What's the skinny on this place? Middleton to be exact I think?

Apart from shite cold winters and humid hot summers, having good schools, cycling and cheap housing, don't know that much about the place, quite liberal and looks alright...

I've done the demographic look up, just want to know if anyone's been around there, what's the commuter traffic like? Other towns to look at? How easy is it to fly into/out of and what about other big cities to go check out? IL is neighbouring, so how doable would a Chicago visit be, that kind of stuff

I do know it's a college town so you'll most likely experience a population growth during fall semester and shrinkage during the summer. That also means cheap eats around the University of Wisconsin. You might want to attend a couple football games there as well.

As for the other questions I'll ask two of my co-workers that moved from Wisconsin, one who is from Madison.

About 3 hour drive to Chicago, so sure you could

I've been to Madison, don't remember a ton of traffic (although I'm from the Chicago area, so used to THAT traffic). Seemed a nice town.

Do they have an airport? I wonder, otherwise it'd be Milwaukee or O'Hare - you're probably around 2 1/2 hours from O'Hare, so for intl anyway that'd be pretty good.

Wisconsin is somewhat pretty, has lots of cows and great cheese, and I believe is pretty bad for taxes.

It is consistently ranked as one of the best places in the country to live. Good schools, relatively low cost of living and higher salaries. I believe it is technically on an island and quite beautiful, with lots of brick buildings surrounding the University.

The airport (MDN) is a regional with service to major Midwest cities (Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit) and a few further away (Washington, New York, Denver, Atlanta).

I would encourage you to catch a football game, even if you don't like football, as it is quite a social event in the Fall.

A bit more laid back lifestyle. Not like California but more of a simple Midwestern lifestyle in the surrounding areas, mixed with a touch of 'college town' offerings of arts, music, etc.

FWIW- I just read an article in Forbes I think that said big college towns (like Madison) are some of the better real estate investments right now, as there is a steady economy from the schools and more and more suburbanites are looking to ditch big cities for smaller towns with a touch of culture (i.e. college towns).

Here is a moving to Madison messageboard:
http://www.city-data.com/forum/madison/

Island? In what body of water?

I think it is near a lake..........

google earth shows the majority of the city to be on an isthmus (love that word) between two lakes

incidentally Bob, a woman in my office raves about Madison, but I don't rreally know why

Madison's not a bad town at all, if you can tolerate the weather. Pretty liberal for the Midwest, thanks to the university. Decent little downtown area, safe enough, low crime. Traffic should be manageable, although I can't say that I specifically know Middleton at all.

Chicago is a great town to visit, and Milwaukee is surprisingly good, a bit like a smallish version of Chicago. But otherwise, it's an island, surrounded by bland little towns and a few dumpy towns in between. The area also lacks ethnic diversity, so if that matters to you, you might find it dull.

I just looked on a map. I guess it isn't an island but an isthmus (by virtue of a canal) between Lake Mendota and Lake Monona. Here is a good pic of the downtown area.

They have an airport but NOT cheap to fly in or out of..........

It's probably one of the nicest cities in the midwest.

I was in WI a couple of weeks ago for a vacation, we stayed near Baraboo which is just a little further north than Madison. I love WI it's very pretty and everything seems so clean. Food was cheaper than PA don't know about house prices, taxes etc. There seems a lot do if you like outdoor pursuits, and in the area we were in there's 3 or 4 water parks, outlet malls galore. If it wasn't so so cold in the winter I'd definitely move there.

I love their accent,

Me too

cool, cheers

be interesting to see a game live, I'm about 10 miles away from where the Pats play, haven't seen them though, tickets are stupidly priced, bit like the Red Sox