Looking to retire to Midwest uni/college town

I grew up in Iowa, lived in Memphis, Omaha, Minneapolis and now Southern California.

Memphis has zero feel of the midwest. The summers are hot and humid, the winters are gray and damp. I would take Minneapolis weather any day over Memphis. It also still ranks as a super unsafe city, #4 as of August of this year per a USA today report. I had to map out my running routes to avoid large areas of questionable areas. The positives of Memphis, you pray before almost all runs and drink beer after.

Iowa City is a great choice (even though I'm a Cyclone).

I live in Madison (have since 2002) and while I love living here I agree with a lot of this. I live on the "near east side" of Madison...super "liberal" but so expensive that there's not much diversity...like most of the midwest, minorities end up be segregated by income. The lakes are great...but farm run off leads to blue green algae blooms that will make some beaches off limits/smell. That being said...tons of great things to do, and if you live near east/west sides there are tons of things to do walking distance...and the bike path network is great is cleared first thing all winter. Running scene is solid, people are solid, beer/food is solid, cultural "ish" is solid.

Decorah has Toppling Goliath...an amazing brewery...and Luther has a blue track...so there's that.

Ft Collins, CO?

AndreB wrote:

I grew up in Iowa, lived in Memphis, Omaha, Minneapolis and now Southern California.

Memphis has zero feel of the midwest. The summers are hot and humid, the winters are gray and damp. I would take Minneapolis weather any day over Memphis. It also still ranks as a super unsafe city, #4 as of August of this year per a USA today report. I had to map out my running routes to avoid large areas of questionable areas. The positives of Memphis, you pray before almost all runs and drink beer after.

Iowa City is a great choice (even though I'm a Cyclone).

Of course Memphis is not the Midwest. It's the Mid South.

It's pretty safe in my book and I don't pray before I run.

Memphis has the Greenline and Shelby Farms for good running.

But yes it is hot and humid in summer.

Star wrote:

Any reason you are looking for a college town for retirement?

(hot young women to look at?)

The girls I suppose are a plus, but I would hope a college town would have more cultural offerings and still not be a big city.

MikeF wrote:

Ft Collins, CO?

Flagstaff seems popular though i ain't been there.

I don't get the Midwest appeal at all.

HippieDip wrote:

MikeF wrote:

Ft Collins, CO?

Flagstaff seems popular though i ain't been there.

I don't get the Midwest appeal at all.

I don't know...maybe I'm nuts, but there is something to the empty, forlorn look and feel of the prairie in the winter.

Any plugs or pans for Cedar Falls, IA?

Cedar Falls is pretty nice, I keep noticing its grown every time I'm back, but on smaller scale than say a Madison for sure. Really good trail scene around here though, both paved for biking and single-track dirt trails.

I’ll make this simple, Ann Arbor sucks. That’s it.

I'll pan Cedar Falls. It's pretty vanilla. Not bad, not great. There's good trails but it's so flat. I need at least some variety in my terrain. I'd take Madison or Iowa City or Dubuque or LaCrosse or Decorah long before Cedar Falls.

Probably the worst advice you could give anyone who is considering retiring. Home values generally going down in the Midwest and winters getting colder. This is a global climate change fact.

Why don't you advise moving to a warm climate, low taxes and home appreciation and get over a fear of moving out of the Midwest. Taking a plane from anywhere takes the same time as driving to and from most places in the Midwest.

You give really poor advice.

Neta wrote:

Thanks. I've considered the weather. Just don't want to go too far south and lose the "Midwest" feel.

You will get that "Midwest" feel in many places in the interior of the country. One of those common feelings is that sense of a lump of lead in one's gut when spying the tornado bearing down upon the neighborhood. Being relatively flat, the Midwest is fantastic for seeing the twister that's going to blow your cushy retirement to smithereens. On the other hand, you can earn a retirement stipend by being a tornado chaser.

Shouldn't rule out retiring to any town along the ole Route 66, which wound from Chicago to L.A. (more than 2000 miles all the way).

There's Saint Looey

and other towns in Missouri

Oklahoma City looks oh, so pretty

You should see Amarillo

Then there's Gallup, New Mexico.

Flagstaff, Arizona

Don't forget Winona

Kingman

Barstow

San Bernadino.

As you're waiting to move in, just don't stay at the Bates Motel on an old stretch of Rt 66, cut off by a nearby Interstate highway. Business, and clientele, have died off because of the Interstate.

The late Bobby Troup wrote:

Shouldn't rule out retiring to any town along the ole Route 66, which wound from Chicago to L.A. (more than 2000 miles all the way).

There's Saint Looey

and other towns in Missouri

Oklahoma City looks oh, so pretty

You should see Amarillo

Then there's Gallup, New Mexico.

Flagstaff, Arizona

Don't forget Winona

Kingman

Barstow

San Bernadino.

As you're waiting to move in, just don't stay at the Bates Motel on an old stretch of Rt 66, cut off by a nearby Interstate highway. Business, and clientele, have died off because of the Interstate.

Yo, Bobby, its been renamed the "meth highway". Try making a song outta that.

MikeF wrote:

Ft Collins, CO?

I am glad that someone chimed in and threw a Colorado town out there. Ft Collins is a great university town with a decent running scene. I've got a buddy whose parents retired to Longmont, CO. Not a university town, but close to Boulder and a good local running scene. Golden has gotten pretty pricey lately, but it is a great town with CO School of Mines in the heart of it - which also bumps up its running scene from good to great. You also have the benefit of Denver's airport, with direct flights to a ton of places. The people that I know who live in CO Springs love it - great running in the area, a couple of universities (Colorado College, AFA), and the US Olympic facilities. Winters are mild along the front range - we'll get snow, but two days later it will be 55F and sunny and the snow will be gone. And it is always sunny here - as opposed to the grey midwest winters. I moved here from Madison, a town that I LOVED, and settled in the foothills outside of Denver and would never go back. In general, the running scene in Colorado is excellent, weather is much better than the midwest, and you still get that "neighborly" midwest vibe (probably because a ton of us have moved here).

The Colorado front range is only good on paper.

Very expensive now and suburbanised AF.

Kingman, Barstow? Really?

You forgot Needles.

These are all shiteholes in the Mojave desert. I wouldn't wish my worst enemies there. This is hell on earth.

I'm a college student at Grinnell in Iowa right now, and would really recommend Iowa City or Des Moines. The property isn't too expensive, there's lots to do, an active running and athletics community, and lots of value placed on education, arts, writing, etc. If you're at all politically invested, nearly every democratic politician comes through Iowa at least 3 times per election cycle due to the caucuses, which really spices things up here.