What is Midwestern USA like to live in?

Tyzuris

Tyzuris

Primarch to your glory& the glory of him on Earth!
So there's a lot of relatives (in the hundreds) I have descending from my paternal grandmother's aunts living mostly in the Midwestern USA (in urban areas outside the biggest cities and rural areas). What kind of an area is Midwest to live in and how do you guys from Midwest view it?
 
Well what 'Midwest' states are you talking about, because the conditions (environmental, social, economic) will actually vary widely across parts of the Midwest.

For example Arkansas is quite different from Wisconsin, but both are 'Midwest' by most definitions.
 
Bacle said:
Well what 'Midwest' states are you talking about, because the conditions (environmental, social, economic) will actually vary widely across parts of the Midwest.

For example Arkansas is quite different from Wisconsin, but both are 'Midwest' by most definitions.
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Well my relatives in US live mostly in mid-sized cities in Midwest ranging from Rapid City South Dakota to Indianapolis in Indiana and then smaller more rural areas in states between states of Indiana and South Dakota.
 
Tyzuris said:
Well my relatives in US live mostly in mid-sized cities in Midwest ranging from Rapid City South Dakota to Indianapolis in Indiana and then smaller more rural areas in states between states of Indiana and South Dakota.
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Ok, well South Dakota is definitely different than Indiana.

SD has a lot of wind issues, some issues with meth (lots of the Midwest has this problem), and has an...iffy economy. Socially it's a deep red state, and is seeing a bit of a tech boom due to remote working abilities of a lot of tech firms.

Indiana is closer to an East Coast state in terms of the social and economic aspects, even if it's a fairly red. Environmentally it's pretty middle of the road, but does get some lake-effect snow issues off the Great Lakes.

The Midwest as a whole is...a decent place to live, and has opportunity for people to advance, though not as much these days compared to before we off-shored manufacturing to the CCP.
 
Having read about Indianapolis (a bigger city with the friendliness and hospitality of a smaller town), it's one of the places I'd like to live in the US.
 
Tyzuris said:
Having read about Indianapolis (a bigger city with the friendliness and hospitality of a smaller town), it's one of the places I'd like to live in the US.
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Certainly worse places (Detroit/Cleveland) you could go.

Most I know about Indianapolis is about their football team, the Colts.
 
Tyzuris said:
Having read about Indianapolis (a bigger city with the friendliness and hospitality of a smaller town), it's one of the places I'd like to live in the US.
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I live in Indy.

It is the most heavily forested city in the world.

It's also very spread out (the metro area is larger than New York and a bit more than half the size of Belgium). If you move here make sure you have a car. Getting from point A to point B can take awhile if you don't have one because public transit is sparse in Marion County and practically non-existant outside of Marion County.
 
I grew up in Chicago, and as much as I love Chicago I cannot currently recommend it to the same level I would have 20 years ago. I still think it beats LA and New York, but all three are bad. Pros of the Midwest: Affordable housing and cost of living in general (outside the Chicago metroplex), folks are generally not immediately hostile, food can be good. You will need a car outside of Chicago itself, you would probably want one inside the city if you can park it. Winter can take some getting used to above 40 Latitude in the Midwest.
 
Robovski said:
You will need a car outside of Chicago itself, you would probably want one inside the city if you can park it.
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You do not want to be responsible for a car in downtown Chicago unless you have no other option.

The last two times I was in Chicago:
- 3 hours stuck on Lake Shore Drive during a Saturday morning where I just wanted to get to Evanston to attend a Northwestern graduation ceremony.
- July 4th with a gal from a Chicago suburb who basically said "you're absolutely batshit insane" when I suggested that I drive intstead of us using public transit.
 
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bintananth said:
You do not want to be responsible for a car in downtown Chicago unless you have no other option.

The last two times I was in Chicago:
- 3 hours stuck on Lake Shore Drive during a Saturday morning where I just wanted to get to Evanston to attend a Northwestern graduation ceremony.
- July 4th with a gal from a Chicago suburb who basically said "you're absolutely batshit insane" when I suggested that I drive intstead of us using public transit.
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Parking isn't so bad if you live out on one of the sides and not downtown, you could have your own garage or a space. I made due without a car when I lived there and used buses and the trains but it's not for everyone.
 
Robovski said:
Parking isn't so bad if you live out on one of the sides and not downtown, you could have your own garage or a space. I made due without a car when I lived there and used buses and the trains but it's not for everyone.
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I'm kinda comparing it to Indy.

Chicago proper is much smaller than Indy proper in terms of land area and having to pay for parking in Indy is the exception, rather than the rule.
 
bintananth said:
I'm kinda comparing it to Indy.

Chicago proper is much smaller than Indy proper in terms of land area and having to pay for parking in Indy is the exception, rather than the rule.
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Indy you should have a car. Chicago has density and a real rail system to support semi-OK to not great bus schedules.
 
bintananth said:
The July 4th I mentioned upthread ...

The suburb was Joliet. That's 46 miles on I-80 to downtown Chicago.
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Chicago is the city of Chicago. Joliet is the third largest city in Illinois and happens to be in the Chicago metropolitan area that includes places like Joliet, basically Cook County and the surrounding counties. Image below shows Kendall which Joliet spills over into from Will county and I never really considered Kendall part of the Chicago area, but YMMV. Also I would include Lake County in Indiana, yes, that's another different Lake County. If you have a Metra station (like Joliet and they have an Amtrak stop), you can probably get a train into town if you are outside of Cook County, but all of those counties have large swathes of greenspaces and suburban sprawl and a car is recommended.
MetroChicago_forweb.jpg
 
Robovski said:
Chicago is the city of Chicago. Joliet is the third largest city in Illinois and happens to be in the Chicago metropolitan area that includes places like Joliet, basically Cook County and the surrounding counties. Image below shows Kendall which Joliet spills over into from Will county and I never really considered Kendall part of the Chicago area, but YMMV. Also I would include Lake County in Indiana, yes, that's another different Lake County. If you have a Metra station (like Joliet and they have an Amtrak stop), you can probably get a train into town if you are outside of Cook County, but all of those counties have large swathes of greenspaces and suburban sprawl and a car is recommended.
MetroChicago_forweb.jpg
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Chicago is the only Midwestern City I won't live in. You can not write a cheque with enough zeroes on it for me to accept "you must live in Chicago".
 
I'd give a strong recommendation for Oklahoma.

1: It's in the middle of the states, so if you want to travel it's pretty equidistant.
Two. Culture is relatively polite, very good homeschooling community present if you're interested in doing that for your kids.
C;Attle Farming. Beef is your friend.
Four - Relatively inexpensive for most of your necessities.
% = Tornadoes happen, but I was never hit by one, you just need to find the right county. If you either find somewhere within a few miles of a lake that severely reduces the likelihood.
Finally, there's a significant amount of biodiversity and biome presence. If you have a particular type for that kind of thing, you just need to figure out where you'd like to go. Northwest is an interesting set of gypsum hills, and you get part of Black Mesa in the Panhandle (i cna cofrim no hedcrob, trust me). Southeast you find something much like certain parts of Georgia, lots of pine and more rain. A little bit north of OKC there's an area called the crosstimbers where the trees get incredibly thick, and then all of a sudden stop being there at all.
 
Up north we do not have nearly as many tornadoes, but it is very cold in winter with lots of snow and very hot and humid in summer.
 
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