I may have a job interview in Appleton in a few weeks. I’ve heard that the Fox Cities area rates highly on various quality of life indices. Still, though, it’s a part of the country that you hear little about.
Would anyone care to give me the Straight Dope on Appleton?
Let me guess, paper?
I love it, but that may be mostly because I have a lot of friends and a lot of good memories from there. For a relatively small city, it has a lot to recommend it. Local ethnic restaurants are quite good. For sushi I recommend either Nakashima’s or Koreana. Nakashima’s is a Japanese steakhouse on the southwest side of the city, Koreana is (duh) Korean and is several blocks north of downtown. There’s also Sai Ram for Indian food, despite its strip mall location, and that Thai restaurant that I can’t remember the name of. On College Avenue, just west of Lawrence.
The county airport is decent, for a county airport, due to the needs of the paper industry, and it’s not necessary to drive to Milwaukee to get a decently-priced flight. (Downtown Milwaukee is two-ish hours away by car given no traffic.)
Speaking of the paper industry, when the wind blows from the Kaukauna direction, it can smell BAD bad bad. But it’s usually not a problem at all. Just don’t live in Kaukauna.
Both very nice and very modest homes are available, close to downtown and farther out, and a lawn bigger than a postage stamp is not a required sacrifice.
They just finished redoing the streets downtown, so you won’t have to put up with that again anytime soon. Both a Starbucks and independent coffee places. (Also, drive-thru espresso places in a couple of locations!) Lots of nice little stores downtown, but also a large shopping mall not far out of town. The performing arts center is either new or recently heavily remodeled, and there are lots of music and performing arts things, both independent and associated with Lawrence University. (I think they had a marimba festival recently.)
The Fox river isn’t disgusting or anything, but you shouldn’t swim in it.
Um… god, don’t know what to say. Questions would help.
IIRC, it was the hometown of young Eric (sp?) Weiss – a.k.a. Harry Houdini.
Yeah, that’s right on the Houdini thing. The historical society, downtown on College avenue, right across from the Thai place, has a really good Houdini exhibit. They also have a great Joe McCarthy exhibit that I believe is running until next summer. Joe McCarthy is buried in a cemetery on Prospect Avenue, west of Memorial Drive. His grave is in the back, near the river. We go check on it every once in a while, make sure he’s still dead. Can’t have zombie Joe McCarthy running around.
I think former Mets/Twins pitcher Jerry Koosman comes from there.
Better than Kansas.
Kaukauna native checking in. Depending on the wind, the south side wasn’t that bad smell wise. It is also has the oldest recorded land deed in Wisconsin and cheap electrical rates (hydro power, Fox river drops 65 feet in a mile) Nice swimming pool.
Appleton is the Outagamie county seat, parts of it extend into Winnebago and Calumet Counties. It is the site of the 1st electricaly lit house (that wasn’t a demo or anything) Lawrence University is there and has a kick-ass annual trivia contest. It is also home of the John Birch society. Plus you aren’t that far from sacred ground (Lambeau Field 
). Appleton does have teh Timebr Rattlres, a Mariners farm team–team isn’t doing so well, but there is always the bratzooka.
Population figures are misleading, since the various cities are more or less one metropolitan area now.
Brian
I lived in Oshkosh for a year – let’s mention the vicious cold of the winters – and the mayflies come spring.
Great, friendly people though.
I grew up there. My parents still live there, and I’m about an hour away. Still go up there for shopping, etc. Nice pretty metro area, great shopping, food (elfbabe: Is it Taste of Thai? Haven’t been there in a while), and all the other amenities. Seems there’s new stuff everytime I get up that way. Appleton has EVERYTHING, IMO. (I wish I had been able to appreciate it more when I lived there, but I was a kid with no money and no social life.)
Got any specific questions?
twickster - Oops, forgot about that! Shows what living in Wisconsin one’s whole life will do…
Scarlett67 - Yeah, that’s the one! Thanks. Yum yum.
nah, you guys are wrong, Appleton is pretty mild in the winters. We used to go there every February or so for a break from the real winters.
'course, my perspective of winter might be a bit different from yours…
Gah! Youpers! 
Ok, I’ll try to straighten things out… winters in the Appleton area require warm sweaters, a good winter coat, a warm hat, and ski gloves. More is necessary if you want to go HUT-nnnn. (Damn, I still can’t represent that well in text…)
Isn’t Cliff Yablonski from Appleton??
^^^ Yes. Look out for the handsome Vietnam vet with the baseball bat and the forty.
Appleton is part of the Appleton-Oshkosh-Neenah metro area, which is the third largest metro area in Wisconsin, after Milwaukee-Waukesha and Madison. Metro area population: 351,000.
Census Bureau figures from 2001 show that 96 percent were White; less than 0.5 percent were Black or African American; less than 0.5 percent were American Indian and Alaska Native; 2 percent were Asian; less than 0.5 percent were Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and 1 percent were some other race. The median age is 36.1 years. Three percent of the people living in Appleton-Oshkosh-Neenah in 2001 were foreign born. Ninety-seven percent were native, including 83 percent who were born in their state of residence.
The metro area has two daily newspapers (The Appleton Post-Crescent and The Oshkosh Northwestern); The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today are all available daily. The Fox Valley television market, which includes the Green Bay metro area, has five local stations, and is the second largest television market in Wisconsin. Time-Warner Cable is the contracted cable TV provider for Appleton, Oshkosh, and Neenah (200+ channels).
The metro area has two universities: Lawrence University (in Appleton) and the Univ. of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. In 2001, 89 percent of people 25 years and over in the metro area had at least graduated from high school and 22 percent had a bachelor’s degree or higher.
yes, and based on his testimonial, I can tell you that Appleton is home to an unusually large number of goths, ravers, D&D players and, of course, butter trolls. Say hi to ugly cat for me.
It’s interesting to see this thread, and see how Appleton has changed… I used to live there, back in the late 70’s/early 80’s. (The city didn’t have any malls yet, and you didn’t want to risk going anywhere near the Fox River, to give a sense of perspective.)
Wonder if the Victorian house I lived in is still there and in decent shape…
<< Simplify. >>
Thanks for all your replies!
Unfortunately, I just got the rejection letter today. Bah … the interview didn’t go well, so I’m not too surprised.
Ah well, you didn’t really want to do those winters, anyway.
(Bummer about the job. Let us know when to start up the Doper Good Vibes Machine again.)
Huh. I’m really surprised by so many people saying good things about Appleton. I’ve always considered it (most of the Fox Valley, actually) the asshole of Wisconsin – filthy water, filthy air, endless sprawl. My grandma lives there, and the neighborhoods we drove through to get to her place were all sad and run-down. Never did get to spend much time downtown, though. Maybe I just never saw the good parts of Appleton.
Appleton does have good ethnic restaurants, though. I’ll give it that.