I have been thinking where I want to live, and I have decided I am a Midwestern kind of guy. All the towns seem to be friendly, and I have found that the ones I have been in are fairly progressive. I am originally from Fremont NE, and now live in Appleton, WI. I am going to be out on my own in 2-4 years, and am thinking of where I would like to live. So far I have thought of:
Lincoln, NE (Go Cornhuskers!)
Madison, WI (Another fine college town, and you gotta love State Street)
Des Moines, IA (I like the downtown and Architecture)
Ames, IA (A nice college town)
Lawrence KS, (Know some people from the net who live down there, they seem to like it)
Cedar Rapids, IA (Neighbors are from there, they always are saying how nice it is)
Am I missing any I should Check out? I would like a population of over 50k people.
Also, What about Eastern Tennessee? I know its not the Midwest but is it backwards like people make it out to be? My grandpa says he would never go back there (He helped with the TVA before the war) but it was very beautiful country.
Thanks,
Ben
Well I think things have changed since your Grandfathers time.
East Tennessee is beautiful. Knoxville is nice and so is Chattanooga. Of course, I live in Huntsville AL (North alabama) so I shall leave the tennessee questions to those who live there.
My family moved to Madison about 6 years ago. I was in love with the town before the move, and I still love it. Just realize that you’ll have to contend with the hijinks of ~40,000 college kids about 9 months out of the year (and many stay for the summer).
My boyfriend is from Cedar Rapids. From hearing him talk, he didn’t think it was so great, but maybe he’s just glad to be out of Iowa.
Chanute, Kansas! If you’re looking for a great place to live where you have lots of things to do, great restauraunts, breathtaking scenery, and nice people, then this town is definitely NOT your choice!
Its small, boring, and IMHO, the town is kind of ugly. Its about 9,000 people big, not too much to do, but it’s got all the comforts of home. I love this town.
But of course, it all depends what you are looking for. I don’t really care where I end up living, as long as my friends and family are nearby. That is more important to me then the geographical location of my town. I could live in Antarctica and be quite happy as long as I was near friends and family.
Eastern Tennessee is very beautiful, haven’t actually lived there, but my grandmother lived in Middle Tennessee. I’m from west Tennessee. However, Tennessee’s financial status is extremely screwed up right now due to a lot of factors, so I wouldn’t recommend moving here right now.
-Lil
http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/midsouth_news/article/0,1426,MCA_1497_1161717,00.html
East Tennessee is quite pretty. But what do you mean by backwards, exactly? Certainly some people in the smaller communities don’t have much love for outsiders (they stare…even at me and I live around there). KKK flags still fly in isolated pockets of the mountains. And you probably would not be happy if you’re not Christian. But all in all, the larger towns are perfectly nice places to live.
If you want stuff to do, though, you might want to check out Knoxville. There’s not much else around.
jessica
Norman, OK–another college town, but only if you think you can get into football or the Junior League
Austin, TX—yet more collegeness. Lots of fantastic restaurants, especially those who cater to the vegetarian crowd, very progressive. But again, there is an emphasis on football.
I would live in either town, if I hadn’t grown up in them and there weren’t so freekin hot. And I have a really hard time getting into football, but its fun to watch everyone else get excited 
And I think they count as Midwest and not South, maybe I am wrong there. They are both beautifully landscaped and almost anything will grow in Norman, making the gardens beautiful all year round, easy to navigate, friendly people. . . gl on your search!
If you ike Madison, let me add Ann Arbor, MI to your list. Or if you prefer the small-towny feel, one of its satellite small towns, such as Chelsea or Dexter, MI.
miles live in Eastern Tennessee. Telford/Jonesborogh/Johnson City area.
Backward? In places. I don’t recommend Erwin.
It’s heavily Christian. Not in a Children of the Corn way or anything but it’s definitely the predominate mindset. You can practice another religion (if you want) but expect to be questioned, stared at and proselytized to on a pretty regular basis.
Stuff to do? If you like to eat out at restaurants, this is the town for you. We have ten times the number of restaurants you would expect for a town of this size. So far as other stuff goes, it’s a little limited. We have a symphony, a water park, a few theater companies, a couple movie theaters, bars…and that’s about it.
Now, there are things to do if you want to drive a little bit. We have several things to do in Gatlinburg–about 90 miles away–a nice aquarium, amusement park, outlet shopping, water parks, and various novelty amusements (helicopter rides, dinner theaters, hang gliding, bungee jumping, etc.) There is also the Great Smokey Mountains National Park–beautiful area.
In Knoxville (about 100-120 miles away), there are plenty of good restaurants, bars, night spots, etc. Great zoo also.
Travel a little farther and you can go see professional sports teams. Want to see some NHL teams? You can pick from Nashville, Raleigh, NC or Atlanta, GA.–all roughly the same distance from here. NFL? Nashville again.
My brain is fried now and I can’t think of anything else.
Feel free to ask any additional questions you may have.
Cedar Falls Iowa is nice. I liked it there and could live there again. A college town but the town was there first so it doesn’t die in the summer.
Cedar Rapids is okay, but a little too industrial for my taste.
Des Moines does have some nice architecture. It’s a goo medium sized city.
I lived in Ames for a year. Have to say I wasn’t that impressed, but then again I had a crappy job and very few friends, so my perspective is not the best on that one.
Of you did move to Ann Arbor, you could meet up with another Nebraskan: myself. I grew up in Kearney.
I grew up near Madison, WI and moved away to various places for about 10 years until returning to the area 8 years ago. The Madison area is a good place to live and I am glad to be back. One of the places I lived while out of Wisconsin was Knoxville, TN. I’d live there again too. The cost of living was low, the scenery was great and the people were friendly. I don’t know much about the state’s financial situation that percypercy alluded too but since there is no state income tax in Tennessee I don’t doubt that they are having problems.
There’s no state income tax now. I can’t say in two weeks. (They’re voting now)
I live in Nashville. I’ve lived in Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio before living here. I like it. The winter is enough to make you feel you’ve had one, and you get spring flowers, but the daffodils always bloom by the end of February. The grammar and southern accent were hard to get used to, but just hold fast and you won’t talk like a Tenneseean.
StG
I grew up in what was a small town in Ohio (New Albany, pop then ~5,000. Pop now too damn many!) and currently live just outside of Nashville. If you move to Tennessee, brace yourself for a culture shock. I mean it. There’s things that I’ve seen and heard down here which would be at home in any David Lynch movie. (Do NOT go to Tracey City!!!) That being said, its not a bad place to live. (Though if the income tax does go through, I’d seriously consider living someplace else. Gonna be a lot of well-armed angry red necks.)
Hey! them’s fighting words! 
Tracy City was where my Grandmother was from! Now aside from the odd genes that manage to make it off the mountain, what’s wrong with the place? My cousins own the grocery store.
-Lil
Well if just one of the stories I heard about the place (That the “Welcome” sign on the outskirts of town has a racial slur on it.) is true, that’s enough reason for me not to go there. Then there was the buddy of mine who was the music director out there for a couple of years and the things that he told me (“One of my kids said that the reasons we have blacks is because one of Noah’s son’s gave him a blow-job.”), which pretty much indicate to me that civilization stops somewhere before you get to the place. (I am speaking of the Tracy City in Grundy county, BTW.)
(emphasis mine)
See? Now why would that be culture shock?
I went to college near Tracey City. It is a poor town that grew up as a coal mining town and then the coal gave out. I am not sure how it got mentioned along with Knoxville. If you want a town that doesn’t like outsiders of any kind go to Sherman, TN which is on the other side of the ridge from Tracey City.
The word about Tennessee having problems is correct. They need to raise taxes, but nobody wants to vote for them. To get away from this problem and stay in the same beautiful country, consider Ashville, NC.
I’ve lived in Northeast TN and Southwest VA (Born in Jess Enigma’s hometown and didn’t realize I was that close to evilbeth, but apparently so) all my life. I like this area a lot. Everything they’ve said I agree is true, and especially beware if you have a “Yankee” accent. My hubby moved here over eight years ago from the Fort Lauderdale/West Palm Beach area, and he consistently gets comments on his speech from strangers. He has tried unsuccessfully over the years to get convince me to move to Florida, but no dice. There’s something about this area that makes me feel stuck here, but not really in a (terribly) bad way. It’s a pretty good place to raise kids, if you are diligent about teaching tolerance yourself. FWIW, I prefer a rural area, so most of this may be just my personal preference. I live on a dead-end road on top of a hill out in the county, so my kids can play in the yard without being snatched, they can play in the pool or on their waterslide without being eyed by perverts, and our dogs can bark all they want without disturbing anyone. Come to think of it, maybe I’m just a hermit.
Two things no one mentioned: My town has TWO drive-in theaters left, and we take the kids every Friday. Yeah! The drive-in.
:
: no, I definitely wouldn’t recommend moving to Tracy City, it’s a hole in the road, I was just surprised it got mentioned at all. Still, it is a beautiful location being up on the mountain an’ all. And there is more than one grocery store. but it’s more fun to call it THE Grocery store than Henry Flury and Sons, doncha think?
ah well,
-Lil