<p>I can’t tell you how many times over the years I have had to listen to Californians go on and on about how backwards the Midwest is, how there is nothing worth seeing, and how people there don’t have a clue. AND THESE PEOPLE HAVE LITERALLY NEVER STEPPED FOOT IN THE MIDWEST. I’ve had Californians tell me that North Carolina is somewhere near Illinois (or similar ridiculous assumptions) and when I point out their error, they waive it away with a “who cares, it’s somewhere east of here and it’s all the same.” So East Coasters aren’t the only ones guilty of that dismissive attitude.</p>
<p>^^ Ignorance of other locales isn’t unique to any particular locale. There are people in NC and Illinois who make sweeping generalizations about Californians and New Yorkers as well.</p>
<p>I would definitely say that “The Cities” (Minneapolis/St.Paul) and their suburbs are the only really diverse cities in Minnesota… Everywhere else is small towns of less than 100,000. Most towns in the northern half don’t even have 20,000…</p>
<p>@qialah, I’m not and never have been a New Yorker. I don’t live there, or near there, these days. I am not able these days to go to the theater there, and I certainly couldn’t afford $200 tickets to hit Broadway shows, not that big Broadway shows ever formed the majority of my theater-going when I used to live and work in the region. I’m more the kind of person who waits in line at TKTS. The theater production I’ve enjoyed most recently was a student production of The History Boys at Bowdoin College, which was great. (Are you one of those Californians who sneer at Brunswick Maine as being “the middle of nowhere” and a place where it–gasp!–snows.) Your sarcasm is lost on me. (And I don’t know where the “white” thing comes from…very strange.) You are making me into a target of your choosing by willfully ignoring 95% of what I’ve actually said. </p>
<p>BTW, I actually had the pleasure of going to the Guthrie the one time I was able to visit the Minneapolis area, and have been well aware of its existence and its excellence ever since I was a theater-struck kid decades ago. </p>
<p>But okay, whatever.</p>
<p>You New Yorker’s do realize that most Broadway plays get started in Minneapolis, right? Person for person, Minneapolis actually has MORE theater seats then NYC, you do know that right? And–tickets cost a FRACTION of what they cost in NYC :D.</p>
<p>NYC is not all about Broadway, right? Since I have been back to NYC, I haven’t run out of things to do on weekends. </p>
<p>Last weekend H asked me if I wanted to go down to Soho to walk around, but I wanted to go to the Seaport, we ended up strolling through a street fair right outside of our apartment. This Fri we had tickets to see Springsteen in NJ, we took a bus out for $5 each way. Yesterday, while I was taking a nap, a friend from NJ called to let us know that they were in NYC, would we like to meet them for drinks/dinner. They were already in the city in their car, we took a subway and we got there before they did. We have every kind of restaurants within few blocks of where we live.</p>
<p>We can get almost anything delivered to our apartment. Seamless is our best friend. H goes to the farmers market down at union square. We still have little original clothing shops on Lex and Madison, the kind of stuff you wouldn’t see at most major department stores. You go to Georgetown or Boston, most of those streets are just one big shopping mall with stores like J Crew, Banana Republic, Victoria Secret…</p>
<p>Never mind midwest, I don’t think I would want to live in Boston, DC or most of major cities in the States.</p>
<p>A side note - my parents who live in a 5000 sq ft house in NJ visited us last weekend. My mom asked how we could live in such a small space and where is the yard. It is not for everyone.</p>
<p>^ oldfort - Shopping, yes. But where are you going to get a deer dressed???</p>
<p>FWIW, I spent half my childhood overseas and have lived in DC, LA, Boston, NYC, NYC suburbs, Munich (Germany), and Tours (France) as an adult. In addition I spent a year traveling around the country photographing fire stations. I’ve enjoyed everywhere I lived and could live in or in proximity to nearly any city. I’m not a country girl though - I do need access to art museums and theater. </p>
<p>BTW some suburbs are diverse - on my block I have families who are black (African-American), black (Jamaican background), Hispanic, Irish immigrant, white, Indian immigrant, French immigrant. Young and old families. Not so much economic diversity, though those who bought their houses 20+ years ago have considerably less disposable income than those who purchased houses here more recently. </p>
<p>I admit we don’t get into the city as often as we might, because there’s a lot going on here. Huge arts festival/open studios this weekend.</p>
<p>"So East Coasters aren’t the only ones guilty of that dismissive attitude. "</p>
<p>I guess that leaves Midwesterners as the only Americans that don’t have dismissive attitudes.</p>
<p>Does dressing deer fall into the same category as tipping cow?</p>
<p>Oldfort–well, the famers market is within walking distance to my house, over the weekend, after the high school football game we were able to stroll through the county park, take photos of the beautiful trees, walk downtown to a great Italian place and the 4 of us ate an authentic Italian meal, made by the nicest Italian guy who has been in the US for about 6 years for $35. We have many, many malls within 15 minutes of our house, we can get anything we want delivered to our house through any number of outlets–the personal shops themselves, home grocery delivery, Amazon Prime, etc., etc., etc. We live in a town of under 20,000 people and have everything within 15 minutes that you have in NYC—don’t you get that? Well, we have more because we have a yard :D</p>
<p>I think Steve has answered the OP’s question, and quite nicely thank you.</p>
<p>Things are DIFFERENT outside the Midwest. And that’s what I think the OP was inquiring about. “Will I see different things, important things, if I spend some time away from the Midwest? Will that experience enable me to better understand the peoples and cultures within this great country?”</p>
<p>The Midwest strikes a decent balance between ‘things to do’ and ‘having money left over to pay for things’. I mean, one has to determine if living within walking distance of Apple HQ in Cupertino is worth the $3k a month rent, or living in an IKEA sample 300 sq ft thingie in NYC is worth the Broadway shows and all that.</p>
<p>I absolutely loved Cambridge, Mass. when I lived there, and Portland, OR as well. But with a family and kids reality beats Broadway any time of the day. </p>
<p>Interestingly enough Chicago seems to strike a great balance between the two, as in, enough opportunities but at the same time cost of living not atrocious. Unfortunately, taxes will do them in, otherwise I would not mind at all living there…</p>
<p>^^NYC unemployment rate, 9.9%, Chicago 10.5%, Minneapolis 6.5%…it’s nice to have the money to start too :D.</p>
<p>There is NYC and then there is Manhattan.</p>
<p>this thread is funny…different strokes for different folks…some talking up big cities like everyone else is missing out on something. Ha…you can have your cultural diversity, museums, food, ect…I will enjoy on visits only…I will take my open space any day. Watching people walk around big cities reminds me of ants in an ant colony.</p>
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<p>No one would expect you to, oldfort. But neither do we in many smaller cities in the Midwest and elsewhere. Today I have already been to a beautiful dog exercise area with miles of trails through prairies and forests. The leaves are starting to turn and it is gorgeous out in the country right now. If I had had more time I might have stopped at an orchard for some local apples. This afternoon I am going to hear Garrick Ohlsson play with our local symphony. The world-class orchestra hall is only about 10 minutes away. My SEASON tickets cost about $80. Parking will set me back about $3 (although if I wanted to I could take the bus for less than that).</p>
<p>After the symphony, my friend and I might do a bit of shopping at one of the many local clothing shops downtown–the kind you don’t see in most American malls. That might be followed by dinner–Nepali? Ethiopian? Laotian? Depends what we are in the mood for. Our farmers’ markets were yesterday and also during the week at various locations around the city. The downtown one is widely regarded as the best in the country. Some weeks, though, I don’t go, because I have a CSA share from an organic farm as well as several friends who currently have bumper crops of produce from community gardens that they walk or ride their bikes to when they want to tend to their plants. It’s not uncommon for people to bring 50 pounds of tomatoes or peppers they have grown into the office and beg everyone to take them off their hands.</p>
<p>You mention dressing deer. I am not a hunter but I respect the people in my state who are. We have an overpopulation problem and the hunters help manage it. If you had ever seen a starving fawn or doe, you would appreciate what they do. A lot of poor families also survive the cold winters on the venison meat that is donated by hunters who don’t use it all for themselves.</p>
<p>Reading some of the disdainful comments on this thread has been useful, and has reminded me why I live in the Midwest. I don’t miss the pretentiousness of the East Coast and am glad my kids are not surrounded by people who think they are better than everyone else simply because of their zip code.</p>
<p>I don’t quite understand why people need to feel that there is disdain or pretentiousness when someone like me says that I prefer NYC or east coast over any other place in the US. I don’t think I said that I was better. I didn’t read other posts on this thread, so I don’t know if other posters have said that. I grew up in the midwest, and I lived in a NE suburb for 20+ years, I know what it is like (but I don’t know what is deer dressing).</p>
<p>old fort,</p>
<p>Deer dressing is rendering a deer; skinning it, taking out all of the non edible parts, and preparing it to eat. It is not putting clothes, etc on it.</p>
<p>Ok, I have never witnessed that. I thought people just took it to a butcher to have that taken care of.</p>