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| Hot in the summer; cold, windy, and cloudy in the - 3/14/2013
I was sent here by the company I worked for in the '90's and was not initially impressed with midwest living. However, over the years I got used to living in the "Pride of the Prairie". I've lived in the south and southeast most of my younger years and midwest people were, well, different. But, I got used to them too, and came to find them some of the warmest people in the country.
Although Illinois is now #1 in debt (perhaps tied with California), the cost of living in Decatur is still well below the U.S. average. Sales taxes are on the rise again, however, and real estate taxes have always been high. $2800 taxes per year on a $120,000 house is an example. Fuel prices on the average are also higher in Illinois due to high taxes. I hear that truckers bypass Illinois whenever they can to avoid the high taxes on fuel.[read more...]
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| Has Changed not for the Better!!! - 2/22/2012
I grew up in Decatur and I still have family there, but it depresses me to see what it has become. It has a high unemployment rate, many business have closed or are run down, and its just an eyesore. SAD!!! Even the mall which was once a good place to go no longer has a bookstore so Decatur doesnt have a lot and if you have a job there consider yourself lucky or you may lose it. I moved away a year ago and Iam married living in Az my husband and I have family there and we knew each other in high school and whats sad is when I call home I hear other cities near Decatur are thriving while Decatur is not growing and losing people its depressed. I wish the economy was like the 70's/ 80's but times have changed and in 50 yrs Decatur has been on a downfall making mistakes in the economy. I wish my hometown luck but its a GHOSTtown!!![read more...]
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| Drive-thru liquor windows - 12/18/2011
If you enjoy drinking & driving, Decatur's fifteen drive-thru liquor windows, three times the # of drive-thru's than the ten largest cities in Illinois, COMBINED, will sell you well & often, even if you're too intoxicated to stand up & walk! But you should be prepared to lose your drivers license because between the Decatur Police Dept. & the Macon County Sheriff's Dept., they've arrested more than 3,500 people in the years from 2006-2010 for DUI. 2011's #'s aren't in yet. And since you can't smoke in the bar's anymore, drinking & driving is more prevelent than ever. It's just a big part of the factory working blue collar culture here. [read more...]
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| LETS BE FOR REAL - 7/14/2011
Growing up and living in Decatur Illinois.
First of all Decatur is a community totaly dependent on ADM (Archier Daniel Midland Inc- The story for the movie The Imformant). We even have one of there corporate heads residing on our city councel.
ADM polutes everything around it from the water and the air.
Decaturs population has drooped from around 115,000 down to 75000.
People who live enjoy the very little as far as recreation, or anything to do after work except to drink and hang out in bars.
As a place to work and raise a family....NOT SO HOT[read more...]
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| Decatur "We love it here!" Oh My...seriously??? - 6/28/2011
Well I am struggling to say anything nice about the area. Plus -Some of the people in this area are the nicest, most down home people you would ever want to be life long friends with. Plus -affordable housing. Negative. Its like Jamaica with out the beach in some places. Most of the city is Poor. There are a lot of gangs here. This town is pretty scummy and there is little to do, which leads the teens to drugs. There are some jobs here, not alot but some. Gas is like 3.50 right now. Visit before moving here. [read more...]
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| Wonderful Town - 11/10/2010
Despite the devastation that the dismantling of America's automotive manufacturing base has laid upon Decatur since the late 60's and early 70's. The Loss of Borg Warner ( York and Marvel Schebler), Firestone Tires , Wagners Castings, General Electric , AE Staleys and other,
The Soy City still stands tall and proud . With ADM ( Supermarket to the World) and Caterpiller ( Heavy Equipment World Leader) not to mention Krekel's best Burger in America.
The town that first initiated Abraham Lincoln's bid for the Presidency of the United States.
Best dollar value for houses in U.S. . After eliminating negative neighborhood and economic opportunity values.
[read more...]
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| FOUR SEASONS - 9/24/2009
is a definate place for 4 seasons warm humid summers, and cold snowy winters, seems like the spring and fall which are the best time of year are getting shorter .[read more...]
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| The real Decatur - 5/16/2009
The previous commentaries about Decatur, IL are so exaggerated that they even make me wonder if they were actually written by an agency. Before my review, Sperling’s city review was the only good information about Decatur in this page, and it well shows how much population (hemorrhaging actually) Decatur is losing, which means less taxes for the government and less sales for business. One of the reviewers, Kendra, should even be sued if a young couple makes the wrong decision of coming here, but hey, this town is good for retired couples. There’s no need to distort reality to speak well of Decatur.
First, the Decatur’s job market has consistently been one of the worst in an already unemployed state, Illinois. It is NOT “kind of high”. It’s stratospheric! There’s only jobs here for nurses, and gee! employers here have gone insane about nurses. You should even avoid driving through here if you happen to be a nurse or you may get smuggled by the hospitals!
It is not true that unemployment is bad only for those without any kind of degree. I have two college degrees in engineering and previous experience, yet I have been unemployed for a year and it before that, it wasn‘t much better. The local college graduates always leave town as soon as they’re done. And there’s only one university, a private, expensive and not too prestigious one. Other than that, a community college.
The big problem here is that there’s only a tiny bunch of employers other than hospitals and it’s a plain lie that many factories are always hiring. The exception is ADM and they do it to such an extend that it doesn’t look right.
Look, when nobody else in town is hiring much (not even the other big company, Tate&Lyle) and ADM posts jobs like crazy (see it for yourself in their career web site), you have to assume that ADM is following the new tendencies recommended by HR advisers: hire slowly and fire quickly. At least I know as a fact they are slow to hire, they can take like 4 months just to give you a phone interview. Not even the hospitals are hiring this much. They just show their ads on and on because of the local lack of nurses, but the kids are catching up and this job source will soon be gone. The fact that there are a few big companies really doesn’t help the job market much in either real job openings or salaries.
One of my former colleges got both a BS (from private college) and a MS in chemistry, it got like 3 years of chemical experience in one of the local big companies (T&L), yet its next chemical job paid like 40K. Another folk with 20 or more years of chemical experience (many of them in an international corporation) ended up as the its boss’ office boy. I chose to us “it” and “its” to cover them as much as possible because of this embarrassing situation. Well, I myself were making 30K.
Regarding activities, the real fun in this whole region is in Champaign, thus, it’s not much advantage to live in the center. The real advantages of this town is the peaceful traffic and general life. Crime is said to be quite high in downtown, but I’ve never seen anything. I have only seen peace here. Downtown is becoming a ghost town and looks quite impressive. You don’t need to go to Rome, Greece or Egypt to watch ruins, you got them here! The History Channel should make a documentary from here one of these days; they love so much catastrophes, even the ones that’ll happen after we would disappear. Well, downtown is only a small part of Decatur, and an abandoned house gets torn down when it gets abandoned elsewhere, thus keeping nice communities as nice and safe.
The air is usually clean (sometimes it stinks but no big deal and goes away soon), streets are also clean, there’s plenty of trees and neat gardens in cheap but pretty houses. Prices in general are not high. My apartment is 700 s.ft, w/cable, it’s pretty, located in a pretty area, there’s community pool and charges $445dls/month. The landlord is not too helpful sometimes.
Decatur,IL looks like a place for retirement, and you‘d surely meet many elderly here, people who only watch Fox news, church goers, etc. As soon as you get a few miles from here, people are quite rural without the charm of dressing like them. You even hear cases of guys with 8 children!
Winters get nasty, at times in -30 F and the summer days get very muggy sometimes, but I think most of the year is quite enjoyable. This year, 2009, winter went away soon and March was quite sunny.
If you’re not retired, chances are you’re only coming here because a local company hired you. You shouldn’t look forward to settle down here in any way. I am staying here only a few more day to finish my apartment contract. After that, I’m leaving.[read more...]
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| Not good - 5/13/2009
The previous commentaries about Decatur, IL are so exaggerated that they even make me wonder if they were actually written by an agency or else, especially when the best commentaries were written by a black woman, thus making people think very high of this town for real EEO. The city review is the only good information about Decatur in this page.
First, the Decatur’s job market has consistently been one of the worst in an already unemployed state, Illinois. It is NOT “kind of high”. It’s stratospheric! There’s only jobs here for nurses, and gee! employers here have gone insane about nurses. You should even avoid driving through here if you happen to be a nurse or you may get smuggled by the hospitals! It is false (to say the least) that you can do well here if you have a degree. I have two college degrees in engineering and previous experience, yet I have been unemployed for a year and it before that, it wasn‘t much better. The local college graduates always leave town as soon as they’re done. And there’s only one university, a private, expensive and not too prestigious one. Other than that, a community college.
The big problem here is that there’s only a tiny bunch of employers other than hospitals and it’s a plain lie that many factories are always hiring. The exception is ADM and they do it to such an extend that it doesn’t look right.
Look, when nobody else in town is hiring much (not even the other big company, Tate&Lyle) and ADM posts jobs like crazy (see it for yourself in their career web site), you have to assume that ADM is following the new tendencies recommended by HR advisers: hire slowly and fire quickly. At least I know as a fact they are slow to hire, they can take like 4 months just to give you a phone interview. Not even the hospitals are hiring many. They just show their ads on and on because of the local lack of nurses, but the kids are catching up and this job source will soon be gone. The fact that there are a few big companies really doesn’t help the job market much.
Regarding activities, the real fun in this whole region is in Champaign, thus, it’s not much advantage to live in the center. The real advantages of this town is the peaceful traffic and general life. Crime is said to be quite high in downtown, but I’ve never seen anything. I have only seen peace here. The air is usually clean (sometimes it stinks), streets are also clean, there’s plenty of trees and neat gardens in cheap but pretty houses. Prices in general are not too high. My apartment is 700 s.ft, w/cable, it’s pretty, located in a pretty area, there’s community pool and charges $445dls/month. The landlord is not very helpful though.
Decatur,IL looks like a place for retirement, but you’ll feel very lonely and bored. As soon as you get a few miles from here, people are quite rural. You even hear cases of guys with 8 children! It’s folkloric and fun when you are a tourist, but not a resident. Winters get nasty, at times in -30 F. Chances are you’re only coming here because a big local company hired you. You shouldn’t look forward to settle down here in any way. I am staying here only a few more day to finish my apartment contract. After that, I’m leaving.[read more...]
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| New companies building in Decatur, Illinois - 4/23/2008
I was born and raised in Decatur, IL. It was a great city growing up. In fact, the population was near 100,000 back in the late 70's early 80's. Decatur has a lot of potential. With Firestone closing amongst other companies in the Decatur area, I dont see why newer companies pick Decatur to start their roots. The city is actually very beautiful with great parks and a wonderful lake. The city has a lot going on the north end and out by the airport the last time I went through this city. I really think Decatur is to overlooked by newer companies and they might consider checking out this wonderful city. Practically centered right in the middle of the state. Once the home of the Staley Bears (Now Chicago Bears) This city has a lot of potential and plenty of possiblilties. Why not share these possibilities with new companies. Large new companies. I could never figure out why the didnt do more with the waterfront by Neslon Park. Adding little store fronts and cafes. Even a gambling boat that stayed docked. Adding a nice large well known hotel or two in Downtown. I now live in Atlanta, GA for 11 years. Lived in Tampa, FL prior for 6 years. The times I have been back or through the city I see a great city sitting and waiting for something so fantastic to happen to it. New businesses I think would be happy in this city. Once the new businesses happen this city, I mean could be the heart of downstate Illinois. A city in Illinois that has such potential outside Chicago. Bloomington/Normal has grown a lot. I think people should know about the possibliities this city has to offer and could offer more if companies and businesses land in Decatur, Illinois. It sounds like Decatur needs a new city council. They need a council that brings in these new things. You wait and see, it will happen. I think a lot of people should check out this small city and see the potential. You may say Decatur is a little boring, but that is because the city council has a lot to do with some of that. Decatur needs to be put on the radar for many reasons. Those reasons have just been mentioned. Thank you for your time. Patrick MIller[read more...]
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| A City You Can Thrive In Economically with the Rig - 3/6/2008
There isn't much to do here for youth or young adults unless you're into church or volunteering or going out to clubs. The unemployment rate here is kind of high, but this is mainly for those who don't have any type of degree. Many of our factories are always hiring. I personally want to be someplace with more opportunity in the event/entertainment and fashion industries. The people are pretty friendly, traffic isn't bad at all. Most places take about 15-20 minutes to get to tops. If you're looking for employment though, your best bets are going to be in the manufacturing/engineering and health care industries.[read more...]
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| Decatur - Pros/Cons - 2/10/2008
Pros:
1. Extremely low cost of living
2. Affordable place to live
3. Home to ADM Corporation
Cons:
1. The city literally stinks from the ADM factories
2. High crime rate
3. Not much to do
4. Poor school system
5. The economy is dominated by ADM, so it's hard to find employment if you don't want to work for them[read more...]
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| Decatur, Illinois is a Great Place to live! - 9/21/2007
Decatur, Illinois is located in the heart of Illinois, 30 miles East of Springfield. Decatur is equipped with numerous service organizations, athletic clubs, museums, colleges and a great night life. A bonus to being located centrally, is the short drive to all of our great neighboring cities. Such as Springfield, Bloomington, Champaign and Peoria. There is always something to do in the heart of Illinois![read more...]
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| Beautiful homes - 7/5/2006
Beautiful homes are available in Decatur, IL for prices well below those in larger cities.[read more...]
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