Milwaukee

Wisconsin's largest city, located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. A chronically underrated city that is experiencing something of a revival after spending almost three decades in a rebuilding phase due to the loss of blue-collar jobs. None the less, it still struggles with the misconceptions of outsiders stemming from historically-inaccurate 70's sitcoms and sensationalistic media reports (for example: health care, not brewing is Milwaukee's biggest industry and the city is home to a number of integrated neighborhoods such as Riverwest, Washington Heights and Northwest Side).

Nowadays, Milwaukee is home to beautiful architecture, revitalized neighborhoods (such as Bronzeville/MLK Drive, Riverwest, Bay View (aka Gay View), Third Ward and Walker's Point), GOOD hip hop music (Black Elephant, Taste Emcees, Growing Nation, etc.), progressive politics, diverse ethnic restaurants, a great park system, and more theaters per capita than any other city in the U.S.

Unfortunatley, Milwaukee still struggles with a notoriously racist and trigger-happy police force, corrupt politicians, and an underfunded public school system. There's also not many higher education opportunities for people of color. That's because Milwaukee's two biggest universities (UWM and Marquette) are lily-white and recruit students who come from Northern Wisconsin or the Chicago suburbs rather than the city.

If you come to Milwaukee, DON'T listen to the brochures. Water Street and Summerfest are lame, touristy and shells of their former selves. Instead, visit the Milwaukee Art Museum (even if you don't like art, it's THAT cool of a building), the Riverwalk, the Allen-Bradley Clock (which is bigger than Big Ben), Miller Park, Brady Street and Bronzeville aka MLK Drive.

Milwaukee: Without us, Wisconsin would be Iowa.

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FIB

Fucking Illinois Bastard or Fucking Illinois Bitch. Used by residents of Wisconsin (and sometimes Michigan) to describe people from Illinois.

FIB's tend to have one or more of the following characteristics:

-Drive slow enough to get passed by grandmothers (even though they go 25 over the limit in their own state).

-If they own a sports car, they drive it like an SUV. If they own an SUV, they drive it like a sports car.

-Lives in an overpriced condo on Chicago's lakefront or an overpriced house in the 'burbs (yet still tell's everyone they're from Chicago).

-Buys a vacation home in Lake Geneva, Door County or Upper Michigan and immediately complains about the lack of urban culture in the area. Yet they can't seem to stop vacationing there.

-FIB men usually claim to be "tough chicago guys" yet are too scared to go anywhere but Miller Park, Water Street or Third Ward when visiting Milwaukee for a Brewers-Cubs game.

-FIB men are usually at least 50 lbs. overweight, yet find room to complain about the supposed lack of size 0 women in Wisconsin and Michigan.

-FIB women are usually either 50 lbs. overweight and insist on wearing halter tops and mini-skirts, or have A-cups and wear tops intended for women with an actual chest.

-Claims to be cultured even though 90% of their wardrobe consists of Cubs and Bears sweatshirts and don't know of any restaurants that aren't bar & grill's.

-Think being an "outdoorsman" means sleeping in a $50,000 RV.

-Thinks Wisconsin wouldn't be able to sustain its economy without them, but don't recognize that they're gullible idiots who buy vacation property in parts of the state that Wisconsin natives don't even want.

-Buys a dried up piece of shit because a Wisconsin merchant told them it was used in Native American puberty rituals.

"If FIB's consider going to Lake Geneva a vacation, then Chicago must REALLY suck!"

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Cream City

Nickname for Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Named for the numerous cream-colored buildings in the city's downtown.

The brick used to construct the buildings became synonymous with Milwaukee and is sometimes referred to as a "Milwaukee Brick" or "Cream City Brick."

"What's goin' on in the Cream City tonight?"

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House

Slang for High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Usually applied after a shortened version of the school's name so Vincent becomes "V House," Washington becomes "Wash House" and Bay View becomes "View House," etc.

Person A: "Where'd you go to school at?"

Person B: "Wash House, class of 99"

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Brew City

Slang term for Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Originally came of use when the city was home to four of the largest breweries in the United States (Miller, Pabst, Blatz & Schlitz).

Today, brewing only represents a fraction of the city's economy as only Miller continues to operate. As such, the term Brew City is considered by many to be outdated as the younger generations prefer terms such as "Mil Town," "Cream City," and "The Mil." In fact, saying "Brew City" today usually marks the user as someone who is out-of-touch and probably from the suburbs (if not familiar with the area at all).

"What's going on in the Brew City tonight?"

"You're not from around here, are you?"

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Third Coast

Third Coast is a term to describe the highly urbanized stretch of U.S. cities and large towns along the Great Lakes shoreline. This area is generally considered to be bordered by Southeast Wisconsin on the West and Upstate New York on the East.

It is referred to as the Third Coast because politically and socially, it aligns more with coastal states than the rest of so-called "Middle America." It also shares a lot of physical similarities (such as beaches) which are commonly thought to only exist on the coasts.

Recently, residents of Chicago have tried to claim their city alone is synonymous with Third Coast. However, it actually refers to the entire Great Lakes region as there are a number of entities in the business and entertainment world outside of Chicago (especially in Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio) that identify themselves as "Third Coast."

Some of the major cities in this region are Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh.

(Please note that similar to how Philadelphia is considered East Coast even though it's not actually on the ocean, a city does not actually have to be on the Great Lakes to be considered part of the Third Coast.)

See Also: North Coast

No wonder they call this the Third Coast, the lakes are so huge that they look like oceans.

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Green Bay

1. A town in NE Wisconsin which so backwards and conservative that it takes credibility away from decent Wisconsin cities like Milwaukee, Madison and La Crosse.

2. A place for people from Illinois and Minnesota to confirm their stereotypes of Wisconsinites as being fat, drunken, deer-hunting dolts.

3. Allegedly a city of 100,000 which doesn't even have as much to do as a town 1/10th of that size.

4. A "city" whose only saving grace is a football team which it wouldn't even be able to have if not for the support of a REAL city 114 miles to the south.

5. A place where Green Acres, Andy Griffith and Hee Haw are considered cultural programming.

6. A town with a laundry list of failed business ventures because its people refuse to take part in anything that doesn't involve drinking, bowling, killing animals, the Packers, and more drinking.

7. A place that hasn't changed in over 20 years because anyone who tries to bring in new ideas is accused of being an elitist who wants to "Milwaukeeize" the city.

8. A colony of paranoid residents who have an irrational fear of anyone who's not a white, redneck townie. Especially if said person is from Milwaukee or Chicago.

9. A town with an allegedly great school system, yet a surprisingly significant number of residents who apparently don't know what side of the civil war Wisconsin was on and fly the rebel flag from their pick-up trucks.

"I want to go somewhere like the rural south, but without the good weather or southern hospitality."

"How about Green Bay?"

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