What kind of culture do the largest Midwestern cities have? (houses, theater)
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What kind of culture is often found among people from the big Midwest cities such as Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Indy etc...?
Nice people? Passive aggressive people? Cultured people?
I don't want to hear any slanders such as boring people, because at least here in Minneapolis, we have more culture than all of LA.
Midwestern/Southern Culture. Nothing Special. Because of the early french settlement of the area, there is a bit of French idealism: St. Louis has an Empire Mentality without the Empire.
Most of the people here are nice. Proactivity seems to be a problem. Employers are not to kind to outsiders.
As a native Minneapolis resident who has also lived in LA, I've got to stick up for LA here: LA has far more culture than Minneapolis. It also costs a lot more to live there, so I'm willing to take the considerable benefits that Minneapolis does offer (Minneapolis does have a lot of culture, but it is a smaller city, and you can tell) and be able to afford to live there, and will make do with visits to cities like LA or NYC.
I don't think there is any one Midwestern city culture. I think they are all pretty different in their own way.
I moved to Indianapolis from the Boston area 16 years ago,and the one sticking thing is the lack of cultural offerings and the lack of ethnic diversity for a city of its size. Indianapolis does have the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis Children's museum, Indianapolis Zoo and Eiteljorg Museum. It also has couple of places where you can see a play. But, I don't think these things are as highly regarded (or appreciated) by the population in general. Indianapolis is a very family oriented city, but the schools are far from ideal (there are a handful of schools in the suburbs that are good), so as a result attending plays and going to museums are not tops on peoples things to do lists. Instead people attend sporting events and go out to eat in one of the many chain restaurants that can be found on every corner. Independently owned ethnic restaurants are very few and far between, because of the lack of diversity in the city/state. To me, the lack of interest in things "not vanilla" is sad. The people of Indiana don't know what they are missing........
Although midwestern cities are different from the surrounding rural areas, there are certain characteristics that they do share that makes them different from cities elsewhere (yes the even includes Chicago).
Midwestern cities: because of the cold, snowy winters and relative isolation from the nations more "glamarous" and hyped urban centers on the east coast and California are often considered "well-kept" secrets and have to work harder to attract attention to themselves.
Midwestern cities are often have a negative national image of being industrialized and "blue-collared" with problems relating to white flight, corruption/nepotism, etc. Of course these are stereotypes that urban midwesterners have to contend (despite the fact that there is still an ounce of truth).
Like someone mentioned before, these are cities that may have originally been explored/founded by French fur traders/trappers, have had early economic growth started by WASP entrepeneurs/industrialists/businessmen (later joined by Jews) and attracted population growth from Catholic European ethnic groups: primarily Polish, Italian, and Irish (among others such as Czechs). Midwestern cities all attracted many southern blacks (and some southern whites) all looking for a better life mostly in industrial jobs. This led to a certain amount of racial segregation and tension. With some cities managing this better than others. Other groups would later come: (IE: Mexicans, Arabs, and Asians primarily in college towns and white collared suburban areas).
The layout of midwestern cities are generally less dense than east coast cities with not so many rowhouses, but with more single family home (albeit on very small lots) even right outside the central business district. Midwestern cities have always had a lot of culture with art museums, theater, some downtown department stores, and a financial district amongst the skyscrapers (with Chicago have more of this).
I hope this helps. In a nutshell urban midwesterners can best be described as sophisticated and progressive without being pretentious and being more "real".
Midwestern/Southern Culture. Nothing Special. Because of the early french settlement of the area, there is a bit of French idealism: St. Louis has an Empire Mentality without the Empire.
Most of the people here are nice. Proactivity seems to be a problem. Employers are not to kind to outsiders.
Dude you don't know St. Louis! Lake St. Louis is not St. Louis City or even St. Louis County. Two different lifestyles and realities.
Dude you don't know St. Louis! Lake St. Louis is not St. Louis City or even St. Louis County. Two different lifestyles and realities.
Dude, you need to get out more. The OP was about midwest culture. From someone that has lived on both coasts, this is a very hard area to get use to. Saint Louis is just another vanilla-flavored midwestern city with a pretty stainless Steel Arch.
The Saint Louis Metro area gets redstate within 15 miles from the city core. The corn-fed bubba mentality is just under the surface even in city dwellers. As your post proves, there is parochial superiority complex that emanates from the residents of the city proper.
I've worked down town, had to take meetings downtown when I was getting my business started spent a lot of time downtown for entertainment. Jeez, my home is less than 30 miles to Arch. What is it with the locals around here that seem to think 30 miles is far?
I used to live in Orange County, Long Island, NYC and LA. 30 miles is nothing. Its a daily bike ride.
i can also tell you that the community of Lake Saint Louis is the closest thing to a beach town that you will find in a land-locked state. There is also a similar laid back beach attitude. There is a reason that LSL was rated as a top 10 place to live.
The bottom line is that the Saint Louis Area is one strange place to live.
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