Friends of ours, a hetero couple in their 30s, are moving from Vancouver, BC to Milwaukee for her work. She’s American, he’s Canadian, he has work with a US firm he can do anywhere. Any tips, warnings, helpful hints for them?
I hope you like cheese curds. And beer.
And it’s political system is broken beyond repair.
Cheese curds, beer, Friday fish fries, Culver’s , thermal underwear , snow boots, heated seats in your car, Green Bay Packers, College Basket ball, for the winter. Summer, bug spray, sun screen, brats, Summerfest, (that’s in Milwaukee) Brewers, bicycles, hiking, camping.
We moved back here after 26 years gone. Live in a small town, New Glarus, about 90minutes or so from Milwaukee. Home of The Spotted Cow beer. 
Cheese curds, BEER, Friday fish fries, BEER Culver’s , BEER , thermal underwear, BEER, snow boots, BEER , heated seats in your car, BEER , Green Bay Packers, BEER , College Basket ball, BEER , bug spray, BEER ,sun screen, BEER , brats, BEER , Summerfest, BEER, Brewers, BEER , bicycles, BEER , hiking, BEER , camping, BEER.
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If you’re a drinker, brandy is also very VERY important in WI.
Cost of living will be super low compared to Vancouver. I just spent 10 days in Vancouver and it cost me what would sustain me in WI for about 6 months or more.
Lakeshore property along Lake Michigan is selling cheap now due to high water levels. A great time to get a bargain!
State or county fairs, pig roasts, sweet corn in season. String cheese. The Wisconsin Dells for water parks, other attractions.
I used to do a lot of work in Milw. Always liked the place. Impressed me as a small big city. Plenty of the advantages of a big city, w/o some of the more extreme hassles.
While traffic (mostly) is not horrendous, I recommend that they carefully plot where they want to live. For example, the airport is just south of town, so if he is going to be travelling a lot for work, that would be a plus. But if she is working on the far N or W sides and commuting normal hours, that might force her into the worst traffic Milw offers. Just obvious stuff.
I know nothing about the Vancouver market, but RE in and around Milw is WAY cheaper than the Chicago area, w/ far shorter commutes.
A LOT of Milwaukeeans have weekend places away from the city. If that is the sort of thing that appeals to them, they might wish to economize on their main residence, to free up funds.
Is it Milwaukeeans or Milwaukeeites?
It’s Maw-waukeeans, aina?
Regards,
Shodan, Recovering Cheesehead
If I recall correctly, they have festivals at the waterfront every weekend during the warmer months. So there is always something to do.
Oh, and BEER.
M’waukeeans. 
You spelled Kopps wrong.
Fucking cheeseheads?
And don’t forget to plug in your car on those cold winter nights.
Practice your nasal long “o” (as in ‘no’) pronunciation. Practice saying it so the sound resonates in your head cavity. Short o is not the same. That gets flattened to almost a short ‘a’ sound, like in ‘hat’. So Wisconsin becomes Wiscaaansin. Sorta. Takes practice.
The most wonderful aged cheddar I’ve ever had. Great sausage too. I personally love rural Wisconsin and feel very at home there (my whole maternal line are German and Swiss immigrants who settled near Fond du Lac). You don’t need people to tell you it’s cold in winter.
Spent the first 25 years of my life there and graduated from UWMilwaukee. I don’t live there anymore but plenty of family and friends do so I’m there often.
Plenty of stuff to do during the summer months (Summerfest, Zoo, State Fair, lakefront festivals, ete.) but the winter is going to be a lot of bars and restaurants for your entertainment.
You can also road trip to other places in short order. You can get to downtown Chicago inside of two hours. Madison is an hour away. There’s a Six Flags 45 minutes south, Wisconsin Dells 1:45 away.
Sports is limited to the Bucks and the Brewers who both have nice places to play but the Packers are a couple hours north.
Also, it’s one of THE most segregated cities in the United States. Something you never realize until you venture out into the world later in life.
Kopp’s and Leon’s are the bomb! Catholic church lenten fish frys are the bomb!
And water fountains are the things with statues found in parks. The things you drink from are bubblers.
-survivor of the 93’ cryptosporidiosis outbreak
Works for me.
Could be because you drink from bubblers.
A genuinely beautiful state. I may make fun of fucking cheeseheads but I have to love a place where I can go to a beach or lake, look around, and exclaim, “I’m with my people!” Because , um, beef’s cheap.
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy.
I’m actually surprised at the relative paucity of posts praising Wisconsin sausages. I mean, you got all your various Wisconsin bratwursts, but you’ve also got summer sausage, knackwurst, bockwurst, liverwurst, Polish sausages (both fresh and smoked), great frankfurters, Thuringers, landjaegers, etc. To me, Wisconsin is the land of beer, sausage, and cheese which, frankly, is my idea of Eden.
I grew up in M’waukee, Wisgaaansin. Watched it grow up from a place with “nuthin’ ta do so gonna git drunk” to a cultural, quirky, fun town.
For instance, the Historic Third Ward was block after block of deserted warehouses in the late 50s. Now it’s a vibrant mix of shops, cafes, an art school, the Public Market, and fun watering holes (the back bar at CAMP is the best place to watch sports).
Oh, speaking of sports, teach that Canuck to enjoy American ones. The Bucks and the Badgers are playing great basketball, the Packers are fun to root for, and it’s a blast to go to Brewers games. Last time we did that we ate a huge multi-ethnic brunch at Story Hill then walked across a beautiful park to the stadium…ahhh…
And Story Hill barely beats out Blue Egg and Toast and Lake Park Bistro*… Lots of great breakfasts in Milwaukee. *Any place run by the Bartolottas is wonderful.
And I haven’t even started on the music scene, the symphony, theater, or “The Calatrava” (gorgeous art museum on the lake)…