I live in a rural suburb of Chicago. Everyone on this Board probably knows exactly what my town looks like because we were the site for the filming of the movie Ground Hog Day.
Population 25K in a county of 300K. We used to be farming economy, then manufacturing, then construction based and now we are unemployment based economy with a good chunk of the employed people commuting over an hour to work like my hubby. It is like a diamond ring that the setting is cracked and tarnished.
No real anything here but within a 45 minute drive I have everything there is.