If Miami has more culture than Peoria, it is due to it’s much larger population. There are more restaurants, true, but most are Cuban or South American, which I like, but doesn’t result in much variety. (Don’t get me wrong, Peoria doesn’t need another steakhouse!) Frankly, we ate out more when we lived in Peoria. Dinner for a family of four -two adults, two kids- at a moderately priced restaurant (not Chili’s but not The Ritz either) runs around $100 in Miami, and that’s if one refrains from alcohol and appetizers. As far the arts go, I think you are selling Peoria waaaay short. The same traveling off Broadway shows and troops that come to Miami come to Peoria, and concert tickets are much less there than here. I took my kids to concerts, opera, ballet, and theater all the time in Peoria. More “regular” activities like bowling and ice skating are also cost prohibitive in Miami. A mere hour of bowling at Lucky Strikes in Miami costs $70.00 for a family of four (that price includes lane and shoe rental only)! Spanish, of course, is much more common here, and I think my kids benefit being surrounded by it. Thanks to the hospitals, medical school, and CAT, I think Peoria is very culturally diverse and international. Miami’s cultural diversity comes primarily from Latin America, but our friends in Peoria hailed from all over the globe. Personally I know individuals from India, Pakistan, Mexico, Syria, Geneva, Turkey and China that now call Peoria home.

Chase,

Crime is everywhere, you will be hard pressed to find somewhere that isn’t touched by it. Remember the horrible school shooting in Amish Country? At council meetings the term “knowledge economy” was often tossed around. Med-tech was approved in order attract and solidify a “knowledge based economy” as opposed to a manufacturing economy. It seems to me that such an economy would be primarily driven by college educated adults in their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s with children. As you know, as soon as one has kids, they come first. Peoria wants a knowledge based economy, it needs to start with District 150. Dunlap, Metamora, and Morton don’t have a problem attracting families, and yet they lack the culture amenities that Peoria has.

Really interesting. I thought Peoria was an easy sell, for how you described it and did not need millions of dollars spent to attract young people.

I recall the med-tech bus that went up to Chicago. Looking back on those conversations, what you had was a lot of “empty nesters” that wanted to make a mini-Miami or mini-Chicago, socially and culturally out of Peoria, in order to get their kids to come back to Peoria when they got out of college.

I told them then, that all they had to do was wait until their kids met someone in one of the trendy nightclubs in Chicago or Miami, thought about having their own kids and needed to get a mortgage on a 3 bedroom residence with a yard……then they would be streaming back to Peoria.

The only problem with this was 1 quality of life issue that Peoria has still not resolved…..crime….specifically crime of fatherless, young black males who are raised in subsidized housing and the effect this population has on the schools and neighborhoods that they inhabit.

Now that I have kids…..never again…..will I live anywhere near a community that has this problem. I am not going to have a fence in my front yard to keep out the weaponry (fighting dogs) that the neighborhood thugs parade down the street.