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Old 04-25-2008, 08:16 PM
 
Location: Midwest
1,903 posts, read 7,876,236 times
Reputation: 474

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Quote:
Originally Posted by ShampooBanana View Post
Champaign-Urbana certainly is not comparable to Peoria, Rockford, Decatur, or even Springfield. While it is about the same size as those towns, it is far different, far more "white collar" and diverse demographically. It has a much more educated population on average, as well. It probably compares best with the nearby twin cities of Bloomington-Normal that any other place in Illinois, and this is coming from someone who has visited almost every single major city or town in the state at one point or another. The main difference between C-U and B-N is that B-N is much more of a corporate white collar community because the State Farm than C-U is. C-U is much more dominated by it's major education-related and health care sectors.
Yes, C-U is a college town and as such lacks the kind of industry you will find in the Peoria area. Midstate Illinois really doesn't have any heavy industry - lots of grain silos. The Mitsubishi plant in B-N is the biggest example I can recall at the moment. Surely there are things in the Peoria area I do not know.

I'll rank the midstate metros in order of personal appeal (as a place to live, not visit):

Champaign-Urbana
Bloomington-Normal
Peoria (closer to B-N than Springfield wrt appeal)
Springfield

...

Decatur
Danville
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Old 04-26-2008, 11:38 AM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,193,363 times
Reputation: 35920
Quote:
Originally Posted by M TYPE X View Post
Yes, C-U is a college town and as such lacks the kind of industry you will find in the Peoria area. Midstate Illinois really doesn't have any heavy industry - lots of grain silos. The Mitsubishi plant in B-N is the biggest example I can recall at the moment. Surely there are things in the Peoria area I do not know.

I'll rank the midstate metros in order of personal appeal (as a place to live, not visit):

Champaign-Urbana
Bloomington-Normal
Peoria (closer to B-N than Springfield wrt appeal)
Springfield

...

Decatur
Danville
Is Caterpillar still in Peoria?
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Old 05-01-2008, 05:10 PM
 
Location: Champaign, IL
4 posts, read 27,122 times
Reputation: 12
Katiana, according to Google, Catapiller is still in Peoria. Can't imagine that as a compelling reason to live there, though! :-)

I've read this entire string of posts and here's my 2 cents: the crime isn't that bad. I came here from Minneapolis 2 years ago and there are parts of town there that will increase your prayer life, just walking through. Not to mention your running ability. I would avoid the Bradley corridor, as mentioned. We live in the Robeson/Southwest division and it's very "family homey" in this area. Being a "big city girl", I am religious about locking everything just as a matter of habit, so I haven't had any problems.

So far the biggest problems that I've had living in C/U is that I miss water and efficient snow removal! Minneapolis isn't called "The City of Lakes" for nothing! There is a pond on Springfield avenue called "Lake Kaufman"... makes me laugh every time I see it. As for the snow removal, it isn't needed often here, but when it is, the city's attempts are laughable, indeed. My daughter was home for four days after the last snow storm. 6 inches of snow closed down the city for four days! I was disgusted. In Minneapolis, it would have been dealt with by the next morning. Oh well. Gotta say that the foliage here is amazing.. I'm loving the spring budding trees, but missing lilacs - no where near enough of them here.

Well, that's more than 2 cents, I guess, but for what it's worth....
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Old 05-02-2008, 11:36 AM
 
Location: Midwest
1,903 posts, read 7,876,236 times
Reputation: 474
Champaign's snow removal performance is merely adequate.
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Old 05-29-2008, 08:01 PM
 
7 posts, read 20,581 times
Reputation: 17
I'd agree with what most people have said here. I lived here 22 years and until I left for Florida for 6 months, didn't realize how great of a town C-U really is. The traffic in Champaign is laughable, and my family and I's favorite thing to do is listen to 97.5 on game days (both basketball and football) when they do the traffic report. This basically consists of a guy saying, "well, there's a bit of a back-up right now on First Street, but the light just changed, so we're moving again". Haha, it cracks us up every time.

Both cities are built on a grid, so you can literally learn these towns in a weekend without the aid of a map. The 3 "major" interstates run into or around C-U, but not through, so you don't have to take the interstate everywhere you go!

It's true that both cities are made up of subdivisions. When I ran into people I knew from Champaign in Florida, the first question they asked was where do you live? And we both answered with our subdivisions. There are a lot of good neighborhoods in the Champaign area, and with a little research you'll find that most of them are not cookie-cutter, by actual cookie-cutter standards (there are a few exceptions...Cherry Hills for one). Most people are moving out further to places like Trails at Brittany or Iron Wood, but it really depends on what you like.

I would have to half agree with the poster who said the cities weren't much into historical preservation. The City of Champaign recently applied to become a Main Street Community, who's major purpose is to preserve downtowns, etc. While there has been building going on in downtown Champaign (M2, etc), the majority of downtown is held onto by owners who refuse to let them tear down the old buildings. Plus, most of the area just West of downtown, in the West Side Park/Central High School/Holy Cross area is full of beautiful old homes and you can even find cobblestone streets, if that is what you like. I won't even touch Urbana, because, yeah, it's like pulling teeth to get anything done in that city without going through a gazillion hoops first. And I actually worked for a subsidiary of the City of Urbana for a year, so I know this first hand. You can't really compare the two, however, because their governances work completely different.

I went to public school in Champaign (Westview, Robeson, Jefferson and Centennial) and then went on to the University of Illinois, and I have little to nothing bad to say about the school system. I was in middle school when school of choice came into play, but unless you are trying to get into Barkstall, I've heard you normally get your #1 if you choose the "neighborhood" school. The high schools are similar in size (about 350 per graduating class) and both offer a wide variety of classes including AP and extracurricular offerings. Both band programs are widely recognized, as are the drama departments. The vast majority of students either go to Parkland Community College or the University of Illinois after they graduate. There were over 60 going to the U of I in my sister's graduating class alone. If you prefer private schools, St. Matthews, Holy Cross, and St. Johns Lutheran have K-8 programs along with Countryside and one or two more I'm sure I'm missing. Judah Christian offers K-12 and the High School of St. Thomas Moore is growing in population as well. University High School located on the University of Illinois campus is annually ranked as one of the best schools in the country based on ACT score. The year I graduated high school, their ACT average was a 31 or 32.

Crime, like any other community, is present here. The vast majority of it occurs in small pocketed areas that you will learn quickly or in the University District. We don't leave our cars or or doors unlocked, but there are very few places that do anymore. If you are smart and observant you'll be fine here. Shopping and Dining abound, and while we have a lot of chains, there are some great family owned places, too. The University presence means there are a lot of opportunities to do things here that you won't find in other towns of this size. We have live theater at the Assembly Hall and at the Krannert Center. Rarely a weekend goes by that something isn't going on.

Both Champaign and Urbana have wonderful park districts, though both are complete opposites of one another (surprise, surprise). Kids can get involved in all sorts of activities through them. Oddly enough, swimming is a popular activity kids do here. There are a number of public pools and two private swim clubs: Indian Acres and Windsor Swim Club. If you like to swim, but also like golf there are 3 country clubs: Lincolnshire Fields, Champaign Country Club and Urbana Country Club. Urbana also has Stone Creek Golf Club, which is open to the public and Champaign recently opened a small golf course on the south west side of town with a covered/heated driving range. I don't know much about it, but I know that it is public as well. Along with swimming, soccer and baseball are popular activites for kids, with the Little Illini Soccer Club (LISC) being a popular traveling team. Baseball seems to be played almost all year round here, but I don't know much about it. People here are friendly and most get to know their neighbors.

Oh, and one more thing. If you don't already, get to LOVE the color Orange, it's everywhere! Go Illini!
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Old 05-29-2008, 11:07 PM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,193,363 times
Reputation: 35920
Well, I left 28 yrs ago. It sounds like it's changed a little, but not a lot.
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Old 06-09-2008, 09:36 AM
 
Location: Centennial, CO
2,247 posts, read 3,029,082 times
Reputation: 3750
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katiana View Post
Well, I left 28 yrs ago. It sounds like it's changed a little, but not a lot.
Go back to C-U now and I think you'll be quite surprised at how much it's changed. It's changed quite a lot in just the 10 years that I've been living in C-U. I can only imagine how different it is from 30 years ago.
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Old 06-09-2008, 12:23 PM
 
1 posts, read 4,595 times
Reputation: 10
Champaign is a great place to live the schools are great and it still has the small town feel with big city access. Staying south of expressway is a good idea. I have a friend who is selling her three bdrm with one and half bath. Let me know if you are interested.
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Old 06-09-2008, 05:14 PM
 
Location: Chicago
38,707 posts, read 102,722,835 times
Reputation: 29967
Yes, I'm sure the person who posted a year and a half ago and hasn't been back since last July is going to jump right on that opportunity.
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Old 06-09-2008, 09:44 PM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,193,363 times
Reputation: 35920
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShampooBanana View Post
Go back to C-U now and I think you'll be quite surprised at how much it's changed. It's changed quite a lot in just the 10 years that I've been living in C-U. I can only imagine how different it is from 30 years ago.
I've been back a few times. Doesn't look much different. DH was there just two years ago and said not much had changed. Just our opinons.
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