|
Madison, Wisconsin A town where you can have a real job, a real life, and still get to move in with the scenery. Several reasons to split the city and head for the Big Outdoors. Population: 170,616; Dane County, 323,545 Nothing for hundreds of miles qualifies as really steep, high-altitude, wild, or otherwise extreme, but this handsome heartland city still manages to be extremely outdoorsy. Its conspicuous natural bonus is a chain of lakes along the Yahara River that fractalize geography and give Madison a breezy vacation-town feel. Downtown and the state capital squeeze onto a skinny isthmus The town’s sixties holdovers like to imagine they’re the lefty pioneers. But Dairyland’s Erehwon–somewhere between Stockholm, Berkeley, and Eau Claire–has always had bent politics, and environmentalism and outdoor recreation have always been high on Madison’s agenda. For some years now, commercial success has been, too. Consider Gordy Sussman, who once ran his horse, Heartlanders gather in Madison to will themselves out of the Midwest. People from elsewhere come and stay because Madison is so midwestern: safe, honest, friendly, and focused on community and quality of life. But it’s the Midwest itself that keeps the town from being insufferable. Wisconsin’s beer-drinking gem眉tlichkeit contributes a saving silliness, as does the Out there: The University of Wisconsin’s Memorial Union, with its enormous waterfront deck and boat rentals, could pass for a major resort. Madison’s open-air passions owe a lot to the Hoofers, a ferociously active multisport club based at the school. Cyclists break away on Wisconsin’s well-paved back roads to abruptly hilly land just to the west. Paycheck: Employment prize is a hard-to-get sinecure with state government or the university (40,305 students). Don’t count on it. But don’t worry about starving, either. American Family Insurance, CUNA Insurance, Oscar Mayer Foods, Lands’ End, Hazleton Laboratories, and four large hospitals are here, and Madison also has a small but growing tech Home: Fixer-upper three-bedroom frame house, about $80,000, in Willy (short for Williamson) Street neighborhood a block from Lake Monona, just northeast of downtown. Cute and bright in the same neighborhood, close enough to the lake or river for portaging a C-1 without popping a sweat, $100,000-$150,000. The same money buys a house on a few acres Neighbors: Fiscal analyst for the state and university lecturer taking time off for mothering. Female attorney married to jewelry maker, both masters swimmers and bike racers. Tr猫s Madison: Reflexively oppose all public works projects; check out an exhibit of Druidic-feminist bark sculpture, then go bowling; rage about how California passed Wisconsin in milk production with chemicals and cow abuse; pedal to work year-round, with a special pannier/briefcase for your laptop. Please, no more: Perpetual grad students, All But Dissertation, who will grow old happily underemployed. Prices of paradise: Lack of mountains and ocean, and often unpleasant weather, can drag down nonmidwesterners. This can be the La Brea Tar Pits of ambition. People settle for less-than-perfect jobs just to be here, and then find themselves too comfortable to get upwardly mobile. Special warning to women: Take too much postpartum time off, and Kindred spirits: Austin, Texas; Boulder, Colorado; Bloomington, Indiana. See also: Find out what readers thought and how Mike Steere responded in our |
Madison, Wisconsin
New perk: Easily find new routes and hidden gems, upcoming running events, and more near you. Your weekly Local Running Newsletter has everything you need to lace up! .