Green Bay, Madison or Milwaukee?? (Waukesha, Wauwatosa: crime, house, job market)

[Hoosier]

Hey all,

Out of the three choices, Green Bay, Madison or Milwaukee which is the best to live and why? We live in the Twin Cities and my wife may be getting a job offer to work in one of these cities...they may ask her to choose. Can you help us? We have two young kids, ages 4 and 8. Church is a huge part of our life so being plugged into a good Bible-believing church is a must.

Thanks!!

[mikki]

The greater Milwaukee area consisting of towns such as Mequon, Shorewood, Whiltefish Bay, Wauwatosa, Franklin, New Berlin, Brookfield, Menomonee Falls, Sussex, Delafield, Pewaukee, and the City of Waukesha (all within 20-25 min. or less of the city of Milw.) are great choices. There is a huge nondenominational church in Brookfield called Elmbrook Church as well as many Lutheran and Evangelical churches in all these areas. I attend a Catholic Church in Waukesha so I cannot be of more help than that. Madison and Green Bay are great towns to live in from what I have heard, but I have only visited them. Good luck to you and your family!

[Hoosier]

Thanks!! My one concern is after living in the Twin Cities, I'm not sure about the size of madison and green bay. Are they large cities like Milwaukee?

[Liz1_06]

Hoosier guy ~

I live in St Paul right now but have lived in Milwaukee, and Green Bay ~ My choice and suggestion would be Green Bay...

It's still very family and church orintated, large enough to find what ever you need ( walmart, cub, ect.. ) but small enough where your neighbors still know your name and are friendly...

My best friend of 25 yrs still lives there so I still spend alot of time in GB ...

There is so much to do there...

The cost of living is average and you can find a great house in a great neighborhood for $150 ~ 200k....

Good Luck ~

[Drover]

Not being much of a church guy I'm going to forego a recommendation. However, to answer one of the OP's questions, no, Madison and Green Bay are not big cities like Milwaukee. The Milwaukee Metro area is 2 million people versus 500,000 for the Madison metro area and 250,000 for Green Bay metro.

[watergrl]

Go Green Bay...just my opinion.

Good luck!!

[Turtle]

I have lived in the Milwaukee and Green Bay areas, and my pick would be Milwaukee. Of course this is a personal preference, and your decision needs to be based on your lifestyle, but there was just nothing to do in GB. I don't party, drink, club etc, but Milwaukee has museums, shopping, and lots of festivals and things in the summer, GB had nothing for me and I really didn't like living there at all. It's a pretty, safe, nice area, but that's all I can say about it.

I wouldn't live in the city of Milwaukee, but like the other post said, there's alot of really nice areas on the outskirts. We lived in Franklin before we moved to Florida and we loved it. It was close to everything, but we were in a really quite neighborhood.

Good luck

[AnonymousCoward]

All three cities have numerous, numerous churches, and you should be able to find one that suits your preference.

Milwaukee is an actual city, with all of the good and bad that goes along with that. Parts of the city are struggling, but there are also many very nice suburbs and even some neighborhoods in the city that are quite nice.

There are far more religious people in Madison than you would expect. Schools are overall very good, housing is expensive for a city of its size in the Midwest, and with only a few exceptions the city is safe. I enjoyed living there, but struggled with the salary vs. the cost of living.

Green Bay is relatively small, but parts of the city are struggling with crime more characteristic of larger metro areas. Still, there are many, many family oriented neighborhoods, and the area seems to be a bit more church oriented than the other two. I enjoyed living around Green Bay, but it was painful to watch formerly safe blue collar neighborhoods transition to places that simply weren't safe. It isn't so much that the city is dangerous, there are far worse places to be, but overall things don't seem to be going in the right direction.

So, do you want to live in a relatively large industrial city, a mid sized college town, or a smaller industrial town?

[GothamBK]

Green Bay probably has the most churches per capita, but I think it would be way too much of a culture shock for you coming from the Twin Cities.

Madison has some similarities to the Twin Cities. Both are Big 10 towns, simlar job markets, similar standard of living. And you shouldn't have too much trouble finiding a church in Madison (like someone else said, there's a lot more christians in Madison than people think).

IIRC, Milwaukee is about as large as the Twin Cities put together. It also has a much more racially and socio-economically diverse population than any of the other cities mentioned. Milwaukee also has some of the most beautiful churches you'll find anywhere (and this is from an atheist). The only thing about Milwaukee is that it has a very "bourough-ish" mentality. The tension between city residents and surburbanites is almost as bad as Detroit. But white flight nearly killed the city in the 70's and 80's, so that's somewhat understandable if you're willing to deal with it.

[mrkool]

By far the best of the 3 in terms of family raising, safety, and no extreme politics either way. Only problem is if you are not a big pro football/GB Packers fan. It is bad enough in the entire state, but if you actually live there in the team's hometown, you will be absolutely saturated with Packers news, hype, apparel, flags, bumper stickers, etc. Personally I don't get it.