Explaining the Midwest to Outsiders
While traveling across the country and Canada, I met a lot of people from abroad (mainly Australia and England). Inevitably the conversation, “where are you from” always came up. So the quick answer was always Wisconsin but it usually turned to I’ve lived in Michigan for the past four years and will now be in D.C. for awhile, etc. etc. My answer was predictably followed up with well what the heck is Michigan and Wisconsin like, or in other words what is the Midwest like?
I usually mumbled something like well Wisconsin is known for its cheese, beer and brats and Michigan is known for its failing auto industry… but I still really liked living there! Big fail on my part. 1. I’m lactose intolerant. 2. Wisconsin is known for Miller, Pabst Blue Ribbon and Milwaukee’s Best… not exactly the classiest of beers. 3. I’m a vegetarian. 4. I’ve been working to help spur innovation and thus diversify Michigan’s economy away from the auto industry for the past two years. I actually love the Midwest and would not have wanted to grow up or go to school anywhere else in the country, so I don’t know why I made it seem like the worst possible place to live in the country.
Many of the people I had met on the trip had no idea about the Midwest (one even asked if it was next to Nevada) and based on my awful descriptions, I made sure they were never going to visit there. Most of the people I met were young adults, ready for an adventure and could be easily impressionable with one REALLY good description of the cities and places I love. Talking with my friends, many of them said they did a similar thing with making the Midwest seem like a place just for farmers. Maybe we get intimidated by these foreigners, who have not only lived in what we consider exotic awesome places, but have also travelled to the hippest and coolest cities in the U.S., like Vegas, San Francisco and New York. Well, I guess it’s time to start standing up for what we love, even against the big hot cities.
If I got a second chance here’s my rebuttal explaining the Midwest and in particular my hometown Cedarburg, Milwaukee and Lansing.
First, the people are nicer and happier here. Sure, that’s a sweeping generalization but I have found that in general people are much less pretentious. My friends, colleagues and mentors are accomplishing amazing things to prepare for the harsh transition away from the manufacturing hub the Midwest once was. However, you oftentimes would never know it because they shy away from press releases gloating over their small but pretty phenomenal accomplishments. As my friend Emily said, “If the East Coast is full of uptight, cut throat people and the West Coast is uber laid back, the Midwest is the perfect middle.” Sure, every now and then you’ll get your crabby waitress but in general, you’re much more likely to have a stranger say hi to you on the street, have the coffee barista remember your name, or meet an accomplished CEO, who’s willing to talk to you about your future and not gloat about his or her own successes.
Second, there is ample access to the beautiful outdoors. In the summer, I can drive a few hours to the cottage in Crivitz, Wisconsin and enjoy a long weekend boating, jet-skiing and paddle boating on the lake. Lake Michigan is always there to provide ample lake fun, no matter if you are in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois or Wisconsin. In the Midwest in the fall, the leaves change the best colors and walking outside of your house and down the street guarantees you a breath-taking “my life is wonderful” moment. In the winter, downhill and cross country skiing hills and trails are easily accessible, as is a snowshoe hike around the lake. Also there’s real outdoor ice skating and pond hockey, none of that fake stuff! In the spring, I like to take advantage of the snow melt and significant rainfall and go kayaking or rafting. No matter where you are or what time of the year it is, in the Midwest you have guaranteed access to the fun and aesthetic outdoors.
Hiking in Kettle Moraine State Park 2007
Third, there is space to live here. While you can choose to live in a crammed apartment or condo complex, you almost always have an affordable house option with some sort of back yard! Try finding that in a big city! I can go running without the threat of being run over by bikes or the more aggressive runners because there is ample space for everyone getting out exercising. If I go to a coffee shop, I don’t wait in line for 20 minutes to have someone spill their coffee on me in their rush to get to whatever important place they need to be.
Fourth, we celebrate everything. I have been to the Asparagus Festival in Empire, Michigan in May, the Strawberry Festival in Cedarburg, Wisconsin in June and the Festival of the Moon and Sun in Lansing, Michigan, as well as many others. I’ve also been at some of the larger festivals, like Summerfest, the world’s largest musical festival that lasts for 11 days and hosts over 800 artists.
Summerfest 2007
Sports teams are also held in reverence and games are a guaranteed celebration, usually win or lose. From tailgating at Big Ten Football games (both for the Badgers and the Spartans, just not the Wolverines), to Brewer’s games at Miller Stadium, to minor league Lugnuts baseball games in Lansing, various Midwest sporting events have been the pinnacle of my young adult life.
Wisconsin versus Michigan State Game 2009
- Milwaukee Brewers Game in 2008
Lastly, you can see the stars in the Midwest. Enough said there.
For someone who has barely ever gotten a B in her life (Huyi Hu- I’m still mad about that grade), I let myself get a big fat F on my first explanation. I got intimidated and fell back on short negative publicity quips about the places I love most. I know a lot of wonderful people choosing to live in the Midwest and I’m sure their reasoning for why they love it differs from mine but I’m guessing it’s similar. We just have to make sure we’re appropriately conveying the things we love to others. I realized it’s easy to get embarrassed about the Midwest taglines, but c’mon, I know that there’s a lot more depth hidden behind those awful one liners.
Lansing and Portland: How important are regional strategic plans?
It was obvious that I was going to love Portland; it was just a question of how much. The city is chalked full of individuals that love coffee, good microbrews and the outdoors… close to my three favorite things. Located centrally downtown, there’s a used book store that takes up a full city block that I spent hours in and would have happily spent hours more. I ate at a small breakfast dinner, an Indian foodcart, a chic vegan restaurant and saw a movie where the served you drinks and food. For my two nights out, I visited an older neighborhood school (Kennedy School) and a John Steinbeck-esque plantation called Edgefield. Finally, all I had to do was type #inpdx into twitter and locals answered my questions about what I should do around town. Instead of preach about why I think Portland is so great, I decided I’d prefer to focus on what is Portland doing to continue to improve.
Something important to understand Portland is that it is primarily comprised of a patchwork of neighborhoods. There’s no centrally planned out navigational system and even I, who is pretty adventurous when it comes to public transit, found it somewhat hard to navigate between neighborhoods. Oftentimes, we ended up driving between neighborhoods, which was kind of a bummer. Another interesting characteristic of Portland is that is actually has a pretty high unemployment and what I would guess would be an even higher underemployment, where degree holding young adults are working for minimum wage at coffee shops. Even Portland’s Economic Development Strategy report cites that “Despite the city’s leadership in sustainable living, Portland lags in creating jobs. With the region’s workforce expected to grow at 2.4% annually – about six times faster than in the nation as a whole, even in the face of job declines – the need for job growth will become even more pressing.”
Currently, Portland seems to be in the process of working on this major strategy of investing in four major sectors: clean tech/sustainable industries, advanced manufacturing, activewear, and software, investing in urban innovation and fostering neighborhood vitality. (Thanks to Semiosis for the easy breakdown.) The plan has an extensive list of strategy partners that support the goals of the report and strategy.
Interesting to me, the Portland strategy reads almost identically to Leap’s, Greater Lansing Next Plan, which was released November 11th, after a 10 month study of regional assets and opportunities by the MSU Land Policy Institute. Like Portland’s plan, LEAP has a series of strategic partners identified as crucial for economic prosperity in the Greater Lansing region.
My concern is what comes next after these wonderfully researched and written out strategic plans? How do you implement broad recommendations like “strengthen and expand our regional mission?” Undoubtedly lots of money goes to creating these great far-sighted plans, but where does the money come from to implement tangible outcomes of these vague goals? Also who brings and coordinates the community that undoubtedly wants to see these broad goals come to being?? While I’d certainly like to see success on both Portland’s and Lansing’s strategic economic development plans, I worry about too broad/ambitious of goals and too much territorial fighting over who is there to achieve those goals. I suppose with any luck, I’ll be proven wrong and both cities will continue to prosper economically, while keeping and achieving even higher quality of living standards. The two cities may be at different starting points, but based on their strategic plans, they are heading towards the same finish line.
