Moving to Champaign Il help please!

[bananagrrl]

along the original lines of this thread, i'm also moving to champaign. there's a house in particular i'm interested in just northwest of campus on 4th and e. church. what is that area like? it sounds like it could be kind of sketch, but how sketch are we talking? i keep figuring it can't be that bad so close to campus, but who knows. anyone?

[M TYPE X]

4th and Church? That's definitely the sketchy side of town. You are quite a bit "off campus" there as well.

[Drover]

4th and Church isn't remotely sketchy. That's only a block or two north of University Avenue and a couple blocks from downtown. That area is fine.

[Katiana]

You should probably go look at it yourself, and get a feel for the area. Unless it's changed drastically since I lived there, e.g. major "gentrification" set in, it's not the best area of town. OTOH, you might like it.

[bananagrrl]

thanks for the info. looks like i got a yes, a no, *and* a maybe--ha! i plan on coming to check the place out in early july, but just wanted a bit more info as not to waste time. thanks

[AppleBlossom13]

My husband and I have just started looking into renting a house in this area...within a half hour of Champaign, IL. After a long 5 month layoff, he got a job offer in Champaign. Coming from Pekin, IL, a smaller city, that's what we'd like now. Does anyone have any advice on how to go about looking for a rent house in St. Joe or any others like Monticello? We are planning on taking a drive around but with gas prices going up that's not going to be our top choice right now. We have to find something within two weeks or so. Family and Pet friendly of course THANKS!!!

[gingerbookgoddess]

As far as places in Champaign and around go: I'd say that fourth and church and such is just fine. I like to ride through there on my cycle and admire the area. Its not cookie cutter.

Nearby towns: I like Mahomet for its great schools and it is only about ten minutes from Champaign, but it is also a small town.

As far as champaign itself and various neighborhoods. Some of the southwest neighborhoods in champaign seem really nice, but they also have issues. For example, there isn't public transit in some of them because people there decided not to pay the tax for the mass transit district so now the services there are quite limited.

Race is something to consider in Champaign-Urbana. The cities have a history of racial segregation and it remains this way today with the majority of minorities living in the northern part of the cities. Location means something in terms of access to overall services like health care, university relationships, and schools.

The schools in Champaign run on a school of choice program which means that people put in their top choices. They get priority for schools closest to home. The middle schools feed into elementary schools and the high schools will be redistrcting next year. Champaign is just comming off of a consent decree related to race in the schools. The two worst performing elemenatry schools are supposed to be closed for a while in order to be converted to magnet schools.

I like my neighborhood in champaign, Parkland Ridge. It is near the community college, Parkland, and a Park, Dodds. It also has a nice mix of people-- a variety of income levels, and a variety of races/ethnicites (though the majority is white), and a variety of ages as well. Plus the neighborhood is healthy.

Champaign put out a neighborhood wellness plan a couple of years ago that can make for some interesting reading, but remember to use a grain of salt. It can be found on the city of champaign's website.

Both Urbana and Champaign have wonderful libraries. One good thing about the library system is that you can use your lincoln trails library card at any lincoln trails library.

[sigprn]

Yes get out on philo road in urbana. This is nice area.