. There is no large scale manufacturing here. One large insurance organization (the old Franklin Life) is down to 500 or less employees and the other major insurance company employer has suffered significant stock devaluing even with various downsizing efforts and of course there has been severe weather related losses. One hospital closed a few years ago. Another is having significant financial problems and the remaining hospital is growing in leaps and bounds. Thank goodness for that and State of Illinois jobs. But those state jobs seem to be disappearing and going upstate. hmmmmmmmmm

The city fathers don't seem to want any business other than white collar here. I am waiting for a major economic turn around. But when will that come? It has to for survival of the smaller cities.

I only hope our gov doesn't proceed with the sale of our lottery. As someone in Springfield said...."selling the lottery makes about as much sense as selling all of my old cows to buy a fancy pickup truck, then in about three or four years not having enough left to buy tires or gas."

Need I say more?!