Winona, MN Info PLEASE!! (Minneapolis, Rochester: sale, crime, new house) - Minnesota - City-Data Forum

blakeneven · 08-10-2006, 11:15 AM

If anyone can tell me anything about Winona, that would be great. I am hoping to get a job at Saint Mary's University and would love to get some feedback on the town/area. My wife and I would be moving from Bellevue/Seattle WA. What are the people like? Is the area run down or charming? How is the weather?
Thanks for the time!

warmweather! · 08-10-2006, 05:58 PM

Hey, I lived in Mountlake Terrace for over year, but that was over 10 years ago. In Winona and the southern half of the state, here's how the weather is: In the summer (about 4 months) the weather is great, although there are many bugs. We get about 4 weeks of chilly, colorful fall. We only get about 3 weeks of spring. The rest of the year is frozen wasteland, and it often goes into the negatives. I can't stand the winter!!! Winona is a very beautiful town (although there is no Puget Sound or Mount Rainer, but it's still beautiful)! It is on a wide part of the Mississippi, and it is surrounded by forested bluffs. I like big cities, but if I had to live in Minnesota and couldn't live in any city or suburb, I would live in Winona. Winona has about 22,000 people. I've only been there once, but everyone says that the people there are very friendly. Like I said, I haven't been there much, but I think that Winona has both run down parts and charming parts. Winona is an older town, so if you come, don't expect to get a new or even somewhat new house. I can't stand the winter, but I'm not sure if it would bug you because you have to stay inside your house for 6 months where you are now anyway because of the rain! Also, the summers here are a lot hotter and more humid than Seattle, which I like.

blakeneven · 08-15-2006, 11:43 AM

Thank you.

Does anyone have any other information regarding Winona? Would people recommend living there or is it a place to avoid? If so, why?

Thanks!

mcmartj · 08-15-2006, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blakeneven

If anyone can tell me anything about Winona, that would be great. I am hoping to get a job at Saint Mary's University and would love to get some feedback on the town/area. My wife and I would be moving from Bellevue/Seattle WA. What are the people like? Is the area run down or charming? How is the weather?
Thanks for the time!

I'm from the Winona area. It is a beautiful town during the school year a lot of college students are in town because it has three higher ed institutions, St. Marys University, WInona State University, and Winona Tech. Its a busy town that sits in the middle of the beautiful bluffs along the Mississippi. The city of La Crosse, WI is close by and the drive between the two cities is one of the best in Minnesota. Winter is long and cold. Summers are hot and humid. Fall is gorgeous. I'm a little biased coming from there but I think it is a great place to live and St. Marys is a very nice university. People are friendly and I would say that the area is very charming.

warmweather! · 08-22-2006, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcmartj

The city of La Crosse, WI is close by and the drive between the two cities is one of the best in Minnesota.

I definatley agree. That drive and the drive along the north shore are the most beautiful in the state. Some one I know says the part of Minnesota by the Mississippi across from Wisconson is his favorite part of the state, and he said it's like Tennessee except there aren't and hillbillies.

ihatefonddulac · 08-29-2006, 10:06 PM

I am also native to Winona, and after living in three different places for five years for my husband to gain job experience, we are finally moving back now! It is a very nice place to live. The cost of living is not terrible. The city water is good. The air quality is good. The area is beautiful. There is a lot of recreation and community activities. The people are very friendly. It's a great place to raise kids. I know a couple of people who work at St. Mary's, and they love it there. My daughter takes flute lessons from the band director there. There isn't a lot of shopping/restaurants there, but it's only a half hour drive to La Crosse, Wisconsin which has a big mall, most of the larger chain department stores and restaurants, and it is also about an hour drive to Rochester, Minnesota which also has an even larger mall and more stores and restaurants.

The only negatives I can think of is the public school district has its share of budget problems, however, the city just passed a referendum, so hopefully that won't be an issue for a while. Also, it can be tough to find a good paying job, however, since we left five years ago, I have read the Winona Daily News online every day we were gone, and it seems like the area has improved in the job area. Now that my husband has some good job experience, he was able to get a good paying job, and we were able to come back to stay! After living in other places, I am grateful to be back!

silver · 08-31-2006, 06:44 PM

i have a bid in on a house there - the people seem very friendly, it is a beautiful city.

it desparately needs some excellent coffee and some good restraunts - this is a shout out to enterprising souls everywhere.

ihatefoundulac - i do to - i have never lived there but have been thru there and if i grew up in a beautiful city like winona i would hate fondulac even more.

Lolligags · 09-04-2006, 10:42 PM

Just a reply to your request for info about Winona...I was born and raised there and lived around there my whole life until I graduated from Winona State University and moved up to the Twin Cities. I went to Winona schools my whole life. It has always been a factory town with colleges. It seems that the people who stay living there are the factory workers who keep making low wages and the college students keep coming and going every year. At one time, there were three colleges, but St. Theresa's college closed and is now the site for the Catholic high school called Cotter High School. That campus is beautiful. There is not much to do in Winona and that is why, even though I lived in the Cities and then came back again to go back to school for another degree and ended up with a pretty good paying job in Winona (wages tend to be low except for college/state jobs for people who are educated), I lept at the chance to move back to the Cities. I was very bored there. When I was growing up there, there was not one person of color there in the 1960s so, as people of different races are moving there, older Winona citizens don't seem too happy about that. But they are becoming more open-minded about it as time goes by. There is also homophobia because it is still kind of a sheltered community--people who have lived there all their lives think that there are no gay people if they don't come out. People are still pretty conservative. There are probably as many bars as churches and there are a lot of churches. Most of my relatives who live in and around Winona are typical of older people there in regards to leaving Winona, even to take trips. For example, my Mother thinks driving an hour to Rochester or on any major highway, especially if there are on and off ramps, is too stressful to try. Even my sister, who is a little over 50, panics at the thought of driving to the Twin Cities and rarely do people I know from Winona or around the area go to the Cities since they think the driving is too scary. Otherwise, the scenery is beautiful, especially the drive on Highway 61 going from Lake City, MN to Wabasha on Highway 61. In the fall, that is one of the most beautiful drives I have ever seen. And don't forget that Wabasha, MN is the home of the Grumpy Old Men movies. At the time the first movie came out, I lived in Wabasha and got a kick out of people in the movie theater in LaCrosse, WI where I went to the movie wondering if any of the things in the movie really could be found in Wabasha. Sorry, but the downtown scene of the movie was really the downtown of Faribault, MN and the scene looking down the hill onto the town was from a bluff in Red Wing, MN. Only a few signs like a realty sign were for real. Even Slippery's, the bar the movie is set in, is not the Slippery's that is in Wabasha. When you read the history of Slippery's, the original bar was already torn down and the new one is very modern. It is a quiet place and didn't used to have much crime. When I was a kid, any adult could reprimand a kid on the sidewalk and the parent would back the adult stranger up. It was safe but there is getting to be more crime as the population grows. It is still a pretty safe place to raise children. Housing there is still pretty cheap compared to elsewhere. People are pretty friendly and down to earth there, too. I'm from there and seemingly turned out ok, so how bad can it be?

Hope that helps you.

MHT · 09-07-2006, 03:09 PM

Winona is great. I lived north of Minneapolis for a few years and loved Winona. The people I met were very nice. Darling town. Not sure about the weather. I was there usually in the Fall. Gorgeous fall colors.

suecats · 09-17-2006, 09:19 AM

A more beautiful place is hard to come by. The Mississippi cuts through some beautiful bluff country in Winona and the scenic drive along the river is awesome all the way down to Dubuque, Iowa. Fall foliage is a religious experience.

Winters, frankly, are Minnesota winters. Long and cold...although the bluffs provide shelter from the worst of the winds that are common to the western areas of Southern Minnesota.

Winona has the state university and the Catholic one as well, which gives a town its size a bit more sophistication than it might have otherwise.

Interestingly, a Mennonite or Amish group lives just west near St. Charles and you actually see them with their horses and hay wagon, wide-brimmed hats and long skirts. I was amused to see them taking advantage of a sale on Doritos at the local supermarket.