Illinois does not = Chicago!! (Springfield, Champaign: travel, work, home)

[diane470]

Although I have only been to Naperville once driving thru, you are correct it looks like a nice place to live or at least drive thru.. But extremely congested.. The south side suburb area of Chicago has Orland Park its also a very nice area with shopping, resturants and homes of all shapes and sizes and prices!! Also close to Mid Way Air Port and the Orange line to take you to down town Chicago.. Also very congested..

[Drover]

Huh? The Orange Line doesn't go anywhere near Orland Park. The nearest L stop is over 100 blocks away. Why would anyone in Orland Park take the Orange Line into town when there are three Metra stops right in Orland Park?

[jason1117]

Chicago is more famous than Illinois

[j33]

This old thread again? Secession is a non-solution to a non-existent problem. Do you think that Illinois is the only state with the 'large city' dilemma? Seriously now. Additionally, the I-80 is a meaningless boundary. Cook county (the county that Chicago resides in) extends a bit further than I-80 and includes such towns as Chicago Heights (which hardly falls into the 'rural southern illinois' cultural perception).

[NYrules]

I personally love Chicago and agree with someone else that there are many areas that are right in the city which still possess those small town values therefore making it a very nice area to live in, however the original post was about Chicago should be separated from the rest of IL and I made a comment yesterday that made it sound like everyone from Chicago goes into small towns and makes a mess out of them. I\\\'m sorry if that is the image I portrayed because that is not what I meant, however there are some bad apples among us in our city that do go out to the state parks for instance and make a mess out of them or go out to small towns and blast loud music in their cars like in Marsailles not meaning to be rude, but because of pure ignorance.

Let me give examples, the people that do blast the music from Chicago for instance have been conditioned to urban noise and urban ambience making them numb to noise usually making them not even realize that they are disturbing the peace in small towns when they blast their car radios where the only noise you may hear in that small town is the occasional semi engine breaking out on the interstate. The same goes with littering, Chicagoans don\\\'t all litter, but again many do and many of the people that do may not think items such as cigarette butts are litter because they see other smokers in Chicago throw butts on the ground so they do it as well thinking it is no big deal, but when Chicagoans go out of town to quaint squeaky clean little towns and throw their butts on the ground, it just gives locals there the wrong immpression of us making it look like we are litter bugs. Also, in Chicago if someone sits at a green light for more than about 3 seconds we might be inclined to honk our car horn at them; not trying to be rude, but just to communicate to the other driver to go, but small town folk that are not used to being honked at may view a car horn honk as us being rude to others.

I just think the whole underlying fact of this entire post is pure mis-understanding of Chicago vs. the rest of the state making non-Chicagoans view Chicagoans in a negative way which in my opinion is a big mistake, but that is just my opinion.

[bls5555]

Unfortunately Illinois does equal Chicago, at least when it comes to politics, and now we are stuck with Blagojevich who is horrible for this state.

[Scribbler]

As a native rural Illinoisan, born and raised in the farm country of north central Illinois essentially due west of the Naperville/Aurora sprawl, who became a Chicago transplant, I smirk EVERY time I hear some fool refer to the area I hail from and/or anything from I-80 to the Wisconsin border as "downstate." Seriously? Something north and/or west of you is "downstate?" Outstate would be a better descriptor, if anything. Sigh, ignorance. Likewise for my time spent as a youth outreach worker, taking groups of kids to Starved Rock State Park, near my hometown, for outings, and having them ask if we were "leaving the state" when we got out of city limits...yes, junior high aged kids honestly and truly thinking Chicago is a state.

In any case, no, Illinois does not equal Chicago. People who are ignorant of any aspect of Illinois other than Chicago really aren't knowledgeable about the overall heritage of the state, or its geographic diversity, not to mention its true atmosphere and feel. Your perspective of a state or region really depends on your experience...for me, though I love Chicago to distraction, consider both to be homes, and certainly don't have an internal "one is better than the other" debate going on, when I think of Illinois, I really don't first think of the loop, the sports teams, the metro sprawl, the ethnic 'hoods. I think of the miles and miles of open corn and soybean fields I spend 18+ years in the middle of, of gravel roads, of river valleys and sprawling state parks. That comes to mind first, and is a more accurate picture for me of what Illinois is.

[jdiddy]

Originally Posted by bls5555

Unfortunately Illinois does equal Chicago, at least when it comes to politics, and now we are stuck with Blagojevich who is horrible for this state.

Ironically, Blagojevich only won the initial Democratic primary because of Southern Illinois, where he badly beat Vallas, despite Vallas beating him in the rest of the state.

Go figure Southern Illinois elects the Chicago Machine democrat.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by bls5555

Unfortunately Illinois does equal Chicago, at least when it comes to politics, and now we are stuck with Blagojevich who is horrible for this state.

It would be nice to think that, but the truth is Blago won a lot of the downstate vote too thanks to the efforts of Glenn Poshard -- the only Democrat I ever would have voted for thus far in my life had I not lived in a different state when he ran for governor -- lending his downstate credibility and name recognition while campaigning very hard on Blago's behalf downstate.

Poshard v. Ryan.... it will take at least generation before Illinois lives down picking the wrong dude in that race.

[hgclyde]

Down state Illnois vs. Chicago area. I see why many be angry when most of the world only sees the City. Most of the money goes there even though there other cities: Peoria, Champaign, Urbana, Normal, Springfield, etc.

Most of us ( I from California, LA area where live in the shadow of LA[Long Beach]) only know of Chicago; Unless you are into NCAA sports and we would know about Champaign-Urbana thanks to the Flagship University of Illinois system (I am kind of geography nut so heard of Peoria[truth be told I up to a few years ago I mixed up Peoria for Rockford: Rockford is near Wisconsin, west of Chicago; and Peoria is in Central Illinois ])

Living in the shadows of a big city is never easy Here is California is worse because here there several large metro areas over 1 million people other than LA: San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose Bay Area (which overshadows central and northern California , Sacramento,San Diego,) and LA suburban counties that are not really at all suburban such as Orange, Riverside and San Bernadino.

Then we have seventy (70 ) cities over 100,000 that makes California Small town seem invisible. With that many cities its a wonder rural feel short changed from Sacramento. Politics don't help LA county and the Bay area are Liberal and The rest of the state ranges from moderate to Conservative.
Over time many wanted to split Southern California from the north or The Bay Area from the rest of the state of course it never came to pass.

Then there is the LA-San Francisco rivalry where San Francisco is sophisticated and LA is laid back and rest of the state is the equivalent to fly over country.

At least in down state Illinois can fight back through the state legislature , here inland counties don't have a chance and are growing.