https://www.businessinsider.com/cities-in-the-midwest-americans-are-fleeing
Excerpt:
Using data from the Census Bureau’s Population Estimates program, we found the metropolitan areas located in the Midwestern states with the most negative net migration between 2010 and 2018, adjusted by the size of the 2010 metro area population.
The article recaps the top 20 Midwest cities losing population:
Danville is #1
Decatur is #2
Rockford is #3
Peoria is #6
Kankakee is #8
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin is #10
Carbondale-Marion is #12
Bloomington Metro is #13
Springfield is #19
Yet our leadership (government and business) have yet to admit we have a problem here? Yes the arts, food, bicycle paths and craft beer are not attracting anyone here. People are moving because there are Zero opportunities for them. This is just the beginning of what is yet to come.
Just last month subtract another six people for my in-laws that moved out of ILL-annoy, specifically Bloomington.
Not to worry, Rivian and its superman CEO will save the day! Also, with a declining population and demand for housing, this is the perfect time to build 100s of luxury apartments in Downtown Bloomington. I suspect the complex will accept some grants and government money and eventually go largely Section 8. This is common for large multi-unit developments that have a hard time renting/selling units.
Yes Clark Kent was in Normal showing prototypes (custom build out-of-state somewhere) that caused the clueless huddled elites to cheer and offer up their checkbooks for down payments on the dream of Super Man’s “electric” vehicle ever actually being mass produced here. Fuhrer Koos was pleased and offered up extra tankards of cool aid to everyone who attended. Reich Minister Reece even broke into an uncharacteristic smile and commented, “It’s nice to be with all of our people today!”
Rivian just announced 197 job openings in various areas…in Plymouth, Michigan.
So what will be our situation after the next State Farm adjustment? Are we about to reach a tipping point with real estate and apartment occupancy? An oversupply of houses and apartments will drive prices down and foreclosures up. What will be the ripple effect through the economy here? How many people will lose their jobs?
These are questions for our leadership but they aren’t listening or they just don’t care. I don’t know which is worse at this point. But I do know that our friends and neighbors and their children will have their lives altered forever by what is coming. Shame on our “leaders” and the boot licking toadies who support them.
A neighbor of mine recently put his house up for sale. He can no longer take care of it because of advanced age. To my knowledge, only one person has looked at it in a month of being on the market. He is asking $180,000 which is fair for the neighborhood. Another neighbor down the street just posted a for sale sign, that makes around eight in a five block area near Airport Road. See the future.
It would be nice if the spend happy Normal Council, Mayors and Managers would read this article. Though they are too wrapped in their delusion that Normal is immune to any of this. They will continue to destroy downtown Normal and build the Uptown mecca for government employees and businesses who rely on the government teat to survive. All of these people need replaced before anything will change. The mass exodus confirms my fear…it is easier to just leave Illinois than replace our spend happy government leaders.
Everyone is here to make their money and leave once they retire. Most of these people could care less because they aren’t from here to begin with and have no family ties to the community. They basically drop their pants, deficate all over the community, pull up their pants and get in their vehicles and leave laughing and expect those left to clean up the mess. That in a nutshell is your leadership.
Neversilent: The first problem is BN has never had true community leadership. The latest edition is only worse because they are truly sick in the mind because of their off the rails politics and upbringings. I was born and raised here and have come and gone because of various personal reasons. That said, I can state through many experiences that this is a community that has always been self-absorbed and really don’t care about anyone but themselves. Most can never make enough money, are takers instead of givers, some lie everyday about anything and everything and would sell their own family members if it would get them the smallest of promotions or title changes. It has grown worse for many reasons but primarily because of the universities and insurance industry bringing in workers that do not have core Midwestern values or their cutthroat lifestyle from Chicago. Even when they had the chance the weak leadership did nothing to set the community up for the future because frankly, they didn’t care because they knew it wouldn’t affect them. All the acts of charity are mostly phoney and done for selfish reasons. No one invests in the community in a true sense only if they can get something out of it for themselves. Local society is only a here to devour the host and move on to the next one. As you have often said, it is a closed club when only relatives or friends of long-standing members are welcome. Within twenty years or less this community will be dead and a shell of its former self. All those responsible will be long gone with only law enforcement left to clean up the mess.
I have been here since 1971. OMG have things changed. And yes, I agree with all of the points you made. There has never been real strong leadership here. When State Farm and then ISU began to expand, the towns were quickly overrun with people who did not share the values of the residents here. Their money, mindsets and influence took most of us by surprise. At the same time the blue collar factory jobs in the area started to disappear. Suddenly a small sleepy community with white collar jobs, blue collar jobs and a few education jobs became almost completely white collar jobs and education jobs. Many of the working class people who had the real values of the area were now out of jobs and relegated to lower wage service jobs or jobs out of the area. This began the Age of Phonies and Backstabbers that we are now in.
I loved this town until it changed. The people changed. The Midwestern values were replace by big city (screw everyone you can to get ahead) values. The phony leadership we currently have is indeed a result of the path that these folks have put our towns on years ago. With the wave of economic success that the 20th Century brought this area becoming a mere ripple, we are now faced with the mess these interlopers have made of our towns. At this point, things are so messed up, I just want to leave and remember it the way it was.
I left for Indiana about a 18 months ago. There are more jobs over here and the cost of living is lower. Most communities are running buget surpluses. That being said, government is still government and it can’t do with less and give the surplus back to the taxpayers. The easy thing to do with the surplus is repave roads. The roads in my neighborhood were in good shape last year. This spring, they got a brand new layer of asphalt. Even a lot of the county roads got new asphalt. I am glad I got away from the dumpster fire that is Illinois.
Ours goes on the market in the spring!
The “Makers” leave, the “Takers” come, and Illinois swirls into the toilet. With millions of illegals (and their anchor babies) absolutely overwhelming us, can the US be far behind?
Hungary, Poland are looking pretty inviting right now.
This all sounds very depressing.. but certainly not unfounded. But in my opinion, the “other states” that everyone is currently “taking refuge in” that appear to be “in good shape” will also start collapsing .. like once stout girders in a building that have adjacent supports quickly removed. The “rot” is more systemic rather than just Illinois and a few more states with “F” ratings. Since 1913, we’ve initiated the death of our dollar.. today we all pass between ourselves what is nothing more than “Monopoly Money” with a “Federal” Reserve that injects counterfeit money back into the system .. to benefit the corrupt. And it’s NOT just “dumb luck” that this happened. They’ve lulled us to sleep as a nation.. and this is what we get. It’s much bigger than ‘just’ Illinois.