I lived a year in SE Wisc many many years ago when i was in my 20s. Did not like it at all. Maybe it's a better place to live when your older. Winter really sucked there. At least in Chicago they have snowplows.

Depends where in Southeastern Wisconsin you are. Waukesha is a nice city and I'm reasonably sure they plow their roads. Kenosha isn't too far gone like Racine and that little streetcar district they put up around the Metra station looks cute. Wauwatosa and Stallis are fine inner-ring burbs. There's some serious David Lynch shit off the beaten paths between the Tri-State and Lake Geneva: all those little towns like Pell Lake and Lake Como and Silver Lake and Lake Ivanhoe and pretty much anything with "Lake" in it and "Unincorporated" below it. The only places of business are bars and bait shops. It gets to you.

But when I think of "southeastern Wisconsin" as a blanket term for the region, as in going to lengths not to say "greater Milwaukee," I think of those weird square-shaped suburbs like New Berlin, Muskego, Brookfield, and Menominee Falls, where there's no sense of urban planning or even place, they're just these loosely defined zones where you drive around on big six-lane divided highways and things just sort of occur at random intersections. I mock Lake Geneva but there's no doubt it's a discrete civic entity. Eastern Waukesha County is just people putting stuff wherever they want because they can and then building lots and lots of roads between them; it should come as no surprise that it's the epicenter of Wisconsin's conservative movement. I don't think I could be happy there but I can't be happy anywhere.

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I lived in La. for years while I was an undergrad. KKK would openly advertise for recruitment in Newspapers. David Duke was a serious challenger for Gov. It was also the only place where I can ever remember being called the "n" word (by a white person) Southern racism felt different.

I can remember being in one of those little Texaco gas stations after hrs one night. A black guy from Cali who was also a student waa drinking a 40 ounce in the store. A chick walked over to the security guard and informed him that the dude was drinking a 40 oz. and thus should be removed. Dude was pissed and confronted the chick for telling on him. He got in the her face and she stood her ground while also issuing a threat.

She simply told him that she was from Livingston Parrish and that "They will find you". She didn't have to say anything else after that. We all knew what she was talking about.

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June will make it 1 year for me in Florida

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When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"

I'm in the cedarburg, grafting, Mequon area which kind of reminds me of the Geneva, Batavia, st Charles area in IL.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Good call, Mequon is pretty nice.

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Lived in Oconomowoc for three years. Loved it! But then again I'm white, and so was eveyone else.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Hmmm seems so out of character for you.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I've lived probably 90% of my life in towns between Green Bay and Champaign in Illinois and Wisconsin. I enjoyed
growing up in the 90s in the northern burbs of Chicago but I have been living near and in Kenosha for the last 15
years or so. Not sure if it because I finally lived in one place for more than 18 months or I am getting older but
just really been enjoying the area more now than ever. It has been growing steadily and they are putting in a
lot of new businesses and restaurants. People are generally really nice, traffic is not too bad outside of rush hour
type hours. Can get to Chicago or Milwaukee airports or downtowns in under an hour. I live 5 minutes from Lake
Michigan. Not sure I see myself staying after I retire but I have honestly been thinking about keeping a house
up here and then going south for Nov - April. Just love the summer and early fall months up here.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

It's like a whole new world and only gets worse the further south you go in Illinois. You get to the Carbondale area and it is almost hard to believe it is the same state.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Even the omelette makers are named John.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

Carbondale itself is about 30% Chicago area, but yes the surrounding area does feel a bit prehistoric.

Have you been paying attention to Rauner and Trump? If so you will know exactly why blacks don't vote Republican.

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Rauner's fighting to keep your taxes down. What are the Illinois libtards doing ?

Speaking of Wisconsin and disaffected black voters, that was a big reason Hillary lost the state. For most black voters, it's not a question of voting Democratic or Republican, it's voting Democratic or not voting at all, and too many in Milwaukee did the latter because they weren't Long Time Guy and didn't see a way in which Hillary would improve their conditions. Also, Scott Walker doesn't let black people vote.

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It really wasn't that much different in "big city" Atlanta when I lived there for four years. And I lived on the edge of Buckhead. (Think Bucktown-ish.) The Klan presence was very real in many areas and there is a large segment of the population there that still are willing to support all kinds of restrictive covenants. I actually joined in a protest march against just those in a suburban area just north of Atlanta. Seeing the yokels on full display was bracing. As were the occasional Klan marches through downtown Atl.

As for other places in the "New South", I've only been to Dallas briefly, but I can't think of a place where I felt more uncomfortable (And I actually really like most of the rest of the state). North Carolina was just creepy.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Some Guy was on WBEZ talking about how all the middle class blacks were moving out of Chicago to places like ATL. Not sure what is so great about ATL, but whatever.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

I can't find the article now but a while back I read one about how MARTA was designed for maximum uselessness because the city fathers didn't like the idea of blacks having easy access to white neighborhoods, so the whole system really ends up having no utility to much of anyone.

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That's the whole charade ImO. Democrats offer just enough to keep minority voters happy, but not enough to give them a chance to sit at the same dinner table. Republicans don't do shit, basically. For example, witnessing the cuts to Daycare programs in the state of IL a couple years ago was depressing to say the least.

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Bad edit

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While I strongly agree with your last line, the rest of that narrative, while true in small part, is tiring. Allegedly educated white women (& too a lesser extent, union workers) are the ones who usually seem to get a faulty pass here. I say that because it's white women that benefit(ed) the most from the civil rights movement and Democratic principles. By far.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

I found that one out the hard way when I had to stick my car in the shop for a couple of days. I could walk/run to Lenox Mall where the nearest train stop was, but catching a bus there was almost impossible, and the stop "nearest" to my grouping of schools(3) was still a 5-10 minute walk/jog to campus after getting there.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

I see what you mean. But wasn't there a lot written about Milwaukee County turnout (the solitary county Hillary won in the WI primary, btw) being way down? Though again, it's hard to tell exactly how much was voter suppression and how much was simply disillusionment.

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200,000 blacks have left Chicago since the year 2000. Think most were either low income or unemployed.

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From the interwebs....

Wisconsin's photo ID law remains a lighting rod for Democrats who watched the state turn red in the 2016 presidential race for the first time in three decades.

PolitiFact Wisconsin checked a claim of just how big of an impact it had on voter turnout.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin is blaming Wisconsin's voter ID law for a lower voter turnout in last year's presidential election.

"She said that because of Wisconsin's voter ID law 200,000 fewer people came out to vote," said Tom Kertscher at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

It seems like a lot of middle-class (and upper-middle-class) young African Americans left, too. So many of the high-achieving black students I taught skedaddled for Miami and Atlanta. I know I've read something about this, but I can't remember where....which means my anecdotal evidence counts for nothing.

Still, I get sad when smart and motivated and resilient people leave this city (or the area).

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This Guy was on 9:00AM Morning Shift 91.5 which you can podcast if innerested: https://www.metroplanning.org/people/st ... er/?id=113

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Not a fan of Atlanta but the people I know that ran to Atlanta did so because of the cost of living. It was simply cheaper to live there. They loved the idea of the "mini mansion" particularly at the price that they'd be receiving it.

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I will thanks. Checking his bio out. Leclaire Courts resident. They used to play some helluva ball out at Leclaire back in the day.

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So, have we concluded that certain parts of Chicago are the only places on Earth worth living in?

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