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Old 02-12-2007, 02:48 PM
 
4 posts, read 59,962 times
Reputation: 32

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I moved to Moline from Madison, WI. I thought that the living experience would be similar seeing that it is about the same size (although Moline is about 40,000 people there is about 150,000 in the cities combined).

The schools are horrendous, I pulled my daughter out and put her in private schools (which is the only good thing about the QCA, the private schools are very affordable compared to other cities). I was on the report card for Illinois schools and noticed that even thought cost of living is less here than most of the state (supposedly) the teachers are about the highest paid. Don't let that fool you, the teachers here don't care and as I said the public high schools are terrible. I found it funny that one of my daughter's classmates mother is a teacher at the local public high school, but she has all of her kids in private school. Also the rent is much more reasonable than Madison, but the neighborhoods are not friendly.

It has been the biggest disappointment, there are no good restaunts, they are all national chains or small restraunts serving only Asian, American or Hispanic food. Their Taste of the Quad Cities was three blocks long, expensive and no specialty food, just the normal national chains. No entertainment, the city is not pretty for the most part.

There is also no competition here. There are two grocery store chains to choose from, there are no real meat markets or deli's. The prices are outrageous. The grocery stores sell "steaks" with cuts I have never heard of. The fattest ribeye steak I have seen here is only about 1/2 an inch. If you ask the butcher to cut meat for you they look at you appalled.

You can't choose a different phone company, only AT&T, there is one cable company and their prices are sky high.

There are no grocery stores that carry Asian food (there is one, but it is so dirty I am afraid of bringing home a cockroach or getting food poisoning), we drive 3 hours to Arlington Heights to get Asian groceries.

The people are rude and if you are not from this area, you are clearly labeled an outsider. People do not smile, they are more concerned about beating you to the line at the grocery store, parking stall, etc. The city is not laid out well, their community events are lacking.

They claim to have wonderful job opportunities here, I cannot find a job in my industry or one equivelent to what I do (Accounting/Payroll clerk). I have submitted at least 100 resumes over the last three years and I rarely get a response, I think they see I am not from their community and disregard it.

I am so thankful that my husband is transferring to Chicago and we can finally put this town behind us.

Last edited by homemakergirl; 02-12-2007 at 03:14 PM.. Reason: Forgot a comment on the public schools

 
Old 02-12-2007, 09:38 PM
 
Location: Midwest
1,903 posts, read 7,879,249 times
Reputation: 474
Most of the country is more like Moline than Madison. Madison, Ann Arbor, Champaign, etc are special. There are lots of dead postindustrial cities in America.
 
Old 02-13-2007, 07:54 PM
 
Location: Chicago
38,707 posts, read 102,780,358 times
Reputation: 29967
What did you expect moving from Madison to the Quad Cities? The QC has a reputation throughout the midwest for being a deteriorated, struggling post-industrial mid-sized metropolis. Like MTX suggests, the country is littered with such places from the the Northeast through Kansas. If only every mid-sized city were as lucky as Madison -- that is, to be the capital city and play host to a flagship state university of 40,000 students, thus making the regional economy virtually recession-proof -- then there wouldn't be so many Quad Cities-type places across the heartland. I visited the QC recently and I was pleasantly surprised at how nice downtown Moline and Rock Island were. But I still wouldn't move there because the area is still struggling to find its identity and its future is uncertain. But this is common knowledge that you should have been aware of before you moved there, or at a bare minimum, could have found out with a cursory amount of research. I'm glad you've got something better lined up in your future, but I don't particularly sympathize with you in the meantime.
 
Old 02-17-2007, 12:40 AM
 
4 posts, read 68,733 times
Reputation: 46
Default QC is home for me!!!

It is unfortunate that you have had such a bad experience with the Quad Cities. We are a tight knit community that extends helping hands to our neighbors and open arms to new comers. We are not the worn out, left behind, dying cities you have portrayed. We have the Quad Cities Mallards hockey team, the Steemwheelers arena football, Swing of the Quad cities professional baseball. We have skate parks, ice rinks, numerous outdoor parks, both people and dog, bike paths, hiking paths, water sports, water parks.We have museums, art galleries, live theater, comedy clubs, casino boats. Great kids sports leagues. Churches galore. We have great shopping, both big name stores and small treasures. We have all types of restaurants for all types of tastes. And great service to boot. We have great schools both public and private. We have 4 colleges and a university. As well as several trade schools. Cost of living is not only manageable, but leaves room to breathe, and improve. While we have our struggles like every community, I think we handle them with grace and strength. I moved here from southern California to raise my son and have never regretted it since.
 
Old 02-17-2007, 01:48 AM
 
Location: MarquettePark Chicago
84 posts, read 1,102,444 times
Reputation: 146
Default Wow, post first, read second

I just got done reading home girls post,

How many phone companies do you want, AT&T formerly SBC, formerly Ameritech, Formerly Iowa Illinois Bell, is over 150 years old, besides cable telephony, which I install among other things, how many phone companies are in the US,

One cable company, yea, how many cable companies do you think are in Chicago, two, Comcast and Wow, and Wow, is only available in certain areas, and is under chapter 11, I know I ve worked for every provider in the US, and have certifications with all of them (public record......look it up) and if you think it was expensive in QC, wait until you see your first bill from Comcast, youll crap yourself, inside info, subscribe to cable telephone, you ll enjoy the daily outages, the incompatible 911 calling system which for the record, has caused deaths, and personal harm to people who have it, and dont forget the top of the line customer service, i work for these companies, and I wouldnt put their crap in my own home, EVER HEARD OF SATELLITE,

Food, what other kinds of food, are there, do you honestly expect to get Kim Chi, in the corn belt of america, learn how to grow and cook your own food, which those people in that area , have been doing since the USA became a nation.

Shopping what kind of shopping do you do, do you honestly expect to find a Macy's (aka occupied Marshall Fields) ever heard of online shopping,

Butcher's are u a millionaire, wait until you ask a butcher to cut something for you up here, cash in your savings bonds.

People, you ll find more nicer people here, I ll tell ya, the most racially segregated city on the planet earth, Nelson Mandela came here, and said, he would prefer apartheid then live here............(thats public record as well), and historically cities with five million plus people are more friendly than small town america, just look at New York, they love each other to death. Chicago has a great reputation for welcoming outsiders, "we are all about that",

Jobs, other than sevice or agricultural what kind of jobs, did you expect to find in the Breadbasket/Bible Belt of america, accounting and payroll, in order to hire someone that writes checks and keeps the books, you have to have people working that collect a check, your not going to find that in Petticoat Junction, I send out ten to twenty resumes a day online, and Im semi retired, and somewhat famous, I get no responses, and Im connected.

Im not trying to be mean, but you strike me as a little princess, spoiled, and have too much time on your hands, you moved to an area which still lives in the 19th century, and you expected them to be just like you...........as I recall you said your from the west coast or something, and you moved to the QC area, and now your coming here to Chicago, I sincerely wish you the best, and hope things go well for you.

PS: I ll hook you up to both cable companies so you dont have to pay them, youll need that money to pay for tuition, parking, and sides of beef, dont forget the even more expensive taste of chicago, and its three million sweaty, rude, drunk patrons.

On schools, the Chicago Public School system is a gladiator academy, and ninety percent of their teachers, place their kids in private schools,
 
Old 02-17-2007, 01:52 AM
 
Location: MarquettePark Chicago
84 posts, read 1,102,444 times
Reputation: 146
Default Correction

Your not from the West Coast, your from Wisconsin, your a Cheeshead, Ya Hey There sweety, welcome to Chicago heh, We love cheesheads even more than people from LA.
 
Old 02-18-2007, 12:20 PM
 
180 posts, read 955,299 times
Reputation: 172
I think you all are right! I have lived here 3 times over the years and I find that almost everything everyone said is true. I have been here 5 years this time. It took us 3 years to meet our neighbors and develop friendships with them. Now we are a closeknit community. We were instrumental in them meeting each other too! Thru our making acquantince with one neighbor, we introduced them to the other and so on. We threw a backyard bbq for all 6 of us that are in close proximity and now we all watch out for each other.
But WE had to pursue that or we would still not know each other.

There are things to do here but they are expensive. Yes, this is a post-industry rich area and it went thru a horrible time in the early 80's. We called it the QC depression. But things are changing again and there are jobs again. But competition is extremely high.

We definitely have a love/hate relationship with the Quad Cities but I would still recommend it to anyone that needs to relocate here. I would just encourage them to explore and persue friendships.

Compared to where I lived last, in W.V. this place has tremendous potential. We had one tv channel if you didn't have satellite... and we didn't because the mountain blocked the signal. People were incredibly friendly there but many were incredibly uneducated or lacked experience in commonalities found in other areas.

Every place has good and bad. Not everyone is going to be a good fit everywhere.
I will say though, this place has some of the worse drivers I have ever encountered. As a former truck driver and having lived in numerous states, I am making that comment from experience and not prejudice.

I hope that Chicago is a better fit for you. Perhaps your dining choices and grocery choices will be better.

TW
 
Old 02-25-2007, 10:55 AM
 
9 posts, read 66,909 times
Reputation: 25
Default Moline-Quad-Cities

True it is a dying corn belt area that would be nothing if not for the large number of Government workers. Yes, there are rich people their: those who own the car dealerships, farmers and commercial real estate tycons. My big beef is the taxes. Bought a house in 1980 on 7th street and 27 avenue. The property taxes were 219 bucks a year. NOW with no improvement to the house they are 1800 dollars. Sad but true, even Al Gore who invented the internet, even he attended private school. In most communities anyone who is anyone send their children to private school. Also, water bills and sewer bills have gone through the roof. If she is looking for the NYcity level of restaurants go to NYC. Once the Unions broke IH and Deer the place has gone down hill. Now it is meca for retired military who work at the arsenal and make salaries the outsiders can only deam about. It is just a dying town and the death is still continuing. It snowballs, skilled people are needed to keep an area going but they can not find work so they leave. When BRAC closes down the Arsenal you will hear a sucking sound for miles. It will take about 10 yrs to complete and I doubt if it will replace them with other agencies. Moline is a reflection of the salaries people make. Low salaries so no new business. Living now in mid Pa area.. the place is begging for workers and the building boom is still going strong. Another problem is that farmers will not let go of their subsidized gold mines for development. No expansion no development no work no opportunities. Not unique to Moline, I could easily name 10 other 50K cities in Illinois that have gone no where in the last 20yrs. Except I return to the property Tax problem. Figure out the math.... from 219 a year to 1800 bucks. Well in excess of official inflation numbers. Where I live now there are about 15 different grocery stores, maybe it keeps the prices down but with corn being diverted to fuel in about 2 years the price of food will be out of site unless we import from starving counties. Ethanol will make farmers richer but if you like to eat steak you better be prepared to pay a great deal more for the priviledge.
vr
amccom
 
Old 02-26-2007, 04:32 PM
 
198 posts, read 819,635 times
Reputation: 83
Well if you are looking for tax relief, the Chicago area is not the place. 1800 a year would be a great tax bill here. A 200K home in Aurora can have a tax bill of 4000. But what many of our suburban communities enjoy are great schools for our tax dollars. Most people in our area send their children to the public elementary and junior high schools in our town. Nearly half of the children in my daughter's class have at least one parent who is a doctor. All the parents value education and know how important it is. So even if, as someone else put it, "you are someone" you can still demand and expect to get what you pay for when it comes to your property taxes. As far as jobs are concerned, you are in a great industry. My husband is an accountant and quit his job recently to "find himself" and now has returned to reality and is job hunting. He applied to 5 jobs a few weeks ago and over the last two weeks has had 3 interviews. The demand for your skills is incredibly high here in the Chicago area, not just in the city but all over the metro area. Don't settle anywhere permanently until you land that job so that you can leave your options open - it can take quite a while to get around the area and you'll want to live as close as your budget will allow to your job.
 
Old 03-02-2007, 02:02 PM
 
781 posts, read 1,613,373 times
Reputation: 293
I lived in Bettendorf/Davenport for about 3 years (I am also from Madison) I didn't mind it. I didn't visit Moline or Rock Island often though.
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