How Bloomington, Champaign stack up
Here's how the two Illinois metropolitan areas stack up according to metrics considered by Forbes in ranking places to do business:
BLOOMINGTON
(metro area consists of McLean County)
Ranked 6th in education
Ranked 51st in job growth
Ranked 75th in cost of doing business
Unemployment: 6.2 percent
Job growth (2010): -0.2 percent
Projected annual job growth: 1.6 percent
Median household income: $55,903
High-tech employment: 9.6 percent
Median home price: $160,300
Cost of living: 9 percent below national average
High school attainment: 93.5 percent
College attainment: 43.5 percent
Graduate degrees: 14 percent
Average commute: 18 minutes
Crimes per 100,000 residents: 2,786
Average days below 32 degrees: 132
CHAMPAIGN
(metro area consists of Champaign, Ford and Piatt counties)
Ranked 11th in education Ranked 100th in job growth
Ranked 128th in cost of doing business
Unemployment: 7.2 percent
Job growth (2010): -1.2 percent
Projected annual job growth: 0.2 percent
Median household income: $42,417
High-tech employment: 9.6 percent
Median home price: $140,900.
Cost of living: 10.6 percent below national average
High school attainment: 93 percent
College attainment: 36.3 percent
Graduate degrees: 18.6 percent
Average commute: 18 minutes
Crimes per 100,000 residents: 2,955
Average days below 32 degrees: 132
MoreFor all of the biased media in Champaign, who try to slant stories or only cover stories that promote this "Champaign-Superiority" complex, HERE'S YOUR TRUTH! For years now, there has been this attempt to promote Champaign at the expense of all other surrounding communities. Champaign based media covers stories that help give the illusion that it is the perfect "little Chicago" at the expense of never allowing stories of growth or unemployement figures from its better rival- Bloominton, which consistently outpaces Champaign in ALL economic indicators such as home values. Bloomington-Normal is larger in size to that of Champaign-Urbana and is only 45 miles north yet less than 1% of all stories covered by the Champaign cable and news outlets purtain to Bloomington. Why? Jealousy! It ruins the illusion when facts are presented. Pleasantville was a movie, not a town with an inferiority complex. It's time to call out the innappropiate deeds of those responsible of covering ALL of central and east central Illinois to be fair and honest!
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