Anonymous wrote:I am a fourth-generation Milwaukeean. I lived there for thirty years. It is one of the best kept secrets in the country. Stunning 19th century architecture (the likes of which can't be found on a large scale in DC); a world-class art museum; theatre; symphony; great indie music scene; beautiful neighborhoods with Victorian houses on tree-lined streets for under 400K (they would be $1.5 million here if such amazing structures even existed); great sports teams; wonderful old Catholic churches and schools; an interesting array of eclectic, smart, interesting, down-to-earth people; great ethnic food; world-class restaurants (including some James Beard award-winning chefs); and fantastic public parks, the likes the which cannot be found in DC. Oh, and did I mention that all of this overlooks the amazingly beautiful Lake Michigan? The New York Times has written article after article extolling Milwaukee's virtues. It is about time the rest of the country paid attention. And the poster who said that Milwaukee is dead probably just leaves his or her downtown office and drives back to the suburbs every night. There is a lot going on in Milwaukee, even on weeknights, in the Third Ward, Walker's Point, East Town, the East Side, etc.

I can't recommend Milwaukee enough to the OP. Low COL and better quality of life. There are also some very nice suburbs that blow most of the ones here out of the water, if that is your thing. And, there are great schools. Finally, despite what many say, there are many people who live there who are from all over the country. I actually worked in BigLaw there and I can attest to that. I can't wait to move back!

Both my parents are from Milwaukee. They left due to the limited job opportunities and even lower intellectual capital. Race is still an issue. I love visiting my extended family there but it's certainly no Chicago.

I'm originally from a small town about 60-90 minutes south of Cleveland, then I lived in a close-in Cleveland suburb for 6 years after I graduated college. In Ohio, the cost of living is quite a bit lower. Especially the cost of housing - although I'll be honest and say that housing prices are starting to creep up close to Cleveland in the desirable suburbs. It's not one of those cities where you can buy a new McMansion 25 minutes away from downtown in a safe city with a top school district for 250k. The housing stock is largely older if you're close to the city and a 250k house in a top suburb is going to be older and small.

I think the biggest adjustment for you is going to be the fact that almost everyone is "from" that city, especially if you choose a smaller city (a Cleveland or Cincinnati type city as opposed to a larger city like Chicago or Minneapolis). There won't be new kids in school, and people rarely move there because there just aren't as many jobs to draw new people in. You're going to stick out as the new people in town and you won't have the small town connections. That was really hard for me - like REALLY hard. I got my post-college job through sheer dumb luck but once I had it I was basically stuck because so much of job hunting in a smaller city with limited opportunities is who you know.

Case in point: Read up on the Kelly Blazek controversy from last year. This woman ran the largest jobs list for communications jobs in Cleveland and if you didn't personally know her or have a connection with her, TOUGH COOKIES! She would reject your application just to get on the list. This is obviously something that affects younger people who are just starting out more than older people. So if you have kids, it's going to be hard for them to live there because of this old guard, "who you know" mentality. http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2014/02/25/kelly-blazek-head-of-cleveland-job-bank-writes-scathing-emails-to-local-job-seekers

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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.

Im the OP and my husband is from Waukee Iowa and beams with pride when he talks about it. So not everyone.

I would like my children to be exposed to diversity though, is this a real problem in the midwest?

Not in Chicago and Milwaukee.

How important is finding people to share intellectual stimulation with you?

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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!

I am a fourth-generation Milwaukeean. I lived there for thirty years. It is one of the best kept secrets in the country. Stunning 19th century architecture (the likes of which can't be found on a large scale in DC); a world-class art museum; theatre; symphony; great indie music scene; beautiful neighborhoods with Victorian houses on tree-lined streets for under 400K (they would be $1.5 million here if such amazing structures even existed); great sports teams; wonderful old Catholic churches and schools; an interesting array of eclectic, smart, interesting, down-to-earth people; great ethnic food; world-class restaurants (including some James Beard award-winning chefs); and fantastic public parks, the likes the which cannot be found in DC. Oh, and did I mention that all of this overlooks the amazingly beautiful Lake Michigan? The New York Times has written article after article extolling Milwaukee's virtues. It is about time the rest of the country paid attention. And the poster who said that Milwaukee is dead probably just leaves his or her downtown office and drives back to the suburbs every night. There is a lot going on in Milwaukee, even on weeknights, in the Third Ward, Walker's Point, East Town, the East Side, etc.

I can't recommend Milwaukee enough to the OP. Low COL and better quality of life. There are also some very nice suburbs that blow most of the ones here out of the water, if that is your thing. And, there are great schools. Finally, despite what many say, there are many people who live there who are from all over the country. I actually worked in BigLaw there and I can attest to that. I can't wait to move back!

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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.

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?

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.

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

Okay we get that you and Milwaukee had a bad breakup, you should go no contact and move on...I'm sure Milwaukee has.

OP wanted honest opinionWhy shall I sugarcoat ?

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

Okay we get that you and Milwaukee had a bad breakup, you should go no contact and move on...I'm sure Milwaukee has.

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

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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.

Sorry it didn't work for you. I think it is an amazing city--a world class art museum, excellent food, generally friendly people, and an interesting vibe on the east side and third ward. Homes are beautiful and some of the best bargains in the country. No way those houses stay so inexpensive. The secret is going to be out someday.

The houses so inexpensive because noone wants to live there and there are no jobs.Our friends who work at HD and Kohls etc haven't gotten promotion in decades.100k is still a dream for most people there.

Good brewery tours, though.

This is a plus my hubby likes beer.

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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.

Sorry it didn't work for you. I think it is an amazing city--a world class art museum, excellent food, generally friendly people, and an interesting vibe on the east side and third ward. Homes are beautiful and some of the best bargains in the country. No way those houses stay so inexpensive. The secret is going to be out someday.

The houses so inexpensive because noone wants to live there and there are no jobs.Our friends who work at HD and Kohls etc haven't gotten promotion in decades.100k is still a dream for most people there.

Good brewery tours, though.

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Anonymous wrote:

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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.

Sorry it didn't work for you. I think it is an amazing city--a world class art museum, excellent food, generally friendly people, and an interesting vibe on the east side and third ward. Homes are beautiful and some of the best bargains in the country. No way those houses stay so inexpensive. The secret is going to be out someday.

The houses so inexpensive because noone wants to live there and there are no jobs.Our friends who work at HD and Kohls etc haven't gotten promotion in decades.100k is still a dream for most people there.