SperlingViews - Barry, Illinois

Pros: 1. Everyone knows everyone really well 2. Extremely low cost of living 3. Affordable place to live Cons: 1. Very high crime rate -- the Pittsfield kids are now beating the living crap out of the other kids here. The 1 / 10 for violent crime on this website is WRONG. 2. Very poor school system 3. Very polluted 4. Problems with bullying and underage smoking/drinking 5. Probably one of the worst small towns in Illinois, if not THE worst.[read more...]

Years ago, Barry was, if anything, a safe, quiet town. People could walk the streets to get anywhere in this town without worrying about getting beaten, stabbed, shot, raped, or mugged. Everyone knew everyone else very well. Unfortunately, things have changed unbelievably over the past few years. A 1 out of 10 for violent crime? You've gotta be kidding me. The violent crime here is more like a 9 out of 10. The kids from Pittsfield (a neighboring town with a population of about 5,000) now patrol the streets of Barry and beat the living crap out of any Barry kids they can find. I know several people who almost got killed from being beat up by Pittsfield kids. Ironically, fights also happen between Barry kids and other Barry kids all the time, at school and elsewhere in town. It's a very violent town. The worst thing about all this? The police here do absolutely NOTHING about it. Instead of arresting the kids involved in these fights, they just let all this happen, sometimes even watching the fights without doing anything. Maybe the 1 out of 10 for violent crime is because the cops aren't reporting all these fights that they're too lazy to do anything about in their crime statistics... Bullying and underage alcohol/tobacco use is an even bigger problem. I remember hearing that the Illinois State Police rated Barry as the worst town in Illinois for underage drinking. But even with years of false promises, the Barry police do absolutely nothing about it. They barely even give out tickets to the underage alcohol/tobacco users or even the people that supply them. All things considered, Barry is easily the worst small town in Illinois, and one of the worst in the nation. Avoid it at all costs, and don't say I didn't warn you![read more...]