Looking for city w/ a Downtown (Milwaukee, Madison: apartment complex, job market, school)

[ndheah]

Hello,

My wife will be graduating from college in May 2009, and we are looking for somewhere else to live. Currently, we reside in Menomonie, Wisconsin, and we are looking for more. We will both be 22 year old, college graduates when we plan on moving.

What we are looking for; (I've rated things by stars, 1-5 stars, 5 means a must have, 1 would be nice to have, but oh well if it does not)

*****Booming job growth, both being just out of college, we need a place that has jobs for educated people. She is in Retail, and myself, Information Technology.

****Great down-town, we want a city that has a down-town, bigger the better, but it must feel safe as well. We love to go out to nice restaurants, classy bars (I hate dirty bars), and lovely shops!

***Places to shop, my wife being in Retail, and being a woman, needs to shop. Heck, I even like to shop and want decent places to shop. As it stands now we need to travel to Eau Claire to do any real shopping.

***Population, being young, we want a decent population, does not need to be 100,000, 300,000, but currently Menomonie has 15,000, plus 10,000 college kids during the school year, so I'd say greater than 30,000.

*Not too far north, we grew up in Marinette Wisconsin, which is about 55 miles North of Green bay, and now we live in Menomonie, which is about 250 miles directly west of Marinette, we really do not want to get too far north. (Winters are colder)

*Close to Airport, would be nice to be able to fly to places across the globe with out having to drive a few hours to an air-port.

I would also venture to go as far, and say that we would be making a minumum of about $60,000 together ($30,000 each) with our first jobs, provided we both get jobs in our field. We are looking to Rent for awhile, so decent Apartment complex would be nice!


We've been to; Eau Claire, Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Appleton, Oshkosh, Menomonie, Marinette, Wausau.

In that list, Appleton is the only one that really somewhat intrigues us.

Where should we live in Wisconsin?

[JoshB]

I hate to say a Milwaukee suburb, but.... Mequon, Germantown, Cedarburg, Oconomowac, Hartland, and Hartford sound like cities you should check out. Now I know they're all suburbs/within the Milwaukee Metro. What you described seems like Mequon and Hartford. They're both somewhat close to Milwaukee and Hartford has a nice downtown. Being your in IT field Milwaukee should have plenty off jobs for that. I was going to say Baraboo, but I know you want a town with @ least 30K people.

good luck!

[karfar]

I think the obvious choice would be Milwaukee

[Steve-o]

I see you've been to Madison, but did you really consider it? Sounds like an alternative to Milwaukee's burbs.... just an idea...

[43north87west]

Originally Posted by ndheah

Hello,

My wife will be graduating from college in May 2009, and we are looking for somewhere else to live. Currently, we reside in Menomonie, Wisconsin, and we are looking for more. We will both be 22 year old, college graduates when we plan on moving.

What we are looking for; (I've rated things by stars, 1-5 stars, 5 means a must have, 1 would be nice to have, but oh well if it does not)

*****Booming job growth, both being just out of college, we need a place that has jobs for educated people. She is in Retail, and myself, Information Technology.

****Great down-town, we want a city that has a down-town, bigger the better, but it must feel safe as well. We love to go out to nice restaurants, classy bars (I hate dirty bars), and lovely shops!

***Places to shop, my wife being in Retail, and being a woman, needs to shop. Heck, I even like to shop and want decent places to shop. As it stands now we need to travel to Eau Claire to do any real shopping.

***Population, being young, we want a decent population, does not need to be 100,000, 300,000, but currently Menomonie has 15,000, plus 10,000 college kids during the school year, so I'd say greater than 30,000.

*Not too far north, we grew up in Marinette Wisconsin, which is about 55 miles North of Green bay, and now we live in Menomonie, which is about 250 miles directly west of Marinette, we really do not want to get too far north. (Winters are colder)

*Close to Airport, would be nice to be able to fly to places across the globe with out having to drive a few hours to an air-port.

I would also venture to go as far, and say that we would be making a minumum of about $60,000 together ($30,000 each) with our first jobs, provided we both get jobs in our field. We are looking to Rent for awhile, so decent Apartment complex would be nice!


We've been to; Eau Claire, Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Appleton, Oshkosh, Menomonie, Marinette, Wausau.

In that list, Appleton is the only one that really somewhat intrigues us.

Where should we live in Wisconsin?

I was going to say Chicago, but...

I saw the suggestion for Madison, which is a great recommendation (if you aren't partial to Milwaukee). Anything else besides Milwaukee and Madison, and you won't find as much in the upscale type surroundings you're looking for. Nice places to hang out, clean, easy to get around for the most part, and in a good location. It has an airport, mostly connection flights but there are quite a few to choose. Plus, you can easily get to Mitchell Int'l or O'Hare within a reasonable amount of time for more direct options.

Also, did you consider Minneapolis? It isn't Wisconsin proper, but you're probably already familiar with it. Minneapolis has a better job market than Milwaukee. Madison seems to be doing well on the whole.

[yo vanilla]

Appleton or Madison sound like they fit the best.

Winter - both are going to be cold but IIRC Madison got more of the snowstorms that we did. They are both going to suck, so let's get that out of the way first off.

Downtown - Madison's is bigger, obviously. State street and the rest of the area around and SW of the Capital has alot to offer. Appleton's isn't terribly short on things to do, and it is probably a touch cleaner. I have not been to many bars in Madison but I would say that the majority I have seen are "college bars". Appleton first off has more bars than Madison anyway, and the "scene" has a few upscale places. Both have some nice restaraunts; All I know in Madison is The White Horse Inn for a classy place; Appleton has alot of nice downtown places such as Il Angolo, Flannigan's, Katsu Ya, Dong Po, Pullmans, for instance. People in Appleton are unfortunately way too causual to dress nice when they eat at these places though.

Satety: Madison is bigger and has more riff-raff but I'd hardly call it scary. Appleton's been rated safest in America numerous times, though.

Shopping: Madison has two large malls, some State street shopping, and Appleton has a great mall (bigger than Madison) with some downtown retail. Not as much as Madison. You know what dude I like to shop too (more than my wife) and I'm not complaining about Appleton.

Population - Appleton has 115K in their zip code and, depending who you ask, there is 250-350K people in the area. Madison I believe is 200K with closer to 500K in its area.

Work - Appleton/Fox Valley has been rated as one of the best in the state to get a job. Madison's got plenty of jobs as well. I'd swing Madison's way actually. There's more potential to not just get a cubicle and wait for retirement.

Airport: Madison's is bigger. Appleton's is growing and is probably going to grow alot in the next few years. They've just built new terminals and runways to accomodate the Airbus 310, which currently only arrives from the FedEx fleet, but some research says they are looking to expand passenger flights greatly.

Both are great choices. I've lived in Appleton for, oh 7 years If I wasn't settled with two kids I'd like to move somewhere, and if I were to move to another WI city it would be Madison. Your dollar will go alot farther in Appleton, but if you can swing it... Appleton's a great city with alot to offer, but Madison's a pretty cool place.

[ndheah]

Thanks for the help folks, looks like we're rolling into Appleton in 11 months :-) -- Provided at least one of us can get a real job.

[DSMWXMAN]

Take a look at La Crosse. Not sure about the job prospects there, but it has a nice downtown area with a lot of bars. However, not many are classy, so you will have to look at each to see which one suits you. Safe downtown area but it has its random crime.

A lot of shopping in the downtown area as well with several classy shops. La Crosse has the average mall, but has 2 Walmarts, Target, Sams Club, Shopko, Kmart, etc. So if your wife likes to shop, she will be fine.

Weather: Cold winters with lots of snow, as is common in any area of Wisconsin. Summers are hot and humid. I love the summers in La Crosse. Riverfest is a blast!

City population is 55,000 and the metro (Onalaska, Shelby, etc) is between 100,000-125,000.

La Crosse airport can get you to where you need to go, and only a 10-15 minute drive depending on where you live in the city.

Take a day and go to La Crosse, as you have to see it for yourself if it has what you are looking for. I lived there for 25 years and loved it!

[Trabbz]

Originally Posted by ndheah

Hello,

My wife will be graduating from college in May 2009, and we are looking for somewhere else to live. Currently, we reside in Menomonie, Wisconsin, and we are looking for more. We will both be 22 year old, college graduates when we plan on moving.

What we are looking for; (I've rated things by stars, 1-5 stars, 5 means a must have, 1 would be nice to have, but oh well if it does not)

*****Booming job growth, both being just out of college, we need a place that has jobs for educated people. She is in Retail, and myself, Information Technology.

****Great down-town, we want a city that has a down-town, bigger the better, but it must feel safe as well. We love to go out to nice restaurants, classy bars (I hate dirty bars), and lovely shops!

***Places to shop, my wife being in Retail, and being a woman, needs to shop. Heck, I even like to shop and want decent places to shop. As it stands now we need to travel to Eau Claire to do any real shopping.

***Population, being young, we want a decent population, does not need to be 100,000, 300,000, but currently Menomonie has 15,000, plus 10,000 college kids during the school year, so I'd say greater than 30,000.

*Not too far north, we grew up in Marinette Wisconsin, which is about 55 miles North of Green bay, and now we live in Menomonie, which is about 250 miles directly west of Marinette, we really do not want to get too far north. (Winters are colder)

*Close to Airport, would be nice to be able to fly to places across the globe with out having to drive a few hours to an air-port.

I would also venture to go as far, and say that we would be making a minumum of about $60,000 together ($30,000 each) with our first jobs, provided we both get jobs in our field. We are looking to Rent for awhile, so decent Apartment complex would be nice!


We've been to; Eau Claire, Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Appleton, Oshkosh, Menomonie, Marinette, Wausau.

In that list, Appleton is the only one that really somewhat intrigues us.

Where should we live in Wisconsin?

I would highly consider moving out of Wisconsin if you want a city that fits ALL of these qualities. I LOVE Wisconsin, but given the criteria you are taking in to consideration, there may be better choices for you outside of the state. If I were moving based on this criteria, I would go for somewhere in the Twin Cities metro.

[yo vanilla]

Originally Posted by Trabbz

I would highly consider moving out of Wisconsin if you want a city that fits ALL of these qualities. I LOVE Wisconsin, but given the criteria you are taking in to consideration, there may be better choices for you outside of the state. If I were moving based on this criteria, I would go for somewhere in the Twin Cities metro.

What do you mean? Both Appleton and Madison fit his criteria very well.