r/PeoriaIL

I grew up in Peoria in the time there were shops and restaurants on the Riverfront and things felt a little less dead (although maybe that is childhood nostalgia) and I am graduating law school in Chicago on Sunday. My fiance has mentioned potentially moving to Central IL to be closer to my family (his parents will follow him where he goes), and I just remember all the years I spent trying to get OUT because it was so boring as I got older. I told one attorney at a bar in Peoria that I was going to law school and he just went "don't practice law in Peoria."

I'm trying to look at Peoria with different eyes. And it makes me kinda sad because there's so much potential for it to be a great city, but it's gotten so disheartened over the years as many places have since the Pandemic. And I thought that was an all-around thing, but then I went to cities that are growing and have a great community and I feel like Peoria could have that, but it's just not there.

Like my fiance and I looked at travel vlogs from the cities we grew up in, and his Grand Rapids videos were vibrant with a lot of ideas and local inside jokes and Peoria had some afterthought AI slop videos of things to do. The videos I see of people trying to get people to move to Peoria almost seem like last-ditch efforts to me.

I do love the city I grew up in. I just don't know if it's worth investing a future in. But maybe it needs more people who see what it could be too. I don't need redditors to make the decision for me lol. But I guess I wanted to put these thoughts into the void and see if the void calls back.

Where’s the best place to buy a mattress in person in Peoria? We are moving and plan to buy one in person in town.

Apparently my instacart driver got the whole beans coffee, is there any place I grind beans for free? Or should I bite the bullet and buy a coffee grinder?

It can't just be that Bloomington has Illinois Wesleyan University since Bradley University is a much bigger college. Is it that Bloomington in on I-55 and thus traffic from the huge metropolitan areas of Chicago and St. Louis, where there are more ethnically diverse people that would actually patronize ethnic restaurants, passes through Bloomington instead of Peoria?

May 13–17, 2026

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🎡 THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND (EXTENDED)
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• Taylor Swift Tribute: “Are You Ready for It?” — Wed 7:30PM @ ICC Performing Arts Center (East Peoria) — $17-55

• Michael W. Smith — Thu 7:30PM @ Five Points Center (Washington) — $75-85
• Glow Wild (Final Weekend) @ Peoria Zoo — Thu-Sat 6–9:30PM — $15-25

• Peoria Symphony Orchestra: Grand Slam Jam — Fri 7:30PM @ Prairie Home Alliance Theater (Peoria Civic Center) — $41+
• Friday Night Lights Cruise-In — Fri 6–10PM @ Bass Pro (East Peoria)

• Keefy Cannafest feat. Dizzy Wright (21+) — Sat 11AM–6PM @ High Harbor (West Peoria) — $40-50
• Whose Live Anyway? (improv comedy) — Sat 7:30PM @ Prairie Home Alliance Theater (Peoria Civic Center) — $75+
• Rev Spring Market — Sat 10AM–2PM @ Reverence Coffee (East Peoria)

• Parks on Tap — Sun 2–5PM @ Donovan Park (Peoria)
• Peoria Maker’s Art Market (21+) — Sun 12–4PM @ Friendly Valley (Peoria)
• 3rd Sunday Market — Sun 8AM–4PM @ Interstate Center (Bloomington) — $7

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This is not a complete list, so add your events, garage sales, markets, concerts, festivals, fundraisers, or hidden gems in the comments 👇

18M I have quite a bit of customer and food service and I'm looking to get out of a shitty, dead end job

They didn’t sell enough tickets.

A few of the bands scheduled to perform at Summer Camp will be at Friendly Valley instead.

Hey everyone!

Just on here to maybe get some advice from strangers because I simply don’t know what to do.

My mother, grandmother, and I have to move by the end of the month, May 31st. And there doesn’t seem to be any rentals in Peoria at the moment for us to get into! We’ve been looking since April and we just haven’t been fast enough to the draw for any houses.

And before people come and blame us, let me explain to you what we’ve been dealing with. A house we were slotted to go see was already given to another person BEFORE OUR TOUR. Another place we liked was given away before it was even open to schedule a tour! So now we aren’t doing tours anymore.

Now every house is either controlled by American Ave (which we will try and apply to but the previous two houses were through them, so we aren’t hopeful), in the “bad” areas of town (which we technically live in now and haven’t had much issue), cost WAY above our available cost in rent (around $1300, no more than $1400), don’t accept both cats and dogs (crazy), or literally should be condemned.

What do we do? Even apartments aren’t going to work since most three bedrooms are above our rent cap and a two bedroom will be too much for my mom and grandma to afford without me.

We’ve looked in Pekin and they are all past our move in date. We’ve looked in West Peoria and again, all of the houses look terrible! Like boarded up windows terrible! Many apartments don’t have availability until June, past our move in date. We can’t apply to several houses, pay hundreds of dollars in application fees for nothing. There’s nothing we can afford outside of Peoria either, like in Morton or Washington or Dunlap. I mean, go look at Zillow right now, put three bedrooms and cats and small dogs, and there’s literally forty options, half of them already unavailable and they haven’t taken the listing down.

Please, if you were in our position, what would you do? Shell out even more money? Lie about the animals?

Please be respectful, I have never EVER seen a housing market this bad, and we have no idea what to do except continue trying. But with only two weeks, I’m unsure if this is going to work out.