Southern Illinois Last Hope for Prosperity: Carbondale and Marion, Illinois 4K

I enjoyed your video! I'm an alumni of SIU and loved Southern IL. living. Hated to leave, lol. I even went to the St. Louis Zoo one afternoon. I subbed to your channel. Thanks! 😊👍

Born and raised in Carbondale. Left when I started grad school. All my family is there, Marion and Hburg. Used to visit 2-4x a year despite living 1000 miles away, up until my dad passed away there in 2021. It just has not been the same for me. Yes, a lot, A LOT, has changed but I had the best childhood there in the 80s and 90s. Thanks, mom and dad. I rarely go back, maybe once a year, mom is now where I am. I will always love Carbondale. It will always be home🩷.

NBA star Walt Frazier played there when I was a student there in mid ‘60’s! Old fart here, then it was considered to be #1 party school! Pop was in the 20,000 plus range. Great times then.

Whats the play here ? I need to take advantage of big time money in near chicago, and low cost in marion, so whats my play? I currently live south of Chicago, and have property in vienna, what do i do in the mean time of loving up north, to take advantage of the low costs of down south, do i buy property now and build it up, or just wait til i retire and move down? I want to make a town out of an old town called Tunnel hill, how do i get rich investors to move down also?

Marion doesn't look like it changed much since I moved away. You even went through my old neighborhood that I lived in from age 8-14 at Virginia and Allen St.

Grew up in Sparta. It’s a very serene part of the country. Have good memories growing up there. But what a depressing place southern Illinois is. Don’t miss it and will never go back. SMH.

Bs. Carbondale is going to crap. Looking bad ,rundown, trashy and empty. It will never be what it once was.

You forgot to mention that Bob Odenkirk went to school here.

Liberal policies to keep giant cities afloat mean big spending and high taxes -- and those taxes squeeze rural folks who can't easily earn more income. California's Central Valley, Upstate New York, southern Illinois, and rural Virginia pay heavily for being in the same state with some urban behemoth.

Yet another beautiful video with great narration that gives a vivid look and feel of a region in a short period of time. The place overall looks hopeful and I hope the State of Illinois really wakes up and does something meaningful about taxes before it is too late! Great job on your insights and artistic approach.

The last hope what a joke why you dont tell people how they got sun down towns all around that area keep it 100 minorities have bad experiences in southern il

Transfer to C’Dale in the summer of ‘73 from Wisconsin! Crashed on the sofa at the Men’s Gymnastics House for about a week, till I got a job and housing on the SIU Dairy Research Farm, milking cows before class! Continued to milk cows, but moved into a 4 bedroom house on Hester St, $35/month for a room! Shared a large room with a buddy, $17/month! Every couple months, I received 1 kilo. Packages in the mail from Wisconsin! The package cost me $160 wholesale, which I divided up into 30 1 ounce baggies, that I retailed for $15. 😂. Graduated on 8/8/75 (one year to the day after Nixon resigned), with a Degree in Animal Science! The spring semester tuition and fees were $299.75. 👍💥🥇

Moved from Carbondale in 2009, I was born there, and never heard of her. Nice to see different perspectives as the Eastside of Carbondale a whole different story. I was raised in the projects, Lake Heights to be exact. Troy Hudson came from there and he is a famous basketball player. We never seen him without a basketball growing up. Crazy how different ppl lives are from the same small city.

I enjoyed seeing my HOME-CITY on U-TUBE!!! THAN-YOU

Dont forget that Tom also grew up in this area!

Oh my gosh I went to school in Carbondale in 1978-1979. Great times.

They need to separate IL into two different states. The North and the South. I lived in both areas and the South is by far the best for many reasons. Living on Lake of Egypt outside of Marion which was great. I escaped over 20 years ago to never return. Not sure there is any amount of money to get me to move back to the state though. Of course, you are going to continue to see a decline have you not followed the decline in IL population over the years? People want to escape. One of the biggest one-way U-Haul states there is.

Spent four happy years in Carbondale in the late 70s got a world class. Education ended up with a professional degree from Northwestern recently saw the eclipse on April 8 one of the great days of my life it was great to be back on campus

Former nba player troy hudson is from carbondale il you forgot to mention that

A very depressing place. Glad I moved away.

Thank you for this! We are looking to move and the southern Illinois region, specifically Carbondale, is on our list. I hope it hasn't changed too much since you've posted this video.

You took the same route I would take to John A Logan college. Such nostalgia. Thanks for sharing!

I went to college at SIU Carbondale 1970 to 1974. I met Sylvia she loved sex she lived in Mae Smith dorm. We had sex in the dorm elevator late one night. 2am 1 night we had sex middle of the intersection Washington St and East Park St. We had sex in a furniture store. Sylvia had a name for that type sex it was exciting. We had sex all over campus in several places. Lots of outside sex at night on campus but mostly sex at my place many times every day.

I lived in Carbondale for 5 years in the late 90's - the best times of my life! I haven't been back in at least 15 years. Thanks for this video. It brought back lots of memories and emotions! There is something about the energy of that area that is so amazing and magical (and people who are from there don't even notice it). I wish you had spent more time in Carbondale as there is lots more to see, like the Murdale side of town. I can tell that quite a bit has changed since I was there last, but also a lot looks the same. I had also heard that Marion had grown and built up a lot since I lived there and I can tell from this video that it has. My friends down there say that there are a lot more things to see and do in Marion.

I lived in Carbondale for 5 years in the late 90's - the best times of my life! I haven't been back in at least 15 years. Thanks for this video. It brought back lots of memories and emotions! There is something about the energy of that area that is so amazing and magical (and people who are from there don't even notice it). I wish you had spent more time in Carbondale as there is lots more to see, like the Murdale side of town. I can tell that quite a bit has changed since I was there last, but also a lot looks the same. I had also heard that Marion had grown and built up a lot since I lived there and I can tell from this video that it has. My friends down there say that there are a lot more things to see and do in Marion.

The latest battle lost by Americans in the war against biden's illegal, diseased illegals occured in the Colorado town of Carbondale, in December, 2023.
A group of approx 160 illegal invaders arrived demanding clothing against the winter, housing, food and medical care. All these and more were provided by the shocked and overwhlemed Carbondale residents, as demanded and expected by the illegals.
IN addition to providing the illegals with the demanded shelter, food, clothing and medical care, Carbondale residents also immediately enrolled the invader's children in school (without medical or vaccine screening), waived automobile insurance laws and allowed illegals to ignore automobile licensing and registration requirement (In direct violation of Colorado laws.) Many of the illegals reportedly arrived in low-cost automobiles which were not registered, not licensed, not insured and purchased solely for the one-way trip.
Carbondale's legal, taxpaying residents were advised that they must continue to pay for and maintain automobile licensing, insurance and registration requirement as the exceptions to the laws only apply to those illegally in America. Residents were also advised that their city services would be cut due to budget money being routed to the invaders.
Carbondale residents are "hoping" that the April. 2024 deadline when the free life style technically "ends" will be honored by the illegals.
Historically, across America, the "hope" that illegal invaders will honor "deadlines to move," notably in Denver, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, border states like Texas, Florida, Arizona, New Mexico and California have never been followed by the invaders where they now number in the hundreds of thousands.
An additional tens of thousands of illegal invaders are currently marching toward the American South border where the biden cartel is preparing to welcome them with free 'loaded' visa cards, free cell phones, clothing, food, medical care and transportation to the illegal invaders cities of choice by plane, van, train, car or truck. Illegal invaders travel by commercial airlines using Federal government supplied, covert tickets which do not require identification as "no name required" and enable the invaders to completely bypass all TSA Federal screening laws.
The successful occupation of Carbondale, using overwhelming numbers of diseased, criminal, illegal invaders matches the highly successful occupation strategy in use by illegals imported and supported by the D.C. based biden cartel. The federal biden administration has consistently refused to provide any financial support for the costs of their invaders.
Transportation from the initial attack locations of the invaders along the deliberately undefended U.S.Border and into most major American cities has been very successfully and covertly provided for years, since biden's election, by multiple U.S. Federal agencies, specifically The Border Patrol "Uber Driver and Illegal Transportation Division" and "The New American Homeland Security Illegal Transportation and Disease Distribution Agency", based in Washington, D.C.
It is known that the invading armies include criminals and terrorist who are hostile to the American way of life. Numerous noted authorities are predicting terrorist attacks throughout American in 2024 due to either planned invader attacks or multiple "lone wolf" attack on groups of Americans or their critical life supplies.

Marion will thrive... but Carbondale is declining.

In this video you show really good roads in southern Illinois... and then complain about the taxes. Go to kentucky and show THOSE roads.

Carbondale sucks.

When you were talking about SIU notable athletes, you left out NFL St. Louis Cardinals QB, Jim Hart, who I believe also was AD at SIU for a time.

Gayle Sayers, Chicago Bears running back, youngest player voted into hall of fame, and former SIU athletic director.

My family owned a business in Carbondale long enough to get it profitable and sell it. We got death threats regularly and had to keep the children under a very close watch as they had been threatened too. It is the most vile place I have ever lived. I could go on about the murder of a 16 yo boy of a friend, the gangs, the ignorance and illiteracy. I couldn't even finish this video because of the bad memories and panic it brought back. Looking back on it I feel very grateful to God that we got our of there alive. I would NEVER send a child there to school even if the tuition was free and they paid me. Disgusting and revolting...

Are the people there FIBS or does that only apply to Chicago?

EDIT: Just found your video on IL coal. Thank you.

No mention of Illinois’ vanished coal industry. To me it’s the single-largest reason of “what happened” to southern IL. My family is from just about every small town between Mt. Vernon and the Ohio River. As a little kid spending summers down there from ‘63 until about ‘75, rural poverty wasn’t a huge ordeal. There was a fair amount of money represented by new pickup trucks, and especially fancy new bass boats on Rend Lake.

By the time the Congress got done having its way with high-sulphur coal in the early 1980s the damage had already been done. The layoffs became permanent, and the smaller communities began to die. That death would be carried into the larger communities, and by 1990 it was lights-out for most everything down there.

But I will say as a kid growing up down there in the early and mid ‘70s, it was a magical place to be.

Prosperity is no longer possible in Illinois. Just get out.

Please do Cape Town South Africa 🇿🇦

Williamson County was like the Chicago of Southern Illinois during prohibition. Make sure to leave a like for that amazing insight.

SIUC enrollment dropped long ago after state funding took a huge cut. The enrollment is half of what it used to be 40 years ago. It's now a "black" school with shootings that were never here before. Student housing areas are now ghettos. There still are a few international students coming here. There used to be huge international enrollment. Not sure why you are reading a Wikipedia page. I live in the country. Keep your 'prosperity" out of here. Jackson Country is the only democrat county in Southern Illinois. Marion is not a part of that. They both have different issues.

Former NBA player Chris Carr a former Saluki

No jobs in the area.

I miss living in Carbondale

Your amazing insight...... drop a dislike

I only stay here to make money to go on cruises and could give a fuck really.

St. Louis Cardinals QB Jim Hart attended there as well.

Carbondale still in decline while marion continues to grow . Carbondale has lost their mall. I live 6 miles from
Marion. We love our area. Not much on shopping. ❤

The sped up video sequences are a waste of video time. Undistinguishable images.

I lived in Collinsville for ten years. I went to college in Elsah. Love the area. Now I live in Beijing, China with my family.

I graduated from SIUC in 2000 and used to drive between Carterville and Carbondale campuses. SIUC is my second hometown. All my college memories are coming back to me. Thank you.