Green Bay, WI

--There is a thriving punk rock scene from what I understand, or at least there was. My friends from Milwaukee used to go up there to play shows in basements and at this joint Rock n' Roll High School, but I remember hearing that there was some sort of crack down (Cam??).

--The downtown area was surprisingly nice, and I enjoyed walking around in the morning. There are parts that have that "restored old-world" look that are pretty charming, old movie theaters and such.

--I was playing this bar up there and a late-night taco/burrito stand set up shop right outside. Damn, those tacos were good.

--It's not THAT far from Madison

That's all I got, sorry. Oh, and I wouldn't count on much public transportation in GB.

that having been said,
it's industrial and cold;
ain't no NYC

chicago: colder;
madison: much colder yet;
up north: oh my gawd

it's like Cold Miser
doing Jack Frost's polar bear
(all on Gear!'s sad couch)

I think Ground Zero should be made into one big pasture. Fuck office space, there's already a glut of it here anyways.

Is that like sport-fucking, Dan?

Btw Matt, I believe you about diversity in Green Bay, but I did not get that impression at all from my four or so visits (which were admittedly limited to the downtown/campus area and clubs/bars/festivals at night).

I'm not so familiar with the arts scene, but what I've seen of 'the arts' outside of Milwaukee & Madison is not so good.

However, if she's an outdoors-y person, the entire area surrounding it is really beautiful. I'd kill to live up there just for the state parks and camping, boating etc because that situation in Illinois pretty much sucks. I just got back from Door County - did a cycling trip there for a week. But DC is only good when it's not tourist season, otherwise it's annoying as fuck.

And if you hate hot summers, it's pretty good.

Dunno why but I have a compulsion to bump this thread; being in GB during the Packers recent Super Bowl win was one of the best experiences of my life.

I can see GB is getting kind of a bad rap here, I think because it has a football team everyone is expecting it to be comparable to other football cities. I mean there aren't many good shows/venues, though the local band scene is decent. But the nightlife is generally pretty decent, the bar scene is good, and there are a lot of cool specialty shops. Used to be a great record store (Amazing Records) but the guy packed up and moved to SF or something. It's a good compromise if you don't want to live in a rural area but also don't want to deal with ridiculous traffic and impossible parking, plus it's pretty affordable.

The surrounding area is indeed beautiful; I guess the real knock on the city is that it would absolutely suck to live there if you don't have a car - they have a pretty complex and kinda stupid highway system that leads to everywhere, you can't really get anywhere by walking and the bus system is practically nonexistant

You can live quite well up there if you're the outdoorsy type and enjoy a lot of snow. I mean with computers who gives a flying flag what type of "music scene" there is! You want to see a band Chicago or Milwaukee are a short drive away.

Yes, you will need a car.