How does Madison compare to Austin, Tx? (Milwaukee, Green Bay: universities, living in)

[katreese]

I moved here (Madison) from Lakeview! I really miss the neighborhoody-feel: being able to walk to shops, bookstores, coffeeshops, the lake...Here, you could have all that if you bought a house near or on Monroe Street.

Anyway, I've lived in Madison for a while and visited Austin once. The one thing I reallly liked about Austin is the diversity - in regards to ethnic groups - of the residents. Madison is severly lacking in diversity and it was like a breath of fresh air to be able to visit Austin.

I suppose Madison is more diverse by leaps and bounds than the rest of WI, but IMO you don't notice unless you live on campus.

[Megan1967]

Ah, so the weather wouldn't be any big surprise.

I won't try to elaborate on MWBW's answer as it was very thorough, but I agree that Madison is a great place in many ways. If the weather were better I wouldn't even *think* of moving. Every year I feel like I'm holding my breath from Oct to late April, trying to make it through and I'm just tired of it.

Have you read the bug/poisonous creature thread on the Austin forum? http://www.city-data.com/forum/austi...kes-oh-my.html
At first I poo-pooed it, but I have to admit I'm getting a little nervous about my cats and dog getting bit or attacked by something. Esp the brown recluse..

[soulful]

I typically have cats and/or a dog. I will check out that forum. Maybe it really isn't all that bad.

[remcycle]

I'm moving from Austin to Madison on Sunday!

I spent a week up there just, well, a week ago, and the differences were more noticeable than one would think. Sure, you can gather all you want from reading a website or some "Visit Austin: Live music capitol blah blah blah" literature, but it really is something else to visit each place and see for yourself.

I've got my own reasons and have run my mouth on this forum before about what makes Austin "not" the place to be, but it really boils down to what's important to you. For example...if you HATE sprawling suburbs (I mean SPRAWLING for miles...I toured the suburbs in Madison and while they've grown outward a bit, there's nothing close to real sprawl there yet), then don't move to Austin. However, again, if you're going to live downtown and never travel out to the burbs, then this might not be important to you at all. When you live downtown in Austin, it's a really pleasant place. However, living more than five miles outside of downtown will ruin that faster than you can say "donde es mi cerveza?"

Again, there really is no substitute for a good long visit, as only you knows what's important to you.

[Milwaukee Ronnie]

Originally Posted by katreese

I suppose Madison is more diverse by leaps and bounds than the rest of WI, but IMO you don't notice unless you live on campus.

Travel around the state. You will find that Milwaukee is far, far more diverse than Madison. It's a majority minority city, and while it's well-documented racial and income segregation is on par with that of Chicago or St. Louis, there are a number of neighborhoods in Milwaukee that are truly diverse, such as Riverwest, Sherman Park, Brewers Hill, etc. I have yet to see a part of Madison that is truly diverse. In Madison, if you have two non-white families on your block, then that counts as "diverse."

So, if you exclude Milwaukee from "Wisconsin," (which apparently a lot of people do) then I think you could say Madison is more diverse than the rest of the state.

Take a trip up to Green Bay/Fox Valley, and you'll see that that part of the state is increasingly diverse. I would hazard that it's more diverse than Madison up there.

[Milwaukee Ronnie]

Originally Posted by remcycle

When you live downtown in Austin, it's a really pleasant place. However, living more than five miles outside of downtown will ruin that faster than you can say "donde es mi cerveza?"

Wise move. You won't find that problema in Madison...

[Milwaukee Ronnie]

I lived in Madison for six years. I have also lived in Milwaukee, a city which shares little in common with Austin, except perhaps being generally the same size, and not being overwhelmingly homogenous, like Madison.

Madison is a town. Austin is a city. There's a difference. Madison thinks it's a city, but it is not. Madison is Des Moines with a Big Ten college. This means that Madison is a pleasant Midwestern town with an academic mindset. Madisonians love to go around comparing their town to Portland, or Austin. A more apt comparison would be Ann Arbor. Or Lexington. Or Eugene. Austin and Portland are cities. Madison is a town.

Like other towns, what Madison offers is predictability. Stable, predictable neighborhoods. Stable, predictable economy. Stable, predictable atmosphere. When I was living there, one of the biggest controversies was a ban on train whistles. I worked for a time with local government there. Whenever there was a change, no matter how minute, like a new three story building rather than a two story building -- the slightest change in a neighborhood -- people would come out in droves to oppose it. They had bought into Madison, and essentially what they had bought was predictability.

Madison's self-celebrated sense of being "progressive" is also tied to this sense of predictability. Madisonians say they want "diversity," but they don't really want to live around people who don't think like them. I was in Madison at a dinner party a few weeks ago, and a woman there told me that she knew specifically which houses in her neighborhood had Bush signs in their yards in '04. At the same party I talked to a person who had just bought into a co-operative housing arrangement, where a group of condo owners share resources to reduce their ecological footprint. A worthy goal, except that the co-op was in the process of building an expensive underground parking structure. Apparently, the predictability of having your own private vehicle snug in a parking garage outweighs the desire to reduce your carbon footprint.

Cities are different. They offer variety, not predictability.

[EnjoyEP]

Originally Posted by katreese

I suppose Madison is more diverse by leaps and bounds than the rest of WI, but IMO you don't notice unless you live on campus.

Yeah, I was going to point out Milwaukee too (much more diverse than Madison) but Ronnie beat me to it. I would also second Ronnie's notation that the Appleton area is a bit more diverse in pockets than Madison too.

[Bowie]

I moved to San Antonio from Madison a little over 5 years ago. I've spent a little time in Austin and absorbed secondhand perceptions of it from folks I know here who've lived in Austin.

For me, the warmer weather and lower cost of living here in South Central Texas trump a lot of plusses about Madison.

Austin is a more expensive city to live in than San Antonio, but as a seat of government, a regional technology hub and a university town, it is also more urbane. Kind of like Madison vs. the rest of the state of Wisconsin, there are more "smart people" in Austin because of the types of employers who are there.

This past winter as I've compared weather in both places, I have been particularly glad that I live in Texas rather than Wisconsin now. The weather of this past winter would probably have led my family to actively seek employment elsewhere so that we could move away and avoid another one like it.

You've received a lot of good advice from the members above who posted in this thread. There isn't anything I would dispute among the info they posted.

[EnjoyEP]

Originally Posted by Bowie

Kind of like Madison vs. the rest of the state of Wisconsin, there are more "smart people" in Austin because of the types of employers who are there.

Maybe I should just let Milwaukee Ronnie respond to this one?

Comeon...that is beyond absurd. There surely are not more "smart people" in Madison, WI than Milwaukee (home to two major universities - UW-Milwaukee and Marquette - along with some very esteemed small private ones / the economic and commerce hub of the state / a major US city).

These are the types of unrealistic, self-inflated statements of folks in places like Madison and Austin that just turn off so many other people.