I grew up there, would move back in a minute if it worked out…
If you hate it so much…leave. The city has grown too big anyway.
The Midwest isn’t for everybody.
- there is no free parking on or near campus of downtown
- the bus pass is free for all UW staff and students
- you are a complaining twit way beyond saving - go away.
Where are you from originally? I’m guessing you’re not a native Midwesterner. A lot of what you’re complaining about is not Madison, per se…but a University town. I’m also guessing you’re a new student? Beauracracy. Get used to it.
- Like I said, Universities specialize in red tape. It’s their special little way of teaching you to be a grown up and figure out how to subvert the system on your own. It doesn’t matter if you’re undergrad, grad, or an employee. The PITA factor is always going to be there.
1b. I never noticed it smelling like a farm, unless you were over by the barns. Where, not suprisingly, it smelled like barns.
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Never seemed any different than any other city I’ve lived in, in terms of attitude.
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Crappy roads are a byproduct of Midwestern temperature extremes.
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Picnic point? The Arb? The track? Dog parks? Grass next to sidewalks? There are soft places…you just have to look for them.
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Can’t help you here, never took the bus. But I also wasn’t required to buy a bus pass. Is that new?
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welcome to a Big 10 college town, my friend.
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Come live in Minnesota. Madison will seem like a tropical paradise.
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That’s part of Madison’s charm. Small town, Midwestern living. What did you EXPECT to happen there? People don’t live there b/c it’s overly exciting. Go to the zoo, run by the lakes, visit the farmer’s market, hang out under the tree at Paul’s Club, play some pool at the Dane. It’s a quiet town.
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Again, welcome to the Midwest. And there’s always a non-ethanol option available.
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Eh, taxes are high.
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I don’t know where you’re eating, but I never had a problem with ham and/or mayo. In fact, there were more tree-hugging hippie vegetarian recipes trying to sneak into stuff than ham, IMO. I don’t think I ever had anyone ask me if I wanted ham on anything that didn’t already include ham–which I wouldn’t have ordered anyway.
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Again, people in the Midwest do not yield for pedestrians. Why on earth are you out walking around? Although, I have to say, on a college campus, students tend to just walk out in front of cars whenever they please.
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Learn to work the system…quietly, subversively. And you get more flies with honey. I’m not saying you might come across as a whiny, entitled kid, but…
Madison is a cute, quiet Midwestern town, with some of the bigger-town amenities like cultural events and whatnot. It’s a college town, so you have to like that sort of atmosphere for the city to be appealing. It has four seasons, pretty geography, decent proximity to other bigger cities, good schools, a variety of jobs, and a low crime rate. It’s not New York City or Chicago. It isn’t Seattle or San Fran. It doesn’t try to be, nor does it bill itself as such. If that’s what you’re looking for…move, cuz it’s not going to turn into one of those places, no matter how much you bitch at it.
The Midwest is an acquired taste. And it, like all the other regions of the country, has its foibles and idiosyncracies (TYME machines, bubblers, The GReen Bay Packers). A lot of the things you’re complaining about are simply what life in the Midwest is–and for a lot of people, that’s appealing. It’s not perfect, but for the people who enjoy it, the good outweighs the bad.
bubblers
LOL…love that.
When I visited my sister in Madison, the server was making small talk at our breakfast table. When I told him I was in the Navy he got quite frosty and immediately started talking about politics. He informed me happily that Madison was “The Moscow of the Midwest”.
If that’s true (and from the little I know I can’t dispute that) I think that’s a prime example of why I don’t want any more socialism in our country. I don’t want ethanol, or high taxes, or HMOs etc etc etc. Unfortunately, this is what you get when you live in a socialistic city/state/nation etc.
If you don’t like it, it seems you have very little alternative.
You can find crazy people anywhere.
When I visited my sister in Madison, the server was making small talk at our breakfast table. When I told him I was in the Navy he got quite frosty and immediately started talking about politics. He informed me happily that Madison was “The Moscow of the Midwest”.
If that’s true (and from the little I know I can’t dispute that) I think that’s a prime example of why I don’t want any more socialism in our country. I don’t want ethanol, or high taxes, or HMOs etc etc etc. Unfortunately, this is what you get when you live in a socialistic city/state/nation etc.
If you don’t like it, it seems you have very little alternative.
When I finished my tour in the Army I was torn between returning home to Wisconsin or going to Dallas where I worked prior to the Army. I received offers from law firms in Green Bay (my home town), Milwaukee, and Madison. Thankfully, the firm I really wanted to join was in Milwaukee.
I really love Madison and spend quite a bit of time there, but, could not live there. WAY too much attitude like you are expressing. The Peoples Republic of Madison is an accurate description.
But, what do people expect? The city is comprised of three groups of people: (1) students, (2) academia, and (3) politicians/state employees. What do you expect? I saw the same thing in the Peoples Republic of Ann Arbor (Univ. of Michigan) and even in the Peoples Republic of Manhattan, KS (Kansas State), although Manhattan was much less an extreme. Not as extremed as Madison and Ann Arbor, but, I saw a lot of the same in the Peoples Republic of Lawrence (Kansas).
mmrocker13 nailed it. What she said.
Peoples Republic of Manhattan, KS (Kansas State),
Good thing we got on-post housing at Ft. Riley, it seems. I do like Madison though- our house is about 1.5 hours away.
I’ve only been to Madison a couple of times, but everytime I have gone there it has been very enjoyable. In fact, it is one of the few cities that I would actually want to live in…and I currently spend quite a bit of time in Ann Arbor.
I am pretty sure that the University of Wisconsin has all of the original manuscripts of J.R.R. Tolkien so that is pretty cool.
Bernie
Don’t you live in Detroit though?
Don’t you live in Detroit though?
No, I grew up in Dearborn which borders Detroit. And I currently work in a city that shares a border with Detroit. I have many friends who live in Detroit and I have strong ties to the area in general.
There is very little comparison that can be made between Detroit and Madison in my opinion. It is 2 different ways of utilizing urban area.
Bernie
You’re right that the weather in all of Wisconsin SUCKS. That makes everyone in the midwest pretty much a frozen yahoo.
I think Madison wants to be Boulder when it grows up. It aspires to be as hippie tree hugger friendly, and pretends to be outdoorsy and athletic, but can’t quite loose its roots as the place the farmers drive their pickup to get a load of plywood from Menards. Fortunately, a lot of native Wisconsin people are beer swigging, Packer loving, brautwurst eating folks that are more or less too busy with other things to worry about politics and exercise.
I think Madison wants to be Boulder when it grows up. It aspires to be as hippie tree hugger friendly, and pretends to be outdoorsy and athletic, but can’t quite loose its roots as the place the farmers drive their pickup to get a load of plywood from Menards. Fortunately, a lot of native Wisconsin people are beer swigging, Packer loving, brautwurst eating folks that are more or less too busy with other things to worry about politics and exercise.
Have you actually ever been to Madison? Madison has been a hippie hangout since at least the late 1960s…
Once you get past State St, you’re pretty much done, at least outside of football season…
…but don’t miss the chili at Dottie Dumpling’s Dowry! Mmmmmmmmm.
Have you actually ever been to Madison? Madison has been a hippie hangout since at least the late 1960s…
Yep…it’ll give UC Berkeley a run for it’s money. How I survived my undergrad years with my good conservative intellect intact, I’ll never know…the beer may have helped. 
Have you actually ever been to Madison? Madison has been a hippie hangout since at least the late 1960s…
My parents live in Mount Horeb and I grew up near there, so…yeah, I’ve been there. Thanks for the tip.
Trade ya! I get Madison you get Santaquin, Ut.
This sounds like pretty much any college town; I live in Gainesville, FL and lived in Corvallis, OR for undergrad; both had similar frustrations. Although the running was great in Corvallis. I’m sure you’ll run into similar problems anywhere that has a major university.