Illinois does not = Chicago!! (Springfield, Champaign: travel, jobs, suburbs)

[jenrik2714]

Originally Posted by llama214

Can anyone tell me why we downstate have to celebrate a Chicago holiday? Pulaski day? I had never even heard of this guy untill I got to college. And when I did hear it, people were debating how to say the guy's name. I know Chicago has a REALLY big polish population, but I mean, Steven Decatur did more then for our country and state then Pulaski did. Maybe everyone North of I-80 should celebrate Pulaski day, and we will celebrate "Decatur Day" down here? Maybe southern Illinois could have a "Spirit of St. Louis Day"? Illinois has practically adopted the city as is. Just a passing thought.

Duh if you were so educated, you would know that Chicago has the 2nd biggest Polish population behind Warsaw. Why is it that people from downstate don't get that there are other ethnic groups in the state besides their own? You sound like someone who is backwards

[dumpstermcnuggets]

Originally Posted by artemis

When I lived near Rockford, I was always amused by watching Channel 9's newscast on cable. They often referred to Northern Illinois as "down-state".

Somethings never change....

That's really weird. I thought downstate was traditionally defined as anywhere south of I-80. LMAO!! (and even moreso, since technically, if this were the case, some south suburbs could be defined as 'downstate')

And the Pulaski Day debate that I'm seeing in this thread is amusing as hell to me, dunno why, but it is. Just wish I actually got that damn holiday off back when I was in high school and college(and unlike the fregging Chicago Public Schools, which always got it off, and I'd guess, still probably do)

[dumpstermcnuggets]

Originally Posted by sunshine girl

There are actually several topographically different areas to the state that are dwarfed by the overwhelming being of Chicago. As others have said, the population density of the city makes it a recognizable presence and voice for the state. Is that fair? Depends on perspective. Majority rules, basically, and that's where the majority is. Having grown up there, I understand that view, but also having left there for college and living the majority of my life south of Carbondale, I understand that perspective also. The north/south dividing line of the state is not in Chicago, although many Chicagoans speak as if Kankakee is in the south. There are spectacular places all over this state in their own right, Chicago being one of them, that do not get the recognition they may deserve. Everybody outside of the big city are not "hicks", just as everybody from Chicago are not shysters and crooks. Please try to understand the frustration of most statewide decisions being made by one city and the surrounding burbs to the average joe living, working, and raising a family anywhere else in the state. We sometimes felt we really didn't have a voice in statewide decisions really. But that's also why we felt it was so important to vote, so that our smaller voices might be heard. There is also nothing wrong with having pride in one's chosen location, but there's a difference between that and kicking sand at your fellow Illinoisan. It will always be: Chicago=Illinois and NYC=NYstate and LA=CA, it's all the same. Not worth stressing over. Peace

I understand your perspective, as one who has a slightly reversed perspective, and now goes to college in Bloomington-Normal, and grew up in Chicago. Not to mention I've been to a good number of places and cities/towns throughout the state in my lifetime(such as Springfield, Quad Cities, Galesburg, to name a few). And YES, I so get asked that all the time, too(about 'when we'll you return to Chicago?', etc....), so I know that feeling.

I sometimes wished I actually could afford to purchase a car for myself, so I could actually see the small towns around Bloomington-Normal for myself(particularly Gibson City, as I'm really curious to go to the Bayern Stube restaurant, and to the Harvest Moon Drive-In Theater). I could go on with this rant about places I've still yet to go to in Illinois, but I won't bore everyone with listing those places.

[Drover]

Find someone with a car and have him go to Gibson City with you. Bayern Stube is worth the trip. And indeed, wait until the drive-in reopens and go there too.

[mdz]

What is the bayern stube?

[Drover]

German bar/restaurant with very good food and very good German beer.

[llama214]

Originally Posted by jenrik2714

Duh if you were so educated, you would know that Chicago has the 2nd biggest Polish population behind Warsaw. Why is it that people from downstate don't get that there are other ethnic groups in the state besides their own? You sound like someone who is backwards

Thanks. My education is just fine. Of course, some here obviously think that graduate work at two world reknown universities, is uneducated. Not to mention the almost full ride I recieved, based on my academic preformance in highschool. But, I guess since I didn't pay much attention to the little blip of a paragraph that was devoted this this great man, called Pulaski, in my liberal arts class, that I am trully ignorant, bar none.

This just goes to show you how the real capital and influence in Illinois is in Chicago. Lets look at it.

Starters, Pulaski Day. Believe me when I tell you, that no one, outisde of Chicago, really cares or even knows.

Taxes. Just because Chicago is an economic wasteland half the time, why should we have to pay for its crumbling transportation system. And if you don't beliveve me, track where your state taxes go sometime. It isn't down here to fix our problems.

Education. Why should we have to pay for your crumbling education system. According to any state website, almost TWO TIMES as much money is dumped into those inner city schools. Do you think that we are see anything like that. Not a dime more.

Driving issues. Just because the teenagers up there can't drive, doesn't mean that ours can't(excluding tazewell county). Your teenagers get in FOUR TIMES as many wrecks as ours do, and they are all packed in. How far could they have to go? Just in the news today, a 23 yr old, drunk driver, from the burbs, packed NINE, I REPAEAT, NINE KIDS, into her three passenger vehicle. Not suprisingly she got in a wreck and a couple died. Why should our young people suffer, just because yours can't seem to get the hint. Look up the public records of the state, and you will find that these are a common occurance in the burbs.

Pollution. Our state would probably be the cleanest, if it weren't for that city.

Crime. Yeah, it is always great, when you send all of your impoverished, and crime filled filth down here. Thanks. Send it to the suburbs before you ruin our high income areas by the mess that you created.

Politics. Can I ask? Why is the governor never in Springfield? His wife said that Springfield public, just wasn't quite up to par with some private school in the North Shore area. Maybe if we didn't have to pay for their gas, to go back in forth, more kids wouldn't be without at that public school. Shouldn't that give them a hint.

So yeah, I'm just some uneducated zero, that knows nothing that is going on within the state. Illinois will always be more than Chicago, and I'm sure Peoria, B-N, Springfield, and C-U can survive just fine without the urban decay that is so prominent in that city.

Now what sounds backwards?!

[sukwoo]

Just want to point out that the "urban decay" of Chicagoland produces greater than 80% of the economic activity (think GNP) of the state of Illinois.

[star13]

It seems like a lot of animosity is being expressed regarding this post.... I myself grew up in Chicago, and I now live in central IL. I can't truly blame people for not knowing about the "culture" of each area if they're never exposed to it, but I do think it would help if people were a little more open-minded and willing to see that good things do exist outside of one's comfort zone. I've mentioned on this thread before that I've had friends in both NY and Chicago who don't think anything exists outside of the metropolitan areas. But, this idea of automatically thinking "Chicago" when one thinks of "IL" is not new... When you think of France, you think Paris. When you think of England, you think London. When you think of California, you think L.A. When you think of Nevada, you think Vegas. When you think of Washington, you think Seattle... The list of generalities goes on and on... I don't think this will ever change, but what can change is people's attitudes toward things and areas that are different from their own. When people are willing to accept other cultures and other lifestyles they are more willing to exlore other ideas, etc... Just my two cents.

[outsider1]

Oh well, think about Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, Syracuse.... Each of them is more significant of a city than anything in downstate Illinois. But half of the nation's populations automatically associate their state with a place on the outskirts of America's arm pit.