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Old 02-11-2022, 10:08 PM
 
Location: Sheboygan, WI
194 posts, read 296,259 times
Reputation: 73

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Further North View Post
I wouldn't say that I saw any kind of open "hostility" to outsiders if distaste for them, but I will say it wasn't an easy place to make friends organically.

I felt like one issue was that the whole bar scene was so "spread out". The city probably had over 40 bars in it when I lived there, and I started going on a "scavenger hunt" looking for them when I first moved there. For instance I discovered little pockets for 3 or 4 on a street. Well the problem was there was so many sleepy little neighborhood bars that there wasn't a good central gathering space. Show up at any bar in the city on a Saturday night at 11:30 when it should be busy, and there's 20 or 30 people there. I could totally feel the "Who the hell is this guy?" looks at that point because everyone in the bar was a local and lived in the immediate neighborhood, and that didn't feel very friendly. I usually finished my beer and left. Eventually I settled on 2 particular bars to become a "regular" there and was satisfied, but it wasn't a very good social scene.

It was also kind of miserable for a late 20 something single man because in that almost empty bar, only 5-7 of these people were women, and almost all of them appeared to be standing next to their apparent boyfriend! Thankfully thru online dating I met a woman from Milwaukee and I dated her for most of the time I lived there.

The one saving grace for me socially was finding a really well organized artist group that was founded by a local art teacher. Through that group I established a bunch of friendships, and we organized monthly art gallery shows, etc. If it wasn't for that group I would have lived a pretty boring lonely existence there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sub View Post
People are very polite and pleasant, but there certainly is a good bit of "what are you doing here?" attitude that's really odd for outsiders to understand.
Wisconsin is a nice place and has a lot going for it. So what if it's cold? A lot of places are cold and don't get the runaround for being cold that Wisconsinites give themselves.
I grew up in a place (different part of country) that was kind of terrible in a lot of ways, but when newcomers came, people were like, "okay, whatever" at least, if not overly welcoming. It wasn't terribly scandalous to have someone move there from elsewhere.
Perhaps a lot of people don't want Wisconsin to grow too much, but for those that do, try tripping over yourselves a little bit when helping newbies feel welcome.

Come to think of it, when moving even to Milwaukee, I might would recommend a trendier area more used to outsiders. Or just form a posse to move with you, forcing the locals to accept somebody.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MortonR View Post
Just to clarify, I wouldn't say anyone in Sheboygan was overtly nasty or mean, they were just very distant and insular. It was clear that you weren't a local by the way they acted towards you when you were among them. I suspect a lot of this is due to the fact that many people there are 3rd and 4th generation, maybe more. Not a lot of outsiders.

After a couple of years of being shunned we built a house on Lake Michigan in Port Washington, halfway between Sheboygan and Milwaukee. As nearly every one of our neighbors were from outside the town, we had no problem assimilating. That and everyone we met in Port were always pleasant and welcoming.

RM

Crazy that I found this thread today! I am currently living in Sheboygan and have been for nearly a year, previous to that I spent three years living in Saint Nazianz, WI and had worked in Sheboygan for the first 8 months when I first moved to Wisconsin in early summer 2018. This past week I received an offer to join a business venture in Brookfield, an opportunity to do something I really WANT to do. In fact I am essentially doing the same thing right now in Sheboygan but it is simply not working out despite my absolute best efforts due to what I feel like is strong resistance from the local community.

I have read so much commentary and opinions on this website about what people think about Sheboygan and how they feel in regards to the dynamics of the local community, in particular how locals tend to respond to "outsiders" who have moved in to the area. Its bizarre because I feel this way and so many others that I have known who are in the same boat as me have expressed similar sentiments and I have tried to explain this to my business partner in Brookfield, I think he is starting to come around to an understanding of what I'm getting at. We're operating this business venture that has been wildly successful starting in Brookfield and has expanded to having nationwide success. It got off the ground two years ago in Green Bay and has been incredible seeing how much it has had a positive impact in that area and how quickly that has happened.

So I have been working on getting this going in Sheboygan, so far I feel like I have been falling flat on my face no matter what I do. It is not to say that I have or will give up on it working out in this area but I have also done enough business in the Sheboygan area over the past four years to know what I might really be up against. I even had a meeting with the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce where one of the leading members essentially called me out to say that people would not trust me or what I am doing because I haven't been in the area long enough and others have claimed that my business is illegitimate and they have suspected me of running some kind of scam. It's amazing because the business is well known outside of the Sheboygan bubble and typically welcomed into most communities we begin working in because they see the kind of impact we have on a local economy and in community building efforts.

I've been trying to build relationships here and build bridges via business investment as well as trying to put together things for real estate investment, it's almost as if the more goodwill you try to bring to benefit others the more skepticism is engendered among those within this local community. Don't get me wrong because I've made inroads in certain niche elements within the Sheboygan county area and Sheboygan city community but it seems like they are an exception the time, effort, and resources I've been putting into everything.

Another city I lived in for about the same amount of time was Springfield, Illinois and that city's born and raised population has quite a reputation of their own as well. The interesting dynamic I saw there was that the born and raised folks think it is this great city that anyone should want to live in, most of my friends who were born and raised there have never left and probably will never leave. It have a large transplant population as well and most of them think that the area isn't anything special, not only that but it is quite depressing and the born and raised folks are delusional for what they believe about the city. I had to live there for 2-3 years before I realized how depressing it really was living there and after I moved out I was so much happier. I feel like moving out of Sheboygan might be similar in so many ways and moving out may be the best thing I can do.
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Old 02-12-2022, 07:24 AM
 
Location: Florida & Arizona
5,915 posts, read 7,260,945 times
Reputation: 7509
Interesting but sad to know that 30 years later it’s still that way. It’s a nice place and has an excellent quality of life, but the locals can make it intolerable.

RM
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Old 02-16-2022, 08:59 AM
 
Location: Sheboygan, WI
194 posts, read 296,259 times
Reputation: 73
[/quote]

Quote:
Originally Posted by MortonR View Post
Interesting but sad to know that 30 years later it’s still that way. It’s a nice place and has an excellent quality of life, but the locals can make it intolerable.

RM
From a business perspective I've just never encountered an entire community that has such a strong propensity to act in bad faith by default. The good news is that I started putting out feelers in the MKE area and surrounding counties, so far I've gotten some good interest so I think it is just a matter of time before I find not only a better situation in which to do business but also relocate away from Sheboygan which I think that and that alone will do me a lot of good.
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Old 02-17-2022, 06:35 AM
 
Location: Florida & Arizona
5,915 posts, read 7,260,945 times
Reputation: 7509
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mylläri View Post
From a business perspective I've just never encountered an entire community that has such a strong propensity to act in bad faith by default. The good news is that I started putting out feelers in the MKE area and surrounding counties, so far I've gotten some good interest so I think it is just a matter of time before I find not only a better situation in which to do business but also relocate away from Sheboygan which I think that and that alone will do me a lot of good.
We moved south roughly 30 miles to Port Washington after a couple years of Sheboygan and never looked back.

The people in Port, to every man and woman we met, were kind, welcoming and very nice. It was a wonderful community and nothing even remotely close to the way things were in Sheboygan. I don't know why, as many of the people there were 3rd-4th generation from Belgium and western European countries much like Sheboygan (but very few Dutch, so maybe that was the difference?)

Of all the places I've lived in the U.S., and that's a pretty decent and wide-ranging list, Port Washington was, without question, the best place I ever lived as far as quality of life.

RM
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