My being here serves a good purpose as painful as that is. But just because I don't enjoy a small town like Janesville doesn't mean I don't have a right to my opinion. This is the United States of America and according to the Universal Declaration of Rights everyone has a right to freedom of opinion and expression. If you don't like that THEN YOU should leave this country! Everyone who reads the Janesville Gazette was asked their opinion on this topic and some were chastised for providing it. You are suppose to respect all walks of life and love your neighbor. I do not sense this from some democratic voters and this troubles me. I do not hate someone simply because they vote differently or have a different opinion. If I took your advice and thought only about myself and moved trust me you would feel it! Some peoples lives affect you in more ways than you will ever possibly know or be able to see!

Grow up !

Attitude problem?! Lol This town also has a lot of juvenile delinquents in need of serious help. My God it's like we're in grade school all over again. Good or bad feedback is feedback. Next you'll be telling me your daddy can beat up my daddy. Take your unconstructive self and go on a vacation allready. If you appreciated Janesville so much and weren't depressed why so eager to fight with those who oppose something. Seems to me you're jumping at the chance to fight with people who are different than you or wanna change your way of life. Janesville is suffering from a serious prozac shortage. A town which offers little to do and is infested with a good percentage of folks like this has all the ingredients of a crisis. And to think some actually described this area as a good place to raise a family. I wouldn't want to raise chidren around hateful, envious and vendictive people. Oh sure there are good people out there but my God the ones who aren't bleed so badly into normalicy making for an unsuitable environment. Some sdults around here should really be ashamed of themselves.

NVgrf loves it so much here he left for NV. raving endorsement,

NVgrf loves it so much here he left for NV. raving endorsement,

Interesting reading all these comments. Reminds me of the old story about two brothers who ask Santa for a pony for Christmas, Their father, not being able to afford a pony, leaves a giant pile of horse manure in the front yard. On Christmas morning, the one brother (an eternal pessimist) proclaims, "Great. The pony got here, took a giant dump, and ran off." The other brother, (the eternal optimist) starts digging through the manure and proclaims, "There must be a pony in here somewhere." The moral being that we all see what we want to see. This blog entry and all the comments are especially interesting since I currently live in Evansville (moved here 15 years ago from Madison) and am seriously considering moving to Janesville in 2013. I am about equal distance to Janesville and Madison (where I was born and raised, by the way). Despite my roots in Madison, I have, over the last 15 years, come to favor Janesville to run errands. And, in the process, the city has grown on me. I've attended theatrical and musical performances in Janesville, and continuing ed courses at Blackhawk. I even lived in Janesville for three months while my home in Evansville was being remodeled in 2010. For starters, it's easier to navigate. In case you haven't noticed, the Beltline in Madison has become a nightmare. And driving through the isthmus? Forget about it. The "five points" intersection notwithstanding, Janesville is a dream to navigate compared with Madison. Many of the key retailers (grocery, pharmacy, discount retailers, mall retailers, gas stations, and a variety of fairly good restaurants) in Janesville are all conveniently clustered within a couple miles of each other on the northeast corner of town, along with a very nice multiplex cinema. Get away from Milton Avenue/Humes Road corridor, and you have lovely parks, with Rotary Gardens being the crown jewel. Great bicycle and walking trails. A downtown with some nice businesses and lots of potential. You have a very nice performing arts center (which, unlike Madison, does not require large handouts from the city just to stay afloat). You have U-Rock and Blackhawk that offer a variety of interesting continuing educational opportunities. Oh, yeah, and affordable housing. I'm choosing you guys over Madison (my hometown) because I've grown weary of Madison's pretentiousness, pseudo-liberalism (as in, not-in-my-back-yard politics), and pseudo-intellectualism. As for the comments about Janesville being "cliquey," I guess we'll see whether I'll find friendly people in Janesville or be shunned as an outsider. But either way, I believe Janesville will be a pretty nice place to live, with plenty of interesting things going on without all the pretense and affectation that has, sadly, become the hallmark of my former hometown.

Tight-assed..

Undaunted

NVGrif: 36 years ago maybe Janesville was different? Somehow I doubt it! In its current state Janesville is extremely degrading. Especially for people who are in your previous profession.

Tired.

Having worked in Janesville for 36 years, I do not understand the animosity toward the community. My family enjoyed living in Janesville immensely! It is a terrific place to raise kids.

pawn

Clueless!

And most people are to ignorant to realize it.

Transitional.

ifiruledtheworld - I read your post and felt like you were telling my story. We've lived in Janesville and Milton for a total of 26 years, but have lived in two large cities too. It is not easy making friends in the area, that's for sure and I have never had that problem anywhere else. Either the locals don't like people from another state or they have so much family and so many friends, they literally do not have time to add you to their list. Except for one friend who grew up in Janesville, all the friends I've met here are from somewhere else. The city definitely is not what it was in the mid-80's when we first came here. It's really kind of sad to see the town change so much, and not for the better. Your attempt to try to find a place in between the die hard Union liberals and the country club set (neither do I relate to) is dead on. I have always felt that my personality, politics and past experiences just don't fit here. I will say my kids got a great education in Milton, in spite of the teacher's union and it has been a safe place to live. Unfortunately the locals don't realize how cliquey they are and it is not a good first impression.

Don't forget the clever and sarcastic if not totally fair "JanesVegas" and "Chainsville."

divided.

Community

regressive

Ignorant

Incidentally typing on these phones is a lot like trying to butter bread with your toes. And don't you dare tell me to use voice recognition because it sucks. My cat understands more than this phone I want my money back!

Janesville is like a boston cream donut it's delicious stuff in center. Unfortunately the center of my donut was substituted with something gross. Spit spit spit.. I found a maggot once roaming around the meat inside my Su#-ay sandwhich.
When stuff like that happens in a town the size of Janesville after a while you start to draw conclusions about its residents. I'll never forget my experiences while working at the GM plant in Janesville for EDS. On a regular basis in the factory employees would smear fecal matter or grease on my electric cart. The odd experiences I had in Janesville are far greater in comparison to other places I lived or traveled around the
globe. The most polite small town I visited was Mason City, Iowa. People really went out of their way there it was like a scene from the movie Funny Farm with Chevy Chase only they weren't being paid to be nice. The house we purchased in Janesville was a lot like watching the movie Money Pit with Tom Hanks. I've only recently finished fixing many of the problems not disclosed on our home after five years. Between all the mysteries of trying to find what was hidden to waiting for contractors to show up or finish their work I'm ready to take a flying leap off a cliff. Janesville has a way about it that makes you cross all your T's and dot all your I's! It's pretty bad a guy has to cover his entire property with more surveillance and security than most business's.

Not my style to respond to these posts, but I have to say, "Thank You," Eagle1. Our stories are eerily familiar.

Third class, especially in the medical field.

Wannabeeville

ifiruledtheworld, I agree completely and i was born and raised here and I feel pretty lost here as well. I left for 20 years and came back and to be honest I have very few people here I would consider friends, I tried for the first 2 years I was back to get people to do things but nobody ever wanted to do anything so I just gave up, we leave town to do things now.

Intolerant

Forgot to say why my word is "claustrophobic.". Sometimes this town seems too small and limiting. Hard to find like-minded people who I can identify with and enjoy spending time with. Lets face it, this town is cliquey and polarized. You've got your hardened, union liberals and then you have your country club group who often just stick to themselves cuz that's where they're comfortable. I, personally, have not found much of an in between. So I just think "I've gotta get outta here." Claustrophobic.

What about the downsides of the big city that Janesville doesn't have?

Come on you two highlight of entertainment around here is lighting stinkers and measuring distance! lol Has absolutely nothing to do with politics it's a no brainer the city lacks much! I enjoy some of the restaurants but it gets old fast. If you've lived in large cities & enjoy things to do you'll go out of your mind here. The world is full of different people you don't treat people like dirt simply because they're not like you. Purpose of this article was to get feedback leave it up to some to trample over you if they don't like your response but then again that is why I choose confrontational as one of my words.

I think dusty's response sums it up. All other words stem from depression.

Caring.

Desirable, I see some of the ones that lost with their candidates are still hateful ... If you do not like Janesville, there are several roads that lead out of it, do the city a favor and LEAVE. Another word would be, Educated, as in, a majority Gets IT . at least 60 plus percent get it.....

The great thing about America as we all know is that you have the freedom to leave, so please , feel free. Get all of the elderly, grumpy folks out so we can be vibrant again.
I love Janesville, its quiet and a GREAT place to raise a family. Plenty to do and no shortage of Family events! No culture? No restaraunts? Look harder! There are plenty of great places to eat and lots of culture, you simply need to get away from Milton Ave and educate yourselves! Geesh, bunch of friggin whinny babies!!
BTW Janesville has survived the loss of GM better than Flint because the majority of the folks that worked there didn't live here. We are halfway between MAdison and Rockford, good place to be. Never leavin!! Madison is where I was born and raised, Janesville is where I call.....HOME.

Stagnant

Does anyone know the difference between Janesville and Yogurt......Yogurt has Culture!

Livable, but not quite lovable.

America. Simple statement but it is a good definition of what Janesville is. School rivalries, city parks, Court Street Hill, the bike trail, Corn Exchange, Old Armory, friendly yet somewhat snobbish,clean and for the most part a safe enviroment for kids and adults alike.There are more plusses then take aways for the Janesville I know.

Most of you must live in a different Janesville than the one I live in! I would call it FUN!

Beautiful Parks

Stuck

Depressing

Home ==

Thought I'd never come back to Janesville, but I recently did. No matter where I lived Janesville was home, still is, and always will be.

"no new taxes" just FEES you cannot write off!!! sorry had to add a neg in there.

liberal

UNIONIZED.. This is a community that is being held back because of the control and influence that Unions have.

Hopeful....

Those of us who are in touch with reality are sure going to miss all those people who hate Janesville when they leave town.

decaying

shortsighted

Manipulated
-
There are people behind the scenes who try to control things. The result is a lack of open and honest progress.

Boring.

While being political or confrontational

dilapidated or slow

Myopic

Home for now, but we will see.

home

Ryanicious.

Thanks for the word of the day billnewbie. Do understand though busses are Federal, roundabouts are State and Ice Arena is City.

Struggling.

fee crazy

rabid

adequate
I have to live somewhere. Janesville meets my needs and it's location makes other places easy to visit.

Woodsman......residents of Beloit would consider your response an insult!

Claustrophobic.

billnewbie, I suspect that Janesvillean doesn't take kindly to insults. An apology is owed.

Ok Janesvillean, er...Gazettefan.

Sidewalks

Investing

By the way, billnewbie, in the matter of your off-the-mark pedantry: hyphenation makes one word. Hence the term: hyphenated word.

Robust

Stupid

Pompous

Surprising!

Cliquey

N.Beloit

Meh.

Soporific!

family

open-for-business-Thank-You-Governor-Scott-Walker ... or is that more than one word?

Rotting.

dying

Provincial-as in unsophisticated.

Narrow.

deteriorating

A City that was smart enough to vote for Zerban and NOT hometown boy Ryan. A City smart enough to know that Obama / Biden was the correct vote.

"Paul Ryan's Very Mixed Election Day In WI"

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepoliti...

http://www.progressive.org/bybee0311.htm...

Self-hating is 2 words, Janesvillean! Using a hyphen doesn't change that!

Quixotic is what comes to my mind when describing Janesville with one word. On one hand, we seem to understand that throwing ever more money at our school system results in exceedingly diminishing returns. On the other hand, we seem to think that throwing money at Ice Arenas and Roundabouts as well as other esoteric endeavors such as our under used bus system will pay off handsomely.

Yep, Quixotic. that's Janesville.

lost

Beautiful.

wortnik - when my husband moved here some 30 years ago after being raised in the Chicago suburbs, going to college in a town similar to Whitewater, and working a year in Springfield, IL, he too found Janesville clique-y when trying to meet new people. He mostly found friends through coworkers and then eventually through me, but I look back on my bar-hopping days, and I have to agree with him. If Janesville had a dorming college, it might be different with lots of young people all new and trying to meet people. My word for Janesville: Ostrich. As in, Head in the Sand. It takes public and school administration officials a long time to become aware of and act upon issues, and it was that way when I was still in school, too.

changing

Self-hating -- as evidenced here.
.
Really, Janesville has a lot of building blocks of a great community, but it always seems to find some way -- or someone volunteers -- to shoot itself in the foot.

Good luck in your new venture in another city.

Archaic

For the young working professionals, Janesville is a dust collector. It's especially bad if you don't have children. It has minimal to offer and does nothing to entice us to come here. Most have very little incentive to stay if/when they do come and are constantly looking to relocate elsewhere. We're definitely NOT spending our paychecks here. Dine at another franchise? No thanks. Janesville Mall? Ha! Total joke. I use to be optimistic that this community was capable of embracing change and things would get better. Unfortunately, things have only gotten worse. And no...it's not an "economy problem", it is the mind-set of "If it's not broke, don't fix it" and the fear of changing status-quo. I've spoke to several city officials that maintain optimism towards moving the city out of the 1980's. It's just unfortunate that I'll (and many, many more like me) can't wait around another 10-15 years to see it happen.

Dying.

Sepia-tone. I know it's two words. It will always be like a grouping of old photographs in my memory. Those photos show places of my childhood and the people that were a part of it. As another writer posted there's a "comfort" to the town and that color.

Interesting!

Vacant

Read Wortnik's comment then the very next post....love it...

Janesville is: Balanced

great place to bring up a family and live...perfect balance between small and big city...

Stale.
Nothing new.
And maybe that's good.
The previous comments "Home", "Comfy" bring to mind an old sweater or favorite chair.
To each their own I guess.......

Fake.

So second thought was Pleasant. It used to be our Telephone prefix up till the early 60's when it changed to 75 as in Pleasant 2 - 3456.
Some previous conversations has called Janesville Cliquey and unfriendly, which i have not personally experienced in any greater extent than I encounter most places. And Then Usually it's a mirror reflection of the speaker

Home was my first thought too

Comfy.

"interesting"
"eventful"- lately

wow, jvldss, you beat me to it.

Home.