What or who do you associate with Downstate Illinois?

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

I mean, is it?  I haven't compiled data on "Downstate Illinois" vs. any other area, but there are very, very nice areas around Peoria, Champaign is nice, Bloomington-Normal certainly isn't a "poor" community, Springfield has some very affluent areas, there are some very nice suburbs of St. Louis, etc.

According to what I've read and seen here it is not a place where I'd wanna live.

I've lived in both Peoria and Springfield and find them as good as any equivalent city metro of 100-200 K that isn't part of a larger metro. If you want the amenities of a larger metro, then the central Illinois cities will seem lacking. But most have higher education that creates cultural events that smaller cities would lack.

Is the photo TexasGurl posted representative of Downstate Illinois?

[RINO Tom]

I mean, is it?  I haven't compiled data on "Downstate Illinois" vs. any other area, but there are very, very nice areas around Peoria, Champaign is nice, Bloomington-Normal certainly isn't a "poor" community, Springfield has some very affluent areas, there are some very nice suburbs of St. Louis, etc.

According to what I've read and seen here it is not a place where I'd wanna live.

I've lived in both Peoria and Springfield and find them as good as any equivalent city metro of 100-200 K that isn't part of a larger metro. If you want the amenities of a larger metro, then the central Illinois cities will seem lacking. But most have higher education that creates cultural events that smaller cities would lack.

Is the photo TexasGurl posted representative of Downstate Illinois?

Not any more than this house on Grandview Drive in Peoria is or the view they wake up to every morning:





An entire region can't be summed up in a picture.

[muon2]

There's a reason I prefer to consider central and southern IL as separate regions with Metro East (St Louis) as a special subregion. Central IL is dominated by flat land covered in farms of corn and beans with cities that combine a primary industry with a center of higher education. Some of those areas have maintained their population and are even growing.  Southern IL has more rolling topography with less farmland and has more similarity with the mid-South than with the Midwest. Any industrial city will have poor neighborhoods and declining rural areas have small towns that are not well maintained.

[DINGO Joe]

Edit: I just read the first post of this thread, which is obviously trolling.

No one calls anything but the bottom third of the state "Southern Illinois" unless it comes from a place of geographic ignorance.

Most people in Chicago do

Not really. Most people in Chicago call anything south of I-80 "downstate", but usually not "southern".

I also don't get the "North Central" description in the map. It's not a label I've heard for that band. Kendall and Will are part of Chicagoland and Grundy and LaSalle are more northwest than central (I-80 goes through them). The rest of the "North Central" area is better placed with the rest of "Central".

Taking the "NE" and wrapping it all the way around Cook and calling it the Collar would be most accurate.  North Central and Central could be combined and then resplit along an east-west with the Quincy region called Forgottenland or whatever they called themselves.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

I mean, is it?  I haven't compiled data on "Downstate Illinois" vs. any other area, but there are very, very nice areas around Peoria, Champaign is nice, Bloomington-Normal certainly isn't a "poor" community, Springfield has some very affluent areas, there are some very nice suburbs of St. Louis, etc.

According to what I've read and seen here it is not a place where I'd wanna live.

I've lived in both Peoria and Springfield and find them as good as any equivalent city metro of 100-200 K that isn't part of a larger metro. If you want the amenities of a larger metro, then the central Illinois cities will seem lacking. But most have higher education that creates cultural events that smaller cities would lack.

Is the photo TexasGurl posted representative of Downstate Illinois?

Not any more than this house on Grandview Drive in Peoria is or the view they wake up to every morning:

An entire region can't be summed up in a picture.

That's correct. But if numerous houses and areas are run-down like that one on TexasGurl's picture, the beauteousness of the buildings you associate with Downstate Illinois is quickly offset.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

There's a reason I prefer to consider central and southern IL as separate regions with Metro East (St Louis) as a special subregion. Central IL is dominated by flat land covered in farms of corn and beans with cities that combine a primary industry with a center of higher education. Some of those areas have maintained their population and are even growing.  Southern IL has more rolling topography with less farmland and has more similarity with the mid-South than with the Midwest. Any industrial city will have poor neighborhoods and declining rural areas have small towns that are not well maintained.

So, Central Illinois is more like Indiana, whereas Southern Illinois resembles Kentucky?

[The Govanah Jake]

Run down industrial towns or central region farming. Abraham Lincoln instantly comes to mind for some reason.

[muon2]

There's a reason I prefer to consider central and southern IL as separate regions with Metro East (St Louis) as a special subregion. Central IL is dominated by flat land covered in farms of corn and beans with cities that combine a primary industry with a center of higher education. Some of those areas have maintained their population and are even growing.  Southern IL has more rolling topography with less farmland and has more similarity with the mid-South than with the Midwest. Any industrial city will have poor neighborhoods and declining rural areas have small towns that are not well maintained.

So, Central Illinois is more like Indiana, whereas Southern Illinois resembles Kentucky?

In a simplistic way, yes. To some degree IN could be divided into the same three regions, but the Chicagoland part is relatively small and the Ohio valley part of IN isn't much larger than southern IL. That leaves most of IN with a similar economy and culture to central IL.

[RINO Tom]

FWIW, I have always preferred the definition for "Downstate Illinois" that encompasses "all of Illinois outside of the Chicago metro area," making it more neatly mirror "Upstate New York."  Within this "Downstate Illinois," I see three clear regions, and the following images are what I PERSONALLY associate with all three when someone says that region):

Northern Illinois:

(Northern Illinois University Huskies)

Central Illinois:

(Peoria)

Southern Illinois:

(Garden of the Gods in the Shawnee National Forest)

[publicunofficial]

Things I know/assume about downstate Illinois

-East Saint Louis is somehow worse than regular Saint Louis.
-Peoria was at one point relevant enough in presidential elections that a fun saying was coined from it.
-Cairo is horrible
-Rockford is horrible

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Things I know/assume about downstate Illinois

-East Saint Louis is somehow worse than regular Saint Louis.
-Peoria was at one point relevant enough in presidential elections that a fun saying was coined from it.
-Cairo is horrible
-Rockford is horrible

I had thought that “will it play in Peoria?” had more to do with our judicial system than election system.

[Torie]

Things I know/assume about downstate Illinois

-East Saint Louis is somehow worse than regular Saint Louis.
-Peoria was at one point relevant enough in presidential elections that a fun saying was coined from it.
-Cairo is horrible
-Rockford is horrible

I had thought that “will it play in Peoria?” had more to do with our judicial system than election system.

I thought it was more about what will sell in Peoria - in other words, it was a marketing term and a caution for Madison Avenue types, that the preferences of Madison Avenue types was not representative of the Fruited Plain.

[mvd10]

Downstate Illinois = the part of Illinois that is not Chicago = Chicago

I'm sorry man

[RINO Tom]

Things I know/assume about downstate Illinois

-East Saint Louis is somehow worse than regular Saint Louis.
-Peoria was at one point relevant enough in presidential elections that a fun saying was coined from it.
-Cairo is horrible
-Rockford is horrible

I had thought that “will it play in Peoria?” had more to do with our judicial system than election system.

I thought it was more about what will sell in Peoria - in other words, it was a marketing term and a caution for Madison Avenue types, that the preferences of Madison Avenue types was not representative of the Fruited Plain.

Although it is almost always used for that purpose now (Peoria is often viewed as a nice microcosm of America), it actually did have a history referring to theatre:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_it_play_in_Peoria%3F

[Mr. Illini]

Edit: I just read the first post of this thread, which is obviously trolling.

No one calls anything but the bottom third of the state "Southern Illinois" unless it comes from a place of geographic ignorance.

Most people in Chicago do

Not really. Most people in Chicago call anything south of I-80 "downstate", but usually not "southern".

I also don't get the "North Central" description in the map. It's not a label I've heard for that band. Kendall and Will are part of Chicagoland and Grundy and LaSalle are more northwest than central (I-80 goes through them). The rest of the "North Central" area is better placed with the rest of "Central".

That's true - "downstate" is used most frequently.

As for all the naysayers: Champaign rocks, as do some other areas down there. Stop hating on a place you've never been. Go hate on Indiana, which is verified sucky.