Some honest opinions about relocating to the midwest?

[Anonymous]

Unless you've been unhappy with you life for years, I can't imagine someone who lived in NY and DC wanting to move to the midwest. I'm from a mid-szed city in another part of the country and see a big difference between the lives and interests of my friends at home. Not saying it is better or worse, but just that I prefer DC or NY.

You can't make yourself be someone else just because deep down you know you should be focused on family, church picnics or whatever else it is yoi think is better about one of these cities.

[Anonymous]

I would want to kill myself if I lived in the Midwest. Literally. You can slow down YOUR life without moving to the middle of the country.

I have about three days worth of patience for small cities. Enough to visit friends who live there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:We moved from the DC area at Michigan last year, and will be moving to Missouri next year. (We're an academic family.) So far, we LOVE it here. The actual pace was a challenge at first--people walk so slowly on the sidewalk!--but we have space and time to breathe now, that we didn't have before.

We love living in our little college town, with charming architecture, lots of awesome outdoor space, lots of cultural diversity, great restaurants, and tons of stuff to do as a family.

Do you live in Ann Arbor?

I do!

The only interesting town in that weird, failing state.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We moved from DC to Cincinnati a couple years ago. We're mostly happy with the decision. We both got pay raises, the parks here are wonderful, and the people are very friendly. We miss access to the ocean, but hopefully a few vacations to the beach can help. The weather is extremely similar to DC, so no change there. Our kids are still really little, and daycare is fairly affordable. We pay $500/week for two kids. All considered, I'm happy we made the move.

No mention of the world class opportunities you have in DC.

[Anonymous]

Another article: http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/27/tech/web/linked-in-cleveland-job-bank/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved from the DC area at Michigan last year, and will be moving to Missouri next year. (We're an academic family.) So far, we LOVE it here. The actual pace was a challenge at first--people walk so slowly on the sidewalk!--but we have space and time to breathe now, that we didn't have before.

We love living in our little college town, with charming architecture, lots of awesome outdoor space, lots of cultural diversity, great restaurants, and tons of stuff to do as a family.

Do you live in Ann Arbor?

I do!

The only interesting town in that weird, failing state.

Yes Ann Arbor is not bad.The only city I would consider living in Midwest is Chicago.But weather still sucks.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Can you be a bit more specific about what opinions you would like regarding the midwest? Cost of living will be lower. Living in most urban areas you will be able to get more of a house for the same if not less. What is important to you and your family?

We live in Georgetown right now, for contrast.

I'd like some opinions on culture shock, access to live events, is the pace really slower, will are children have a vastly different experience?

Important to us would be, family time - we like going to live events, sports, music, plays. An active community is a plus, a catholic church with a parochial school would be perfect for us. Less keeping up with the Joneses (We are guilty of being the Joneses and trying to keep up so no judgement here), less pressure on academics (don't take that as we don't care, but our oldest two who are school age are enrolled in one of the "big three" - and parents already discuss ivies). I think my husband feels he is missing out on his childrens lives and wants more free time. I'd love a bigger yard, for a garden in the summer, maybe some backyard chickens! (like I said, we are in the fantasy stage - so thats why I asked for some grounding)

Research Minneapolis/St. Paul. It's all you want and more. Big law certainly exists here, as do many in-house jobs at solid companies. Schools are great and good Catholic schools are available (as are other privates). Major league teams for football, baseball, basketball, and soon soccer. Sports opportunities year round (choose outdoor or indoor). Good museums, music scene. The summers are blissful, spring time is nice, fall is beautiful, winter is...long. But it's all worth it. Good sense of community, lots of smart people, just a very good place to raise kids.

Summers are awful and the people are white bread and boring. No one who moves from there ever goes back. In fact, they turn red when you ask them about it.

Have you ever lived in Minneapolis? Your description is WAY off.

I am one of many Minnesota natives who moved away (in my case, NYC and DC for 10+ years), and then had the good sense to return. I can't tell you how many other MN natives I know that have done the same, bringing spouses back with them. I work at an organization that for specific reasons is heavily populated by non-Minnesotans, and...they all love it here. Our California transplants, Hawaii (!) transplant, Carolinas transplants, as well as the several transplants from NYC, DC or other large cities - all are happy here. And so many of these people are the world travel, high achieving, highly intellectual/successful sort. Not exactly a white bread crowd ashamed to be here.

The only major problem with Minnesota is the many months of snow and bitter cold.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:No never.Used to live in Milwaukee.

This is a city we talked about, any specific reasons why?

Ghost town .Very strange.Big buildings but noone walks on the streets.Now the best place to live for schools would be north shore area(Shorewood,fox point etc),while houses are beautiful and inexpensive a lot of them for sale.We still can't sell our house there.Weather is terrible year round.You get one month of warmth(July).People are big drinkers.You will be surprised to see so many functional alchoholics.

Define "warmth." Minnesota native here and I'll grant you that the summers there are nothing like the summers here, but c'mon, more months than July are warm.

Well our wedding was in May and I had to wear fur coat!It was pouring and in low 40s.

Well, it was pretty close to that in DC last week!

I'm from Michigan, and frankly, the winters are much more enjoyable there. It may be a few degrees colder but the result is beautiful snow instead of all this ice and freezing rain. People love the outdoors in winter-- skiing, cross country skiing, snowmobiling, skating. Or sitting in your kitchen with a cup of coffee watching the beauty and peace of a good snowfall. The winters are longer, it's true, but there is plenty of summer weather. June, July, August are all reliably in the 80's, sometimes 90's. Fall is beautiful. You don't get the wonderful long spring of DC, though. I lived in Boston for several years, and that was a miserable cold-- wet and biting. Made me really appreciate the winters of Michigan.

There is plenty of diversity in the cities and suburbs. Also plenty of educated people there. You'll find the bumpkins more in the rural areas, but that's true of Maryland and Virginia as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The beer is tasteless too There are some amazing breweries in the country not cheap Miller crap.

Moron: there are many, many more beers/breweries there than Miller. Don't make lazy observations, bro.

[Anonymous]

I would head back to the Midwest in a heartbeat. Twenty-five years of living in the DC metro area has sucked the heart, life and soul right out of me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would want to kill myself if I lived in the Midwest. Literally. You can slow down YOUR life without moving to the middle of the country.

I have about three days worth of patience for small cities. Enough to visit friends who live there.

This is true. You can make changes to slow down your life here without uprooting your family.

I wouldn't move unless money is an issue and the only way you can own your own home, live a decent life, send your kids to a good school is to relocate. If you're living a good life in Georgetown I no way in hell would move for the reasons you list.

Besides the fact why are you going to pursue these things in another xktu and not DC? What is going to change about YOU? Problems follow you. A change of location doesn't change your interests, morals, drive etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The beer is tasteless too There are some amazing breweries in the country not cheap Miller crap.

Moron: there are many, many more beers/breweries there than Miller. Don't make lazy observations, bro.

See milwaukeans already represent themselves .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless you've been unhappy with you life for years, I can't imagine someone who lived in NY and DC wanting to move to the midwest. I'm from a mid-szed city in another part of the country and see a big difference between the lives and interests of my friends at home. Not saying it is better or worse, but just that I prefer DC or NY.

You can't make yourself be someone else just because deep down you know you should be focused on family, church picnics or whatever else it is yoi think is better about one of these cities.

I can see someone not wanting to leave NY if they liked it because there is nothing like it. But, DC? Most of the DC area just looks like other parts of the country, only at a much higher price. Nothing special.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unless you've been unhappy with you life for years, I can't imagine someone who lived in NY and DC wanting to move to the midwest. I'm from a mid-szed city in another part of the country and see a big difference between the lives and interests of my friends at home. Not saying it is better or worse, but just that I prefer DC or NY.

You can't make yourself be someone else just because deep down you know you should be focused on family, church picnics or whatever else it is yoi think is better about one of these cities.

I can see someone not wanting to leave NY if they liked it because there is nothing like it. But, DC? Most of the DC area just looks like other parts of the country, only at a much higher price. Nothing special.

Spoken like a non native.

[Anonymous]

It is precisely because of the type of pomposity that I see on this thread that I cannot wait to some day get the hell out of this area. I have never in my life met so many people with puffed up egos and such over-inflated sense of self. The posturing in this city is a joke--actually, to real "cities" this place is a joke.