Rockford isn't great, BUT it has its advantages (Chicago, Riverside: real estate, homeowners insurance)

[Phoebes]

I've lived on and off in Rockford most of my life. The positives of Rockford are:
1. Very Affordable Housing
2. Beautiful neighborhoods, with mature trees and historic homes.
3. It's smack dab in the middle of Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago and Galena to the west. 1.5 hours or less to all of these great cities.
4. Very rare to run into traffic; convenient commute to anywhere in town.

Negatives: (there are many, so here's a few I consider to be important)
1. Rockford is a very backwards, time warped town. We were probably the last city in the country to get a Starbucks. However, every other chain restaurant is here.
2. The city and some committees have made several attempts to revitalize the downtown. However, the PEOPLE who live here have not supported their efforts - you have to show up to events and SPEND MONEY to make a downtown thrive! Therefore, the downtown is pretty sparse of businesses and entertainment.
3. Void of charm and cultural forms of entertainment/activities
4. The concept of embracing diversity hasn't quite made it to Rockford yet.

[gardener34]

There is some really nice housing stock there. Some cool old neighborhoods. I agree with what you say. they do have a really nice kids museum there and nice gardens and arboretum. I think their high unemployment rates during downturns just dooms the city.

[Chicagoland60426]

With a city of almost 160,000 and growing, you would expect better comments for Rockford. Rockford have some diversity at least. Is it better than similar cities its size like Jackson, MS?

[frogbiscuit]

I graduated from High School in Rockford, spent one year at Rockford College, then left in 1980 and never looked back. After all these years, 2 things come to mind - I never took advantage of all that N Illinois/S Wisconsin has to offer and there are much more interesting places to live in the US.

[rocky12345]

Rockford is a wonderful place to live if you are a bible thumping, red neck or thug, who desires the simple life.

As I said before:

Rockford has extremely high taxes with little to show for it.

Poor schools.

No cultural diversity.

Few restaurants for the size.

Way too many churches per square foot.

Way too much crime.

Poor medical care.

Crappy downtown.

Crappy home builders.

No real sports teams.

Way too far from Chicago and the rest of civilization.

No train to get you to civilization.

Too many fields.

Too many pick up trucks and red necks.

Business district is composed of big box chains.

No real jobs.

Crooked government.

[Traderx]

Originally Posted by rocky12345

Rockford is a wonderful place to live if you are a bible thumping, red neck or thug, who desires the simple life.

As I said before:

Rockford has extremely high taxes with little to show for it. That Depends how you look at it. High taxes? I probably agree that the real estate taxes are high, but as always it's more complicated than that. For example, my homeowners insurance is 10X higher than someone in Rockford and Rockford real estate is 1/3 the price. So for the same money I can have a much., much nicer house in Rockford and between taxes and insurance it costs less than I pay in Florida. As for nothing to show for it. Well, on the side east I noticed the roads were all nice and new. The west side a different story. So I guess it depends where you live.

Poor schools. True for the most part, however, many people rave about Brookview and the gifted program at Auburn. Also many of the private schools like Keith get great reviews. That said, are there any really good public school systems in this country? The schools here in Florida are probably even worse than Rockford.

No cultural diversity. True, but having lived in a place with a lot of diversity I'm not so sure thats a bad thing.

Few restaurants for the size. Are you out of your mind? Rockford may have more restaurants than any city I've ever been to. I wonder how they all stay in business.

Way too many churches per square foot. A lot of churches for sure, n ot sure thats so terrible. Couldn't care less myself.

Way too much crime. Gimmie a break! Obviously you lived on the far west side or else you have no idea what "normal" crime rates are for a city of 150K.

Poor medical care. This is just flat out wrong. Swedes, for example, is one of the leading heart surgery centers in the country. Many other examples I could list also.

Crappy downtown. True. I go even further and say there is no downtown in the traditional sense.

Crappy home builders. True in some ways. The home builder's aren't crappy per se, but the cookie cutter homes they build are. They also build super nice houses too if you've got the money to afford it. Pretty much the same anywhere though so not really a Rockford "thing".

No real sports teams. True, but how many cities of 150K have a sports team. I can't think of 1.

Way too far from Chicago and the rest of civilization. Huh? Sorry, but you make yourself sound like a hick. The burbs are less than 1 hour away. I went from Perryville and Riverside to being inside O'Hare last week in 1 hour flat and that was leaving rockford at 4pm. I could get to just about anywhere in Chicago in under 2 hours. While I live far closer to Tampa airport in terms of miles, there's no way on earth I could get there from my house in an hour. And just driving from Clearwater to St Pete can often times take more than 1 hour. Driving from my house to Downtown Tampa, a 30 mile drive, can take 1.5-2.0 hours depending on the time of day. You need to get out more. This one comment alone makes me think you still live in a puny town and have no real world experience.

No train to get you to civilization. Train? Who the hell wants to ride a train? Join the 21st century and buy a car man.

Too many fields. Some people like fields. Having lived in a congested metro area for 20 years those open spaces are a huge draw to me.

Too many pick up trucks and red necks. Pickups trucks are everywhere even in big cities. Yes there are a lot of Rednecks though I;ll give you that. I saw them only west of the river though. Seems thats where your from. Hmmmm.

Business district is composed of big box chains. No, really? You mean Walmart, Home Depot and Best Buy have run all the little guys out of business? What rock have you been living under? The same thing could be said of any city in America.

No real jobs. True. But, unlike you some people are thinking this may be an opportunity to start a business and scoop up hard working employees.

Crooked government. Name me one City., County or State in this country that it's residents feel has a uncrooked gov't. Again this is not a Rockford thing.

Rocky, you need to get out more. And while you're at it my suggestion would be that if you spent as much time looking for solutions as you do whinning about problems you'd be a lot happier and more successful.

[rocky12345]

I am very succesful making a mid 6 figure salary. I got out of Rockford quite some time ago. Never looked back. Just cant believe a place like this can exist.

There are so many problems that it will be easier to find a cure for cancer.

[Traderx]

Originally Posted by rocky12345

I am very succesful making a mid 6 figure salary. I got out of Rockford quite some time ago. Never looked back. Just cant believe a place like this can exist.

There are so many problems that it will be easier to find a cure for cancer.

I call bull**** Rocko. You're too negative to be making mid 6 figures.

You know, I left Rockford myself because I had better opportunities elsewhere and the weather sucked. But, I never felt bitter about having grown up there or that the place was the cesspool you make it out to be.

In fact, some of the best people I know live in Rockford and some of the weathiest too. Fortunately for me perhaps life has treated me very well and allowed me to experience a lot of the country. Rockford sure isn't perfect and there are nicer, better places.

That said, your hatred of the place speaks more about you than Rockford, imo. You claim you left and never look back, but obviously that's not true. Someone not looking back wouldn't hangout on a Rockford message board, for example. Also you're so emotional about the topic; always grossly overstating things, i,.e. "i can't believe a place like this can exist". Thats odd. You grew up there for one. And two, I could think of 10 places far worse off then Rockford without even trying. Are you posting on those boards too?

You have issue's my friend. The truth is at the end of the day Rockford or anyplace else is what you make of it. You don't say where this utopia is where you live now, but I'll venture a guess that it is far from perfect and that a good percentage of the population thinks it sucks. Truth is, for most people life sucks no matter where they live.

[Orwelleaut]

Having grown up with Grandparents who lived in a small WI town not far from Rockford, I'm somewhat familiar with what Rockford was like, at least in the 80's and early 90's. Wisconsin folks, who were used to almost no crime, thought Rockford had a lot of crime, but they also said that about Beloit. I wonder how many folks who feel that Rockford is so dangerous have actually been to places like Flint and Saginaw, MI, or Youngstown, Ohio? Plenty of cities similar in size to ROckford are far more dangerous. Madison is nicer and safer, yes, but Madison is an exceptionally nice city. In the big picture, I think Rockford is fairly decent. Never lived there, but visited the "time museum" many times with my Grandparents. We also ate at a Swedish restaurant a couple of times which was really good. In the early nineties, when driving back from Southern WI, I ate lunch at this Swedish restaurant and drove around Rockford a little. It looked like there were some tough areas, yes, but nothing all that out of the ordinary for a city this size. Compared to other similar sized cities, I thought things looked tough by WI standards, but not compared to cities in other states like South Bend, Fort Wayne, or Mansfield, Ohio. Unless Rockford has changed radically in recent years, I suspect that it is still a pretty decent place to live.

[jer2911]

Rockford has great private school options
and is an affordable place to raise a family.