Like in general (infrastructure, crime, job opportunity, etc.)

41 comments

  2. In terms of crime and general safety? Better. In terms of affordability? Worse.

  3. Way better in nearly every sense. There’s some specific things I miss but overall massive improvements not just in Indianapolis but many of the burbs too.

  4. Much, much better since I was born 30 years ago. It’s more expensive to live here now, but not dramatically so, and everything else has improved.

  5. Worse if you ask me. Many people in my city lived in two apartment complexes at some point in their lives that’s now being torn down for fast-food restaurants. My Mom and I had to leave our apartment so they could tear it down and build a fucking Chick-Fil-A. Wish I had stayed where in my first home.

  6. Didn’t grow up in an incorporated spot. The nearest town was an anonymous little wide spot in the road 20 years ago and it’s an anonymous little wide spot in the road now. Less truck traffic since they built the bypass, which is a plus i guess

  7. The town I grew up in during the 80s and 90s was notoriously racist and bigoted. The “welcome” sign had “N#$&#rs Beware After Dark” spray-painted on it and no one did anything about it for years. The latino man who was hired as the school superintendent had a cross burned in his yard the week he moved into town. It was normal to hear words like “n#%#$r,” “s$#c” or “w#%b@%#$,” or “f#%#@t” (black, hispanic/hispanic, or gay) on a regular basis when you were out eating lunch, stopping at the post office, or getting groceries. More than one of my friends who were closeted homosexuals were gay-bashed to the point of hospitalization during highschool. My gay/hispanic friend was pulled over about once a week and harrassed by the cops as well.

    I know that there is *some* presence now of minorities there, so they must have improved in terms of just general directly hostile activity at least. My super racist and bigoted family members all still live there though, so I dunno.

  8. Much, better, in every sense.

    It was a straight shithole when I was growing up. I say that out of love, but it’s true. You could walk down any street and end up in a neighborhood with shacks held together by nothing but hope.

    If you’d walk a little further, you’d get to DeHerno Village (I changed the name a little bit for my own privacy) and that was pretty much a huge camp of homeless people. You’re getting robbed if you go there for sure, so keep a “safety wallet” that has like $10 in it that you can throw to them and run.

    Now city has got huge skyrises, thriving businesses, the works.

    It was pretty surprising to see. I had moved away for about 20 years, for the obvious reasons. But when I visited again I’m pretty sure I said “holy shit!” out loud in my car.

  9. San Jose is (self appointed) the capital of Silicon Valley (interpret that as you will). Due to that in some ways it has gotten better, but in other ways it’s gotten worse.

    I *will* say the area I grew up in was affected by white flight in the 80s and was mostly Latino and SE Asian growing up. Over the last few years there’s definitely been an increase of white people in the neighborhood and houses are starting to go for $1 million. At one point during the early 2000s it was considered the safest big city in the US.

  10. Worse. It’s more urban sprawl and is quickly losing all semblance of even suburbia

  12. both. There’s a housing crisis now that there wasn’t before, and some of the character of the city has been lost, but also a bunch of new jobs flooding into the area and a lot of infrastructure improvements slated for the next few years.

  14. Better I’m terms of infrastructure, worse in terms of crime. Because my city was #1 safest city in the state for a while, they ignore a lot of crimes to try and get us back in the top.

  15. It’s like three times the size by area and twice as big by population. I can’t see how that much sprawl would improve it.

  16. Both. I grew up in a suburb of San Francisco

    Likely a bit less crime and better restaurants but way to expensive for too many people now

    Ethnic demographics have changed a lot too (no value judgement if that is good or bad)

  17. Native Austinite here!

    Affordability: way, way, way, worse.

    Crime: Better but starting to get worse.

    Job opportunities: way better especially in tech.

    Traffic: Awful.

    Things to do: Better but the crowds are unbelievable.

  18. Much worse. When we lost the manufacturing in the 1980s things sorta went to shit. They were really decent jobs. They had benefits, a solid wage.

    (I was around in the 1970s and 1980s) I know SO many families where the parents just never found a comparable job. I am not kidding when I say I think it caused divorces and excessive alcohol use and just general discord in families. These really solid nice families fell apart.

    I honestly think so much of one’s self worth is feeling like you can provide for your family and are being treated fairly by your employer. I think without it can do a number on you.

    I think it’s really the reason fathers in the old days “went out for cigarettes” and never came back.

  21. As far as I can tell, Framingham, Massachusetts is about the same as it was 15 years ago. It’s grown some, it finally switched over to having a city charter and a mayor’s office instead of a town council, and Boston has grown as well, but it’s not facing any unique challenges that it wasn’t already facing before.

  23. Well it hasn’t progressed really at all since the 70s so I’d have to say that’s worse

  24. Indianapolis has gotten significantly better, especially downtown and in the surrounding neighborhoods. People actually want to live south of 38th street.

  25. My hometown in Michigan has shrunk in population by about 40%. They closed a couple elementary schools. But the rest of town has had some good developments and there are some interesting niche stores that exist mostly due to adopting to the times and utilizing internet sales. One of the two grocery stores closed a couple decades ago and the store has stood vacant until a few years ago when a guy had an idea for breeding insects for pet food sales and his business skyrocketed over night and he now employs about 50 people there and I’ve heard he pays very well and process very good benefits.

  26. I heard the closest movie theater is now 50 minutes away in the Pittsburgh region, the mall already had a “this is a dead mall” video back in 2010 when I went to college, and the Census makes it officially too small to be a city by population. Also, the racism has gotten worse, or at least more overt, everywhere, so it was a shithole when I left, and is even worse now.

  28. I was born in and am originally from an old steel town in the middle of the Rust Belt in the early 90s. It was bad then, worse now. People move away, the older folk from when it was a thriving community are dying, the bad parts of town creep out and it’s now a meth haven.

    Moved to a a small town of 300 people when I was less than a year old. That town has been stuck in the 1960s for 60 years, so still a decent place all around. Not really much that could make a village worse.

  29. I still live in the town I grew up in. It’s gotten better for the most part. There’s more things to do, the towns been prettied up a bit. Infrastructures been improved (there’s a ton more streetlights), crime is around the same and so is the opportunity or lack thereof for jobs. Overall it’s an improvement.

  30. Worse. It used to be classified as a town, now it’s considered a small city. I live outside the limits, but it’s growing too much for my liking.

    As far as opportunity goes, I’m sure it’s great. I’m just a rural man at heart.

  31. Way worse. It used to just be some random anytown, and now it’s just full of rich, fake hippies

  32. It used to be ok. Livable.

    Now it’s a dumpster fire literally covered in human waste and orange IV needles.

    I can’t even take my kids to pottery without noticing someone smoking from a clear glass pipe in a doorway.

    Lovely

  33. It’s generally much better when it comes to job opportunities, but much, *much* worse when it comes to affordability. It’s honestly kind of sad to see it become more and more defined by its income inequality but that’s life

  34. I grew up in Austin and it’s way worse. Gentrification has sapped all of the spirit and character that made Austin special.

  35. A lot better. Phoenix is now considered a minor destination, definitely a far cry from what it was like growing up.

  36. Worse. I mean it was boring as shit but quaint. Now it’s boring as shit but trying to be more like a trendy place than what it has historically been. Overall it’s still an objectively great place to live but you kind of see the loss in small town USA vibe

  39. The downtown area, which was the victim of 60’s “urban renewal” and generally a ghost town has significantly changed for the better over the past decade or so. But, housing prices and the cost of living in general have also completely gotten out of control. Homelessness is also a much bigger issue than it used to be

  40. Better. I was born in 2001 in Peoria, IL, in 2002 my city green lit the “Upgrade 74” Project, which completely overhauled an 8-mile of Interstate 74 which cuts right through Downtown. The project eliminated super tight 35mph turns, left exits, and multiple B-C-D exits in Downtown. The freeway was widened from 4 lanes (2 in each direction) to 8 lanes (with 6 lanes in less traffic-heavy areas). A new interchange in the Medical District allows drivers easier access from I-74 to IL-40 and vice versa. The project was completed in 2005. In 2010 the city began overhauling the interchange between I-74 and I-155. This project was complete by 2013.

    Fast forward to 2020 and the city shuts down the interstate for a bridge rehabilitation project that would last 7 months. This rehabilitation project also included the addition of matrix signs as well as a ramp meter for traffic entering the bridge from the Jefferson St. Ramp.

    North of town, along US-150, a new bridge is being constructed for the eastbound 150 traffic. The new bridge will have 3 car lanes, a protected bike lane, and a sidewalk with an overlook at the halfway point. The new bridge is slated for completion in 2023, with the old bridge being blown up and demolished in either the same year or 2024.

    Fast forward to today, and the city is in talks about bringing passenger rail service to the city, with an Amtrak line connecting Peoria with Chicago.

    Peoria has also just begun a project to overhaul the Taft Homes on the northeast of Downtown. The Taft Homes were originally build as a temporary means of shelter for veterans returning from the Korean War. The upkeep on the homes has been on the decline and the city has decided to tear the old homes down completely, and renovate the space into mixed income housing. I am not sure when this is scheduled to be completed. All current Taft Home residents have been relocated for the time being.

    The airport has grown too, it was originally called the “Greater Peoria Regional Airport” but was renamed to the “General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport” (usually shortened to Peoria International Airport), the number of passengers had been on a steady increase and in 2019 over 600,000 passengers flew into or out of PIA. These numbers have been stifled due to the pandemic, but as things slowly return to normal, air traffic into and out of the city will begin to increase once more. Allegiant is the main carrier to fly out of PIA, with services to Florida, Nevada, Arizona, Tennessee, Colorado, and South Dakota (occasionally). Other airlines that fly out of PIA include United, American and Delta (formerly) With services to Chicago, Texas, North Carolina, Michigan (formerly), Minnesota (formerly), and Georgia (formerly). The airport was updated with a new main terminal sometime in the 2000s, with a new terminal building built alongside the main terminal in the mid 2010s, adding 3 additional gates. PIA has the second longest runway in the state of Illinois behind Chicago O’Hare.

    Peoria’s population has been on a decline. The city currently has some 110,000 citizens. However, the Tri-County Area (composed of Peoria, Tazewell, and Woodford Counties) has an overall population of over 300,000, and with the recent boom of people wanting to move to Peoria, I can see these numbers possibly increasing in the future.

    Peoria also has a large play in manufacturing, with local manufacturing facilities such as Caterpillar, Komatsu, Liberty Steel, and Rivian (which is technically in Bloomington, but plenty of Peorians commute to work there as it’s a straight shot there and it’s right off I-74). There is also ADM, and if I knew what ADM did, I would be glad to tell you. Only thing I know about the facility is it’s a giant corn processing plant.

  41. I grew up outside a small town, and it has grown a bit over the past 40 years. Overall, it’s probably better than when I was a kid. It’s in wine country, so there are lots of bistros and wineries.

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