Need advice on Decatur , Springfield, etc ASAP!!! (Chicago, Peoria: apartments, renters)

[Missouri to Illinois]

OK, so I'm a 26 year old young single professional. I'm moving to work in Decatur do to a job promotion / transfer in 3-4 weeks. There is no option of not working in Decatur for the next 2-3 years. Now that I have dealt with that, I need help!

I'll be working on the northeast side of town in Decatur. I will work hard and long hours as a consultant during the week. That being said I don't want to be completely bored on the weekends.

I would like to:
Make friends
Be able to go out to some form of nightlife on the weekends
Be around other 23-30 year old young professionals
Networking



I don't have a wife and children, so I'm not concerned with school districts. I'm here for 2 years so I'm not concerned with buying a house.

What should I do?

1) Live in Decatur
2) Commute from Springfield
3) Commute from Normal
4) Commute from Champaign
5) Commute from somewhere else?


If you have any suggestions on a place to live where I can meet other people and have fun, balanced with a relatively decent commute (gas prices are getting high again) please let me know.

[Drover]

Commute from Monticello. Reasonable commute during the weekday to Decatur, reasonable drive to Chambana to play on the weekends.

[obsidianbutterfly]

I am a born and raised Springfieldian, but I will try to give you an unbiased opinion about the area. Monticello would not be a bad commute to work and the cost of living appears reasonable to the area but there is not much to do since it is a little town and housing choices are limited. (Do make sure to visit Allerton park if you go to Monticello). Springfield is a historical town with lots of housing choices, but slightly more expensive than some of the surrounding towns to live in since it has lots of politicians, doctors, and lawyers. Nightlife on weekends is what I would consider fair if you don't mind the bar scene and decent places to eat. Champaign/Urbana area boasts typical college town life. Decatur is not bad but it is largely industrial due to ADM and it does have a funky soybean smell in the air most of the time. If you can get past the oddd odor of the town it has a similar feel/nightlife/housing conditions to Springfield. Drive from Springfield to Decatur- 30 min. Drive from Monticello to Decatur- 20 min. Drive from Champbana-30 min? Hope this helps a bit and if you have any specific questions I will do my best to answer them.

[runninfiend]

To clarify, Decatur is actually 40 miles from Springfield. The drive would be 40-45 minutes one way, maybe longer if you live on the southwest or west sides of Springfield.

[CPT Puffy]

I previously lived in and worked in Springfield and currently live in Champaign. I agree with Drover that Monticello would be a great choice due to proximity / ease of access to Champaign-Urbana, but rental choices in Monticello are limited. If you can't find an apartment or house to rent in Monticello, I would recommend Champaign-Urbana or Bloomington-Normal. Both pairs of the "twin-cities" are growing and vibrant communities. Each of them exceed Springfield in terms of the number of night life venues, the club scene, plays, concerts, sporting events (both have NCAA D1 teams), and other events. C-U and B-N are also far more culturally diverse and cosmopolitan than Springfield, with each "twin-city" community being home to a growing number of ethnic themed businesses. Springfield is better than Decatur in nearly every measure, but its entertainment venues are geared towards an older and more formal audience than C-U or B-N. I enjoyed living in Springfield, but I think you would find C-U and B-N much more entertaining; numerous posts in city-data.com largely support this assertion.

[Scio42]

Given your situation and what you're looking for, your two best options are Bloomington-Normal (B-N) or Champaign-Urbana (C-U). While I wouldn't call either city a 20-something utopia, they have the best options around here for what you're looking for.

Both cities have large universities and have more options geared towards 20-somethings. Both cities have a liberal atmosphere around their universities with a more conservative atmosphere in the city. C-U has a better college and post graduate scene while B-N is host to some fair sized businesses and has a better young professional scene, especially for singles. If you're working at the place on the NE side of Decatur I'm thinking of then it'd be about a 40 - 1hr drive each way from B-N or Champaign (depending where you live) to Decatur. There's some nice apartments on the far south side of Bloomington with quite a few 20 & 30 something renters that are about a 45 min drive from your work location in Decatur. Check out "Goose CreeK Apartments" and some others around there. I've known several people that have lived there and commuted to Decatur for work.

Monticello is an OK place, but it is a smaller town with few rental options and you'd really have to hunt to find fellow 'young professionals'. You'd need to drive outside Monticello to find that.

Springfield is a nice enough middle class city, but its entertainment and social options are geared more towards families and older residents. B-N and C-U have more options for someone your age.

My suggestion, find a nice apartment on the south side of Bloomington and commute to Decatur for work. You might even find someone else at work living in B-N you can carpool to work with.

Below is a link to another City Data forum post about B-N. Check out my response to the poster if you're interested in more info on B-N:
//www.city-data.com/forum/illin...normal-il.html

[Breit]

Not sure if you made your choice yet; I came to Decatur 10 years ago to work at the local tv station. I have lived in Champaign (went to school there and lived there when I first came to Decatur to work), Decatur and Monticello. Given your status, my suggestion would be to live in Decatur. You will meet a lot of people at work anyway and I think it'll be hard to meet people in another town since you'll be working long hours. I absolutely LOVE Monticello (great, great town)- but it's more geared for families. Champaign, Bloomington and Springfield are both great but the commute would take you at least 1 hr. Decatur has a great young professionals, social networking group called the "501 Club"; They would be a great resource for you. Decatur doesn't have a huge "club" scene but does have a handful of nice bars. f you are into running, we have a great circuit of bike/walking trails. The park system here is unbelievable. As for where to live...you can probably find a nice house to rent in the West end near Millikin University. That's what I did when I first moved here. Good luck! Let me know if you have add'l questions!

[seljuk88]

Unless you like to drink, Decatur doesn't have too many options.

There's been a recent revival in the downtown area, though, and there are a few nice places there for nightlife. However, once again, if you don't like to drink, you'll be SOL.

Champaign-Urbana and Bloomington-Normal has a much larger 20 something population, and has much more to do. You may want to get acquainted with those areas first. Then, look at one of the towns in-between for a place to live. Lucky for you, the area around here has a low cost of living.

If you'll be living on the North-side of town, Bloomington-Normal looks like a good bet. It also has good access from Champaign-Urbana via Route 72, though. My suggestion would be to look at Monticello and Maroa for living, unless you want to live in Decatur. The north side of town/Forsyth isn't too bad in that respect.

[linicx]

It will be hard to find a bad place to live. The advantage of living in B-N is you are not far from Peoria which is different than the other areas as it is a river city. larger and offers some unique opportunites to young professionals.

If you have vacation time coming you should consider visiting all the areas before you move. As a whole Central Illinois is not a bad place to live or raise a family.

[wordwench]

I've lived in Central IL all my life. Here's my take.

Springfield has a more diverse downtown area, by far. The Brewhaus is a great little neighborhood bar which features literally just about any beer you can name. Other downtown bars are plentiful as the Springfield nightlife is quite busy on the weekends. You can live downtown Springfield for about 800.00 a month. I lived at Lincoln Square Apartments and absolutely loved it. Many, many people commute to and from Springfield and Decatur. Springfield has a great arts center as well as a convention center that pulls in some pretty good music/acts/shows from time to time. They also have tons of downtown weekend events - Blues and BBQ, Arts and Summer Jazz seriers.

Decatur is very blue collar by comparison, and is significantly more depressed than Springfield. The roads are in horrible shape, and everything has a heavy, dark feel to it. As well, the town really smells bad some days due to ADM and Staleys. No one mentions that because after a while, you don't notice it as much - but anyone coming here for the first time never fails to ask 'What is that smell??" Decatur has virtually no downtown or nightlife. There is absolutely nothing to do on most days of the week except drink in darkly lit, corner bars. Woo.

Champaign/Urbana is a college town and has a lot to offer as well. Very young vibe, but again - primarily college age. I'm in my 40's and still like it, but other people my age feel the town is too 'young'. Humbugs.

The one advantage of living in Springfield is being so close to St. Louis (about 90 minutes away). It also has an Amtrak, and it costs around 30.00 round trip to head up to Chicago for the weekend. You can relax, have some wine and let the train take you directly downtown. You can also train down to St. Louis as well.

Monticello? Well. It's a nice little town, but there are a ton of those around. I personally don't see the appeal. But then, I just moved here again from Savannah, GA so my personal bar has been raised significantly.



Best of luck!