Living in Milwaukee is like living with a bunch of truck drivers. Or, your third cousin who you only see at family reunions that lives in the basement and creeps out everyone else in the family except his parents.
-It’s a blue collar town, so you’ll find a lot of cultural norms originate from the plant floor.
-Very few people are “traveled” most have never lived outside of WI and consider Milwaukee the “big city”. There are literally no transients here that have not been brought here by a significant other or spouse. If they have no personal connection to WI, they’re here less than 5 years. I have yet to meet someone here that’s been here longer than 5 years that didn’t grow up here or brought here by a loved one. Those that are here without a love connection are here because of a job. Definately not for the WI lifestyle.
-I’ve come across folks that refuse to leave WI because they “need” to be within 6 hours driving distance of their family. (normal for most but this seems on the verge of really dependent on family)
-It’s one of the most segregated areas in the US. Not only do folks live seperately from each other, but it’s the same when you go out on the town. With that, you often get a very narrow perspective from folks around you.
-WI is not for you if you’re a fan of sports. You’re either a Packers fan or a Brewers fan, nothing else exists.
-Winter lasts two months too long.
-Folks drink heavily around here, so keep an eye out when you drive home late at night any time during the week.
-I hope you like drinking, Packers and the Brewers cause that’s about it up here. Oh yeah, and cheese… An beer
-Milwaukee is just large enough to be a PITA with things like winter parking rules and noisy drunk people all over the place. But not large enough to get the benefits of being a large city (no big attractions come here).
-I hope you like pretentious stuck up people that move to MKE and think they’re the jam because they live in MKE and not some po-dunk farm town. There’s actually a “VIP” line with ropes and everything at one of the clubs in MKE when there’s literally less than 5 people waiting to get in.
-Folks are tight knit here. They’ve grown up, gone to school with and worked with the same people all their lives. It’s challenging to meet people and fit in.
-When you do meet new folks the question is “What high school did you go to?” If you can’t answer this with a local school it will totally derail the conversation.
THE GOOD THINGS:
-It’s not Chicago so cost of living is lower.
-People seem to be genuinely nice
-The outdoor parks are awesome, great mountain biking if you’re into it.
-The small resturants are great.
-Traffic dosen’t exist here.
-The few months of warm weather are great.
Having an office in Denver and being based here, I would say the culture is completely different. My cohorts from Denver would have a very hard time adjusting to the area.