Decatur Illinois (Springfield, Champaign, Bloomington: homes, high school, university)

[uwishtoo]

I plan on visiting often since my job out here in Phoenix affords me free air travel anytime anywhere, but just long enough to see my kids and grandkids and life long friends - but it is really nice to know that I can come in town and LEAVE to go "home" - it took me a month or so out in Arizona to stop referring to Decatur as home, now as I make this weekends travel plans I told my sister I had to catch a 3 pm flight out of St Louis to get back home - meaning here in Arizona. I plan to stay as far away from my old neighborhood of over 14 years as I possibly can. It was nice when I first moved there then it went all to crack houses and people shooting - my last weekend before I left to move out here I was getting ready to go to a concert in Bloomington and on a Friday afternoon at 1 PM I looked out my dining room window to see one of the guys I knew lived at the crack house around the corner pointing a GUN at my home !!! WHat I really want to know is why it took the Decatur police more than 20 MINUTES to get to a call that stated clearly a black male was walking around the neighborhood carrying a GUN and pointing it at people??? IF I had ANY doubts about leaving my home of 48 years they were gone in that second. I packed up my trucks on that following Monday and never looked back.

[pandagal]

Okay, Decatur is not flat...it actually has some pretty good hills for a central illinois town. The lanscape outside the actual insustrial part of the city is pretty nice. They are trying to build it up and have brought several more restaurants there and there are bars everywhere! Whether you want to go to them is up to you, but there are some for the younger crowd and have dancing and pool and so on. On the other side of the coin, there are not alot of jobs and many of the current plants have closed or relocated. And all you ever hear on the news is how someone is shooting and killing and robbing other people there. School system I would have to say is not grand and you would certainly find better elswhere. Recently a school an elementary school was on lock down because there was a bank robbery and a couple gun toting idoits were on the loose by the school. A nice place to visit if you have family or friends there, but not a place to settle. Bloomington-Normal, Springfield, or Champaing-Urbana would be much better situations.

[Hornback]

Hi, I have lived in chicago for 2yrs now and before that i lived in RockFalls, IL... Im telling you that Decatur has it beat hands down.... My brother has lived there for 2yrs and although i have only been there a few times to visit him he only has positive things to say about the area... like any place Decatur has its problem areas.... Tell me one city in the world that doesnt.... My family and i have desided to relocate to Decatur also... but first we did alot of research on the cities in the state of IL... including but not limited to Springfield, champaign, Peoria, collinsville, Edwardsville, Moline... and so on.... I think that it all depends largely on your point of view... were your coming from.. were you want to find yourself and what your really looking for in the place you live... My family and i current live in the NW suburbs of chicago and the realistate it so high here that you could live in the same home for 80yrs and still not have it paid for.... We're between the Ages of 35-26 and have 3 children 14, 12, 7. We were looking for affordable property, good job outlook and better then average schools and a population alot smaller then the suburbs but larger then a cow town. And Decatur seems to fit the life style we're looking for... It is hard to relocate to a new place.... but if you do your research as well as have a solid outline of what you need to make your life happy then your sure to make the right choice for you and your family.... you can ask 100 peoples opinion on a place and get 100 differnt replies... altumately your opinion is the only one that matters... wish you luck in your search...

[M TYPE X]

Someone left the NW Chicago burbs to and prefers Decatur over Champaign, Edwardsville, and Peoria? It just doesn't pass the smell test. Um, literally.

[nJohn]

Isn't Millikin University located in Decatur? If so, then, um, wow. I wouldn't live there.

[Drover]

Yes it is. Millikin is a decent school though. Kind of a shame about its location.

[Switch625]

Originally Posted by M TYPE X

Someone left the NW Chicago burbs to and prefers Decatur over Champaign, Edwardsville, and Peoria? It just doesn't pass the smell test. Um, literally.

Maybe they like the smell of industrial chemicals and roasting soybeans. You just never know.

[M TYPE X]

Originally Posted by Switch625

Maybe they like the smell of industrial chemicals and roasting soybeans. You just never know.

It's all highly overrated compared to O'Hare's jet fuel.

[HOWELL_STREET]

... But, I can do even one better. Have you ever lived in a paper mill town? HMMM - 'Yuck'. For a paper mill, try Muskegon, MI during certain times of the summer.

Someone on one of the earlier pages of this 'OP' talked about Gibson City, IL. And that is also a very nice farming community. I believe there is only one soy bean processing company, there - - but in traveling through - - the soy bean aroma has been quite low.

The only 'problem' about Gibson City is that it is about a 'three horse' town as far as fast foods restaurants. One Subway, One Mickey Macs, and one other name that I can't recall. I suppose Gibson City would be appropriate for farming people or retired(?). But I enjoy farming people since they are so knowledgable with farming expertise.

Get a farming gentleman talking about a favorite farming subject and then 'one' (me) quickly discovers how little I know.

Carter Glass

[Drover]

Gibson City also has a Pizza Hut, a Dairy Queen, a Monical's Pizza (a central Illinois institution), a couple of mom-and-pop diners, coffeehouses and bar & grills, and a remarkably good family-owned German restaurant. Gibson City is a pretty vital place for a city of its size; nonetheless, it can generally be said that its relative proximity to Champaign/Urbana is one of its stronger suits.