I want to know Madison (Milwaukee, Cleveland: transplants, theatres, high schools)

[Sorge]

Originally Posted by Drover

That city is one giant groupthink.

Do you live in Madison?

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Sorge

Do you live in Madison?

I used to.

[cmb53208]

Originally Posted by Drover

This is an even bigger joke. Madison is one of the most culturally monolithic cities of any notable size that I have ever been to, if not the most culturally monolithic. That city is one giant groupthink.

Actually the Milwaukee suburbs are worse-far worse.

Insofar as being not welcoming to conservatives, it shouldn't be a problem as long as you don't wear it on your sleeve: my parents who are somewhere to the right of Ghengis Khan travel out here to Madison quite frequently and actually like the place.

Madison's actually got a lot of the puzzle pieces together save for one: many fo the residents like to think that they are well, better than the rest of the country. But the fact is much of the city lookd the same as any other US city its size. Aside from that quibble, it's quite pleasant all around.

[Drover]

Hey, I like Madison too. It just has a very different view of itself from the inside than those of us looking at it from the outside.

As for "not wearing your politics on your sleeve," Madisonians do it all the time. That's a big part of why it shouts "WE'RE SO DIVERSE!" from the hilltops all the time. So it's not as if its political outspokenness that they oppose. It's certain expressions they oppose. It wasn't sufficient to not wear mine on my sleeve; sometimes it was sufficient just to reveal them during a political conversation to get names hurled at me or to have a conversation quickly degenerate into a shouting match.

Not wearing them on my sleeve wasn't enough. I had to keep my mouth shut period if I wanted to get along with people.

[Chelito23]

This is true. Why do you think that so many Madisonians attack people who THINK different about the community? I mean, the people who have a different perception? Inmost other places, people wouldn't really care so much, but in Madison they can make you feel like a criminal for not sharing the same thought. That "must conform" mentality is the major freaky drawback to the place.

[IcemanJB]

I grew up in Cottage Grove (just east of Madison), and have been attending the UW since I was 18. I wasn't sure how a right-politically leaning small town kid would fare in Madison, but to my surprise I REALLY like it here. It is very progressive, and accepting of other ethnicities and cultures; but to me there is a feeling that it's "forced" to an extent. I say "forced" because the vast majority of the population is white, yet many scream of how diverse we are. I'm definitely in the minority when it comes to political leanings around here, but I can tolerate it just fine. That being said, I think it's more politically diverse than people give it credit for; the lefties are just louder than the rest of us .

The size and location of the city is PERFECT, in my opinion. Not too big, not too small, and close to the Twin Cities, Milwaukee, and Chicago. I have a few friends from Chicago attending the UW, and they love it here. One has already come back to visit this summer, and she plans to come back again on the 4th.

If you're a newcomer here, I'd definitely check out the Monroe street neighborhood, the Memorial Union Terrace (beautiful), and the Capitol Square/State Street at night. Hope this helps!

[jeffs]

I'm no expert on Madison, but ive spent a few weekends there visiting friends at U of W. It has a nice college town feel to it. One thing I really liked were the parks and recreation areas. A lot of bike paths and open areas. There were always people out jogging, walking, sports, very good if you are an outdoor active person. I always had a good time up there, and dont have anything negative to say about the area. Its not a huge metropolis like Chicago, but not everyone wants to live in a huge city with traffic, crime, pollution, and stress. I was very impressed on the crime rates, its virtually non existant for a city of that size. I live in Davenport, Iowa a city of 100,000 and our crime rate was almost 4 times as high a few years.

[gold*dust1]

Originally Posted by Chelito23

This is true. Why do you think that so many Madisonians attack people who THINK different about the community? I mean, the people who have a different perception? Inmost other places, people wouldn't really care so much, but in Madison they can make you feel like a criminal for not sharing the same thought. That "must conform" mentality is the major freaky drawback to the place.

In a nutshell...on this board...possibly spokespeople for the Chamber of Commerce

In real life, I don't find it comes into play much. It's not hard to live your own life with your own values here.

[ihynes]

I grew up in Madison but now live in Chicago, and the weather is NOT the same. Chicago winters are often bouncing around the freezing mark, so we get more ice here, whereas in Madison the snow stays on the ground. When I lived there from the late 60s to the end of the 80s, the town outside of the university was lily white. But now when I go back, I see many hispanic people and other people of color. That has definitely changed, regardless of what people say. When we went to there for 4th of July a couple of years ago, the west side park we went to for fireworks had the most diversity I have ever seen in Madison, and it was a welcome surprise. It does have the state capitol as well as the university, so there are a lot of white-collar professionals everywhere you go, more so than most places its size. I think your family will enjoy it. The university attracts many intellectuals from all over the world, and doctors and professors find it a very comfortable town to live in, even idyllic. For regular working folks, it's annoyingly smug, but on the other hand, many of the kids I grew up with became world travelers and that doesn't seem to happen in a lot of other midwestern towns of the same size. Madison is a very worldly town for its size. Much more so than my Chicago suburb, where I meet many people who have never lived anywhere else and don't ever leave Illinois except to maybe go to Michigan or Wisconsin for a few summer weekends.

[subclavius]

Madison is a very walkable city, unless you live in the suburban outskirts at the edge of town. Then again you aren't really in Madison anymore but Middleton, Fitchburg, or Sun Prarie. Those areas are walkable, but there's nothing to go to but big box retail establishments. But if you live near downtown there's an unbelievable amount of things to do and see within walking distance. Madison also has a lot of public spaces for a city it's size.

As I just said on another post, although Madison is a predominately white city, it is far more accepting and tolerant of outside cultures than most other cities I've lived in.