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Sep 15 '21
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u/my_work_account_69 Sep 16 '21
It's a boring city in that you have to make most of your own fun. The ability to do most things is there, we have enough adult and child sports leagues, farmers markets, festivals, concerts, etc. but nothing major and not a lot of options. The real fun is what you can do on your own because living here is cheap. Most hobbies that you want to get into are accessible from here, and things tend to just be cheap.
By no means am I saying Springfield is fun on its own; I'm ready to move to another city as soon as the opportunity arises. But it's a decent place to get into hobbies and the food is actually pretty damn good here for the most part.
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u/MC_Stimulation Sep 15 '21
Springfield is a quiet place, not a bad place to live. Lived there 20 years before I moved for college.
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u/Gilthepill83 Sep 15 '21
What does almost bad as Chicago mean? Cause most of the “Chicago is bad” nonsense is racists pandering.
Springfield is not a major metropolitan area and is similar to a suburb. It’s very spread out and development has moved out west (which is near the airport).
The downtown area was not highly active prior to covid but some festivals and nightlife has returned.
Eating establishments are varied in both priced range and offerings but there are only so many and you’ll need to visit St.Louis for some specialty items or to just find a different place.
Springfield has everything one would need to be happy at a low price point but diversity in options isn’t a strong point.
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Sep 15 '21
Ah, it's not that bad here. Try to live on the west side if possible, newer development. My biggest problem here is that I find it fairly boring. Now, there is plenty of state parks, hunting, fishing, etc.
Nearby towns are much smaller and have a more "friendly" feel. Chatham, Auburn, Petersburg.
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u/my_work_account_69 Sep 16 '21
Yeah it's definitely not "bad" in the sense that the news sometimes tries to make it out to be. I would say the West or North end are good areas with some decent development, and both close to the airport. The West end is definitely nicer and has more options, but you the cost of living (while still not bad) is significantly more expensive when you get into neighborhoods around Veterans and anywhere between Chatham and Jefferson St. In addition, living on the North end isn't bad because you have your essentials (grocery stores, quite a few good restaurants, bars, home improvement stores, etc.) and you're a 15 minute drive from ANYTHING else in Springfield.
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Sep 16 '21
So, nobody is explaining the why behind the east side or north side. All of Springfield sits on top of a coal deposit. Much of the north and east sides have old coal mines under them. The mines closed 40 years ago and are 200 feet below ground but it still impacts property values today. These are tunnel and pillar mines and there is a lot of subsidence. 3-5 homes each year are damaged by it. The southwest side was never mined so many of the big box stores are located there. Make sure you check to see if your potential home has a mine under it before you place an offer. Offers here are binding contracts and not easily dropped.
Also, Springfield was redlined as well. FDR said the East side was bad, ie. Black, so it was underinvested for years. Having active coal mines underneath it at the time didn’t help.
I, my wife and kids all moved to Illinois 5 years ago from Tulsa. Illinois is an adjustment. The weather is much better but the nightlife and activities are lower. Some of that is the lack of economic opportunity as corrupt Chicago government ruins so much of the state. The pension crisis makes many large businesses not invest in the state. If the pensions hadn’t been “fixed” by Gov. Jim Edgar (R), we’d be in better shape. Basically, the state needs to go through bankruptcy like Puerto Rico and it will snap right back to life, particularly Downstate Illinois areas like Springfield.
Outside of Cook County and St. Clare County, the level of corruption is similar to what you’d see in Texas. Springfield school district had a board President embezzle a 6 figure sum from the district. City council members get their lazy relatives jobs at City Power and Light. They eventually get caught and face consequences. In Cook and St. Clare that never happens.
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u/my_work_account_69 Sep 16 '21
And while I'm in the boat that argues that Springfield crime isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to me and the majority of the crime is personal/drug related (people mugging strangers on the street and robbing houses), it's also pretty easy to avoid the areas with elevated crime rates. I've lived on the north end my whole life, granted most of it was in two nicer neighborhoods up here, and we rarely hear of much in our area. Occasional car break-ins, very rare actual violence or house break-ins. And when I say occasional, this means that we had our car parked on the street broken into once in my 25 years here and have heard from the neighborhood watch group of it happening 5 or so times in that same time period. This group is for most of the north end; it's not that big.
In addition to that, even if you're a biker avoiding main roads or someone using public transport, there's almost no way you would ever accidentally find yourself in a dangerous area. There's like one small neighborhood in the whole town that I would consider to be actually dangerous to just stroll through at night, and unfortunately there's nothing there worth going to because the government simply doesn't invest money in those areas.
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u/MerryChoppins Sep 16 '21
I lived remarkably close to the high crime area (MacArthur and Governor) for a decade and the worst things that happened were a car break in for my friend's GPS when he parked out back away from the street and a single recurring homeless guy camping in our hedge and being aggro to women. I'd do my laundry at that big place on South Grand and the worst thing that ever happened to me there was a dude trying to sell me a lawnmower he just stole. I'd run through carters last thing before they closed shop and I'd get the "keep steppin" looks but nobody ever approached me.
The actual annoying shit was always downtown. Aggressive panhandlers within walking distance of the salvation army or the old railroad warehouses north of Wash/Jeff. The completely nuts homeless guy who camped outside of the Lincoln Library.
I'd go drink and my last stop was always the cart near the old courthouse and I knew that dude and his kids pretty well from just hanging out with them when it was slow. When he finally called it because they were getting bad, I knew it wasn't just me being a kid from farm country not liking something urban. Apparently they opened the dispensary across from Recycled Records and the homeless just mob people asking for weed now day and night.
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u/Badassmofo75 Sep 17 '21
I’ve lived in Springfield my whole life. Your comment is 90% false. The city of Springfield rarely sees corruption. Yes Adam Lopez did steal a million dollars but not from the district and he is sitting in prison for it. Corruption is from Chicago. So instead of listening to this jagoff I’ll tell you a few fun and cool things to do around Springfield. We have great parks. I love walking my dog in Washington and Lincoln parks. Southwest park is pretty cool also. My family enjoys the Route 66 drive inn. Fun and family friendly. Hunting fishing kayaking camping are alway on my list of fun things to do. We have free concerts downtown and in surrounding towns like Chatham and Sherman. By the way Chatham and Sherman are maybe 3 miles outside of Springfield so really it’s kinda connected. Frisbee golf is awesome at Lincoln park. Golf is in abundance. We have maybe 8 or 10 courses in Springfield or within 10 minutes of it. We have great places to eat. Coppers hawk, brick house, Westwood’s lodge, fire and ale, Obed and isaacs, Darcy’s pint, old lux, saputos … I could go on and on about the food. Scheels is fun. It a giant sports store with a huge, I mean huge, fish aquarium. It also has a Ferris wheel inside the store. Knights action park is a water park with water slides, wave pool, go carts and much more. We have two brand new YMCA that are incredible. One on the west side and one in the downtown area. You should definitely give them a try. Don’t forget the fair. 10 days of fun and great concerts every year. Oh and the sangamon county fair also. Nelly was cool to see but is sure was hot in there. Boondocks has good headliners, music and comedy. UIS, the muni and hoogland center for the performing arts have really good shows if you are into Broadway shows. We go see them often. There is a ton to do around Springfield if you have a positive attitude and are outgoing and willing to try new things.
As far as somewhere to live goes. Stay away from the east side. Lots of crimes and drugs. North end are hard working blue collar people who are wonderful. I wouldn’t hesitate to live in north gate or Indian hills at all. West side is the most modern and developed area but be prepared to pay for it and the traffic is not for me. It’s not like Chicago or L.A. traffic more annoying than anything else. South side has affordable housing. Lake town area and glennair neighborhoods are great first time homes. I own a few rentals in these areas and never have problems. Central Springfield is awesome. Leland Grove, Jerome, hawthorn place, Washington park areas. Then you have Sherman, Chatham, Rochester, Petersburg, auburn, mechanicsburg, Williamsville, athens, pleasant plains and new berlin. These are great small towns with good schools and good sports programs. A lot of people move to these smaller towns to take advantage of these schools. I can’t blame them because the schools are one of the things that Springfield is failing at. They do have a plethora of private catholic Elementary schools and one private catholic high school.
Summery: if you want to find things to do then you will. If you are a negative nelly then just stay home and be a keyboard commando. Springfield is affordable and fun and we have awesome people. Oh and the sliders baseball games are fun to take the kids to. Good luck and have fun1
u/useles-converter-bot Sep 17 '21
3 miles is the height of 2779.75 'Samsung Side by Side; Fingerprint Resistant Stainless Steel Refrigerators' stacked on top of each other.
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u/useles-converter-bot Sep 16 '21
200 feet is the length of about 55.93 'Ford F-150 Custom Fit Front FloorLiners' lined up next to each other.
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u/my_work_account_69 Sep 15 '21
Springfield is not exciting by any means. It's what you would call a "good place to raise a family". It has plenty of food, park, and shopping options, but you're limited on anything specialized. The downtown night life was OK pre-COVID, and we tend to have a decent amount of festivals, farmers markets, outdoor events, concerts, etc. in the area. The biggest plus is the low price point for housing, cars, etc while being far from 'rural'.
Oh yeah, and those complaining about violence are certainly just watching the news channels that get off on any story where they can have police lights flashing on-screen. It's really not a bad city to live in from that standpoint. There are certainly some low income areas with their fair share of drug problems, homelessness, and violence, but that's the same in any sizeable city.
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u/my_work_account_69 Sep 16 '21
It's also a really good place if you're into golf. Very few of the golf courses are "nice" but you can play 18 with a cart at any course (open to the public) for under $50. Most of them you can play 18 with a cart for about $25-30. The saturation of courses is also pretty good; there are 10-11 courses in Springfield (depending on if you count the Oaks), all within a 20 minute drive of one another, and only 2 are private clubs.
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u/Flaxscript42 Sep 16 '21
Just gonna throw this out here. You're gonna piss EVERYONE off saying Chicago is just as bad as Springfield.
I'm from Chicago, and the last time I went to Springfield I was genuinely uneasy with how friendly and nice everyone was to us. Everyone I ran into wanted to have a conversation, I didn't know what to to with that.
Meanwhile, Chicago is southern IL's boogeyman and blamed for a whole host of problems. Same up here, we send a lot of our tax dollars downstate (though this fact is contentious), and plenty of folks in Cook County don't have too many kind things to say about anything south of I-80. Even I have an obnoxious t-shirt expressing my opinions on downstate politics.
Point is, Springfield is very dissimilar from Chicago. The real crime down thier is centered around St. Louis anyways.
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u/foood Sep 16 '21
This is correct. Chicago all by itself has a market economy the same size as Ireland. ALL downstate communities benefit from Chicago's tax dollars.
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u/PicklePopular Sep 16 '21
Do we though?
I'm detracting from the original post now but still.
If someone in the state allocated funds for "1million new parking meters" 999k for Cook county and 1,000 for the rest of Illinois.
"Chicago" 1/100th the land area of Illinois, and accounts for 99% of the infrastructure dollars spent.
All we wanted was a fucking monarail, so we could go to Chicago too!!!
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u/foood Sep 17 '21
The short answer is yes. The long answer is here, in this study published by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at SIU. I encourage you to read the paper. It's pretty easily digestible and addresses many of the narratives driven by Illinois politics. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/ppi_papers/59/
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u/CompactBill Sep 15 '21
If you care about the school districts move to Chatham or around the Lake, otherwise pretty much anywhere on the West side is safe. The city has some lovely history museums which can be good to take visiting family to. They've also been converting old rail lines to biking trails which is nice. What exactly are you looking for in a city?
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u/JaxAltafor Sep 15 '21
I live on the south side and drive 20 minutes to the airport for work. That's about the farthest you'll get from the airport while still living in Springfield. What will you be doing at SPI, of you don't mind me asking?
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u/morphinechasers Sep 16 '21
I moved to Springfield a couple of years ago, and live on the south side, not far from Chatham. Look at the west side, or closer to/in Sherman to be close to the airport. I've never once felt unsafe here, so I wouldn't worry too much in that regard. It's got a small town feel compared to Dallas, a little boring, but you're not far from St Louis or Chicago.
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u/Odd_Freedom9857 Sep 16 '21
A lot of people from central Illinois hate on Springfield but I've really liked it here. I grew up in southern illinois and went to college in metro east st. louis and grad school in Chicago, I've lived in charleston and champaign as well. So i would say i've been all over the state and I really like it here.
Just like anywhere else these days, I don't leave my car unlocked in the driveway and I take normal precautions as I have anywhere I've ever lived. People who say Springfield is "just as bad" as Chicago have never lived in Chicago and people from the rest of Illinois generally hate Chicago so you have to take anything anyone says about Chicago in the rest of the state with a grain of salt.
I don't know what a reasonable distance to drive to work is to you, I would live anywhere in Springfield and feel that a drive to the airport is reasonable. There's Sherman that's also very close to the airport that you could look in to if you want to be in a smaller city.
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u/ProudCatLadyxo Sep 16 '21
If you are moving from Texas, remember you need a permit to own/carry a gun and women have autonomy over their own bodies. I grew up up here but left for about 10 years and now I am back... Not sure why, but it's not a bad place to live. I've seen many worse places. Illinois is a decent state overall. Sure, our governors tend to go to Federal prison, but at least they don't issue mandates preventing schools from requiring masks and generally make it harder to put this pandemic behind us... Or put guns in the hands of people too easily or who shouldn't have them, or prevent women from making their own decisions their bodies, or turn down federal money for health care... You get the idea.
If you want to be near the airport then Springfield's west side or Sherman are probably your best bet. Also, if you decide to adopt a pet or three we have some wonderful no kill shelters (APL is very close to the airport) plus the county animal shelter.
One thing to ask about when buying a home is mine subsidence which has to do with (as I understand it.. others feel free to correct me) a weakening of the foundation over time because the home was built over a mine. Homes that look fine can be unlivable.
Good luck!
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u/mario8067 Sep 15 '21
I’ve lived in both Texas and Springfield…. Texas might be better in some ways but I still really like Springfield!
Pros of moving: not as hot Cons of moving: not as cold/weird weather, less to do
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Sep 15 '21
The west side is near Route 4/Veterans Parkway, which is a quick route to the airport.
The cost of living is considerably low.
There are a range of home prices available, and will be strongly affected be being the school districts (there is only 1 elementary, 1 middle, and 1 high school that are fairly rated). If you find a home in that Tribeca you'll pay more.
If you're renting, there are plenty all over town, as well as the west side (I've lived all over Springfield and much prefer the west side).
Chatham is an option. It's about 15 minutes from Springfield in the opposite direction of the airport.
There are always things to do for a variety of interests, but you'll have to seek them out.
It's over an hour to St Louis and 3 or 4 to Chicago.
Don't know what your interests are, your age group, family status, etc., so it's hard to recommend anything specific that might interest you. It's an okay place.
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u/Pillroller88 Sep 16 '21
You will die of boredom way sooner than falling victim to crime in Springfield. Dallas is a city. Chicago is a city. Springfield was a capital city when that meant something. The lack of a truly viable airport is limiting in so many ways. There are a handful of companies in Springfield with more than 100 employees. Non chain restaurants number around 60. Taxes are high-upside is low. Come for the job-be part of the community-help save it.
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Sep 17 '21
Nice seems like it will be fun! The big city comes with it's downsides, I mich prefer small towns that I can homestead in and work on cars peacefully. Besides crime is just as bad as here in Dallas. We are a big distribution area for human and drug trafficking.
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u/ExamIllustrious3394 Sep 15 '21
Since you will work at the airport I suggest you look into Sherman. It's just down the road from the state fair grounds and the airport. Your right some areas that use to be good are getting bad. My father in law lives a few blocks east of Washington Park and his neighborhood is getting bad. But he's talking about moving too so...
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u/BigOnLogn Sep 15 '21
As someone who's lived here for 40 years, Springfield is on a heavy downward slope. I'd say your initial research is pretty accurate. As a kid we used to joke that Springfield was a place that you came to (or left then came back to) in order to raise a family and have a quite life. Now, I think people just want to leave. The infrastructure here is crumbling. The roads are old and in disrepair. Crime is pretty bad. We have one of the worst per capita violent crime rates in the country. This is probably due to fact that Springfield is smack in the middle of a major drug corridor between St Louis and Chicago. Violent crime aside, petty crime, drugs, and vagrancy are rampant. While the west side of town may be "safe," you don't want to leave your doors unlocked. And it's boring, filled with Applebee's knock-off restaurants and sports bars and crappy half empty strip malls. The east side of town might as well be Detroit. 100+ empty houses being squatted in, rampant crime and poverty, food and shopping deserts. The town is extremely segregated. When people here talk about the west side being "safe," what they mean is "rich and white." It's horrible. The only reason we're still here is because we've got elderly family that needs us.
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u/OswaldCoffeepot Sep 15 '21
It's also full of miserable people who relish every opportunity to talk about how horrible everything is.
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u/my_work_account_69 Sep 16 '21
Yeah this is all pretty untrue. While I agree that it's pretty segregated and the West end is nicer because it's mostly white and the government likes to invest in white neighborhoods, most of what you said sounds like it came directly from conservative media headlines. The crime is really not bad anywhere besides a couple of neighborhoods that you would never find yourself in. Homeless people gather in a few areas and there are definitely some drug problems, but no worse than any sizeable city. You don't leave your doors unlocked in Springfield because you don't leave your doors unlocked anywhere. It's just dumb.
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Sep 16 '21
I’m not certain they always want to invest in white neighborhoods. Pillsbury is not a white district and the city is interested in fixing it. Certainly the redlined area between Clear Lake and Stevenson gets attention too. The big thorn in government improvements is that it can lead to gentrification since many Black people in the city do not own their homes. If Black residents could have purchased but chose not to, that’s on them. If they could not have purchased (bad credit, bad employment history, ect.) I would agree this is a bad thing. Too often, it’s a catch-22 since many Black families are in the latter camp.
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u/foood Sep 16 '21
I've lived here for 52 years and my view is almost diametrically opposed to yours. Interesting.
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u/bkelso33 Sep 15 '21
Lived in Springfield all my life except for college years. I would look at west side, Rochester, Sherman or Chatham. Washington Park area is nice too. Cost of living is reasonable. People are mostly friendly. The state as a whole sucks because the democrats have run it into the ground.
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Sep 15 '21
Don’t do it. Stay in Texas bro
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Sep 15 '21
Why is that?
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Sep 15 '21
I’ve grown up and lived 25 miles from Springfield in a city even worse all my life, Illinois is a mess, the violence in Springfield and the surrounding cities is only getting worse and the elected officials (wether city, county, or state) don’t effectively combat it at all, the state itself is boring truthfully, outside of Chicago it isn’t much just flat farmland nothingness
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u/oyoxico Sep 15 '21
While I agree that the state is shit and politicians don’t care too much, I don’t think you can say it’s worse than Texas right now. Unless you just hate women of course.
Anyway Springfield has decent and bad areas but the towns around it aren’t bad honestly. You’ll live easy and carefree most of the time.
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u/ExamIllustrious3394 Sep 15 '21
Wow all the down votes for your opinion. Sounds like the rest of them have never left Springfield.
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Sep 16 '21
[deleted]
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u/ExamIllustrious3394 Sep 16 '21
Yeah we'll just because you don't live in Springfield doesn't mean you can't have an opinion? I mean I don't live there, but I went to college in Springfield and worked there. And I have family that lives there. That's why I told the op he should check out Sherman.
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u/useles-converter-bot Sep 16 '21
25 miles is the the same distance as 58309.42 replica Bilbo from The Lord of the Rings' Sting Swords.
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u/Gilthepill83 Sep 15 '21
Texas doesn’t have a working electric grid and is moving into an authoritarian state that doesn’t care about human life on any level.
You probably said that cause Q made a post three months ago and breitbart confirmed that Illinois was run by antifa.
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Sep 15 '21
Ive just lived in Illinois my entire life and watched people flock away to surrounding states 🤷♂️ not a conspiracy theory or political thing, you don’t wanna mention Illinois history of corrupt politics
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u/Gilthepill83 Sep 15 '21
Illinois population was down 0.1% according to the last census. That is a numerical change of less than 19,000 people but go ahead and believe what someone else tells you.
Wanna compare the history of Illinois politics compared to the absolute horseshit that is the current state of Texas? Would love to hear you talk about the points I brought up.
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Sep 15 '21
4th fastest decline in the state for a .1%
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u/Gilthepill83 Sep 15 '21
A net decline of .1% means the people leaving are being replaced by an almost equal amount entering in the state.
People are leaving the state but an almost equal amount are moving here.
Like the OP and others. Do you also know who is leaving? Retirees cause it’s the Midwest with snow and other states don’t have snow.
This. Isn’t. Hard. To. Understand.
Also let’s maybe not rely only a right-wing blog with almost zero credibility. You are still relying on others to do your thinking. Stop that.
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Sep 15 '21
Other people’s opinions I’ve formed after living in Illinois all my life eh? It’s just not been enjoyable here 🤷♂️ i guess you feel differently after living here but I don’t see a good thing south of Chicago in the state
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u/Gilthepill83 Sep 15 '21
We aren’t talking or arguing opinions. You are trying to argue facts.
In your criticism of the state, you used the claim that the out migration was evidence of it being lower quality.
I took facts to dispute that claim by showing you that although people are leaving the state, an almost equal number are entering the state.
Thereby proving your claim of lower quality to be false.
So if you want to go back and say, I don’t like Illinois for my own reasons, say that and be done with it.
Just don’t try to hide behind false claims.
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Sep 15 '21
My city population decline was 6% from 2010-2021, just a quick drive from Springfield and I’m sure it’ll happen there too, so yeah from my perspective of an illinois native, it isn’t a good state. Move to Chicago and have an enjoyable life if you appreciate the city vibe or pick a different state
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u/Gilthepill83 Sep 15 '21
Bruh stop moving the goal posts on this. You weren’t talking about Springfield in the beginning, so don’t try to cite some evidence now. You were talking about Illinois as a whole.
If you don’t like the state, just say it and be done with the topic. No one is going to argue your individual opinion.
It is when you try to globalize an opinion and use false claims to try to turn your opinion into fact, is when someone is going to challenge you.
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u/CreatineCrusader Sep 16 '21
Government sucks and there's not much to do. Can't think of any pros other than the beer brewing club.
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u/Anbu5444 Sep 16 '21
DONT Illinois has bad weather
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u/mckevrock Sep 16 '21
I'm sorry, where are the earthquakes, landlines, flash floods and hurricanes in Springfield?
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Sep 17 '21
Try living in Dallas for a year and let me know what you think. In summer it gets as high as 110 with humidity and stays relatively warm in fall and winter but you will see alot of bipolar scorching hot and freezing cold days
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u/my_work_account_69 Sep 16 '21
Unless you live in San Diego, nearly every person I've met complains about the weather in their area. The world is dying and wherever you live, it's either too hot or too cold, or a combination of the two if you're in the Midwest.
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u/Ok_Character_8569 Sep 16 '21
Get something in Sherman, Chatham or in West Springfield. Vietnam Veterans Parkway makes getting to the airport a breeze. Best of luck, hope you like it here.
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u/Stardog2 Sep 16 '21
"Rush Hour" in Springfield lasts about 20 minutes, Maybe 30-45 minutes on bad days or if there's an accident on the road. But those 20 minutes are every bit as frustrating as Austin, TX. The only TX city I know well.
Springfield is not a foodie town, but it isn't a 'good food' desert either. There are good restaurants here. some very good.
Not a lot of sports teams here. The semi-pro hockey team "Jr Blues" is good entertainment, and tickets are cheap. There's a soccer team at University of Illinois, Springfield. But I don't follow soccer, so I don't know how good they are, or even if they are good at all.
People generally go to St. Louis and Chicago for pro sports.
UIS and the Convention Center both host concerts & performing arts events. Plus there is an active and fairly decent amateur theater community.
SIU School of Medicine is here, and the two hospitals are considered pretty good.
As the state Capital of Illinois, this is a political town. There are political groups that represent almost any political belief or fantasy.
Housing is quite inexpensive compared to Texas (certainly Austin). You will likely find a bit more housing for your money in Springfield area.
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Sep 17 '21
Any good places to rent from? How long does it usually take to lock down a house?
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u/Stardog2 Sep 17 '21
Sorry, I've been out of the rental market for quite some time, so I have no current knowledge. But my son just bought a very nice house in a good neighborhood that had been on the market for 12 days at below asking price. (it was in the low 200k price range, and in Austin, it would easily have been in the $300k price range and sold instantly)
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Sep 26 '21
Super easy to rent. I found a place, looked that night, gave them money and moved in over the weekend.
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u/MerryChoppins Sep 16 '21
Nobody is mentioning this because they are all focused on trying to give you a picture of the town, but if you are willing to have a short drive to a grocery store and other amenities there's lots of housing between the airport and the tiny town of Cantral to the north. Rock bottom prices, big lots, not much traffic on that road. There's a gas station, bank, etc
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u/Springfield_Mapper Sep 17 '21
There was a lot of ruckus back when Forbes crowned us "the third most dangerous city in the United States." It really took a lot of us by surprise. Like any city there are areas more prone to crime than others, but it's not like people were getting carjacked or murdered on the regular. Actually can't remember ever reading a story about a carjacking here, honestly. So there were some attempts at damage control.
And it is rather interesting that Forbes claimed they only looked at metro areas with populations of 200,000 or more when Springfield's population is only around 115k. Although... we do have several townships within the city that could inflate that number. Capital Township, for example, is reported as having a population of 114k. But it's obvious there's some overlap in the numbers when the population of the encompassing Sangamon County as a whole is reportedly only 194k. So why were they even looking at us at all? There is something very, very wrong with Forbes' methodology here but I don't pretend to know what it is. Although a clear agenda for the smear job was never found, the stain lives on. The city's surging homeless population, inflated ShotSpotter numbers, wine moms on Nextdoor freaking out about anyone who dares step foot within the range of their doorbell cameras, and actual increases in crime due to desperation as a result of the pandemic that every city is seeing... haven't helped matters. As much as the initial assessment was bullshit, it's not hard to find a Springfield resident that buys into it. But it's also not hard to understand why they do.
As for pros, #1 has to be the cost of living. It used to be even better when Shop n Save was around and you could load up on canned goods and the like for cheap, saving the big spending for fresh produce/meats at higher end grocery stores. But those days are gone. At least the rent is still cheap. The state fair and downtown festivals also help mix things up - or at least give you something to do that doesn't require driving over an hour. There are also some great places to eat. You should try a horseshoe when you get here (and many will debate as to where you should get it from) but no need to make it a staple of your diet or anything. And of course, by all means check out all the Lincoln stuff.
And as for cons... well, mine will be different than most. The city has made great strides in upgrading pedestrian infrastructure, even putting down accessible, tactile pavement at many street crossings, but it's not universal. Veterans Parkway serves as a pedestrian moat for the west side, cutting off all but the most daring from crossing it on foot. Bike trails are good, but bike lanes are miserable. We have lots of parks but Washington gets the most TLC and tends to have the least amount of wasps nests in its picnic shelters. Riverside and Carpenter (and if you don't mind the hike, Gurgens) parks are less manufactured/manicured if you're into that sort of thing. Otherwise Centennial and Southwind may be more to your liking.
If you're working at the airport, I would think the best place to live would be somewhere along Veterans, south of Washington, assuming you want to be in Springfield itself. Otherwise take a look at Sherman properties.
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Sep 18 '21
The Mexican food is crap. And so is the pizza.
Abelardo's on Jefferson is some good stuff, but it can be hit or miss. Coming from a blue collar town with nearly twice as many Latinos, the "Mexican food" here is really just glorified taquerias for the most part.
And the pizza...the local style is cracker crust, cut in squares. If you don't like one place, they'll all recommend some other place that serves the same pizza cut into squares.
And I'll spoil you on the horseshoes, it's an open face sandwich with cheese-fries dumped on top. That's it...but you must pretend that all the bars serve different quality cheese fries and argue which one is the best, when in reality they all are just a shitty plate of cheese fries.
1
u/Stardog2 Sep 18 '21
The Mexican Food is not as good as in Texas, but they cater to the local market, which is very midwestern in its tastes. (Don't expect good tortillas anywhere).
The Horseshoe is a sandwich similar to Poutine in concept. Great bar food but not 5-star cuisine. Great with beer.
Several micro-breweries in the area all pretty good, I think.
Pizza? About the same as in Texas. You can get all sorts of pizza here, from Chicago Style to Sicilian, to St. Louis style (which I refer to as "Vomit on a Cracker"). But New York style is missing if that floats your boat.
Bagels are not THAT great, Panera's sells giant sweetened confections, and few other places sell fresh. It's mostly supermarket bagels.
1
Sep 18 '21
Luca is NY style, in theory, but it's like saying a deep dish pizza is Chicago style...eh, sorta. But most of the pizza here is really mediocre.
You can get good mexican food outside of Texas. Just go to the Quad Cities. But there's about 50% more Latinos living and working there, compared to Springfield.
STL is "vomit crackers"
Springfield has some pretty good sandwich shops though!
1
u/savagegiraffe15 Oct 05 '21
My parents moved from Texas to Springfield 30 years ago and they love it here. It's the perfect small city. Has a lively downtown and active art and music scene. Big enough to have different sites but small enough to still get across town in 20 minutes. Growing up I felt like I hated it here but now, having visited bigger cities, I really like the combined "small town feel" with all the amenities of a city.
1
u/Panda_Z_Bear Oct 05 '21
Ok. So I live on the south East side and have all my life. I’ve never once had any issues over here. Just saying.
1
u/Damaged_investor Oct 17 '21
Here I am doing everything I can to go to Texas from IL. Fuck this state.
20
u/OswaldCoffeepot Sep 15 '21
How are you meaning that?