Smile Politely. Speak Directly. A Champaign-Urbana Culture Blog

At Smile Politely, we're interested in what the people of Champaign-Urbana think about this place we call home. So how do we find out what they think? Simple. We ask them.

Name: Cara Maurizi

Occupation/Education: Masters of Music Education, music teacher, actor, singer, songwriter

Original Hometown: Galesburg, IL

Current Hometown: Urbana

Number of Years Living in the C-U Area: 9

Age: 33

Five things I really like about C-U:

1. Local bakeries
2. Lots of live music
3. People are aware that they aren’t the only ones in the world
4. Lots of entertainment and arts to choose from
5. I feel good about raising my kids here

Five things I really don’t like about C-U:

1. Hard to make a living as an independent actor/musician
2. No ocean or mountains
3. We need more ethnic restaurants — no more chains!
4. It can be a bit conservative for my taste
5. Downtown Urbana still needs a lot more business and night life

You can next catch Cara in action Saturday, April 19th at The Embassy (114 N. Race, Urbana). Her performance will begin at 5:30 p.m. as part of the Boneyard Arts Festival.