Milwaukee: Chicago's cool baby sister

[Steely Dan]

A very positive write-up for Milwaukee below (not uncommon these days), but i had to post it because of the title. chicago & milwaukee are definitely not sisters, these are hardcore muscular, brawny, & manly cities. They are brothers for sure.



Milwaukee: Chicago's cool baby sister
Milwaukee is just two hours from Chicago yet doesn't get much of a look-in from overseas visitors. But with retro drive-ins, micro-breweries and boutique art galleries, it's the perfect place for a hip city break


There's really only one way to arrive in Milwaukee – on the back of a chopper. Home of Harley-Davidson, this old industrial city on the banks of Lake Michigan is a mecca for petrol heads on a pilgrimage to the downtown bike museum. But the city's not just about the creak of leather and the growl of a two stroke. With boutique breweries, retro cocktail lounges, the world's largest music festival, and a cutting edge art gallery, unpretentious Milwaukee is one of the coolest cities in the midwest.

Under two hours from Chicago by train, Milwaukee is considered to be the Windy City's baby sister, a tag that locals take on the chin. "We don't mind being the little guy," bar owner Charles Jordan smiles as he shakes up a round of Mai-Tais. True, Milwaukee doesn't have Chicago's vertigo-inducing architecture, but there is unpolished charm to the skyline of industrial towers and vintage factory signs, while a lush lakefront trail gently ushers visitors from beach to beach or off into one of Milwaukee's quirky neighbourhoods.

full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/201...sa-city-breaks

[Jasoncw]

Yeah, I thought the same thing when reading the thread title, Milwaukee is definitely a boy.

[Hayward]

If only Chicago could build the great kind of infill Milwaukee has.......

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

A very positive write-up for Milwaukee below (not uncommon these days), but i had to post it because of the title. chicago & milwaukee are definitely not sisters, these are hardcore muscular, brawny, & manly cities. They are brothers for sure.

Yeah, I agree.

However, it's funny talking about the "gender" of cities - I've always passively spoke about St. Louis in a female sense (and I'm far from the only one) - which is kind of funny considering that it's a brawny type irish/german/italian/african american beer drinking, cussing, brawling, hardcore sports town too. It's like how I've heard ships referred to as a female...e.g. a "tough old bitch." Seems like the more "pure" river cities are more often thought of loosely as "female," like New Orleans.

On a related noted, I work with people from our offices in both Chicago and Milwaukee, and the Milwaukee folks seem like they would take exception to being "related" to Chicago, and I was kind of surprised by the 'tude. They like to refer to the darned "FIBs" taking over Wisconsin in the summer...seems to me like there's nothing wrong with people spending money somewhere and then leaving, but whatever.

[iheartthed]

Aren't cities usually referred to with feminine pronouns in English? I can't recall one being addressed with a masculine pronoun.

[Columbusite]

I'll have to check it out along with Madison now that I'm in Mpls, which puts me slightly closer. Looks like Columbus on a lake. I'm guessing because it's in the UK that more off-the-beaten-path locales were included, whereas in the states write-ups tend to focus on areas that are grit-free.

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Aren't cities usually referred to with feminine pronouns in English? I can't recall one being addressed with a masculine pronoun.

Ships, countries and oceans have traditionally been assigned a female gender. I don't think the practice is as common any longer in the US as it is in the UK.