Don't Move to the Quad Cities (Chicago, Peoria: high crime, new house, neighborhoods)

[css9450]

Hence the irony.

[ITChick]

Originally Posted by homemakergirl

You can't choose a different phone company, only AT&T, there is one cable company and their prices are sky high.

There are no grocery stores that carry Asian food (there is one, but it is so dirty I am afraid of bringing home a cockroach or getting food poisoning), we drive 3 hours to Arlington Heights to get Asian groceries.

The people are rude and if you are not from this area, you are clearly labeled an outsider. People do not smile, they are more concerned about beating you to the line at the grocery store, parking stall, etc. The city is not laid out well, their community events are lacking.

Those are my biggest worries about moving to any small town, anywhere in the U.S. Some people like the lack of crowds and small privately owned stores, but I prefer the busyness, big box clean stores and variety.

[linicx]

There are small towns with clean stores and national chains, things to do and good services. Unfortunately all rural American towns are burdened with the monolopy phone and cable compies. You can escape the phone with VOIP, but you still need an internet connection which leads you back to the cable company for the connection. It is a question of which of the evils is worst. In my case it was phone company and its horrible overages. .

[Compesino]

I lived in the QC my whole life im 32. Yes homemakergirl is correct.The QC is full of angry people that like to "backbite" And the Moline police are corrupt.I ran a roof company for 14 years in Moline.I was drowning in bills.Me and the wife got into an arguement. I have had zero domestic violence in 14 years.After our tiff the MOLINE police rodney kings me and put false charges on me gave me 2 black eyes and a broken nose for doing absolutely nothing wrong. They stood me on my feet after sitting there conversing with them for about 5 minutes and beat the crap out of me tried giving 3-6 years in prison on false charges. They need money so they extort it by concocting charges. After paying a lawyer cost me 4thousand dollars to stay out of prison. But lost my business my home everything. MOD CUT: NOT ALLOWED

[debbie at bouontiful]

I would take the Quad Cities any day to Chicago. Lived near Galena, IL and would go down to Davenport to shop. I liked the area. I guess each to their own. Spent time in Chicago too and I loved Monroe Wis. have lots of good friends in that town.

[redskinsfanqca]

I think she is right. I moved to the Quad Cities in October of 2008 to be with my fiance. I moved here from Fairfax County, Virginia (recently named number 3 by Forbes magazine as the best places to live in) which is located in the Washington, DC metro area. And I myself am so fed up of the area. First of all the people are extremely close minded and if you are not from the Midwest or Quad Cities you are labeled an outsider. They go out in public looking like they just got out of bed and sometimes smelling like they have not taken a shower in years. A lot of them are also extremely uneducated and do not care about anything else that is happening outside of the Quad Cities let alone the rest of the USA or world. They drive like idiots, wait forever after the light turned green, an do not know how to merge properly (all you who have been on the 74 bridge from Iowa-Illinois know what I am talking about). Also the economy here is terrible. You can have a college education but still only end up working at Walmart, delivering pizzas, etc. Unemployment in Rock Island County is currently almost 11%. That is approaching 3rd world levels. Sure the cost of living is cheap here, but also the quality of housing in most of the Quad Cities is old. Dining options? HA! If you like to have food delivered your only option here seems to be Pizza. How many pizza places does a small metropolitan area like the Quad Cities need anyway? The roads here are horrendous. They seem to have to fix the same patch of roads over and over and over again. The state of Illinois is so broke that they are considering cutting schools down to a 4 day week, and in some towns cutting down essential services like fire and rescue. For such a small town, I am shocked by the very high crime rate (compared to Fairfax County, which had a small crime rate). No upscale grocery stores like Whole Foods or Trader Joes. Sure the area is diverse, But if you are brown skinned people automatically label you "Mexican". And I know this applies to most of the Midwest, but Quad Citians, dont kid yourselves, this area is VERY FLAT! Yeah there are some hills, but overall the area is very FLAT (just drive down the Avenue). I am so glad that my fiance is also getting fed-up with the area and we will be moving back to Virginia soon. And as for people who might say the DC area is rude, well pretty much that's mainly to tourists. Most of the people there are transplants so you are not treated like an outsider. Sure traffic is horrendous in DC, but at least people know how to merge, and you have a great public transportation system of buses, the Metro, and commuter trains. And yes the housing market is very expensive, but at least I can get a decent job there and can afford it. Avoid the Quad Cities!!!

[redskinsfanqca]

I also forgot to add the monopoly on cable services. There are a ton in the DC area. Here we just have Mediacom. and I hate Mediacom!

[linicx]

I think what most people who consider moving to any location in Illinois that is not in the Chicago area fail to understand is this:
[1] Iowa and Illinois are the #1 and #2 corn producers in the Unites Statets.
[2] Chicago dominates the Midwest.
[3] There are 3 or 4 cities in each state with a population of 80-120.000 or more. There are far more villages, cities and farm towns with a pupulation 0f 300 - 7,000 than thare are with a population of 25,000 and over.
[4] Illinois Cities with a County seat have more services and better sevices than other towns of the same size and demographics. Chicago) is the Cook Cpunty seat. Eureka, Petersburg, Lacon, Peoria, Pittsfield, Springfield, Pekin, Bloomington, Champaign and Lacon are county seats too.
[5] There are 102 County seats in Illinois.
[6] The balance of the unpopulated areas of the state are corn and bean fields,livestock, buriness, or areas owned by the state. by the USWS or owned by The Nature Conservancy owned.

There are a lot of things to do and see in Illinois and Iowa. One must understand that, llke the Amanda Colonies or Bishop Hill or Dickson Mounds, most of the things to do and see in the two states - except corn, beans and cows - are in pockets of adventure and exploration that are spread out from border to border. It is just as easy to find the nudist camp as it to find a casino, Regan Peace Garden, professional sports, skiing, or upscale shopping and wolves.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by redskinsfanqca

I think she is right. I moved to the Quad Cities in October of 2008 to be with my fiance. I moved here from Fairfax County, Virginia (recently named number 3 by Forbes magazine as the best places to live in) which is located in the Washington, DC metro area. And I myself am so fed up of the area. First of all the people are extremely close minded and if you are not from the Midwest or Quad Cities you are labeled an outsider. They go out in public looking like they just got out of bed and sometimes smelling like they have not taken a shower in years. A lot of them are also extremely uneducated and do not care about anything else that is happening outside of the Quad Cities let alone the rest of the USA or world. They drive like idiots, wait forever after the light turned green, an do not know how to merge properly (all you who have been on the 74 bridge from Iowa-Illinois know what I am talking about). Also the economy here is terrible. You can have a college education but still only end up working at Walmart, delivering pizzas, etc. Unemployment in Rock Island County is currently almost 11%. That is approaching 3rd world levels. Sure the cost of living is cheap here, but also the quality of housing in most of the Quad Cities is old. Dining options? HA! If you like to have food delivered your only option here seems to be Pizza. How many pizza places does a small metropolitan area like the Quad Cities need anyway? The roads here are horrendous. They seem to have to fix the same patch of roads over and over and over again. The state of Illinois is so broke that they are considering cutting schools down to a 4 day week, and in some towns cutting down essential services like fire and rescue. For such a small town, I am shocked by the very high crime rate (compared to Fairfax County, which had a small crime rate). No upscale grocery stores like Whole Foods or Trader Joes. Sure the area is diverse, But if you are brown skinned people automatically label you "Mexican". And I know this applies to most of the Midwest, but Quad Citians, dont kid yourselves, this area is VERY FLAT! Yeah there are some hills, but overall the area is very FLAT (just drive down the Avenue). I am so glad that my fiance is also getting fed-up with the area and we will be moving back to Virginia soon. And as for people who might say the DC area is rude, well pretty much that's mainly to tourists. Most of the people there are transplants so you are not treated like an outsider. Sure traffic is horrendous in DC, but at least people know how to merge, and you have a great public transportation system of buses, the Metro, and commuter trains. And yes the housing market is very expensive, but at least I can get a decent job there and can afford it. Avoid the Quad Cities!!!

I just can't bring myself to muster any sympathy for someone who moves to a place like the Quad Cities from one of the largest metropolitan areas in the country and then whines that it's not like the huge metropolitan area they moved from. Well, duh -- about 30 seconds worth of due diligence would have told you that before you moved there. Exactly what did you expect from a metropolitan area of 350,000 in the middle of nowhere? Rome on the Mississippi?

Here's a simple concept: either accept a place for what it is, or don't move there. If you can't abide this simple concept, you have no business complaining about your new home. The Quad Cities didn't move to you, you moved to the Quad Cities. It was your decision, so own it.

[BLS2753]

It's always interesting to me how people move from high population areas, and are shocked as to what living is like in a smaller community. Small town folks show much less of this when visiting or moving to a big city. I suppose the difference is, out of necessity, most residents of smaller communities must visit large cities at some point in their life. They pretty much know what to expect when they get there.

Residents of large urban areas, can pretty much cocoon themselves for a lifetime. With perhaps the only travel being a flight to a vacation venue on occasion. Some seem to be geographical illiterate, and have the illusion that the U. S. is densely populated coast-to-coast with cities providing the services and amenities to which they've become accustomed.