Beating Rockford a little more... (Cicero, Oak Park: violent crime, hotels, quality of life)

[czakaras]

I think the West side of Rockford looks like a chicago ghetto, but Loves Park and Cherry Valley are soooo nice!

[gottagetouttaillinois]

You just described Aurora IL to a "T". Guess you can't move anywhere. If anyone finds utopia, please let me know.

[Ryan81]

Originally Posted by rocky12345

Okay, there are plenty of discussions bashing rockford. I would like to chime in. I moved to Rockford 1 year ago. I am a highly paid professional religious minority. Want to let out some steam. Dont want someone else to make the same mistake. This is obviously only my opinion. Here is my take:

- High property taxes
- bad public schools
- high crime in most parts
- Relatively little cultural diversity. Many rednecks. Many pickup trucks.
- Few professionals.
- The highest concentration of churches I have ever seen in my life. Cant go a block without finding several.
- Almost no high end retailers. Few fine dining options. Gap could not survive in this town!
- Tons of open fields, corn fields, rural surroundings. Not good for a city person.
- Few fine housing options. > 300k puts you in the top 2% of Rockford houses!! Sure you get cheap housing for a very good reason (see above and below).
- Not so close to Chicago as you would think- at least 1.5 hrs to Chicago loop. Not a reasonable daily commute.
- The art museum is horrible.
- 3 hospitals in the area without much choice for specialist physicians.
- Downtown is abandoned and decaying
- Their "business district" is a collection of big box stores and fast food chains. The only white collar business jobs are in banks if you can find them.

I see many posts of you bashing Rockford, and being born and raised in this town, I definitely understand some of the issues you bring up. But, I seem to believe that you simply had a few bad encounters with certain groups (thugs, rednecks, zealots) that left a bad taste in your mouth.

You say you're a "highly paid professional religious minority," yet you complain about all of the other churches trying to do God's work. I'm a Christian, but basically non-practicing, and even I recognize that a lot of churches is a good thing for the community. How is that bad - unless that represents a base of your competition and cuts into your profit. Church is just a business anyway, so who really cares.

The Rockford tax rate is high - but not as high as other parts of the country. And yes, it is higher than other areas. But if $1,000 or $1,500 per year tax difference makes an area unaffordable to you, you shouldn't be looking to buy a home there. You shouldn't be looking to buy a home at all. That's what got this economy in this mess to begin with. It's like this: You buy a $90,000 Hummer H1, but complain about the extra $20 per tank of fuel you buy. If you can't afford the extra $20 per tank, you probably shouldn't be buying a $90,000 Hummer. You dig?

The School District is not nearly as bad as your exaggeration illustrates. Yes, it has its problems - no doubt - with deseg issues stemming from the mid 80s - which wounded the tax rate to begin with. Yes, certain schools have a poor quality - but those are located in certain areas with certain demographics. Your "thugs and rednecks" live in those. There are just as many high-rated schools with gifted programs than there are ones with sub-prime testing scores. I don't know what neighborhood you lived in here, but maybe you picked the wrong one.

As far as the rural nature of this city, yeah - it's surrounded by corn fields. Any city with a population of less than 6 million people in the Midwest (i.e. every city besides Chicago) is surrounded by a corn field. Its like complaining about Key West being surrounded by water. That makes no sense.

You complained alot about the low-tech redneck living here. No professionals blah blah, all blue collar, blah blah. Where you see shortcomings, others will see an untapped viable market for certain services and technologies. It's called an opportunity. With a cumalative metro area of 300,000+ people, Rockford was the second largest city in Illinois up until a couple years ago when Aurora beat it out. That size of a population couldn't sustain on its own only on manufacturing industries and redneck blue collar jobs. There's plenty of white collar jobs. I have one. My household income was over $150,000 last year - and I work in sales IN ROCKFORD and my wife is a corporate buyer.

If you were truly "high-paid," I think you would have a different opinion of Rockford. You can live high on the hog in Rockford if you make over $75,000 within the household. It's a lot better than living in the city of Chicago and having to rent a 1-bedroom apartment with only 500 sqft and having just enough money leftover to buy some groceries at Aldi. Don't get me wrong - I completely agree with you that Rockford is not for a city person. If you were a city person, why would you move here? By looking at pictures online of the downtown, anyone would know this isn't a skyscraping, hustle and bustle town. Never was.

There are three hospitals in the area - a higher concentration than you will find in most cities this size. Each has specialists - unless you have cancer. I agree that no hospital in Rockford is set up to competently treat cancers. Then again, there's only about six hospitals in the whole country that I would even consider going to if I had cancer. Madison is only an hour away for that. But Swedish American was rated in the top five hospitals in the United States for its ability to treat heart conditions. It was one of the first hospitals in the nation to perform bypass surgeries without opening the chest cavity - forgot what the procedure was called. There are plenty of independent clinics associated with the hospitals that are part of the HMO and PPO programs recognized by insurance companies that treat just about every condition known to man. Unless you have some obscenely rare condition that no one's had since the middle ages, you can find adequate (and very good actually) health care in Rockford.

Yes, the museum sucks. Without a doubt. It blows bad. But if you want your kids to experience a jaw-dropping spectacle of history, there are two awesome museums less than two hours away - they're along the lake in Chicago. Why would Rockford have a kick-ass museum anyway? All cities of this size only feature items produced by local people and historical items from the immediate vicinity. That's the Midwest for you!

Sorry for the super-long response. I couldn't resist.

[Ryan81]

Originally Posted by cavewoman

rocky..I am so sorry you hate it here. I am not fond of the area either.
I moved here from Bolingbrook and often sorry I did as well. Sometimes, it's tough to relocate. I happen to be in Northern Rockford., Roscoe actually, but your right. Much of what is in Riockford needs work. The convention bureau hired an out of state person who lacks the knowledge of the area and the players. There are things to do here though...and definately some great restaurants. Have you been to the Japense place on Perriville? There was great Italian place, but think they closed. some noce places downtown and in many of the surrounding areas. Good luck to you. The housing stock and resale has been rough on Rockford. perhaps you can find a way to get out.... I keep trying, but it's been 7 years.

FYI: There are more fine dining places in Rockford than simply "a Japanese place on Perryville" and an "Italian place that closed." Here is a short list - just to name a few:

1. Josef of Barbados
2. Table 13
3. JMK Nippon
4. Francescos (opening new location near JMK)
5. Cliffbreakers (at least since they got their new chef)
6. Olympic Tavern
7. Giovanni's
8. Granite City (although I think this is a regional chain)
9. Brio
10. Sundial Restaurant
11. Hoffman House (best prime rib you'll ever find)

There's more, I just don't feel like busting out Google quite yet.

[rockfordsbest]

The problem with trying to get people to go to places in Rockford that ARE halfway decent is the price. Everything there is to do in Rockford is much higher priced than elsewhere. They want to charge Chicago rates for cornfield entertainment. I wouldn't walk across the street to go to most "attractions" in Rockford-too much ghetto mixed in for my tastes!
I find my money is better spent in the Dells. Lots to do, reasonable prices and much more scenic!

[rockfordsbest]

Originally Posted by czakaras

I think the West side of Rockford looks like a chicago ghetto, but Loves Park and Cherry Valley are soooo nice!

I have lived here all my life, and have had friends and co-workers that have lived here and worked here say there is "no other town they have ever been in that has been so ghetto" They say the white folks are ghetto, the black folks are ghetto, the hispanic folks, the young, the old and most of the "professional" folks are ghetto.

And you know, they are right! You can sit on a porch at night on the EAST side of Rockford, where there are 300k homes, and the white kids will come swaggering down the street talking like they are straight out of the projects! Parents either are not paying attention or they are just as stupid as the kid is. Yes, parents of children in Rockford--your kids are talking smack and getting high and drinking and having sex. Most of the time you want to hide your head in the sand and deny it, but it's true! Rockford is the way it is because we allow it to go on-we deny it, ignore it, pretend it isn't there, but mark my words---if you think Gary Indiana is bad, flash forward 10 years and you will essentially be living in the same conditions.

Try mugging a little old white lady in a parking lot and don't be surprised if she opens up a can of good old fashioned ghetto whoop*&*^ on you--doesn't matter that she is a proper old school marm. We live here long enough we get toughened up, we survive just like we should.

People in bad neighborhoods in other cities send little Johnny to live with their auntie in Rockford, thinking they are saving little Johnny from the streets and helping him out. They are making a very big mistake. Might be better off to let him run the streets where he is, since there is little else to do here.

[czakaras]

I think the East side of Rockford is GREAT!!! I love Cherry Valley.. the west side could use some money... and some homes to be burt down, but I don't understand why everyone hates on this area.. its not bad!

[tattoojack]

[b]I find this thread slamming Rockford just about laughable. On one of these threads slamming Rockford, someone made the comment about Rockford being about the last city to get a Starbucks. If that doesn't sound like a sickening idea from some YUPPIE I don't know what does. I'll tell you what I can make my own coffee.

I guess it takes all kinds, but what I love about Rockford is its roots. Roots in hard working blue collar manufacturing. Yes manufacturing is being destroyed in this country by the elitist and the politicians, but that sure doesn't make it right. Some day we in the USA will find out when it is to late, what we have lost with our industrial base.

I lived in Madison some 30 years ago, while going to technical school. It just about made me puke. The left wing idealist, the elitist, and higher academic social retards who lived and worked in a dream world. Where the elitist and professors at the UW often stated we in the USA don't really need manufacturing, that everybody should just go to a four year college. Here is a news flash, not everybody is cut out to go to a four year college.

I'll take Rockford any day, over some YUPPIE town like Madison that is fake and phony with a bunch of wackos. /B]

[rocky12345]

There is lots of really neat old housing stock in the downtown area.

That is if you dont mind the risk of being shot or mugged by the locals in the downtown area.

[rockfordsucksbigtime]

Originally Posted by rockfordsbest

I have lived here all my life, and have had friends and co-workers that have lived here and worked here say there is "no other town they have ever been in that has been so ghetto"

ok tell them to go down Cicero ave in Cicero without getting shot that is if they are white....