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| A great town - 3/18/2010
First, the "plusses":
Neenah has some of the best schools I've seen, with some of the best teachers. They also have great programs for kids with disabilities at little or no cost to you.
The health care here is top-notch. There is a Children's Hospital in town, a large general hospital (Theda Clark Hospital) and two Urgent Care centers. There is also a wonderful plastic surgery center for all of your Botox needs.
Neenah has a great deal of beautiful parks for the kids to play in and a lovely city pool that looks out onto the lake.
In the warmer months, there are fun festivals ( which is actually pretty common for most of Wisconsin) such as "Paper Fest", "Quarry Fest" and a nice musical gathering in the downtown park once a week. In the next town over, (Appleton) there is the annual "Octoberfest" where "the beer does flow". 4th of July is celebrated by a huge festival in the downtown park complete with elaborate fireworks.
There is plenty of shopping in town; and the Fox River Mall is only a short drive into the next town over (Appleton).
People here seem to be more "fitness-minded" than I've seen in other areas; the town in general is very accomodating to joggers and bicycle riders.
It has a great Library
Real Estate was dirt-cheap during the housing boom; it's even cheaper now.
This town is extremely low-crime. Can't say the same for some of the surrounding areas, though. The city workers, including the police, are very friendly.
Now, some of the "minuses":
The people here can be more outspoken and "onery" than I'm used to. "Snobby" can be a good way to describe it. The area I came from was "high crime" and because of it, no one "got in your face" due to the fact that you never knew who might be carrying a weapon. Well, not here. Not here...sheesh, people!!!
Expect to commute to work. There are few high-paying jobs here anymore.
During certain times of the year, you can pile the raked leaves in heaps along the sidewalk and the city will "vacuum" it up. No bagging necessary. This was new for me.
Summers: humid and "buggy"!!! (Lots of lake-flies, mosquitos and scads of ladybugs. I no longer think ladybugs are cute). However, there are little to no cockroaches.
Winters: BRRRRRRRRR!!!!!
Not very racially diverse. This town is predominately white. Although I am white, I really miss diversity.
Like many Midwestern towns, few yards are fenced and most houses share a common greenbelt. This is fine in most cases as the neighbors are very respectful of your space; but can be a real pain if you are moving here with a rambunctious dog. Do not allow your dog in someone else's yard without permission. Clean up after your dog. Be a nice neighbor. Do not allow your cats to roam free. Otherwise, you WILL hear about it.
You can not buy alcohol after 9:00 pm. Ever. Unless you go to a bar (there are lots of bars and taverns here).
I'm not used to people heaping piles of trash bags and furniture in the streets along the sidewalk on trash-day; they do that here. However, the city sanitation removes it quickly.
Did I mention the winters are freezing here? BRRRRRR!!!!
To summarize, Neenah is a great town to raise a family. Despite the flaws I mentioned (and every town has them), I really love this place and plan to never move.
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| Long-term resident - 6/5/2006
Overall, this is not a bad place to live, but unless you are well-to-do, you may want to think about living in Menasha, Town of Menasha, Appleton, or Oshkosh. They are all near Neenah, as the Fox Valley is essentially a conglomeration of suburbs without a large city in the center.
I've been living in Neenah for a long time (on and off for 20 years). The best thing about Neenah is the school district, one of the best in the state. Parks and the library are very good. On the other hand, people in Neenah can be snobby; this is especially the case when Neenah is compared to some of the other local municipalities in the area. Neenah is now undergoing some changes, due to the closing of several major manufacturing plants owned by Kimberly-Clark, which is a major employer. For those without a college education, working at KC in one of the plants (making diapers, feminine produts, and so on) was the best you could possibly expect for a career.
This is a pretty conservative area, with a conservative newspaper owned by a conglomerate (Gannett). There is a small monthly paper that is the liberal response to the Post~Crescent, however. Local TV stations are all out of Green Bay, and the reporting of areas outside of Green Bay (or aside from the Packers) is sometimes spotty. Other posters have said that Appleton area social activities revolve around drinking; this is indeed the case for Neenah, which has Riverside Players as an amateur theatre troupe, a small museum, and not much else.
Higher education is available readily in the area. Closeby is UW-Fox Valley, a two-year college that works in conjunction with four-year state schools. That institution is inexpensive compared to the other options, and the instruction there is quite good. To the north is Appleton, with Lawrence University (a private college). The Green Bay area has a private college, as well as UW-Green Bay. UW-Oshkosh is to the south, and has a good reputation for the colleges of business, education, and nursing.
All things considered, this city could be worse; the crime level is pretty low, and it's not a bad-looking city overall. Be aware, however, that since the city is on Lake Winnebago, that pollution is a problem with PCBs in the lake and with manufacturing, air quality is also a concern.
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