Peoria,Normal,Springfield or Mt Vernon? (Chicago, Rockford: home, unemployment rate, movie theater)

[MRSERVON]

I am thinking of moving to one of these IL cities.Which has the most nightlife and dating scene for a guy?Im looking for a mixture of urban and rural life.

[linicx]

Illinois is in the heart of the Grain and Livestock Belt, and the #2 corn producer in the nation.
This translates to endless miles of flat, boring, cornfields and soybean fields. Where you move will ultimately depend upon your expectations and lifestyle.

Mt. Vernon is the smallest of the town you mentioned and it is in the southern part of the state. Here's a video City of Mt. Vernon

Springfield Illinois is the Capitol City of Illinois. It is a political city. The Springfiels 2007 MSA is approximately 207,000.

Peoria, Illinois is a river city. It is the third largest MSA in the state with a population estimated to be approaching 400,000. It is the oldest settlement on the Illinois River. Becaause it is a river town, residents tend to view life differently than those who live in landlacked towns. I cannot explain why.

I am biased toward Peoria as I lived here most of my life. What I can tell you is Peoria has a large, sprawling historical and cultural entity that welcomes religious diversity as much as it walcomes Vegans and the holistic community. Because of its diversity, it is not easy to define one particaular place where you might meet your future mate. You find singles anywhere people congretate. There are many large family frendly events from the nattional TT races, to boat races, car show, civic center events, regional state fair, hiking, etc. In the evening some of the more popular places seem to be the riverfront plaza, sports bars, sport venues, indy movie theater, Metro Centre, pizza, Jazz club, anywhere you find live music, summer stock theater, casino, river cruises. etc... You might want to check out sports bar in Peoria Heights.

What you should undersand about Peoria is that S-T the bars and restaurants, by and large aner pretty quiet, but it changes between W-Sat., and especially on weekends. College kids and singles from the neighboring counties come for a weekend. Peoria is still a family town with family valutes, and you can still call the mayor or banker. You don't have to drive very far to be in the county. The Village of Peoria is located in Peoria County, but it is surrounded by the City of Peoria. If you take a look at this video of Peoria Heights you will see that the area is not flat. Peoria is surrounded by rollsing hills, high bluffs and heavjly treed areas. And if you happen to like open space, the award winning Peoria Park District has 9,000 acres for you to explore. Peoria Heights Chamber of Commerce

Regardless of where you go in Illinois, the only place you will find Costco, IKea and Trader Joe's is in Chicago. I think you will find tha cnetral Illinois will meet or exceed your expectations. Do come for a week and spend time in each city.

[LUCKYLARRY]

thanks for the info.I lived in Chicago most of my life and havent been to any other part of Illnois,aside from driving through the state on my way to georgia.Once,I stopped for gas at a place called "Bigfoot Gas Station"in Mt Vernon.Have you ever heard of that?It was pretty weird,there was actually a man smoking inside the place.

[katiem8]

lol we had a bigfoot in morton. they changed it to a bp station a few years ago. but everyone still calls it bigfoot. i also tend to refer to any other bp as bigfoot now too. i probably always will. good luck w/ ur move!

[Maintainschaos]

Do you already have a job? There is a big unemployment jump from lower unemployment (Springfield and Normal) to higher unemployment (Peoria and Mt. Vernon). I'd say that, with it being a big college town, Normal probably has better nightlife than Peoria or Springfield, but Champaign-Urbana has them all beat.

[CPT Puffy]

I've been a visitor to Peoria and Bloomington-Normal countless times over the years, but I've only passed through Mt. Vernon. I'm currently a resident of Champaign and a previous resident of Springfield, thus my perspective. Mt. Vernon isn't really comparable to the other communities in terms of dating and nightlife, but it is by far the most rural one listed. Springfield is a great city, but it has fewer and less diverse nightlife and dating venues than the other comparable sized communities. Peoria is the center of a metro area population of roughly 350K and as linicx states, offers great diversity. The Peoria Riverfront is a great place full of energy when it’s warm outside. Peoria has more overall venues than C-U or B-N (but not by a large margin and the gap is narrowing) and a more diverse mix of club life in terms of catering to different age groups. By comparison, Champaign-Urbana has a roughly 220K metro population and Bloomington-Normal has around 160K. Downtown Champaign has witnessed dramatic recent growth in terms of nightlife, clubs and upscale restaurants. The U. of I. campus district in Champaign (bordered roughly by Wright St, Green St. Daniels St and Neil St.) has more nightlife and club venues for the under 35 crowd than any of the other communities, but Bloomington-Normal is comparable. The populations of C-U and B-N are estimated to show growth of between 15K and 20K (each) when the 2010 Census results are published, a strong testimony to the quality of life and standard of living each offers (people "vote with their feet"). The best recommendation I can give is to visit each of the communities (more than once). They are all good places to live and work and there is so much more to each of them than simply night life and dating venues.

[Scio42]

Originally Posted by MRSERVON

I am thinking of moving to one of these IL cities.Which has the most nightlife and dating scene for a guy?Im looking for a mixture of urban and rural life.

I live in Peoria, grew up right next to Springfield and have spend plenty of time in B-N so here's my take:

Hands down, Bloomington-Normal (B-N). Of all the places you mention, it has the best balance of nightlife and dating. There's some neat music groups that pass through B-N and there seems to be quite a bit more 20 & 30 somethings around (& not just college kids) than the other places you mention.

Peoria has some good nightlife and interesting things to do, but unless you're baby boomer (or older), the dating scene is horrid (on par with an army base town). If the dating scene is really important to you, you'd have better luck living in B-N and swinging by Peoria for a visit (it's only about a 35min drive).

Springfield is OK. The nightlife there has gotten better over the past 5 years and the dating scene is OK. It's a pretty conservative town though.

I've only passed through Mt. Vernon so I don't know a great deal about it. It's much smaller than B-N, Peoria & Springfield so I can't imagine the nightlife being on par with either of these places.

Champagne-Urbana would also be worth a look (even though you didn't mention it). Similar vibe to B-N but much more of a college town than B-N.

All the places you mention would be a good mix of urban and rural. It wouldn't take more than a maximum 15-20min drive to be in the countryside for any of these cities.

[linicx]

I personally believe the unemployment in Peoria is skewed by the number of Caterpillar employees that were laid off and seasonal construction. Take it out of the equation, there is a lower unemployment rate than expected. Bloomington is a consertative business town. Springfield is a political town with a lot of one-way streets. Peoria is a river town that is not fueled by one or two industries. Normal is a collega town. Champaign is home to the flagship Univeristy of Illinois and it is in Eastern Central Illinois. In central Illinois Springfield, Peoria and Bloomington are the 3 largest towns. Champaign is by far the largest city in eastern cental Illinois. All Illinois towns are surrounded by farms and ranches.

[linicx]

Industry is part of the Peoria package. It is not all of the package. If it was summer and not winter, and if all of the CAT employees were working the unemployment rate would be less. The samething would be said if Springfield suddenly lost 10,000 state jobs. Laid off is laid off. but it would still skew the inemployment picture.

[Scio42]

Originally Posted by linicx

I personally believe the unemployment in Peoria is skewed by the number of Caterpillar employees that were laid off and seasonal construction. Take it out of the equation, there is a lower unemployment rate than expected. Bloomington is a consertative business town. Springfield is a political town with a lot of one-way streets. Peoria is a river town that is not fueled by one or two industries. Normal is a collega town. Champaign is home to the flagship Univeristy of Illinois and it is in Eastern Central Illinois. In central Illinois Springfield, Peoria and Bloomington are the 3 largest towns. Champaign is by far the largest city in eastern cental Illinois. All Illinois towns are surrounded by farms and ranches.

Unemployment is unemployment and given the current state of the economy, I don't think season plays much into the current unemployment rate. I believe the underemployment figures, which include those working part time but seeking full time work and those who have been seeking jobs for so long they've fallen out of the offical unemployment timeframe, gives a clearer picture of the situation.

Peoria is still a city whose economy is heavily dependent on manufacturing and heavy industry. Even today, Caterpillar employs more people than the next ten largest employers in the metro combined (& that's not to mention the other manufacturers in the area). However, Peoria has made some progress diversifing its economy. The city has done a good job building itself into a regional medical center. It is also working hard to develop other industries, however the results of this remains to be seen. Overall I think Peoria has done a better job transforming it's economy than say the other two "mid sized (for illinois)" manufacturing cities in Illinois, Rockford & Decatur. But there still much to be done.

Anyway, all this talk about unemployment and the Peoria economy is probably off topic from what the OP wanted to know.