Reviews & Comments
Decatur, IL
The real Decatur -
5/16/2009The 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.
Lubbock, TX
re: Lubbock - 3/16/2006 -
5/14/2009Have you made it yourself in anything ever?
San Antonio, TX
re: Real life in San Antonio, TX - 11/4/2007 -
5/14/2009I am planning on moving from Illinois and I won’t believe this description. If LauMand were right, she would’ve left a long time ago. I cannot see myself staying in such a place just because of an apartment lease! Let alone my whole life, even if I were only 27.
Yes, I know that it’s expensive to default in those contracts, but it can’t be barely compared to being discriminated and miserably paid, let alone risking losing your life or being raped, and I am a man. We, men, are usually not as paranoid as women. And talking about something men are better than women, this brings something else.
It’s a shame to see the twisted values from today. Today, calling women “the weak sex” or any other derogatory name (even subtle ones like “babe”) causes serious outrages than can get you into big trouble, but despising the poor is OK. It’s OK describing them as “shady”, living immoral lives, creepy looking, parasites, etc. And this complain goes not only to people like Laumand, but also to those poor who think they are shameful and other who claim they are well to do. That is not the issue.
The Liberals fought for the civil rights of all oppressed people and things since the 60’s: the environment, the non-whites, the poor and women. This fight is eternal, but now after all these decades, some groups are betraying the hands that fed them. More women are feeling entitled and despise or envy other groups without thinking that the they themselves -women- also got benefits from those civil rights fights. I notice that in this blogs and elsewhere, just look at true monsters, hatred-promoters like Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin.
Have you forgotten how “creepy” looking were the former immigrants from Europe? And yes, they did increase crime. Have you forgotten that the typical white American used to be quite poor, a farmer or factory worker working 12 or more hours a day, no insurance, no benefits, no vacations, no nothing! The typical white America wasn’t as rich as today, only after the 40’s the started living in nice houses, having cars, telephones, etc. The 20’s were also booming but they came with a bill. We, the Hispanics, are a nothing but the same as you!
And finally, please stop offending us, non-white men. I totally agree with another of the bloggers. American white women are always anxious and paranoid that we rape them and kill them, that is so offensive! You can’t even stare at them a few seconds without them freaking out. Never mind that these women always complain of being fat and ugly, suffer eating disorders, etc. Yet, they still regard are hot enough as to attract enough a strange man to smuggle them in public. Just a reminder that rapists and murders are usually men that the victims already know, meaning they are usually their white counterparts.
Unfortunately, this mental disease of white women has spread to the rest of women at some extend too.
If you, white women, choose to ignore my complain, I’ll tell you that the USA census shows a big increase of births since the 80’s, meaning this nations is going to be full of youth in the next decade, meaning more crime after the peaceful 90’s and 2000’s. Now, you’ll truly have a reason to fear and regret not enjoying the peace all those years.
Decatur, IL
Not good -
5/13/2009The 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.