Best Cheap City in the Midwest/Plains (living, cost, crime)
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Putting yourself into the role of someone looking to escape a high cost of living with minimal resources and a modest semi-retirement income minus a car, which would you choose?
I like Milwaukee the best, but it's the most expensive. And, it's not in the plains...it's on Lake Michigan, with a beautiful downtown waterfront, beaches, and its suburbs and Chicago's suburbs meet. There are 8 Amtrak runs daily between Milwaukee and Chicago, so people can live in one city and work in the other.
Also, Milwaukee's Third Ward. An area connected to the south of downtown, with shopping, condos, and lots of restaurants. My favorite stores in the Third Ward are Anthropologie, West Elm, and Restoration Hardware.
St. Louis would definitely offer the most as far as cultural amenities and just variety in general.
My guess would be Milwaukee's transit is somewhat more reliable, just because the city isn't as poor overall and it includes more semi-suburban middle-class areas in the city limits.
Des Moines would be a clear third. It seems like a Fargo/Sioux Falls type of place: you get a cheap, basic mid-sized city with good schools and low crime, in exchange for giving up "city" stuff for the most part.
If you're okay with going smaller than any of these, college towns like Urbana-Champaign, IL and Ann Arbor, MI could be places to look. The bus systems are very comprehensive and well-maintained there to serve the student populations, and the cost of living is still low.
I'm unsure why you would include for consideration a city (Des Moines) that has bus transit, but no light rail or streetcar service and no inter-city rail link, if living car-free is a criterion.
Additionally, TheTimidBlueBars: Des Moines is NOT like a Fargo or Sioux Falls type of place. It offers much more in city qualities and experiences than these two cities (no offense to them).
Milwaukee has an okay bus system but it’s not as good as it used to be, and its token streetcar doesn’t really add much.
The city has some really rough areas, but not all of it is bad.
On the plus side, Milwaukee has some affordable, somewhat walkable suburbs on the south side that aren’t bad. They’re all serviced by the same bus system.
St.Louis: strictly stick with the suburbs there, and there are plenty of them to choose from.
The city itself is only a small part of the metro as a whole.
It’s probably the most culturally interesting one of these three.
They have a somewhat usable light rail system.
Des Moines is the smallest but also has the least problems with crime.
It’s a nice area, but I’m not sure I’d want to live without a car there, though surely there are people who do it.
That makes me think of all the delivery services these days, so maybe it’d be alright.
It could be the easier one for an outsider to blend into.
Weather-wise, St. Louis is the warmest with winters that aren’t hard for non-winter people to deal with and hot summers. Des Moines is the most extreme, and Milwaukee is chilly much of the year but more even-keeled due to its location on Lake Michigan.
St.Louis: strictly stick with the suburbs there, and there are plenty of them to choose from.
The city itself is only a small part of the metro as a whole.
This is terrible and ignorant advice. Why should anyone “stick to the suburbs”? This is the kind of comment I would expect to hear from headline-fearing suburbanites, but not someone who purports to appreciate cities. Especially since the OP said he’s looking for a car-free lifestyle. The City of St. Louis is WITHOUT QUESTION the hub of the metro area with a lot more car-optional neighborhoods than the suburbs, not to mention some of the most historic, interesting and diverse urban neighborhoods in the Midwest. It’s a shame that so many people buy into cliche stereotypes.
St. Louis by a mile. St. Louis still has good "bang-for-your-buck" neighborhoods where you can live sans car in a neighborhood that is still relatively safe and convenient to amenities. Most of those types of neighborhoods in Milwaukee either are already expensive or are becoming expensive.
I agree with the above assessment that it is asinine to write ALL of St. Louis CITY off of the list. We stayed at an AirBNB in Benton Park on our most recent vacation there and felt perfectly safe. The surrounding blocks/neighborhoods seemed to have reasonable rentals and good transit accessibility.
As much of a mess as STL is, I would still choose it over Milwaukee or Des Moines. I really like the built environment of STL- nice brick instead of ugly vinyl buildings everywhere. At least, in the intact neighborhoods. Many areas of STL look like Mordor.
As much of a mess as STL is, I would still choose it over Milwaukee or Des Moines. I really like the built environment of STL- nice brick instead of ugly vinyl buildings everywhere. At least, in the intact neighborhoods. Many areas of STL north of Delmar Boulevard look like Mordor.
^ Fixed for you via edit. In St. Louis City the northern 1/3 of the city is a bombed-out wasteland whereas the central 1/3 and southern 1/3 of the city proper have a lot of solid neighborhoods.
St. Louis would definitely offer the most as far as cultural amenities and just variety in general.
My guess would be Milwaukee's transit is somewhat more reliable, just because the city isn't as poor overall and it includes more semi-suburban middle-class areas in the city limits.
Des Moines would be a clear third. It seems like a Fargo/Sioux Falls type of place: you get a cheap, basic mid-sized city with good schools and low crime, in exchange for giving up "city" stuff for the most part.
If you're okay with going smaller than any of these, college towns like Urbana-Champaign, IL and Ann Arbor, MI could be places to look. The bus systems are very comprehensive and well-maintained there to serve the student populations, and the cost of living is still low.
Except you aren't. Des Moines has the amenities of cities much larger than itself. Really the main big city amenities it lacks are pro sports and convenient public transportation, but it's extensive bicycle network cuts into that lack of transit.
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