Retiring in IL - LIBERAL! (Rankin: school, taxes, living)

[SDbp]

I would also suggest taking a look at Bloomington IN. Take a look at taxes in IL vs IN. Used to live near Chicago in Lake county and the property taxes were crazy. It was several years ago, but I visited Bloomington and thought it was a nice town (but too cold for me for retirement). I also thought IU was a nice campus.

[movin1]

Property taxes in the Champaign area are worse than most of the Chicago area. I lived in both and couldn't afford either, lol.

[Hiruko]

Originally Posted by movin1

Property taxes in the Champaign area are worse than most of the Chicago area. I lived in both and couldn't afford either, lol.

I've never understood paying the property taxes downstate. Nothing about the rest of Illinois is worth the taxes.

[GWoodle]

Originally Posted by Hiruko

I've never understood paying the property taxes downstate. Nothing about the rest of Illinois is worth the taxes.

Some of this is due to the local taxing district. One for the schools, one for police/fire, one for the library, community college, water utilities etc. Then you may have township in addition to city & county. Makes local government more expensive than it needs to be.

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by Hiruko

I've never understood paying the property taxes downstate. Nothing about the rest of Illinois is worth the taxes.

I agree that the property taxes are high.

The state is broke so they pulled back on money sent down to the county\city etc. level.

They had to increase property taxes to keep providing services etc.

[Chicago Bob]

As others have mentioned, wanting the liberal experience, you should definitely look North and find a place in Cook County to get the biggest bang for your liberal dollar. You didn't mention a budget but there is land available in excess of 1+ acres and although you will be taxed to the bejesus it will not be as much as in adjacent Illinois counties trying to escape it. Being liberal you should walk the walk as they say, money where the mouth is.

Orland Park for example is affluent & nice, somewhat conservative but soon it will be won over since it is ensconced by the county. It is on the SW Metra line so easy access to the city and the 65 corridor to visit your family in Indiana. Those conservative MAGAs are on equal footing as us liberals so you might encounter them from time to time but you can always shout them down and take cell phone videos. We need more people like you to make them understand the truth is whatever we say it is and beat them up if Trump runs again and you see red hats. Darn fascists.

Oh, I forgot to add, if you are the victim of a violent crime police will pursue the lowest possible charges in search of true equity. From my family to yours, I sincerely hope you find the most liberal place you can to raise bees.

https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/or...ng-crime-spree

Felony for a stolen vehicle for one juvenile, misdemeanors for the others and they are out already. Didn't see any gun charges mentioned in the article when they attempted to kill a man and potentially his family but they were heavily armed according to the police.

[dcisive]

My goodness, someone doesn't even know the definition of Fascist.. it's what we're living in NOW my friend. Government running our lives with NO input. Get a clue. You may not like Trump as a person, but much of what he was accomplishing sure beats the heck out of what we got demoted to now. A wide open drug flooding border with NO laws being enforced. World conflict on the border of more war, energy dependence and murders on the rise in large metros. The exact opposite of what was with the former leadership. We now have leadership on a mental decline. And you're encouraging someone to embrace this? Guess that may be why Chicago is going down the tubes. Enjoy you get what you vote and pay for, and I guess it is well reflected in your results. I grew up in Chicago when a democrat was a real person. Now from all I see you're in a socialist regime rife with failures to regulate finances and stepping on any form of real law enforcement. You'll get what you want for sure but don't expect it to be a good thing.

[kyle19125]

OP I would recommend comparing Indiana as well. Bloomington and oddly enough all of Monroe County surrounding is fairly liberal, as is Brown County to the east and the county seat of Nashville which has a very significant artists community.

[OyCrumbler]

The areas right outside of Urbana and Champaign are more mixed and moderate more than anything while the cities themselves are generally quite liberal. They will certainly have a variety of restaurants that's more varied and greater in number than one would expect of an area of its population due to the university and relatively dense development. I'd look on yelp or google maps to look for anything specific. There are medical facilities, and just your luck, UIUC recently launched a med school component in Urbana. There's obviously the major public university, but for continuing education there's also a community college. Chicago's also pretty accessible via bus or train if you need more.

It's further west and thus further from the Indiana border, but Bloomington-Normal could work as well as that's also a twin cities of sorts that has a public university. They've also recently been busy with an electric vehicle factory there and it's been a pretty good recent economic boom for them.

I wouldn't completely count out Chicagoland area.

This forum is probably not the best place to look as it swings pretty conservative and cranky and some of the posters here are of the type you're looking to avoid anyways.

[Cool Arrow]

Originally Posted by OyCrumbler

The areas right outside of Urbana and Champaign are more mixed and moderate more than anything while the cities themselves are generally quite liberal. They will certainly have a variety of restaurants that's more varied and greater in number than one would expect of an area of its population due to the university and relatively dense development. I'd look on yelp or google maps to look for anything specific. There are medical facilities, and just your luck, UIUC recently launched a med school component in Urbana. There's obviously the major public university, but for continuing education there's also a community college. Chicago's also pretty accessible via bus or train if you need more.

It's further west and thus further from the Indiana border, but Bloomington-Normal could work as well as that's also a twin cities of sorts that has a public university. They've also recently been busy with an electric vehicle factory there and it's been a pretty good recent economic boom for them.

I wouldn't completely count out Chicagoland area.

This forum is probably not the best place to look as it swings pretty conservative and cranky and some of the posters here are of the type you're looking to avoid anyways.

This is probably the best advice he's gonna get.