Have you heard of Carus Corporation? I work for them, travel to the corporate offices often. I live in La., they are located in Lasalle/Peru.
Not familiar with that company but am in the same general area, smaller cities in primarily agricultural land that aren’t much different than Topeka or Dubuque, yet we are treated as if the rest of the state was just a poor suburb to the Big City (the one that happens to grow all their food, by the way).
The fundamental problem in Illinois is, of the 12.5 million people who live in the state, 9.5 million of them live in Chicago and the five collar counties. Two-thirds of the people (and votes) are in six counties out of 102 counties in the state. I don’t know how this can be fixed, short of “IL-Exit”.
I guess it’s wrong of me to think of scenarios like a giant asteroid landing in Lake Michigan that causes a tidal wave that drowns most of the people but leaves the pretty buildings intact. Very wrong...