Reviews & Comments
Des Plaines, IL
re: Great schools - 9/20/2006 -
1/29/2011The schools there were pretty good. But COL was high. Long, cold winters, tons of snow & ice. OTOH, great summers! There's one decent park there. Nice thing about living there, besides the culture & availability of ethnic stuff, is that once you leave you suddenly realize how other places suddenly look green & alive again. Remember this is plains territory, so this land is all flat. Lots of roads. Lots of buildings. Lots of strip malls.
Bensenville, IL
Too near O'Hare -
1/29/2011The apartment I lived in there was great (if expensive), but the winter climate was frigid and so to use the necessary humidification for minimal health & comfort during the dry heating season caused mold. Keeping in mind some buildings are better insulated than others, of course!
Where I was, O'Hare was only about 2 miles away. The noise was horrendous.
On the good side, the people there (as in much of Chicago-land) are for the most part really good people. And of course it's never far away from culture.
Much ethnicity. Great, if a bit abbreviated, summers.
I cannot comment on the job situation there now as I've been away since the brunt of our current depression.
Bottom lime: There are far worse places to live, but choose your evils.
Wilmington, DE
re: good, bad, ugly - 9/5/2006 -
1/29/2011Right on - when it comes to downtown especially I think that sums it up pretty well. It's an old city, lots of old townhouses & therefore little in the way of off-street parking, generally speaking.
I used to work & live there. Exactly *where* in Wilmington is very important. The city still continues down its slow, but constant slippery slope of decline in many once-respectable neighborhoods. I got sick of being obscenely propositioned, dirty looks, hostility, violent threats, and property vandalization because of my race. And that was when I only worked there. If you can afford the right neighborhood, (or if only working there, a premium parking spot if you can get it) you'll be ok. It's not quite ALL that bad. There are a couple of very nice parks, but to live very near them you've gotta be flush. But, Wilmington is sprawling - outside the city limits it encompasses wildly varying neighborhoods, and there are some very excellent places to live in as well as the dregs. Some communities won't even look at you unless you've got millions in the bank. Others have bulletproof windows.
Sun Prairie, WI
Sun Prairie -
1/27/2011Crime is very low, I seldom feel like I have to lock my car or even my house. The schools here are pretty good, and have no tolerance for bullies (so if you have any, stay away). Housing prices aren't quite as low as I'd like, but they're not too out of line either. Taxes are high, and have also recently increased. They're less if you can avoid living within city limits. It's been a very good place to raise my kids. Many "non-walmart-quality" purchases will need to be done somewhere in Madison unfortunately (5 miles to the east side & mall). And more & more businesses are leaving the east side for the west. It gets very, very cold here but summers are for the most part very nice - not too humid (by muggy east coast standards, at least) and very hot temps are unusual. I've seen much worse snow in Michigan & New York state.