Relocating to Champaign IL

[tabone1]

I currently (past 2 years) live north of University in Champaign and lived previously north of University Ave. for 3 years. Never had any problems (crime related).

IMO the worst area(s) is East and Southeast Urbana. A person could live north of University and be literally a two minute walk from the Engineering Quad and 7 minutes from the Main quad. Can't say that about SE Urbana.

I also lived in SE Urbana for several years (2004-'07) and ALSO never had any problems. Sounds like the person who responded first had an atypically bad experience.

There are in fact plenty of decent to nice places north of Uni. Ave. and it is by no means all black. It really depends on what you and your families' preferences are. New subdivision style living on the outskirts of town, or even in Mahomet, Savoy, St. Joseph, etc, or in established older neighborhoods with nice older homes, trees, parks etc. There are many good places for either.

[asearchforreason]

Not sure what being near any quad has to do with safety, but I think SE Urbana has improved since you lived there. I moved here in 2007 and I don't feel unsafe, and I would much rather live here than north of University. Most folks I know who have lived here longer says it has improved, especially from about 5 years ago. I think a lot of the problems do still exist in the eastern part of Urbana, but that's just based on anecdotal evidence.

In my opinion, some CU residents tend to exaggerate the crime problems for both cities. I think it is all relative to where you have lived before. I have lived in a wealthy big city suburb and some pretty marginal areas of a city. I would say that all areas in C-U fall somewhere between those two in terms of safety. The towns are just not that big. You can't cloister yourself away from undesirable elements as easily, but at the same time, the bad areas of town are not that bad.