Marion, Illinois (Carbondale, Carterville, Nashville: crime rates, home, pros and cons)

[FrozenWisconsinites2019]

I am looking to relocate and Marion is currently on my radar. Can anyone tell me pros and cons of this city or even Illinois itself?

[Count David]

The mall has closed down and people are losing their minds over it.

I spend some time in the area earlier this year, and my takeaways from it are the following:

-the area is pretty
-economic problems are pretty apparent
-it is very cheap
-there's enough shopping
-SIUC is having enrollment/financial problems
-looked to be plenty of outdoor recreation
-~ 2 hours from St. Louis, ~ 3 hours from Nashville

You should also be aware of IL's financial problems and exodus, as well as how they might affect you.

[FrozenWisconsinites2019]

Originally Posted by Count David

You should also be aware of IL's financial problems and exodus, as well as how they might affect you.

Any idea how it could affect a married couple with no kids?

[Count David]

Originally Posted by FrozenWisconsinites2019

Any idea how it could affect a married couple with no kids?

Mostly high/higher taxes, possibly cuts in services.

People that live there will be able to explain it better (there's threads all over the IL forums about it), but here are a couple of links that may help fill you in.

https://money.cnn.com/2017/06/29/inv...ade/index.html

https://www.chicagotribune.com/busin...919-story.html

https://wgntv.com/2017/07/07/how-ill...and-the-state/

[amyisaplanteater]

Southern Illinois is beautiful. I lived in Carbondale for 13 years and my husband for 21. We moved our family out West this past summer.

Pros Marion has The Hub (fitness center w/indoor pool), and the library is decent for a smaller town. If they don't have what you want you can order lots through the library system and get it within a week. The Old Town Square is a cute place. My kids enjoyed eating at The Vault Cafe (old bank turned cafe). Cost of living is low. There are lots of beautiful places to go hiking within a half hour drive. Veteran's Airport which will get you to STL is a 15-minute drive from downtown in traffic. The winters are relatively mild with not a lot of snow. If you like to hunt or fish it's a great area for that.

Cons summers are hot and humid. There is a lot of pollen there from trees, grass, ragweed. Those were significant factors in our family relocating; both aggravated my asthma. Marion is not a very walkable city. Walkscore.com gives it a 37, car-dependent, score. We would go to St Louis a few times a year for shopping for items that we couldn't find in So IL. With the mild winters comes drivers who don't seem to grasp that in winter weather conditions you have to slow down. When there was a storm, we stayed home unless we had somewhere we had to go that we couldn't reschedule.

If you don't mind driving, want a slower pace of life with a low cost of living then it could be a good fit for you. I would recommend looking for housing in Carterville if you do move to the area. It has lower crime rates and easy access to everything that both Carbondale and Marion has to offer.