I get down there every 6 months or so for poker with my old development team - next time I'll be in the 'hood, I'll ping you. Definitely coffee hound. Definitely. The #1 thing I miss most. Honorable mention - there's a chinese buffet place just south of the Hooters on Hershey Rd - best deal in town by far. Best Indian (incl lunch buffet!) is TajMahal on VP just south of the Red Lobster. Tachibana, the only combo benihana / sushi place in town closed up a couple of years ago - don't know if there's a sushi replacement yet, but I'd be weary of any midwest establishment selling raw fish...

NE side is where they had been building like crazy 3k-4k sqft homes for the SF execs. I gather that they've also expanded the FAR west side out past the mitsu plan as one of our associate partners has a place out that way.

-S

 

After talking to my father, we are focusing on houses for rent, and possibly townhomes/duplexes/condos.

What is the SE side like (near SF office)?

 

yeah, my parents live in naperville...i think technically that wal-mart might be aurora, but i'm not sure. naperville is huge. and you're definitely not gonna find an apartment w/palm trees, haha...that complex would be awesome to live in! i think i'm a warm weather person. one or two more winters and i might be done with the cold for awhile.

i've only been to bloomington-normal a few times, and that was to pick up a friend at the airport each time.

edit: oh, and welcome to the midwest!

 

Bloomington is not that bad guys. There is a great import scene for the size of the city.

I look forward to meeting up with you in the spring. I am from the Peoria area, but I am in Bloomington a few times a week to hang out.

Here is a link to some pics of the Bloomington-Peoria crew's cars.

http://public.fotki.com/broadfield/personal_and_friend/

 

I remember seeing Kendall's beautiful gold s2k down on south vp. There were a couple of ap1 silverstones I'd see now and then, but for the most part, I always felt on my own. Never got with the import kids that seemed to congregate near ISU.

SE is nice - some new stuff there, too. There was a push eastward that would fill in the stretch south of the airport. Everything east of vp will be clean and nice. I also recall some REALLY affordable tract-like stuff for 98k out in the far sw where I55 heads for St Louis.

 

wow. great observations on several towns. tho the MKE bit is wee harsh

Milwaukee is about 4x the size of Bloomy with say... 10x more people?
it's got decent foodie culture as well as a fair amount of ricer culture. not to mention the 14% butterfat content 'frozen custard' that's omnipresent.

bloomington, OTOH... is literally in BFE. the fact that peoples from Peoria/Pekin go there to 'hang out' is not comforting at all. in fact, on the range of modern living scale, it's barely above Dubuque, IA and probably even less than Des Moines, IA, both of which i consider po-dunk towns...

 

I should have expressed myself more concisely. Blm is like Milwaukee in that it's basically just another far placed suburb of Chicago.

(donning flame retardant driving suit. LARGE flame retardant driving suit...)



I didn't mean to compare Mlwk to Blm in its ability to stand alone as a population center. Haven't been to IA since I was a chillun, so don't remember much.

As a little island of humanity in the vast wastland that is Illinois south of Rte 64 Blm is ok. I could almost move my family there and not hate myself. It's not that I really like C'ville, either. It's more that I've been all over this country (with the apparent exception of IA) in the last 5 years or so, and with the exception of Alexandria VA and Albany NY, most of what I saw sucked. Especially San Francisco.

Needless to say, I have issues...

 

what are the rules as far as mods to your car? i heard illinois hase inspections is that true?

 

Not really inspection per se. There is emmission testing every two years after the car has reached a certian age. If your car has an OBII computer (every car sold in the US since 1996 has an OBII computer.) Then they just scan the computer for codes. As long as you are not throwing codes, they have no idea what is going on with your car.

Front plates are technically required, and there are people that have gotten tickets for no front plate, but I run without one.

 

I used to run exclusively with no front plate until the revenuer's nicked me for $50 while I was parked at O'hare. Beware if you leave your car in long term parking...

Still no front plate on my S2000 or Odyssey, though. Just my truck...