At the end of last week, I thought I had mined all the Illinois "stuff" I could find for you. Yet, upon turning on the computer this morning, I was treated to a interesting study at Movoto.com regarding the most boring spots in our great state.

Before we get to the list of dull spots, I was curious as to how it was decided which spots were more or less interesting than others. Here's how they ranked them:

 

We looked at most interesting places before, so it wasn’t too much of a stretch to look at the most boring. In fact, we used the exact same methods, just in reverse. We took a list of the 100 most populated places in America and ranked them in six different categories, using data from Areavibes, Yelp, and the U.S. Census (2010). Those six criteria were:

 

  • Nightlife per capita (bars, clubs, comedy, etc.)
  • Live music venues per capita
  • Active life options per capita (parks, outdoor activities, etc.)
  • Fast Food restaurants per capita (the fewer the better)
  • Percentage of restaurants that are fast food (the lower the better)
  • Percentage of young residents ages 20 to 34 (the higher the better)

Once we had rankings for each place in each category, with scores closer to one being exciting, we averaged those rankings together into a Big Deal Score for each location. The place with the the score closest to 100 became our most boring Illinois spot.

 

Okay, got all that? Let's get to the list (although I'm sure you've already thought of at least one spot for your own rankings):

 

There's not enough space here to go over the commentary on each city/town/village on the list, but here are a few of my favorite explanations by Movoto:

 

New Lennox

 

Just take a look at the nightlife and music venue options. Both ranked at the very bottom of the list. It also doesn’t help that there was a ton of very boring fast food restaurants here and almost no unique and fun eateries per capita. We’ll admit, this place actually did ok as far as active life ranking, where it placed 30th, but you can only jog and work out for so long before you’re craving something else to do.

Unfortunately, you’re not going to find anything new in New Lenox. Sorry.

 

 

Rolling Meadows

 

Okay, that name might sound peaceful and nice, but peaceful and nice is also pretty darn boring, and this place certainly lives up to its name. No real nightlife, no real active life options, and few interesting restaurants to eat at. We guess you could go out and relax in a rolling meadow somewhere, but the most exciting thing that would probably happen to you is a sunburn.

 

Calumet City

Once upon a time, during prohibition, Calumet City was one happening little place. Bootleggers, illegal nightclubs, gambling, and more thrived here. Even the notorious Al Capone owned a getaway home in the city. Knowing all that, we gotta ask: what happened?

 

Check out the full list and snide comments here.

What kind of videos do the residents of Illinois' Most Boring Places watch? Probably ones like this:

 

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