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“I served 15 years in prison, and now owe $268,000 in fines because I sold pot when I was 19 and 20. “I got out of prison and all of my counselors told me, ‘Jason, you get out there and you make the life you told me you were going to make. We’re so proud….

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Jeff Doornbos

“Looking at it from a small business perspective we are just trying to serve the community like the other businesses in the city of Chicago. And at the same time, we’re trying to make sure that we’re abiding by all the rules and regulations put forth by the city. “We would love to see the…

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Rich Roth

“I’ve lived in Clinton since I was two years old. “The moving company is coming June 1. I sold my business as of this morning. “This is where the state loses. My income is fairly healthy. My wife’s income is fairly healthy. And we’re taking our two kids and we’re gone. “I built my house…

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Forgotten Illinois Harvey: Fixing a broken city in a broken state

Most days in Harvey, a suburb 20 miles south of Chicago, are quiet. Thousands of people and numerous businesses have left the city over the years, and the void left in their wake is plain to see. But on a cold and wet April 14, dozens of longtime residents still fighting for what’s left packed…

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Stephen and Marcia O’Connor

“We’re both born and bred here, we went to school here, we’ve lived all of our lives in Illinois. But you can’t retire in Illinois. So that’s why we decided almost five years ago to start looking around. We’ve gone through three different states and finally decided on Tennessee. “Everybody that came into [work] as…

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Shawn Strach

“I’ve been a realtor for 15 years and we’ve always had people leave the state and retire, but now we’re having not just the empty nesters or the retirees leaving, we’re having our traditional marketplace leave Illinois as well. “My career has been spent in the entry-level market up to about $500,000. We have always…

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Rich Ayers

“At two points in my life I was required to pay union dues to stay employed. “It’s been almost 25 years since I’ve been [retired from the police force]. My sense is the union is more political now. “My police union first started in the early ‘70s, late ‘60s. They came in with their organizing…

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Christine Gregory

“We are losing people at a ridiculous rate. That hurts us because then you may have some people who are here who have the skill set to fill jobs, but if half of those people have left the area then you have trouble maintaining that business here because then you don’t have enough people to…

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Sonne DeVries & Dan Sheldon

“We searched for a house for about a year. We looked at horrible houses, but we were willing to do the work to build the house into something. This house was a disaster. We did a lot of renovations. We did the whole house. “We invested a lot into the house, and we enjoyed it…