Wisconsin Visit
Over the weekend, I took a day off and travelled to Wisconsin to visit some friends. I was able to see two major cities within the state, during the daytime and on the weekend, which is unlike most trips I take. Here are my observations.
Milwaukee versus Detroit
One of the things that strikes you is that Milwaukee doesn't really have any sky-scrapers. There are only eight buildings in Milwaukee that are over 100m while there are 25 buildings over 100m in Detroit.
Also notice that all but one of those eight buildings for Milwaukee was built after 1973 compared to 10 of Detroit's tallest buildings built in the 1920s and 1930s. This makes for a huge difference in scenery. If you're an admirer of any sort of architecture, you know that some of the oldest buildings found in any city are usually the most beautiful. Cases in point: Fischer Building, Penobscot Building, Guardian Building, David Stott Building, or the Book Cadillac (which is now being turned into condos and a Hotel Westin). Which is not to say that Milwaukee doesn't have attractive buildings - because it does - but it just can't compare to the roaring 20s boom that put Detroit on the map as a world-class city for a few decades.
Staying on the topic of buildings, I have to say that most of Milwaukee's are actually inhabited. Even walking around the CBD of Detroit you'll see plenty of empty buildings. Multiple buildings all stand completely empty: David Whitney Building (89m tall), David Broderick Tower (113m tall), Metropolitan Building (56m), and the Kresge Building. These aren't even counting smaller buildings or fronts that are boarded up.
Compare this to Milwaukee which looked, well, vibrant. I was downtown on a sunny yet cold Friday afternoon. People seemed to be walking around, just doing whatever. The streets weren't clogged, and parking spaces weren't terribly hard to find, but there was just this presence of people downtown. Also, their Downtown has more shops in it. Kitschy stores like Shoo or this store that only carried different kinds of paper and paper-related products. These stores might be able to flourish in Royal Oak or Ann Arbor but would never see the light of day in Detroit.
Another thing I noticed was the lack of surface lots in Milwaukee. You can tell by comparing the satellite imagery on Google Maps of Milwaukee to Detroit to get an idea of what I'm talking about. I'm not quite sure why this is. Maybe there's more parking structures in Mil-town but working where I do and being able to see a wide area of CBD Detroit, I kind of doubt that. There seemed to be a lot more on-street angle-parking with meters bringing in money to the city, not a private entity which owns the lot or parking structure, as well as more bike riders in Milwaukee compared to Detroit.
Recycling. Milwaukee has a city-wide recycling program. Detroit does not. Guess who wins that one?
Madison versus Ann Arbor
First thing I noticed is that downtown Madison is a bit larger than downtown A2. Ann Arbor has a main strip about 5 blocks long and maybe 3 blocks wide whereas Madison has a considerably larger downtown. This is due to two reasons. One, Madison is the state capitol and Ann Arbor is not. And two, U of W does not take up most of the city's downtown land where U of M does take up a considerable amount of space.
The number of (again) kitschy stores in Madison definitely outweighed those in A2. While both city cultures are quite similar (for example, head shops where you can buy glass "tobacco" wares) there seemed to be more of them in Madison. Same for unique clothing stores. Or a bead store. Hell, they even had chains downtown like Qdoba, Taco Bell, and Jimmy Johns (at least A2 has JJs).
Overall Observations
I noticed there were a ton of Irish pubs in Milwaukee and even moreso in Madison. Everywhere you went, Irish names with green and gold trim showing off Guinness and PBR to drink.
Beer is easier to get. They dispense this stuff like it's water. You can buy beer at a student union (at UWM), or at a Greek diner (we call it a Coney Island out here in Michigan), or even at Whole Foods where you can order a beer or a glass of wine at one of their kiosks. I'm quite surprised they don't offer pints of Strohs at McDonalds yet.
Continuing on the subject of beer, the state of Wisconsin does not allow the sale of alcohol after 9pm. You heard that right, 9pm. You can still be served until 2am but if you get out of your lame 2nd shift job working 3pm to 9pm or 10pm and want some beer to take home, you're fucked. Looks like you'll have to go to the one of many bars and get served.
More beer: there is TONS of breweries in Wisconsin. Truly, the only things to do in Wisconsin is to brew beer, drink beer, bowl, watch football, watch hockey, eat cheese, and fuck (more on this later) and boy do they like to brew beer. Here in Michigan we have Bells, New Holland, Arcadia, and then stuff coming out of local brew-pubs in southeast Michigan. Just to name a few, Wisconsin has Lakefront Brewery, Berghoff, Pointe, New Glarus, Capital Brewery, Lilja's, and Furthermore (I brought home all but Berghoff stuff).
They have some weird-ass street intersections. For whatever reason, they think it's completely normal that three streets should meet at one point a la MLK-Trumbull-Grand River in Detroit or Oakwood-Shaefer-Francis street in Melvindale. I counted way too many of these streets.
Traffic signals are in a weird position. They are on the other side of the intersection, which is good; it allows drivers to read it more easily waiting to make a left hand turn or just sitting at the line. However, they are not above the intersection: they are on the corners, maybe a foot above the crosswalk signs. To me, this is bad and good. Bad, as they don't really stand out. Large trucks or trees or other obstactles can easily block them out. Good, because if the sun is setting/rising at a certain time, you aren't blinded when you need to look up at the signals.
There's not really any graffiti in Milwaukee. This could be due to turning a downtown rail-ditch similar to the Dequindre Cut into a greenway or the fact that there aren't too many abandoned buildings for them to write on/in. Mil-town doesn't have too many well-known writers as it stands. If they do, I'm willing to bet half of them are metal-heads visiting Milwaukee's big yard on the southside.
Women are uglier. Yes, it's true: generally, the further north you go, the uglier people get. While Wisconsin doesn't have too many black people - meaning, more white folk and I loves me some white booty - the white women aren't that great looking at all. Even in Madison, a college town, you'd think there'd be something nice to look at but no, nothing. See, Ann Arbor is seen as an artsy town with artsy people. I kind of like the scenster look on women as compared to the American Eagle/Gap look prevalent in Madison. Not only is Ann Arbor like this, but also the Midtown area in Detroit. While Detroit's population may be 85% black, if you know the right spots, get-togethers can be 99% full of white scensters.
Lack of distinguishing food. Michigan has Meijers, White Castles, Faygo, Better Maid, Vernors, Sanders, and a couple other things I'm sure I'm missing. Wisconsin has.. uh.. cheese curds.
Advice
Looking to get out of Detroit but don't want to leave the rustbelt? Move to Milwaukee. Should be places just as cheap as Detroit close or even in, downtown. However, make sure to move there with a mate that is from somewhere south of the Wolverine-Hoosier line so that you aren't looking at ugly folks (such as myself). Keep in touch with friends back home so they can ship you wonderful Michigan food stuffs. Sell your car and buy a decent bike or motor scooter. Keep all of your winter clothes.
Milwaukee versus Detroit
One of the things that strikes you is that Milwaukee doesn't really have any sky-scrapers. There are only eight buildings in Milwaukee that are over 100m while there are 25 buildings over 100m in Detroit.
Also notice that all but one of those eight buildings for Milwaukee was built after 1973 compared to 10 of Detroit's tallest buildings built in the 1920s and 1930s. This makes for a huge difference in scenery. If you're an admirer of any sort of architecture, you know that some of the oldest buildings found in any city are usually the most beautiful. Cases in point: Fischer Building, Penobscot Building, Guardian Building, David Stott Building, or the Book Cadillac (which is now being turned into condos and a Hotel Westin). Which is not to say that Milwaukee doesn't have attractive buildings - because it does - but it just can't compare to the roaring 20s boom that put Detroit on the map as a world-class city for a few decades.
Staying on the topic of buildings, I have to say that most of Milwaukee's are actually inhabited. Even walking around the CBD of Detroit you'll see plenty of empty buildings. Multiple buildings all stand completely empty: David Whitney Building (89m tall), David Broderick Tower (113m tall), Metropolitan Building (56m), and the Kresge Building. These aren't even counting smaller buildings or fronts that are boarded up.
Compare this to Milwaukee which looked, well, vibrant. I was downtown on a sunny yet cold Friday afternoon. People seemed to be walking around, just doing whatever. The streets weren't clogged, and parking spaces weren't terribly hard to find, but there was just this presence of people downtown. Also, their Downtown has more shops in it. Kitschy stores like Shoo or this store that only carried different kinds of paper and paper-related products. These stores might be able to flourish in Royal Oak or Ann Arbor but would never see the light of day in Detroit.
Another thing I noticed was the lack of surface lots in Milwaukee. You can tell by comparing the satellite imagery on Google Maps of Milwaukee to Detroit to get an idea of what I'm talking about. I'm not quite sure why this is. Maybe there's more parking structures in Mil-town but working where I do and being able to see a wide area of CBD Detroit, I kind of doubt that. There seemed to be a lot more on-street angle-parking with meters bringing in money to the city, not a private entity which owns the lot or parking structure, as well as more bike riders in Milwaukee compared to Detroit.
Recycling. Milwaukee has a city-wide recycling program. Detroit does not. Guess who wins that one?
Madison versus Ann Arbor
First thing I noticed is that downtown Madison is a bit larger than downtown A2. Ann Arbor has a main strip about 5 blocks long and maybe 3 blocks wide whereas Madison has a considerably larger downtown. This is due to two reasons. One, Madison is the state capitol and Ann Arbor is not. And two, U of W does not take up most of the city's downtown land where U of M does take up a considerable amount of space.
The number of (again) kitschy stores in Madison definitely outweighed those in A2. While both city cultures are quite similar (for example, head shops where you can buy glass "tobacco" wares) there seemed to be more of them in Madison. Same for unique clothing stores. Or a bead store. Hell, they even had chains downtown like Qdoba, Taco Bell, and Jimmy Johns (at least A2 has JJs).
Overall Observations
I noticed there were a ton of Irish pubs in Milwaukee and even moreso in Madison. Everywhere you went, Irish names with green and gold trim showing off Guinness and PBR to drink.
Beer is easier to get. They dispense this stuff like it's water. You can buy beer at a student union (at UWM), or at a Greek diner (we call it a Coney Island out here in Michigan), or even at Whole Foods where you can order a beer or a glass of wine at one of their kiosks. I'm quite surprised they don't offer pints of Strohs at McDonalds yet.
Continuing on the subject of beer, the state of Wisconsin does not allow the sale of alcohol after 9pm. You heard that right, 9pm. You can still be served until 2am but if you get out of your lame 2nd shift job working 3pm to 9pm or 10pm and want some beer to take home, you're fucked. Looks like you'll have to go to the one of many bars and get served.
More beer: there is TONS of breweries in Wisconsin. Truly, the only things to do in Wisconsin is to brew beer, drink beer, bowl, watch football, watch hockey, eat cheese, and fuck (more on this later) and boy do they like to brew beer. Here in Michigan we have Bells, New Holland, Arcadia, and then stuff coming out of local brew-pubs in southeast Michigan. Just to name a few, Wisconsin has Lakefront Brewery, Berghoff, Pointe, New Glarus, Capital Brewery, Lilja's, and Furthermore (I brought home all but Berghoff stuff).
They have some weird-ass street intersections. For whatever reason, they think it's completely normal that three streets should meet at one point a la MLK-Trumbull-Grand River in Detroit or Oakwood-Shaefer-Francis street in Melvindale. I counted way too many of these streets.
Traffic signals are in a weird position. They are on the other side of the intersection, which is good; it allows drivers to read it more easily waiting to make a left hand turn or just sitting at the line. However, they are not above the intersection: they are on the corners, maybe a foot above the crosswalk signs. To me, this is bad and good. Bad, as they don't really stand out. Large trucks or trees or other obstactles can easily block them out. Good, because if the sun is setting/rising at a certain time, you aren't blinded when you need to look up at the signals.
There's not really any graffiti in Milwaukee. This could be due to turning a downtown rail-ditch similar to the Dequindre Cut into a greenway or the fact that there aren't too many abandoned buildings for them to write on/in. Mil-town doesn't have too many well-known writers as it stands. If they do, I'm willing to bet half of them are metal-heads visiting Milwaukee's big yard on the southside.
Women are uglier. Yes, it's true: generally, the further north you go, the uglier people get. While Wisconsin doesn't have too many black people - meaning, more white folk and I loves me some white booty - the white women aren't that great looking at all. Even in Madison, a college town, you'd think there'd be something nice to look at but no, nothing. See, Ann Arbor is seen as an artsy town with artsy people. I kind of like the scenster look on women as compared to the American Eagle/Gap look prevalent in Madison. Not only is Ann Arbor like this, but also the Midtown area in Detroit. While Detroit's population may be 85% black, if you know the right spots, get-togethers can be 99% full of white scensters.
Lack of distinguishing food. Michigan has Meijers, White Castles, Faygo, Better Maid, Vernors, Sanders, and a couple other things I'm sure I'm missing. Wisconsin has.. uh.. cheese curds.
Advice
Looking to get out of Detroit but don't want to leave the rustbelt? Move to Milwaukee. Should be places just as cheap as Detroit close or even in, downtown. However, make sure to move there with a mate that is from somewhere south of the Wolverine-Hoosier line so that you aren't looking at ugly folks (such as myself). Keep in touch with friends back home so they can ship you wonderful Michigan food stuffs. Sell your car and buy a decent bike or motor scooter. Keep all of your winter clothes.