Bloomington, IL (Chicago, Peoria, Champaign: relocate, insurance, travel)

[Jersey5]

Considering moving to Bloomington, IL from Chicagoland. Do you have pros or cons to offer about the city. We have children, so schools are high priority. Thanks.

[Paxtonian]

Normal is where you want to be for the schools. NCHS and U-High are superb, the grade schools are excellent too. Schools in Bloomington are quite nice, but not on the level of the ones in Normal. As for the city, here are the pros: affordable housing, an active local economy, a wide variety of cultural events, short commute times, excellent shopping. The cons are: a rather narrow worldview by a lot of the locals (being from Chicago you're already familiar with THAT sort of thing), social status caught up too much in who you work for, a somewhat rigid social order (my first wife was from the "wrong side" of town, a fact no one ever let her forget), too many students running amuck (and I WAS a student at one time there). You'll be amazed at the people you meet there- I ran into folks who lived in Chicago as far back as the 1930's who had relocated there. Not a one had regrets on making the jump downstate.

[slaleman]

Bloomington has some very nice areas and the schools are just as good as Normal. I grew up in Normal and went to ISU, and my parents just recently moved to Bloomington after living in Normal for over 20 years. The preception has always been the Bloomington schools are worse off than Unit 5 (which is comprised of Normal, Bloomington, Hudson, Towanda, etc.) because Dist 87 (Bloomington) had a higher number of lower income and minority kids....it was/is a very superior view held by those in Unit 5 and it's just not true. I grew up going to Unit 5 schools, and I worked in Dist. 87 schools. Kids are kids.

If you're stuck on Unit 5 schools, there are plenty of places in Bloomington you can live and still by in Unit 5. Almost all of the newer, outlying areas east of town are part of Unit 5, as is the Crestwick area south of town.

Depending on what type of house you're looking to buy, Bloomington has some very nice Victorian style homes. Normal has some of these too, but they are close to campus.

If you want to stay away from the ISU traffic, Bloomington is a better choice. If you don't mind the hustle and bustle of a college campus, Normal is a good option.

[BLOOMINGTONIAN]

As anyone in Downstate Illinois knows, Bloomington-Normal is where to be. We have a recession-proof economy, the corporate headquarters for the largest insurance company in the nation, a major University (ISU), and several other large employers and institutions of higher learning. We here in B-N enjoy a very high standard of living coupled with a "downstate" cost of living. Yes, Chicago is very cool and I personally love to go up there several times a year to a game, a show, or just to sight-see. However, I would NEVER live up there. Why would you, when you can live here for 1/2 the price and enjoy very friendly people, very little traffic (Veteran's Parkway is now at least six lanes wide at all points - enough to handle State Farm rush hour) great shopping, restaurants, and a newly created entertainment base. In addition to sports and entertainment at ISU, we just in the past year had a new Bloomington Cultural Center open up and a new downtown colliseum which gives us big name entertainment and minor league sports. Regarding housing, what people in Chicagoland strive to live in by the time they are in their 50's, kids in B-N have as their second home in their 30's. New construction is everywhere. New restaurants are popping up everywhere, new subdivisions are staked out all the time and people keep moving here in droves. Can you blame them?

[greenlee2]

I grew up in Central Illinois and have lived in Chicago since 1989 after graduating from Nothern Illinois University. Yes, there are many pluses to living in B-N. It's a great place to bring up children, great schools, low crime and afforable housing. In fact, my understanding is that B-N has the per capita income of Glenn Ellyn Illinois which is an affluent Chicago suburb. Couple that with the low-cost of living and no crime and yes it's a great place to live. It's also only a 'quick' shot on I-55 (2-hour drive) to the 'big city' Chicago. I thought about moving back to B-N a few years ago but I have been in Northern Illinois so long it's a culture clash to me. Perhaps that sounds odd but I think I would go insane living there. The shopping is horrendous, the restaraunts are 2 star (you have to drive to Peoria!) and no one knows how to drive down there. They don't know when to get over when you're angling & signaling to merge into another lane. They just keep 'cruising' at 20 mph with no clue! They take the ISU population for granted & those students bring a lot of $$ to the Normal economy. I am single, so maybe if I were married w/ children I'd sing a different tune and perhaps move back. All-in-all it's not a very 'sophisticated' area but it's a booming economy that's never had a recession even during the Carter years.There's State Farm Corporate, ISU, Country Companies, Mitsubishi & Illinois Weslyen University. Yes, it's a diverse economy and actually is mostly financial & 'other' (the universities). Farming is shrinking as urban sprawl grabs up land. It seems everyone just eats & shops, eats & shops, eats & shops in their zombied-out bliss. All they talk about is "State Farm, State Farm" like it's the end-all, be-all to work there! Three quarters of my H.S. class that didn't go on to college works there pushing paper. I would say B-N is a nice place to live all-in-all but you'd either better travel a lot, have lots of hobbies or lots of kids or simply come up here to Chicago! As you can tell I am a bit conflicted because it is a nice lifestyle there but it is a bit lacking in other things. I don't think shopping & socializing is what life is all about but it seems there are tons of fast food places, 2 crummy malls and loads of 'big box' stores like Wal-Mart. It's an affluent area but people put their money in the bank and don't spend on the 'finer things in life'.....a very conservative, mainly old German-settled town.. people are tight with their money! I would say that if you have kids you'll be pleasantly surprised.

[rgb123]

I'm from the Chicago area and transferred from UIC to ISU. I really love B-N and it will always have a special place with me! I was afraid that it would be a huge culture clash for me but the opposite was true. In truth, BN is actually more accesible, making the cultural opportunities more meaningful. The area has a real home town feel, but you have all the comforts of having every restaraunt chain you can imagine (pretty much). All in all it is a very comfortable place and a lot more sophisiticated than I thought...but not as annoying and snobby as champaign! I kinda want to go back!

[Switch625]

I would not say all of downstate knows that Bloomington is the Place To Be. We that live in the Champaign-Urbana area have a few opinions about where the Place To Be is in downstate.

On topic, there isn't a thing wrong with Bloomington. I've never lived there, but I visit frequently. If I were to move from the Champaign-Urbana area, I would have no qualms about settling in the Bloomington-Normal area.

[jwhittak]

Me and my wife love the children's discovery museum (http://www.childrensdiscoverymuseum.net/index.asp) (broken link). That is a fun place to bring our young children to when visiting. I also love how all of the shopping is off of one street (practically). That makes it very convenient. Their is not much in the way of scenery, but that is to be expected in most of Illinois. That is all I know about the area. We probably visit once every few months. Oh, and I'm a little upset I didn't get to try Rosat's pizza the last time I was there. They were way to busy.

[Jersey5]

Thank you for all of your helpful responses. We do love the city and visit it once a month, but we are in St. Charles, a far western suburb and it can take 1.5 hrs. some weekends, by the sounds of it we could get to the city within 2 hours from Bloomington, so that would not be too much of a compromise. Our main objective is to get more central b/c of my husbands travel for work. As far as the shopping I do most of it online b/c I have 2 very young children and just don't have time for things that aren't Target or Walmart (I know very sad).

My question would be would we we feel really out of place since my husband works from home and not at the university or State Farm? The top of our price range for homes would be $650k. We have lived in smaller communities before and they can be hard to break into if you don't work in the community.

Thanks

[rgb123]

it might be harder to meet new people if you dont work with people (obviously) but I never felt out of place there. I would call it "very comfortable" meaning I felt like I could go to the store in sweats and no one cares (and its not so small I was likely to run into anyone all the time either). But, there is some upscale shopping and you can go out for a martini if you like.

I think it is a really good choice, I would not go much further south, and Peoria is not very nice, Champaign is farther from the city. Bloomington or Normal -- good choice. oh, and yes about 2 hours to the city, no more than that unless its bad traffic.

it will take some time to find friends, but I found people quite nice overall, without being too into your business. and shopping is very easy.