Champaign-Urbana

Reasons I love living in C-U:

1) University community. Having a university in town injects the entire city with vitality. With professors, grad students, and bright undergrads all over the place, the level of intellectual discourse in the community is very high.

2) College sports. I can't tell you how exciting it was around here when the football Illini were having such a good year! The joy in the entire community was palpable. The basketball team is sucking it up this year, but they should be back on their feet next year (or the next . . . or the next).

3) Libraries. The university library is the third largest in the nation (behind only Harvard and Yale). The music library, where I worked for 3 years as an undergraduate, is wonderful.

In addition, both the Urbana library and the Champaign library have both undergone major renovations in the past five years. The Champaign library built a brand-new building and just re-opened a month ago. It's just so heartening to see our tax money going towards things such as these.

4) Parks. A great park system here in town. They are well-maintained, family-friendly, accessible (there are parks all over town), and safe. The park districts themselves seem to be well-funded, and host tons of events, classes, and camps for kids.

5) Location. 2 hours from Chicago, 3 from St. Louis, 1 from Springfield, 2 from Indianapolis. And only 3 hours from my folks!

6) Mixing of classes. If you hang around campus, you're likely to encounter mostly the upper middle-class folks with more education in their backgrounds. But off campus, we have a good mix of people with varying backgrounds and varying ethnicities. Some people here even have a bit of a southern accent! (reminds me of home : ) As our kids get older, it will be important for them to feel comfortable associating with many different cultures and classes.

7) Homeschooling/Natural living community. There are tons of people around here that are very open to "thinking outside the box" when it comes to parenting. The homeschooling community is growing larger every year and Shan has plenty of hippie moms to pal around with. A Catholic homeschooling group just started this last year; we're involved somewhat, and it should really be flourishing when our kids are a bit older.

8) Churches. Though there is the usual dose of secularism that goes with a major public university, the community-at-large has a thriving Christian population. In addition to one of the largest Newman Centers in the nation on campus, we have 3 large Catholic churches in the area along with many other large non-denominational churches around. It seems to be a good balance; you needn't hide that you are a person of faith, but it seems that it doesn't get shoved down your throat either.

9) Arts. The Krannert Center for the Performing Arts has stuff happening all the time. They bring in big name instrumentalists, choirs, and orchestras in addition to hosting many performances of the School of Music itself. Pretty good prices as well, so I look forward to taking the kids to performances when they're a bit older.

10) Getting around. After living in Chicagoland for a number of years, I'm thrilled to be in an area where I don't have to plan my day around rush hour. We have a rush-'20 minutes' right after 5:00, but even at its heaviest, it's pretty mild.

11) Self-enclosedness. Awkward word attempting to describe the fact that the citizens of C-U rarely have to stray from the city limits for anything that they need. I remember in Chicagoland that I would have to go to this suburb for groceries, another for a haircut, another for my tax guy, etc. And with traffic, the commuting got pretty tiresome. In southern Illinois, my parents still have to travel about 15 miles away for groceries. We have 3 grocery stores about 2 minutes from our house.

We're very content here in Champaign. I could see myself staying here indefinitely.