Madison, WI vs. Ann Arbor, MI (bigger, people, cons, restaurant)

[Daytonnatian]

Ann Arbor, 'cuz Detroit's right up the street, and Ohio's only an hour away.

[OyCrumbler]

I vote Madison to commemorate the 100th year anniversary of The Progressive.

[krock1dk]

Originally Posted by Daytonnatian

Ann Arbor, 'cuz Detroit's right up the street, and Ohio's only an hour away.

interesting taste you must have. Being near Detroit and Ohio should be no consolation to anyone. If anything, they are deterents.

[D121]

Ah. Madison vs. Ann Arbor. Always fun. I like them both. Which one is better depends on what you are looking for of course, but here's a few thoughts:

**Weather - tossup**

Ann Arbor has warmer minimum temps. It is zone 6a vs zone 5a for Madison. This opens up a whole raft of plant choices for the gardening set. Madison has colder winters and usually better x-country skiing because of that. Madison has an extra 9 days of sunshine per year. 187 vs 178 on average.

**Connection To World - Ann Arbor**

Ann Arbor in a landslide. Ann Arbor is less the 40 minutes from an international airport with multiple flights to major cities in the US and overseas. Many of these are direct flights.

There is an Amtrak train station in Ann Arbor. The Amtrak train stations nearest to Madison are way out in Columbus and Portage.

Both cities have good access to freeways.

**Activism-Madison**

It's just more fun to get your protest on when you can march to the Capitol building.

**Diversity-Ann Arbor**

Ann Arbor and Madison are both bubbles of wealth and privilege, but Ann Arbor is very close to more diverse places. Ypsilanti is about 7 miles away and, with a 30% African American population, has considerably different demographics. Eastern Michigan University has 20,000+ students and a substantially more down to earth feel than the University of Michigan.

**Shopping-Ann Arbor**

I love the eclectic nature of the boutique type stores in both cities. The big boxes are equally represented in both cities. Ann Arbor has the advantage of being close to metro Detroit. You can go shopping at Microcenter - Ikea, etc. There are large ethnic markets in some of the Detroit suburbs, like One World Market in Novi, that can't be found near Madison.

**Water-Madison**

I like the Huron River and love the hilly drive along it, but the public in Ann Arbor doesn't interface with its river like the public in Madison interfaces with its lakes. The sad truth of the matter is that water resources in both cities have been significantly affected by industry and farming. These are not pristine north woods waters!

**Hiking-Madison**

I enjoy the Irish Hills and the metro parks, but Madison is fairly close to Devil's Lake and some cool hiking in the driftless area.

[ram2]

Originally Posted by EastSideMKE

Neither is what I would call diverse. Detroit is the largest metro in North America without a rail transit system of any kind.

So what. That does not appear to affect any Detroit commuters getting to and from work. Detroit's shopping is well above what is available in Milwaukee.

[BigLake]

Originally Posted by Daytonnatian

Ann Arbor, 'cuz Detroit's right up the street, and Ohio's only an hour away.

The "Ohio" part works in Madison's favor.

[CowsAndBeer]

True, and Milwaukee is an hour away/Chicagoland hour and a half.

[Drover]

Chicago's an hour and a half away if you're driving at 3am at extralegal speeds. Otherwise count on more like 2 to 2.5 hours. Or 3.5 hours if you're foolish enough to time your weekday arrival during the morning or late afternoon/evening.

[CowsAndBeer]

That's why I said "Chicagoland" - about an hour and a half to the suburbs, 2 hours to the city (good traffic) and 3 hours (bad traffic). Either way, easy day trip and far preferable to Detroit, which offers about as much as Milwaukee.

[sandman249]

Based on the amount of activity on CD, Madison wins over Ann Arbor

Madison
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Ann Arbor
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Posts: 2,912