"Squirrels in Antarctica" -- by Sari Karplus

 Squirrels in Antarctica

is the 4th published article

by children's author Sari Karplus.

It is marketed to ages 4 - 8 and 

is now available on amazon.com & other sources.

Check it out!

Mackinac Island -- Prime Life Times

 "Making Memories on Mackinac Island"

is my latest published article in the

print only March 2024 edition (Page A-15) of 

Prime Life Times.

I welcome your comments.

Wondering about Wheelchairs? -- Prime Life Times

 "Wondering about Wheelchairs?"

is my latest published article in the

PRINT ONLY March 2024 edition of

Prime Life Times

on page A-14.

I welcome your comments.

Superbowl & Dad Essay -- Steven Doppelt

 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dad-dying-son-super-bowl_n_65afff07e4b0d65b024e40b3

A beautiful piece!

Debbie Does Date Bars! -- News-Gazette

 "Debbie Does Date Bars:  Adventures in the Kitchen"

is my latest published article in the

Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette

PRINT (Saturday February 10) &

ONLINE (Sunday Voices Guest Commentary) February 11, 2024.

www.news-gazette.com

I welcome your comments.

CU: Best places to live!

 

C-U voted #1 Best Places to Live for 10^th consecutive year!

By Debra L. Karplus

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine’s August 2023 cover article, “Great Places to Retire (for renters)”, caught my eye.  I’d hoped to find Champaign-Urbana somewhere on this list, but nope; Tallassee, Florida was listed first.  Columbus, Ohio was listed, as was Ann Arbor, Michigan but not C-U or any other Illinois city.  Kiplinger writes these lists regularly. USA Today (www.usatoday.com), in their recent list of 150 cities of Best Places to Live in the U.S. listed Green Bay, Wisconsin.  Forbes (www.forbes.com) in their 2022 list named Fort Wayne, Indiana as number 1. AARP in 2021 named Cedar Falls, Iowa.

In 2021, the CBS Sunday Morning show did a feature about scary weather, specifically near the oceans, deducing that Madison, Wisconsin was an ideal place homestead.

Many of these “best cities” I’ve never visited. But, I’ve been to Fort Wayne, Ann Arbor, Madison and Green Bay for short stays.  These Midwestern cities are lovely, scenic with much to do, housing major universities not unlike C-U; Fort Wayne has Purdue, Madison and Green Bay have two University of Wisconsin campuses, Ann Arbor has University of Michigan.

For years, I’ve wondered why Champaign-Urbana never seems to make it onto these best places to live lists! I’ve even discussed with my friends operating the Champaign County Visit Center, currently called Experience Champaign, formerly Visit Champaign County.  We’re all perplexed.

I did some exploring to learn how these best places lists are assembled.  Data from the US Census bureau related to population and demographics is collected.  The FBI provides statistics about crime. The US Department of Labor has numbers about careers and employment.  And other information is thrown into the mix such as happiness scales and air quality numbers.  There are some formulas that combine all this and more and creates best places lists.  This is an oversimplified version of how best places lists evolve.

There are some online quizzes one can take to provide guidance on where one might want to live based on questions related to need for a nearby airport, hospital, mountains, ocean, and so on.  I answered one of these quizzes about a decade ago and learned that San Bernardino, California was my ideal spot.  I visited there once for a very short time, but I’m not at all ready to hire Two Men and a Truck to haul my stuff there!

With the University of Illinois and also Parkland College we have ample spectator sports and culture in addition to all that’s going on in our two vibrant downtowns and outlying towns.  Cost of living here is decent.  I have family in Southern California, Boulder Colorado and the Chicagoland area.  They’re shocked at the relatively low price to buy a comfortable sized house for a family in an upscale neighborhood in C-U.  And though they tout their beautiful scenery and/or culture, ours is typically more affordable and a reasonable drive to get there, to get anywhere!  Our local bus system is phenomenal as are our parks and libraries.

Let’s talk weather.  Champaign-Urbana, like most Illinois cities has four distinct seasons.  For me that’s great.  I’ve vacationed in Santa Barbara, California in December and January, and yes, it’s sure tough to believe it’s winter then while swimming laps in an outdoor pool.  But, frankly, I think I would get bored with twelve months a year like that.  Personally, I enjoy an outdoor walk at Urbana’s Meadowbrook Park on a crisp 35 degree day, but maybe that’s just me.  Worry here about wildfires here in our lovely twin cities are rare, as is the occasional, essentially harmless earthquake.  Overall the air quality here is safe, unless Canada happens to be having wildfires!

I’m happy with the health care system here, too.  Granted, I’m overall in excellent health, though I did acquire a cadre of three new Christie Clinic specialists for relatively minor health problems.

I’m uninformed about local crime statistics, but I try to avoid pop up parties at 2 am in certain parts of town.

What about taxes?  Well, wherever you live, you either pay them either via high real estate taxes, high sales tax, or high state income tax.

So how do we get some of these Best Place collaborators to make notice of Champaign-Urbana?  Could “Champaign-Urbana voted #1 Best Places to Live for 10 consecutive years” become a headline somewhere?  Champaign County residents, let’s brainstorm on this and position our amazing twin cities onto a few best places lists.

 

 

 

Where will you live as you age? -- Prime Life Times

"Where will you live as you age?"

is my latest published article 

in the PRINT February 2024 issue of

Prime Life Times

on page A-13.

I welcome your comments.