Flush with money from the sale of properties in more expensive states, many have built sprawling estates where silos once stood. A longtime resident and a professor of urban planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Jacobs says growth is the topic of conversation at cocktail parties. It is a protest in plain sight of the heavy traffic on the two-lane Highway 12, which soon will have four lanes. Unlike cities such as Dayton, where the middle-class flight devastated the city, Madison's center still thrives. The middle class never left.
Schools are good.
The square around the Capitol is not as thriving as it once was, but State Street, which runs along the university campus, is. Despite the vibrant downtown, many people choose to move outside the city core so they can purchase more land and build bigger houses. Anti-growth activists are fighting to stop the sprawl and protect farmland. The fear of growth is amusing to Lyman Anderson. Not much congestion.