I totally agree with this family. Rockford is not a good place to live or plan to move to. It has been a victim to bad planning as well as mispending. The public school system is awful to the point the many teachers are now looking elsewhere to move to find better leadership. A once ignorant lawsuit started the spiraling down effect, when many decent families moved out of their modest nice neighborhoods due to eliminating your right to go to your neighborhood school in which they bought into. Those neighborhoods now have gone down and the crime has moved in. Taxpayers forced to pay for the ridiculous amount of extra gas just to bus a child who had a neighborhood school close by, to bus them clear across town. If the problem is with the school itself and the teachers they needed to fix that problem as a whole and make all the schools equal in teachings. Not by bypassing the school itself and busing thousands of kids else where. Again another horrible example of bad planning. It's really sad I have worked in the health system in Rockford for years and there is noone better then the personal there to tell you the true grit when it comes to this city. The crime rate has soared here aa well, a once vibrant area called 11th street used to be a real nice area to go and shop. For people living in Byron,and Stillman Valley it used to be the place you would go to do your shopping it was close and convenient. Now you wouldn't think of going there it is so bad. They have let it go to pot. The Rockford Airport is the closest to this area of shopping and they are trying to lure a prestigious college there. You would think that if they wanted to promote this airport, and its city you would have concentrated on the area around it. But they have not if you want to go to decent area you have to drive for miles way across town to get to a nice hotel or any safe shopping. Rockford has neglected its streets and roads most all of them are bad and laden with pothole. There is not much to do in this city either, sure you can go to the small museum or to the pretty gardens, but how many times are you going to go once you've been there already. Our son who wanted at first to be close to his family had to make a very hard and emotional discission when he graduated from College in Chicago. He realized that this place did not have the environment to start a family, nor did it have the opportunites for someone who wanted more out of life. He now lives in a beautiful state with a great, fascinating job to go to every day. His children have great schools, in their neighborhood where they attend, they have nice roads and countless things and activities for his family to enjoy. I hate to say this about Rockford, becuase I have grown up around here and worked here most of my life. I even had to admit to my son that was right the opportunites and the fundamentals he is looking for are not here. As much as I wanted him to stay and how emotional it was for him to go I knew he had to. I know a lot of people try to put on the extra icing about Rockford but it is still cake.
Sarah | Rockford, IL | Report Abuse