The Water.

I love my home of 21 years the area around it could care less about. If I could sell and walk away with enough to purchase another home would be GONE in heartbeat. The house being the only thing that keeps me here have 7 years left on 30 year mortgage. Not going to be able to another loan being on fixed income so TRAPPED would be my answer. However when you back a person into a corner they only have one option left.

Removed By Request

Too much in love with the home I have. Built early '30s, all plaster, brick, etc. They just don't make houses like it anymore. Diverse neighborhood. Neighbors watch out for each other.

@QuispNQuake:
Your home sounds like the one I grew up in. My parents still live in it in NY.
@cjsummers:
Restaurants, parks, churches, the library, grocery store, etc. are all within 2 miles of my home...in Chillicothe.
Adequate public transportation and interstate access are good reasons, though.

Removed By Request

I just like Peoria. The convenience of a big city with the ability to get anywhere in the city within 15 minutes. I like all the areas I have lived in Peoria. Convenient to everything. I have no interest in living in a small town where my business is everyone's business at the local coffee shop/watering hole. You can be a big fish in Peoria if you want or you can go about your life however you see fit. Also - if people didn't live IN Peoria, all the surrounding towns would fall apart.

@AnneC I have you beat! the grocery store is under a mile from me and I live with n blocks of the rest!

@cjsummers:
For the record, I wasn't pushing Chillicothe. Just pointing out that other (nearby) cities/towns are walkable/bikeable.
I agree about Amtrak, though. It seems silly that a city the size of Peoria doesn't have a stop that is closer.

@AnneC The size of Peoria and the Sec of Trans being from here.

Its home been many places but home is home.

I really like my house and it is paid for. I can pay both installments of my real estate taxes in a single check that is under $400. (Pays to be old and on social security) I like my neighbors, yes Eye, even you! Aside from the bad stuff that happens, there is a lot of good stuff happening. I can afford to live in my home and not have to work, which frees me up for volunteering on a lot of neighborhood stuff. Just finished folding the new edition of East Bluff News, going to a meeting tonight, helped arrange the upcoming Coffee With The Cops, will attend the Senior Advance meeting this month and volunteer at the new food pantry when it officially opens on 9/26. I am hopeful the schools will improve under this new leadership. I can get most places in 15 minutes or less. I could go on and on, but I will stop with the highlights. I agree with tnt, "home is home"!

I have lived here all of my life in the same house. I really can't imagine living elsewhere. I work in the city, so I wouldn't want the travel time to Peoria. I only live about 5 minutes from work, depending on the turn of stop lights!

We don't live in the city, but had we not had children, we might have. There is a lot of 'good' in Peoria, despite the negative that is aired on the nightly news and multimedia sources.

I've quit several jobs to move back to Peoria. What can i say? It's home. I will say, I do not have kids. Not sure I would have put kids in this school district. Oh, I'm not worried abut their getting an education. I'm worried about safety. And since I won't want my non-existent kids turning ut to be jerks, I wouldn't send them to Peoria's Catholic schools.