[TruBluKentuckian]

Far southern Illinois, south of Highway 13, is a severely depressed area. The towns along 13 are very nice, though crime in Carbondale is starting to become a problem. South of there is just bad. There’s nothing there but poverty. There used to be a lot of coal mines but they are closing down leaving no jobs. Cairo is the worst, I hate even driving through there.

North of 13 it’s nice, typical midwestern farm country.

[Dr. Sivana]

Far southern Illinois, south of Highway 13, is a severely depressed area.

SOme places NORTH of 13 are pretty nasty. DePue (outside Lasalle-Peru) lives up to its name. Due to sulfur left in the ground after the Zinc processing plant went belly up, the whole town has to live on bottled water. The downtown was mostly boarded up as of the early 2000s, with nothing but a laundramat, an EPA office, and two bars. Nothing left of the old old days except for annual boat races. Some Mexicans have come in for low wage mushroom farming or something like that. VERY depressing.