Move to Normal, Maybe (Chicago, Bloomington: sales, real estate, low crime)

[KK2020]

Hello City-Data Friends,

I'm thinking about moving to Normal, to get a normal life! Haha. It's true.
After researching the areaand having briefly visited, I found much to love here. As a walking and bicycle enthusiast, I could see myself happy and normal in Normal.

About my motives for relocation:
I'm an active, single middle aged empty nester. I've received my family's blessing to go find my place in this country where I can happily live out the reminder of my life on my own terms. I'm a semi-retired registered nurse looking to contribute locally. I'm currently residing in Hawai'i where I work full-time in a community service role filling a crucial needs gap. My job will end in 2020. I've saved enough money to make a life change and am now living out of a few suitcases.

Talk me out of coming to Normal, if you can, please!

The Pros:

--miles of trails to ride and walk
--university town
--access to quality healthcare and volunteer opportunities at a children's hospital branch
--vibrant public and university libraries
--access to a major airport
--reasonable cost of living
--regional racial and socioeconomic diversity
--active faith and seniors communities

The Cons:
--no job offers yet; early arrive date is 09/01/2020, I have multiple degrees and a diverse background in healthcare, education, social and community services
--weather: 4 seasons type, but the winters might be harsher or longer than I envision
--more politically conservative than I'm used to as a West Coast native
--Clearly, I'd be a newcomer and am "not from around here". Would I feel welcome? Will it take a decade?


Thank you for all ideas and comments offered up. Let 'em fly; I'm neither easily offended nor easily scared off as I've lived in many places on our planet and under some truly unusual circumstances.

[reneeh63]

A few questions first...where did you live before Hawai'i? I hope somewhere in the midwest so you've experienced 4 seasons before, because Normal is just a bit milder than Chicago's winters and hotter and more humid in the summer.

Bloomington-Normal is very much a FAMILY town. I know there's ISU and Wesleyan but it is somewhat conservative and outside of college bars and university events not much to do - unless your life revolves around kids. Living many places around the planet will only put you at a disadvantage here - it is not cosmopolitan in the slightest and more likely to be parochial, if anything.

It is slightly more Democratic than the surrounding rural area but much LESS Democratic than Chicago. Racial diversity? Lots of Asian Indians work at State Farm...lots of Hispanics on the West side of town but you'll likely see very little of either as they shop in their own specialty stores and many are somewhat segregated in where they live.

Property taxes are outrageous, but I dunno compared to Hawai'i - try $5,000 on a $200,000 house? High sales tax, too - 8.75%. Food is cheap, relative to Hawai'i.

Your question is too broad...but with more info I'm sure others will chime in.

[KK2020]

Thanks so much, this is very helpful and the kind of information I'm interested in!

I have not lived in the midwest but have lived where there are weather extremes and events (tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc.). Some towns I've lived in include Corvallis, Oregon, Monterey, California and Gulfport, Mississippi. I've spent time in rural Alaska and rural Hawai'i. Cities I've enjoyed include Seattle, the Portlands (Oregon, Maine), Los Angeles, Dubai.

A FAMILY town is a plus. Not only because my kids and grandchildren will be visiting, this is the environment I enjoy while out walking and biking. Kids and dogs are a plus. I'm not looking for a quiet retirement community. Reading, walking and biking are my three major forms of entertainment.

My volunteer work has historically been in family services.

I appreciate your feedback on my post being too broad (kind of the idea, though).

Maybe this will help:
Do people generally stay for retirement and grow old happily here?
Is there a tangible pride of place/community? On my visit, I thought I felt something like this, anyway.

[tolovefromANFIELD]

Originally Posted by KK2020

Thanks so much, this is very helpful and the kind of information I'm interested in!

I have not lived in the midwest but have lived where there are weather extremes and events (tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc.). Some towns I've lived in include Corvallis, Oregon, Monterey, California and Gulfport, Mississippi. I've spent time in rural Alaska and rural Hawai'i. Cities I've enjoyed include Seattle, the Portlands (Oregon, Maine), Los Angeles, Dubai.

A FAMILY town is a plus. Not only because my kids and grandchildren will be visiting, this is the environment I enjoy while out walking and biking. Kids and dogs are a plus. I'm not looking for a quiet retirement community. Reading, walking and biking are my three major forms of entertainment.

My volunteer work has historically been in family services.

I appreciate your feedback on my post being too broad (kind of the idea, though).

Maybe this will help:
Do people generally stay for retirement and grow old happily here?
Is there a tangible pride of place/community? On my visit, I thought I felt something like this, anyway.

Ooooh, Normal is almost nothing like those cities. Especially LA and Dubai. I've lived in both. Why Normal though? Especially considering you don't have a job offer? Or family there?

[reneeh63]

Originally Posted by KK2020

Thanks so much, this is very helpful and the kind of information I'm interested in!

I have not lived in the midwest but have lived where there are weather extremes and events (tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc.). Some towns I've lived in include Corvallis, Oregon, Monterey, California and Gulfport, Mississippi. I've spent time in rural Alaska and rural Hawai'i. Cities I've enjoyed include Seattle, the Portlands (Oregon, Maine), Los Angeles, Dubai.

A FAMILY town is a plus. Not only because my kids and grandchildren will be visiting, this is the environment I enjoy while out walking and biking. Kids and dogs are a plus. I'm not looking for a quiet retirement community. Reading, walking and biking are my three major forms of entertainment.

My volunteer work has historically been in family services.

I appreciate your feedback on my post being too broad (kind of the idea, though).

Maybe this will help:
Do people generally stay for retirement and grow old happily here?
Is there a tangible pride of place/community? On my visit, I thought I felt something like this, anyway.

Weather extremes? None of those are close to what IL has except for the many tornadoes.

How about Chicago? Seriously - Normal (including Bloomington) is only about 130,000 people...and it is THE only city of any size for 30 miles or more...it's not connected to a string of other suburbs radiating out from an even larger city. Outside of B-N is....cornfields...and towns of 5,000 or fewer. I think you need to look on a map in detail because it seems like you just threw a dart and hit Normal by chance.

[CIResident]

The Bloomington-Normal (B-N) area has a lot of the qualities people look for.
Affordable, low crime, good schools, good jobs, etc.

But there are some downsides, mostly state based, not B-N based.
Taxes suck. High income, high sales and very high property tax.
Try $8,000/year property tax on a $300,000 house, though a $300,000 house in B-N is a pretty nice house.
The overall state financial picture is horrible. The state has something like a $150 BILLION and growing unfunded pension liability problem and no plan to fix that. Eventually, this will be catastrophic problem.
From late spring through early fall, the weather is pretty nice, but the winter really sucks. We usually have a week or two of below zero temps (actual temp, not wind chill). And it's always windy, particularly in the winter time. Most people don't do any outdoor activities in the winter months. Not enough snow for skiing (cross country only, B-N is FLAT) or snowmobiles, but too cold and icy for biking, running, etc. Ice fishing is an option.

As a pretty much life long IL resident (with a detour south for a few years), I'd look somewhere else. I live here now because my job is excellent, but when I retire (4 years), I'm definitely moving out of state.

If you have to live in IL, B-N is one of the best places.

[madpaddy]

I have to agree with many of the above. This state is a financial time bomb waiting to blow. Taxes are high, with every indication they'll keep going higher, yet we never seem to make any headway with the deficit, nor do we see a corresponding increase in services. To the contrary, public services seem to get worse year by year. A lot of people around here are looking forward to the day that they, like you now, have few financial and social tethers holding them in place. They, however, are aiming to leave Illinois.

As a fellow cycling enthusiast, I'd encourage you to take a look at the Bentonville, Arkansas, area if you're looking for a place to semi-retire in the midwest. Believe it or not, the hometown of Walmart has become a cycling mecca. A couple of Sam Walton's grandsons are huge cycling enthusiasts, and have, through the family foundation, contributed millions of dollars to the development cycling infrastructure in the area. Not just a "few" million, but something like $85 million and counting. With the addition of some matching Federal and State grants, the total investment over the last 10-15 years is well in excess of $100 million dollars. Much of that has gone to mountain bike trail development, but, if your tastes lean towards pavement, there's plenty of hard path infrastructure as well. Plus there are miles and miles of outstanding low-traffic gravel roads in the surrounding countryside. (If you haven't been following cycling trends, "gravel" road riding, on wide-tired drop bar bikes, is absolutely booming on the mainland). Not surprisingly, an investment of this magnitude (Nine Figures!) has fostered a very vibrant cycling culture in the area. Real Estate prices in the immediate downtown area of Bentonville are silly, but a couple miles out of the city center (and away from the WM HQ) things start to look pretty normal for a prosperous Midwestern locale....and will likely look like a screaming bargain to someone from Hawaii.

https://www.citylab.com/transportati...ountry/560228/