Moving to Chippewa Falls

[notmuch69]

I always thought the Chippewa/Eau Claire area were great! They're basically joined cities. Water Street in Eau Claire is a blast for night life! Endless outdoor activities all around the area.

[omaraz]

Originally Posted by ihatedchippewafalls

I'm a native Californian who moved to Chippewa Falls for a job. The job never materialized and the owner of the company went bankrupt (along with his morals.) What happened after that is terrible. There are NO decent jobs in the area. IT jobs pay a whopping $10.00 to $13.00 per hour. In some IT jobs you end up being the secretary or coffee server.

The middle school teachers are horrible. They have this holier than thou attitude where they believe that all students should follow their lifestyle. The kids can't even walk around at lunch. I asked a teacher why one day and his answer "how would we watch all of them?"

The homes in town are from the 1800s and early 1900s and really not worth the money. The house I lived in was horribly cold in the winter and had bats in the summer. The landlords could care less. The one before that the landlords refused to fix anything in the apartment including a dangerous broken window and a leak under the sink. It's probably because we weren't section 8 like everyone else was on the property. They had to fix the other places by law, why would they fix ours?

The others are right - it is VERY hard to get in with the different groups of people here. I found a few people who were extremely nice, but there are people like that in every town. If you're an outsider, you're frowned upon and jobs are really hard to come by. The jobs always go to the native born people. I was happy and all into trying to fit in for the first 4 or 5 years and it just didn't work. I eventually just stopped leaving the house except to shop. It totally ruined my look on life and turned me into a hermit. I'm so glad to get out of here and live.

The food is absolutely terrible. The chow mein isn't really chow mein it is chop suey. The Italian food isn't made with real tomatoes - it's made with tomato soup (double yuck), recently the Mexican food has come up with a new restaurant of authentic Mexican owners, but before that we were SOL. Oh, and coffee has finally come up in the world. Before a latte was something you got from a vending machine at the gas station. Thank God that changed. I guess if you like sausage and cheese whiz then you'll be happy.

Not many people smile either. I recently went on a trip back to CA and everyone was so happy and friendly. Maybe it's because I sound the same as the people in CA, I don't know. I think people are grumpy here in Chippewa Falls because the weather absolutely stinks in the winter and the meth addicts are a little out of control. The city likes to hide their little drug addict friends and put on this holier than thou Christian show. God forbid if you said anything that might offend people because they will probably arrest you as they did one person I know. I tried smiling, I tried being nice and you know what that got me? I turned into a miserable old creep by the time my 9 years was up here. I can't take it any longer.

One more thing to the person who said the winters are only from mid-November to March - sure, that might be what the school books say but after living in this frozen town you can't go trick or treating without 5 layers of clothes on. It really does get cold in September/October and doesn't warm up until May. In fact, it's July 4th right now and we're all wearing jackets tonight because of the crummy weather. If the storm hadn't come through earlier and cooled it down the humidity would have made the house miserable. So, you're either drenched in sweat or drenched in rain - you pick. I didn't take that nasty plastic off the windows until June because May was horrible.

Oh, and the smell. It smells damp and moldy. I didn't notice it because I had lived here for ten years. I went back to CA for a week and came back here and the smell of wetness and whatever was just gross. And good luck because if you're real lucky and the wind is going in the right direction you'll either get a constant wiff of the nearest cow farm (it's real bad during fertilizing season) or the water treatment plant down by the river.

Another thing - don't move into the flats. It's the area in the south east area of town below the hill. Horrible area. When I lived down there a 4-year old kid was molested by a 7-year old kid. The local druggie woman would walk around all over with her 4 girls and kids are up all night running around the neighborhood. DO NOT move to the flats.

These are the things the people DO NOT tell you.

Wow...it's this attitude that caused me to move from Phoenix to the Eau Claire-Chippewa Falls area. Some Californians seem to ruin everything (i.e. Colorado, Arizona, Nevada) with the ol' "the world revolves around California" attitude. Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire are great towns with great history. If someone seeks a quiet small town life with outdoor activities this is a good spot; not to mention Minneapolis-St. Paul is only an hour and 30 minutes away so there is plenty to do in the area.