Moving to Decatur, IL

[DixieChick1972]

I have been through Decatur before... OMG the smell!!!!


I would really consider other choices.

[04JETTA]

I remember that smell too worst. smell. ever. I'd rather smell diesel fumes than that

[latinadivabrownpride]

Hola a todos me acaba de mudar aquí con mi esposo cinco hijos, mi hermana, mi hermano en la ley y sus hijos y también nuestros padres, y debo decir que este es el mejor lugar para criar una familia muy barato mucho patio no teníamos mucho espacio para que el astillero tuvo que excavó una en una unidad de todo el rap manera tenemos un montón de familia por lo que es muy ocupado los fines de semana y días festivos por lo que ahora hay espacio para todos a aparcar sus coches. Nuestros vecinos son muy amigables, no hay nada malo me puede decir acerca de este lugar. ... es maravilloso que acabamos de poner un columpio en el patio trasero para los niños son felices, y grandes escuelas de vecinos y de la maravillosa sección 8 lista está abierta en Brown a fin de aplicar antes de ahora la lista se llena.

[Drover]

What?

[tigernike23]

First post on here.

I have to draw a line. I'm a Decatur resident, born and raised. I'm 23 now, and as soon as I graduate from Richland (a community college on the northeast side of town) I am getting the hell out of here. Decatur is the epitome of what can happen to a town when it relies too much on manufacturing. Caterpillar laid off I believe 1500 people in the Decatur plant alone, and because of that, our "Celebration" wasn't really that good. But, putting politics in here, we elected a right-wing city council, that can't see the front side of a barn if it was standing in front of them. Some people say we are "little Chicago" because of the drug activity. I think we are "Flint, Michigan" South, and the nail in the coffin for this city's hopes was when Firestone closed. Race is a huge problem in this city, because I see two Decatur's.

1. The one that the council sees, which is everywhere outside the center of town and believes it's best day is ahead of it (allegedly).
2. And the one that no one pays attention to, south of Pershing Rd., Lincoln Park, South Jasper; you know, the 'hood part of town, where when people get sick they go to the ER; or in order to make a buck they have to sell a dime bag.

I live on the outer skirts, Forsyth is across the Interstate, but I see what's going on to my hometown. It's old, rich, white guys that are running the city. We should model after Bloomington, but we won't. I have little hope for this town. Someone else on here said Decatur "lost it's sense of purpose", and I totally agree. I hate to sound all negative, but in reality there is nothing positive about this town.

[Jennster34]

Hi, my husband and I recently took a tour of Decatur this past weekend. I do not understand the fuss from people about this town. We are from Michigan (30years), live in Florida(2 1/2 years) and will be moving to Decatur soon. We found downtown to be full of wonderful up-to-date shops, the parks were lush and green with lots of acres and the lake (though brown) does add some body of water to the town. I lived about 10 blocks from Lake Michigan and the inner portion called Lake Macatawa was just as brown, however it was nice to have water for boaters, etc. and just to look at.

I hear lots of complaints about the schools, however when speaking with several strangers in and around the towns they told us as long as you are a caring parent and don't just dump your kid at the school and you are involved then your child will do just fine. All I can do is my part and if my children are not doing well, then I will enroll them in a different school system. It's common in every state.

The people here were super friendly and any city you live in will have good parts and not so good. It's just how it is. You will have crime everywhere you go.

The smell is limited. It's near the soy company (which in my opinion it looked cool while driving over the bridge) and should the wind pick it up, then yes different areas near it. But we drove downtown, we drove all over town (yes all sides) and had our windows down, walked around and we only smelled it in two areas and that was driving by the plant and little further down. It was no big deal. It smelled between soy milk and dog food. At least it doesn't smell like raw sewage or swamp!

I'm sure a lot of people who have lived here all there life and in their 20's or 30s have complaints. That's pretty typical. We drove to the mall in Forsyth, a whole 5 minutes away and went to a fantastic mall. Where I came from the mall was barely touched with stores. We went to the movies, we loved it. You have all your basic needs met in Decatur (or just outside the town) and more. If your a partier or need lots to do then yes I can see where people might complain, but from what we've seen it seems like a nice place to live and we are very excited to move here in a week!!

[STLMetro]

In general, I think people are all talking about the same things and going around in circles. I was raised in O'Fallon, Il but moved to Decatur about two years ago after attending ISU in Bloomington. I also go to Millikin for my MBA. In general, the majority of jobs in Decatur come from manufacturing and always have. That is why Decatur is not doing well. Firestone left, Cat has dropped a lot of it's workers. The main players in town are ADM, Tate and Lyle, Cat, and Mueller. All manufacturing. There are other jobs, but if any of these four left, it would be bad, really bad. The downtown area is nice, with restauants and sucessful shops. However, the areas immediately north, south, east and west of downtown are not as nice, and northeast is the worst. If you live here, there are great areas. Forsyth and far North Decatur are great places. The South Shore neighborhood is very nice. Far West is nice, as is the outlying towns that others spoke of. The Decatur schools are not good, they may have once been, but not anymore. We have a volunteer program where I work that you can go to schools and work with kids. Kids could not find countries with a map in front of them. And not just any country, we're talking Canada. They thought Colorado was a country. This was an 8th grade class. The Decatur schools are losing kids quickly and there have been several consolidations over the years. St. Theresa (Catholic private) is the best option in the city, hands down.

I don't want people to think you can't live in Decatur. You can and will probably have a good time. But the city on the whole is not doing well and hasn't for a long time. 20% of people live below the poverty line. There are places you do not go. But everyone I've met is very nice no matter how poor or rich they are. And sorry about the smell, that's my company, our bad....

P.S. - Don't go in that lake....It may be safe to swim on the surface, but the main contaminates are still in the soil. It has needed a dredging for years....

[Jennster34]

lol, no plans to swim in the lake. I heard they are looking into dredging the lake though! that's good news I suppose.

[wendywarren]

Pana is a good town to live in. [URL="http://www.panaillinois.com"]www.panaillinois.com[/URL].