COMMENT BY
COMMENT ABOUT PLACE
Menasha, WI
COMMENT
The rest of the Fox Cities are much much better.
Weather in the region is 4-season, with about 45 inches of snow per winter (often it melts off in a thaw like last week but it can remain for months). Spring takes a long time to show up most years (plant summer veggies in late May) but once it does, it runs at 200% speed. Summer is great; not too hot most of the time. Storms can be severe but this is well outside Tornado Alley, so they are not a constant threat. Some years the summer temps don't get much above 80; others, it's hot and humid quite a bit. Depends on the jet stream. Fall is beautiful here for the first half, until the trees are past peak, then the weather shifts into winter mode and generally stays there until spring.
Unfortunately, the city government of Menasha has been a really big drain on the city. Corruption, bully tactics from their new director, a spendthrift shady mayor, and boondoggle projects like the steam plant have put Menasha on the map, and not in a good way. Google it if you are curious.
Even the township of Menasha has now changed its name to Fox Crossing to disassociate themselves with the name "Menasha" as banks were leery due to the city's reputation.
Housing is fairly decently priced but tends to be old homes that have been used as rentals. Do any improvements at all and they will raise your already sky high taxes. Mine are over $3200 a year and I paid less than 100k for my home. The roads are not too great. We do not have kids so are not familiar with the school system. There are few amenities except for fast food and convenience stores in the southern half of Menasha; the only neighborhood grocery store failed back in December 2016; before that there had been no grocery store for 9 years at that location. Even the movie theater closed down a couple of years ago. Many of the very tacky downtown area buildings are vacant, but the city government had a new parking garage and a big boondoggle building erected last year. They "have no money" for important things but somehow afforded this.
Other cities in this area are much better off financially and infrastructure-wise, such as Appleton, Neenah, and Kaukauna.