Why arent more people looking at Momence,Bradley,Manteno,Grant Park

[yosimmiteesam]

Momence sucks, Grant Park is a dead town, Bourbonais is cool, Bradley sucks, Kankakee is an unfortunate place, and Manteno sucks. Anything west of Riverside Hospital is cool.

[linicx]

One can ask the same question of Bath, Kilborn, and Oakford, or Cuba, Smithfield, and Astoria. Maybe you prefer county seats? Pittsfield, Mt. Sterling and Petersburg won't get any significant notice either.

Illinois is a major exporter of corn, beans, pumpkins, livestock and grains. The answer is the same for any farm town. I venture to say that 99% of Illinois farmers and ranchers do not surround, nor are they conveniently located to the Loop. They are in the middle of nowhere and they like it.

[Drover]

^^ Uhm, what?? And what is your obsession with corn, beans, and county seats?

[k3worker]

With a population of something around 70,000 in the corridor from Manteno south to Kankakee, and with some proximity to metro Chicago, Kankakee County is in an entirely different category than rural west central Illinois. There's no doubt that agriculture is and will continue to be a major facet of the local economy, but as previously mentioned, agriculture is hardly how the majority of Kankakee County residents earn a living. Comparing county seats, Kankakee is not Lewistown or Havana. Kankakee is more like a small city, with many of the problems of larger urban areas and few of the corresponding benefits.

As to why more people don't look at the area, I think it's a relatively simple answer. Kankakee County is not fertile ground for employment that pays much above minimum wage. The area is not one you move to without good employment already secured. Those opportunities, unfortunately, just don't abound in the community. On top of that, the south suburbs do not have employment hubs within a reasonable distance similar to Oak Brook or Schaumburg to which Kankakee County can hitch its wagon. That's not to say that many Kankakee County residents don't commute north, but doing so often means a dreadful commute.