Is Kankakee really that bad???? (Chicago, Joliet: transplants, rental, crime rates)

[ersta]

Kankakee is a good place to live. It is the largest city in the county and thusly, have more crime. The problem is all the crime for the city of Kankakee is reported. The crimes that happens in other areas (Bradley, Bourbonnais, Manteno) aren't reported as much because they are the areas being showcased by our county leaders. Kankakee, however has the water. As long as there is water there is viability.

We just need to cleanup our local politics.

[nickz]

i live in a small town outside of kankakee and its rumored that whenever there are break ins in our town. its often from the gangs of kankakee using our town as a sort of initiation point for new members. personally, i go to kankakee all the time and the only place i really dont mind being at is the northfield square mall area. along with the new kolhs shopping center and the new bradley village square going up with all the new shops. all in all, kankakee might not be such a great place right now but with all the business coming in from usually northern located restaurants and shops there should be a drop in unemployment and then an overall drop in crime.

[nickz]

herscher isn't a bad place? i live there. its certainly better than limestone. and the people are nice. it also has one of the better school systems in my opinion...it beats kankakee in low crime and kinder people. but it also has a very small population of about 1700.

[Elliot Ness]

Do not move to Kankakee. It is a very corrupt atmosphere - you know,
a bunch of good ole boys. The City Attorney even tried to prevent citizens from taping public meetings. Can't do that!!!!! He was stopped by the
Attorney General's office. The City also allowed a landfill to be sited in a 100-year floodplain. What do they care?

The whole county is backwards - still living in the 1950s. Downtown
Kankakee is dirty, filthy, crime-ridden and the housing is falling apart.

The county board is a bunch of old farmers who don't want progress, are afraid of progress, are afraid of their own shadows. The States Attorney runs the county, not the county board members.

The countryside is beautiful - but what good does that do you when you
have an inept, backwards county board?

If you are an intelligent, college-educated person who is used to the 21st century, do not move to Kankakee County.

[M TYPE X]

So Kankakee is getting freeway sprawl big-box stores... big whoop, Danville has chain restaurants too. The real notes for downstate Illinois are Bloomington, Champaign, and Peoria.

[jared791]

Kankakee.. bad place to live..

However, as soon as you hit the city boundaries to the west leading into what is called Limestone township, the environment is completely different.

It's just little, quiet subdivisions from there.. and about 20 miles to the west and a little south is Herscher.

Small town, great place to raise a family. Great school districts.

The school district is also one of the biggest (if not the biggest) in the state, which means that pretty much anywhere west of the city of kankakee will go to Herscher schools (Limestone Grade School, Reddick, Bonfield, and obviously Herscher)

[MorganGrey]

You know, I moved to Kankakee as an adult. I grew up in a very nice suburb on the Northwest side of Chicago. Yes, Kankakee is a more depressed area economically than I am used to, but I don't regret buying a home here for one second.

Someone posted that schools are the weak point of Kankakee. I SO beg to differ. The educational offerings in the school district are very strong. Not all students may choose to benefit from those offerings, but for the students who want to apply themselves, Kankakee offers a top-notch education. The rigor of the courses is very high.

Don't listen to the people who try to steer you away from Kankakee and towards nearby places. Crime happens anywhere. I for one would prefer to live in an area with a paid fire department. Try finding that anywhere else nearby. Political corruption? I'm not saying it doesn't occur here or anywhere else, but it's not the usual way of doing things here.

Ease up on Kankakee. I'm living here very happily, working in Kankakee, and enjoying life.

[evrythang4u]

I can say that I was born in Kankakee, IL...I am now 34 years old. My mom moved the family to San Diego when I was 15 years of age back in '89. k3 was just then starting to get bad from all the drugs and so forth. Now that I'm an adult and my father and a great aunt still resides in K3 i am forced to go back every year and some time twice a year. Me personally I could never move back or stay more than 3 days. Very boring, country and most of all it looks like a ghost town. I have friends that still reside in K3, My cousin is a RN, a good friend works for the city council and she has to live in the K3. All I can if you have never left K3 and visited somewhere else that is all you know.

[RWA]

Originally Posted by MorganGrey

Someone posted that schools are the weak point of Kankakee. I SO beg to differ. The educational offerings in the school district are very strong. Not all students may choose to benefit from those offerings, but for the students who want to apply themselves, Kankakee offers a top-notch education. The rigor of the courses is very high.

I absolutely agree with this. Being a student at the high school, I myself can admit that a fight may occur every other week or so. However, why would this stop the students not involved in the fights from excelling academically? I personally attend classes with a large proportion of students who are dedicated to preparing for their future and college life. To my knowledge, not one student in the Honors classes has ever been involved in a fight.

This is insider information, not anything one would read in the Daily Journal, Kankakee's local newspaper. The Journal always likes to emphasize the success of Bradley Bourbonnais High School and Herscher High School, but never Kankakee. IMHO, I think people are afraid to admit that anything positive can come out of a community with much diversity.

One more thing... To the person who mentioned there being crazy people on the Metra Bus.. This little fact is true. During my little segment of time riding the Metra, I was constantly bothered by a certain elderly man who always seemed to be riding the Bus. Thank goodness for cars!

[Markxxx]

Kankakee is actually very nice IF you have a job. That is the main problem, unemployment. Kankakee is not served by a commuter line like other edge cities as Joliet, Aurora, Waukegan, Elgin or Gary IN, so it never grew.

It feels a bit isolated, indeed you can even get Channel 3 from Champaign over the air and on cable. But the biggest issue with Kankakee is that it has few options for jobs. If you have a job that pays well you can do very nicely in Kankakee. In fact Rush Hospital (a huge teaching hospital in Chiacgo) has an affiliate in Kankakee and if you don't mind driving to Univeristy Park you can catch the train to do stuff in Chicago. Of course why not just drive to Chicago.

The South suburbs of Chicago went downhill with the collapse of the steel and manufacturing industries and nothing ever replaced them. So their economies suffered. I recall since 1967 Chicago's been talking about building a third airport in the South burbs. But it's too far and though Chicago's South burbs aren't exceptionally black they have a reputation for being much more black then they are and that scares white people into heading to the SW (as in Joliet.)

The oddest thing about Kankakee is it is definately part of the Chicagoland area but is also isolated too so your news and TV comes from there but it's got an independend feel