Any non-Chicagoans in this forum?

It seems like there is a complete dearth of downstate IL news in this forum, which is why I rarely venture in here. Chicago is about as relevant to me as New York City - and that's no insult to Chicago, it's a great place, but I'm pretty far removed from the local political scene there.

Any downstaters around here?

i'm 3 hours west of chicago....quad cities.

I'm in the Champaign-Urbana area.

Haven't seen you in awhile.

I'd like to meet up with you as I live in C-U as well. PM me if you want to do so sometime.

Yeah, I'd like a meetup. Things are a little hectic right now but I'll pm you as soon as things start to settle down; I'd love to grab lunch or something.

I know of three DUers in C-U.

I'm in LaSalle County, 90 miles southwest of Chicago. But I'm related to large parts of Champaign County, and used to live there.

I'm actually in the Iowa QC's but travel to Illinois often, especially to a certain brew pub. Anyway, nice to meet ya, even if it is only online.

And you think you are alone--trying being from SI!

I'm in the Edwardsville area (St. Louis metro east)

love that place - my daughter lives there - and there are still a few hippies left over from the late 60's (a great time in that town.)

It seems most people here are from the Chicago area, this person wants to know who isn't. I checked the thread and I am not even listed for Marion County, only one other person is and the name of his town is badly mispelled. It's Centralia, not Centrilla. So, maybe I need to start a thread for southern Illinois or start a DU recruitment for southern Illinois as we do not seem to be well represented here.

Like i said in another post, in Illinois it seems as if downstate is relative term.

Nothing relative about Marion. That's DOWNSTATE!
The Professor

I'm originally from Livingston county. Went to school at UIUC. Not in Illinois right now, because I'm in the military. Still registered there and consider it my home.

"Middle Illinois". It sounds cooler.

Middle Illinois does conjure a nice mental image, however I'm not sure it really represents the reality too well. From one who grew up here, it can be a bastion of Conservatives, avowed idiots, and closeted rednecks. It also can offer a huge opportunity for any progressive that isn't afraid to educate, agitate, and organize.


Regards from the Shampoo-Banana Area!



Laura

South is relative around Illinois. People from the northside think anything south of I80 is downstate. That would be me.

But, people in ESL would think i'm a Chicagoan.

How far south is south?
The Professor

...south for me is the other side of Rt 176...Wauconda, but I'm 5 miles from the Wisconsin border.

I think it would be interesting to see more participation from outside Chicago, be it north or south. I think it's possible our issues could be quite similar.

Cheers

The same governor. And we all have the same big city dominating the state politics. (Lots of states have that, i suppose. I know they hate Atlanta in downstate Georgia.)

So, we all have that in common already.
GAC

I define Downstate as anything outside the Chicago metropolitan area. From Rockford to Cairo. I don't understand why some people want to define downstate as Southern Illinois exclusively. If I want to talk about the Southern part of the state then I'll say "Southern Illinois." If I want a catch-all term for everything not part of Chicago and its suburbs then I say "downstate."

But, not universal. That's why i asked the OP what they meant.
GAC

is what we consider Downstate.

Bloomington here. We seem to refer to ourselves as midstate this or midstate that. Lots of central Illinois references around here too.

....ISU. She still learning about the area.

Cheers

BA in history and French. Prepared me well for grad school, while still having a fun undergrad experience. I hope your daughter's years there will be as good as mine were!

Geez, am I the ONLY one?

:hi:

Near Starved Rock...come visit some time! :hi:

a little union town called Pocahontas to be exact. We spent a night in Metropolis, Illinois recently. I got into a chat w/a gal that had Bush/Cheney 2004 stickers on her bumper. I asked her how that was working out for her. She had no answer so I think I won that exchange.

in Pocahontas many times on our way to or from St. Louis Cardinals baseball games. It seems to be a nice little town. Isn't the "arch" located there?

I live in the boonies south of Robinson. This area is described as "east central" Illinois. My son lives in Urbana and I absolutely love the Champaign/Urbana area. I get all of my yard signs at the flea market in Urbana and attended my one and only rally in Champaign.
Great food, great people, and MUCH more to do than in my area.

But I aint bragging :)

Proud product of RPS 205 here.

along the ronny reagan highway

everything south of I-80 is southern illinois.....

Not bragging about it though :(

which is turning more Democratic every year. Our election official a Republican uses computer voting which angers me.

I live in Charleston, home of E.I.U. .

:)

I've relocated to Champaign for school but I'm very familiar with Coles County, and my sister went to EIU.

I'm ashamed that I haven't checked this thread since I started it - lots of replies! It's nice to see so many other downstaters here (which in response to a poster upthread I do define as anything outside the Chicagoland area, even if, geographically, it's not "down"). I specifically avoided saying "southern Illinois" as one of my biggest pet peeves is when Chicagoans tell me I'm from "southern Illinois" because I live south of I-80. It just sounds so arrogant and condescending, because anyone who can read a map can see very clearly that Champaign, Decatur, Springfield, etc are not in the southern part of the state.

I moved to Coles County in '91 from the REAL 'southern Illinois' -- Benton (Franklin County). It seems to astound many people to realize that my hometown is 70 miles closer to Memphis, TN than it is to Chicago.

:hi:

Try living in Wisconsin and mentioning you are from Illinois and everyone assumes you are from Chicago. They don't even seem to have a concept that a part of Illinois is closer to Kentucky than it is to Chicago. And they HATE Illinois people in Wisconsin (really tired of the FIB jokes) so we have sadly started telling people we are from around St. Louis.

Although somewhat influenced by Chicago (mostly its western 'burbs), DeKalb is pretty much on its own!