Rate Your State's Cities

[Henry]

IL and WA are somewhat similar in my mind in that there are three cities worth visiting, and nothing else. For the former, it's Chicago, Springfield and Champaign. And for the latter, Seattle, Spokane and Tacoma. It's also worth noting that they border on another state's city that's also worth visiting (St. Louis, MO and Portland, OR).

[triplemultiplex]

1.Madison
2.Milwaukee
3....  Nothing else in Wisconsin is comparable to those two so, second list for the mid-sized cities.

I'll grab all the 50k+ ones, minus the 'burbs
Green Bay
Kenosha
Racine
Appleton
Oshkosh
Eau Claire
Janesville
La Crosse

Eau Claire, Oshkosh and La Crosse are all basically the same.  Water frontage, a state college, mix of nice old neighborhoods, crappy old neighborhoods & urban sprawl.  I'd put them all in the same group.

Next I'd put Kenosha because it's part rust belt, but also part growing fringe of Chicagoland and it has a good waterfront.

Green Bay has the Packers, of course, but they also have paper mills and that smells like ass.  Literal ass.  But still, the Packers...

Appleton is a growing area which is good, but they also have the rancid fart smell of paper mills.  Plus the industry has ruined the Fox River as a recreational asset, even to this day with the marked improvements water quality.

Last I'll put Racine and Janesville together.  Janesville is still recovering from GM leaving.  Racine is Kenosha's twin, except they are taking longer to adjust to the post-industrial reality that exists in the Midwest.