2010 Illinois Best Performing Cities (Chicago, Springfield: apartment, loft, hotel)

[Mr.Nick]

2010 Illinois Best Performing Cities

what does that mean?

whats the measuring stick?

[linicx]

The link on the first page should explain everything.

Originally Posted by Mr.Nick

what does that mean?

whats the measuring stick?
[/b]

[sebernard]

how safe is joliet? my husband may be working with the railroad. the cities listed were joliet, schiller park, chicago, and champaign. I have one child that would be in hgh school and one that would be starting kindergarten next year. I need an area that is EXTREMELY safe and family friendly. I also need an area that is not too expensive to live in.

[linicx]

Let me preface this by saying this. If it were my choice i wouild take Champaign for a number or reasons. [1] It is not in an area of 10M people, but it is the home of the flagship University of Illinois. [2] This city is considerably smaller and therefore your expenses will be lower. [3] You won't have Chicago entertainment, but you will have enough quality entertainment to be satisfied.[4]You will have a better choice of housing in this area as soon as this school years ends.[5] You will find a wide range of restaurants and shopping.

Illlinois is the #1 and #2 soybean and corn producer in America. What this means is towns are seperated by miles of farmland and ranches. Do not dispair the four largest cities between Chicago and St. Louis are Peoria, Bloomington-Normal, Springfield and Champaign.*In this quadrangle you'll find at least six malls, 200 restaurants, 10 hospitlas, 3 zoos, a couple of water parks, a bunch of museums, state parks, national events, river cruises, wildlife park, and a list of probably 35-30 grocery stores that don't include specialty vendors.

You will have a choice of schools that include public, private and religious. Regardless of the school, the child with the best education has parents involved with the child and the school. I believe Champaign higschool has a lacrosse team and maybe a soccer team, too.

What you won't find is Trader Joe's, Costco or Whole Foods. You find it in Chicago or St. Louis. I usually shop TJs in St. Louis because it is easy in and easy out for me.

Urbana is next to Champaign. it is smaller and family friendly, too, as is most of Illinois.

[SonySegaTendo617]

Originally Posted by Ratdude

As far as jobs go, I would be willing to bet that Peoria is performing better than Chicago, while unemployment is at 9.3-9.6 in the Peoria area, we don't have dozens or hundreds of thousands of people competing for the jobs that are available as they do in the Chicago area.

I spent three months looking for a job in Chicago Metro and gave up and sent resumes down to organizations in Peoria and Bloomington and had two job offers in less than a week.

Though Peoria is not a perfect place to live, it sure is a much better life than living in the Chicago area. Less expensive and less traffic.

Many of you may also disagree with this, but if Chicago does not change some of its political policies, taxes, etc...it is going to eventually become another Detroit-like city.

Companies are starting to watch every dime and the cost of doing business in the Chicago market is crazy!

Great post. At least I'm not alone in believing(and for the longest time!) that I'd do a lot better applying for jobs in smaller cities, than Chicago. And not to mention, for whatever odd reason, I actually started to greatly enjoy both 'twin cities' of Bloomington-Normal in my final year of going to Illinois State University, before I got kicked out of ISU.

I think there's no doubt within 5-10 years, that I'm greatly interesting in looking into a decent mid-size city, whether it's in Illinois or not. All I know is I'd double-rep your post, if I could....

[Ratdude]

Originally Posted by SonySegaTendo617

Great post. At least I'm not alone in believing(and for the longest time!) that I'd do a lot better applying for jobs in smaller cities, than Chicago. And not to mention, for whatever odd reason, I actually started to greatly enjoy both 'twin cities' of Bloomington-Normal in my final year of going to Illinois State University, before I got kicked out of ISU.

I think there's no doubt within 5-10 years, that I'm greatly interesting in looking into a decent mid-size city, whether it's in Illinois or not. All I know is I'd double-rep your post, if I could....

If your interested in a mid-size city at some point, Nashville would be at the top of my list. That is my hometown, but the irony is that I used to absolutely dispise the city, mostly because I liked Chicago better because it is a bigger city, and at the time I found it a much more interesting place to be. That was also a time in my life that I did not have to worry about bills, jobs, etc....

I have also had the opportunity to travel around and see many other cities in the country

Nashville has been hit by the economy just as most every place has, but on the plus side, it has also managed to keep expanding job growth via company expansions, corporate relocations, etc... It also has a very diversified economy, and both Nashville and TN in general offer lower cost of living.

I also find it to be a much more interesting place than Chicago, the music scene and corporate America attracts all kinds of people from all over the U.S. and world, then mix in some southern hospitality......

My second choice would be Indy.....

[Ratdude]

Originally Posted by sebernard

how safe is joliet? my husband may be working with the railroad. the cities listed were joliet, schiller park, chicago, and champaign. I have one child that would be in hgh school and one that would be starting kindergarten next year. I need an area that is EXTREMELY safe and family friendly. I also need an area that is not too expensive to live in.

I would say Champaign is the best and least expensive choice, unless you just want to be part of the Chicago Metro...pop...10 million madness......

[1greatcity]

I think it's funny that St Louis MO-IL MSA is #1 in both MO and IL ! This is very encouraging news for St Louis, which often receives less-than-impressive rankings on lists like this.

[linicx]

Before you celebrate you need to inderstand what a MSA is. It tells you where people work and shop, but it far from a complete picture as it does not inlude all information for all areas of every state. It looks mostly at the pockets of population.

How many people in St. Louis, MO., do you know that shop or work in East St. Louis, Illinois?

[1greatcity]

Originally Posted by linicx

Before you celebrate you need to inderstand what a MSA is. It tells you where people work and shop, but it far from a complete picture as it does not inlude all information for all areas of every state. It looks mostly at the pockets of population.

How many people in St. Louis, MO., do you know that shop or work in East St. Louis, Illinois?

They don't. But they work and shop in Fairview Heights, Belleville, O'Fallon, etc. I don't get the point.
All I was saying is that the healthiest urban part of Illinois for job growth is the metro east part of the St Louis MSA. And the healthiest urban part of Missouri for job growth is the metro west part of the St Louis MSA. Which means that the St Louis MSA is doing pretty good by comparison to the rest of the urban areas in both states. I will continue my celebration now.