Racial Tensions in Milwaukee? (Madison, Racine: rentals, condos, buying)
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Me, I'd like to bust my ass while I'm here and focus on what I can do for myself and family instead of whining about what others have done to, or for me.
Right or wrong - nobody is going to help you but yourself. Once you get that into your head and realize we all have crosses to bear, you are on your way to a successful, fulfilling life.
Okay..now these are some real good genuine thoughts here. By the way, hello folks..Im new to this forum. Glad its here actually as Ive been trying to catch up on some posts.
Heres my dilemma. I am a San Diego, CA native. I came here to Milwaukee, WI in 1997 thinking I was not going to be here long. Obviously, 10 years later I am still here!! Unfortuanely as the years have passed by, I have noticed that nothing as far as city life here is getting any better. Sure this goes on in inner cities everywhere but this is where (my family) lives and this is the only city I can speak of because *here* is where we are.
Milwaukee is going way downhill. We are moving out before its too late. Funny how last year in February we looked at our cute little house that was just perfect for us. Naturally in the middle of winter with snow on the ground, it would appear that it was in a quiet neighborhood. Granted, the neighbors next door and behind us are absolutely wonderful and we will miss them, but people just dont care. They dont care about throwing their nasty belongs not even at curb side but all over the sidewalk. They dont care about the alley's. They dont care about who they rent to as long as the rent is paid. They dont pick up after anyone let alone themselves.
Recently our next door neighbor on the other side decided it was time to move as well and rented the house to a single mom with 5 kids. One night, on a school night the kids had a friend over at 11:30 pm. A van drove up, kids all ran outside, fight broke out, and the 17 yr old friend was shot 6 times in the head! In front of our house. Noone wanted to get involved, noone knew a thing. I wont go into details as to who did get involved but the guys were caught. Course they dont remember doing a thing.
I recently bought a brand new SUV. Two weeks later, I'm at my local gas station and stupid me has a bad habit of leaving my purse in plain view. Im getting out and dont even have a chance to lock my doors and a kid flies inside with a gun, takes my purse and almost stole my brand new truck! I could have been killed as well. This is something we work VERY hard for. We are a nice couple, work as contractors some 60 hrs a week, dont bother anyone and stick to ourselves. Two weeks ago we realized someone is trying to steal our working tools out of our garage!
Why is it that someone always wants something for nothing?? What happened to work ethics? I'm sure some of you can relate to being approached at a store and someone begging for a quarter. Umm..now there are children begging for dollars! Adults begiing for a 5-10.00 for diapers! I used to give out money then I got realistic and started to attempt to but the person a hot dog and a drink. Boy would the person frown on me for that when all I was doing was trying to help. I am also a property manager in the inner city trying so hard to make things better in abuilding that has had a scum lanlord for years. Do the tenants care? No they dont and I cant even go into the things I witness and go through in that place. People just dont care.
Sorry for the ramble but I wanted to get my point across to anyone that would understand me. Am I the only one that feels this hard up to leave this town?? We bust our ass to get where we are today to what? have everything stolen from us or possibly shot by a stray bullet?
I'm with you get out while you can!! I grew up in Milwaukee on 26th & Meineke then 23rd & Melvina, during the late 70's, 80's, until the early 90's (yes I grew up in "the ghetto") in a middle class black family. Growing up on those blocks, I saw drug deals going on, people shot at, people getting robbed...etc. My family had the neatest & cleanest yard on the block....we cared about our property, but it eventually got to where we could not even sit on our own porch. Our attempts to move out to Brookfield, Mequon, & even Waukesha failed, because the realtors we got kept telling us, "well those aren't generally minority neighborhoods" & sometimes flat out refused to show us homes in those areas even though we could more than afford it. So eventually my family decided to just sell the house & move out of state. (Alabama & Georgia respectively) I finally left for college & went to Alverno on the Southside (& received my Bachelors) because I wanted to stay in Milwaukee & give it a chance.
After I received my BA, I entered the job market there, & moved into a small apt on the east side. I applied for at least 35-40 jobs, but ended up settling on a entry level file clerk position at a bank & then at an insurance company, because I could not land a thing in my field. After being at my job for 4 yrs, seeing many other employees promoted over me (who were definately not qualified for the positions) & only making $21,000 yr with a BA, thats after all of the 2% raises I got, I got fed up & decided to move to Atlanta. I packed my desk up on Friday & quit right on the spot. I wanted something better....there was no way I could get ahead, buy a house, buy a car, & pay my bills (I was barely making rent) with only $21,000 a yr. Some of my fellow college educated friends were & still are in a similar situation. I know of one friend in particular that has an mba who is only making $27,000 a yr, because she can't land a job in her field.
So, I have been in Atlanta for 4 years now. I landed a job in my field after living here for 4 months, & have received 2 big raises & a promotion. I now make close to $40,000 a yr (plus quarterly bonuses). I am one of the middle class college educated blacks that has chosen to leave Milwaukee, because the economy/job market is terrible there. Until Milwaukee somehow figures out how to attract the middle class families back there, & somehow offer jobs to college graduates with respectable living wages, the middle class which is one of the main tax sources of the ecomomy to the city are going to continue to move to other states. Even the company I work for here in Atlanta was considering opening up a regional office there but decided against it, because the taxes on the bldg they were going to purchase downtown was too high, so they bought one in the Chicago suburbs.
I only visit Milwaukee once a yr now to see some of my friends that still live there, (most have moved to different states) & am very saddened by what I see going on in my old neighborhoods. People are depressed, fed up, & have lost hope. Milwaukee, your middle class is dwindling, something needs to be done before it becomes like Detroit (full of crime & no jobs)
Your post is definitely the best post on this thread! I think that everything that you said was definitely true and explains the problems that Milwaukee faces in regards to racism, economy, and overall quality of life.
I'm also in Atlanta and get depressed whenever I go back home. Most of my friends have left and a lot of the ones that stayed are doing the same thing they were 10 years ago.
I was in Milwaukee again last week. I think in that city and the surrounding areas, they are taken aback seeing Italians much less blacks. You can feel the prejudice on all levels, really. I'm sure maybe the prejudice didn't occur because everyone is an angel, but the Italian thing got me going (another story) since I am.
There were guys up to dirty deeds on many street corners. I never saw a cop - ever. For a city this size, it's pretty shocking.
Hoodlums can be black guys or white guys. In this case, I did see a lot of black guys, but as has been written, the law-abiding minorities which were once the majority, fled from a result of weak law enforcement, so who else would remain?
You guys should get Giuliani after his Presidential aspirations fail, and he'll go through the town with a broom and make it safe for all groups, races whatever.
I'm also in Atlanta and get depressed whenever I go back home. Most of my friends have left and a lot of the ones that stayed are doing the same thing they were 10 years ago.
Thank you very much....I just was trying to give a "real life" example of why the middle class (black & white) people are leaving.
By the way, when I was there last summer (for 4 days in June), & the exact same guys that lived across the street from me on 23rd & Melvina were still hanging out on their front porch doing the same thing they were doing when I was growing up.....drinking & smoking the day away! So YES some ppl are still doing the same exact thing they were 10 yrs ago.....I don't get it.
*Due to a fight over a "lover's quarrel", a man accused of fatally shot two men (a 19-year old and a 17-year old) and wounded two others earlier this month in the Metcalfe Park area by N. 21st St.
*Police investigate six shootings (some of these shootings were described above, some others were not) within the last day...locales noted: N. 13th St. and W. Finn Place, N. 60th St. and W. Fond du Lac Ave, 2700 block of N. 37th St., 3800 block of W. Hampton Ave.
***Again, all of these stories just from one random morning on a Tuesday morning in late March. 25 homicides to date in Milwaukee (compared to 20 at this time last year). El Paso TX, a city with low wages / poor economy, comparatively had 14 homicides ALL of last year.
Everything else is irrelevant until nonsense like this is cut off and curbed. There is no way the ecomony will improve, skilled workers will move in, etc., when stories like this are just simply "the norm" now and are passed off with excuses.
Milwaukee itself is a terribly violent city right now and people moving to the suburbs are not going due to race...they are going due to simple safety. It is too bad, because the whole MKE Metro area has got many things going for it...including MKE itself and its setting on the lake.
(MDKKR had it right with Rudy Giuliani...he cleaned up the crime in NYC...while the leaders in Milwaukee just make excuses and dig their heads in the sand.)
Thinking about Milwaukee and I had family who once lived there. According to the family I have(who also lived the 1967 race riot) and according to this family member of mine, he prefers Milwaukee over the suburbs of Atlanta. I have heard some of the good and the bad about Milwaukee and as a child my view of Milwaukee was only good(beer, Happy Days, cream soda, motorcycles) and I never thought that racial tensions in Milwaukee were that harsh according to this family member of mine. Then I here about Milwaukee being "hypersegregated". I do some research about Milwaukee and find that it is the metropolitan area, rather than Milwaukee itself that is hypersegregated. I would like some insight about Milwaukee and if Milwaukee is really that bad because I know the crime rate in Milwaukee is high, though not as high as Atlanta. I have thought about Milwaukee as a possible place for future residence(along with Madison, the Twin Cities, Denver, Seattle, Alaska,etc.) and once I considered Racine and then I keep hearing these reports about how violent Racine is. Is Racine as bad as everyone says because I have never lived in Racine(went through Racine obviously to get to Milwaukee for vacation as a child) and I don't know much about Racine other than for it's kringle.
mr evergreen, I hope I'm not going off the original thread topic but I must respond to your post. I've been living in Racine for a few years, and right now I'm preparing to move out. I live in a nice, north side neighborhood, considered to be one of the best areas to live in Racine. There are families of all kinds of different ethnicities on my street--black, white, arabic, hispanic, asian.
Yet one night I drove home from work and, on a street in my neighborhood, a bunch of hoodlums (I'd say teenaged) followed me in their vehicle, shouting at me, inches from my car, and basically terrifying me enough that I didn't pull into my driveway. I turned onto a bigger street in order for them to lose interest. I didn't know them, didn't see where they came from, and I didn't do a thing to instigate the incident. I don't even play music in the car. Yes they were a different ethnicity as I am.
The Racine Police (I cannot laud them enough, btw, I think they do a great job here) has had to issue several warnings to my neighborhood about theft and burglaries, and I don't feel safe sleeping with my windows open. Doors, cars, windows, garage are always locked, whether we're home or not. I don't feel safe in many parts of town. I avoid those areas at all costs, especially at night. I always drive on roads I know, because I'm afraid of getting lost and accidentally stumbling into the wrong neighborhood. It's really easy to get lost here because the town was built around the river, and the roads are twisty and poorly marked.
An acquaintance of mine who lives in West Racine (also regarded as a nice area to live in) was burglarized last year--thieves kicked down her front door in broad daylight and ransacked her house. She is thankful she and her family were not at home.
I'm thankful I've never been a victim of violent crime here, but I'm not sticking around long enough for that to happen. I've met natives of Racine who love it here and would never leave, but I think it's because they grew up here and they're emotionally attached to how the town used to be before the industrial jobs dried up and many townsfolk fell into poverty.
mr evergreen, I hope I'm not going off the original thread topic but I must respond to your post. I've been living in Racine for a few years, and right now I'm preparing to move out. I live in a nice, north side neighborhood, considered to be one of the best areas to live in Racine. There are families of all kinds of different ethnicities on my street--black, white, arabic, hispanic, asian.
Yet one night I drove home from work and, on a street in my neighborhood, a bunch of hoodlums (I'd say teenaged) followed me in their vehicle, shouting at me, inches from my car, and basically terrifying me enough that I didn't pull into my driveway. I turned onto a bigger street in order for them to lose interest. I didn't know them, didn't see where they came from, and I didn't do a thing to instigate the incident. I don't even play music in the car. Yes they were a different ethnicity as I am.
The Racine Police (I cannot laud them enough, btw, I think they do a great job here) has had to issue several warnings to my neighborhood about theft and burglaries, and I don't feel safe sleeping with my windows open. Doors, cars, windows, garage are always locked, whether we're home or not. I don't feel safe in many parts of town. I avoid those areas at all costs, especially at night. I always drive on roads I know, because I'm afraid of getting lost and accidentally stumbling into the wrong neighborhood. It's really easy to get lost here because the town was built around the river, and the roads are twisty and poorly marked.
An acquaintance of mine who lives in West Racine (also regarded as a nice area to live in) was burglarized last year--thieves kicked down her front door in broad daylight and ransacked her house. She is thankful she and her family were not at home.
I'm thankful I've never been a victim of violent crime here, but I'm not sticking around long enough for that to happen. I've met natives of Racine who love it here and would never leave, but I think it's because they grew up here and they're emotionally attached to how the town used to be before the industrial jobs dried up and many townsfolk fell into poverty.
Thank you for the insight on Racine. However, I am still looking for information and holding out hope for Milwaukee, because this is all disturbing news. I am not going to say Atlanta is the greatest city on earth because I have been dissapointed by it. I am hearing horrible things about Milwaukee. I would like more insight about Milwaukee.
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