Apparently, You Should Never Move to These 10 Illinois Cities

Watching this video made me ask the question "What exactly makes a city bad?"

It could be crime, property values, education system, or a combination of all three as an example.

Get our free mobile app

Growing up in Chicago and living as an adult in Rockford, both are in the crosshairs of amateur YouTube journalists taking shots at two of my favorite cities in America.

So before you think either of them made the list by Stuck in the Kernfield on YouTube, you should probably think again.

Just because Chicago and Rockford didn't make the list, that doesn't mean this YouTuber didn't call out 10 cities that may or may not deserve the negative pub.

Posted yesterday, the video lists 10 different cities in Illinois we shouldn't move to based on crime, poverty, and a "general sense of despair." Not sure what that means on a city-to-city basis but I'll play along.

Here are a few notable cities you might recognize from other lists.

#10 Moline

#8 Chicago Heights

#6 East Saint Louis

#4 Decatur

One of the cities on the list has a crime rate 145 times higher than the national average.

The biggest surprise overall was ranking DeKalb as the #3 city in Illinois people should stay away from.

DeKalb, home to Northern Illinois University, isn't the only college town on the list, Stuck in the Kernfield said Carbondale was the #1 worst city to live in Illinois.

Unrelated to the video, I used FBI stats to come up with a list of the worst places to live in Illinois.