Milwaukee's Future (Bradley, Johnson, Marquette: home, university, vs.)

[matchek91]

I posted this in the City vs. City forum, but here it is again in case some of you missed it.

There was an article in the Journal Sentinal addressing the future of Milwaukee. The article talked about a public meeting last Monday (1-30-12) with some of the city's leading philanthropists that discussed issues such as:
- the possibilty of Milwauke turning into a world-renowned water hub
- downtown development plans
- relocation of the Bradley Center
- renovating Wisconsin Avenue
- transportation
- the River Walk

and much more!

What are your thoughts on these topics and Milwaukee's future?

Here's the article.

'Remarkable Milwaukee' setting the stage for Milwaukee's future - JSOnline

[Miltophilly]

While I like the idea of being the water tech hub of the US (world?), I nevertheless feel that it is too specific. I think Milwaukee needs to carve a niche that is more general than water.

I hate the idea of forgetting our past because Milwaukee has a brand. That is, unlike many comparatively-sized cities, we are known for something--beer. More generally, we are known as a rust-belt, production-based city--one of the few remaining in a service-based economy.

However, the US economy will ALWAYS need production jobs. While we are "past" manufacturing steel, we will never stop producing the more technologically-advanced products. Milwaukee, for instance, is home to GE Medical, which is still production to be sure, but on a much more sophisticated level. We don't compete with China or India for high-tech production jobs (at least, not yet).

Milwaukee needs to embrace its image as a production-based center. What Silicon Valley and Austin are to IT/tech, what NYC is to finance, what LA is to media, what Houston is to energy, Milwaukee can (and should) be to supply chain management and its related sub-industries (e.g., logistics, quality engineering, etc.). Any business man will tell you six-sigma is extremely important to almost any company.

Milwaukee is home/presence to countless production-based companies (Miller, Harley, B&Stratton, Rockwell, Bucyrus, MasterLock, Johnson Controls, etc.) We are home to the American Society for Quality (ASQ)!!! We have MSOE. Marquette and UWM both have solid engineering majors and supply chain faculty.

So why isn't this happening now? The reason is that the city seems to want to shed it's production- and rust-belt image. I think they see that as low-brow, a thing of the past; Milwaukee needs to look towards the future, whatever that means. Frankly put, let's be honest, in the long-run we can't compete with other US cities for service-based companies. We simply don't have 'world city' status. We don't have the service-industry spillover. We don't have an RU/VH university in the area. So, while everyone is trying to totally invent a new image for their city, Milwaukee should just rebrand itself as the home to 'new production'. I think we can easily accomplish this with a PR campaign and outreach to people in the production/supply chain community, e.g., ISO 9000 committees, etc. I think that's where Milwaukee needs to look when thinking about the future.

[amerifree]

Milwaukee had such a great start at the turn of the 20th century. Manufacturing was exploding and whole generations of families could take pride in the city they built.
Then something happened in the late 20th century that turned the city to dust? Apathy.

Milwaukee may one day be a great city again, but like the first time, it will be the people who make it happen...not some dirty politicians telling them they are owed or entitled, and the govt. will fix it.

[sholomar]

the strong dollar policy happened. Everyone wanted to make money laundering money and pushing paper instead of making things. So everyone went into debt, and all the jobs went to china. This continues to this day. Hopefully we reach a critical point where it starts to reverse, but not as long as a 'strong dollar' is embraced and encouraging economic growth through 'spending' AKA 'debt creation' is seen as healthy.

The Milwaukee metro area is doing fine though... nothing to worry about, although striving for progress and growth should always be a goal among any city. I'm not aware enough of the internals anymore since moving. All I know is Ozaukee county has thrived since I left. A lot of positive things done there.

[ram2]

Originally Posted by amerifree

Milwaukee had such a great start at the turn of the 20th century. Manufacturing was exploding and whole generations of families could take pride in the city they built.
Then something happened in the late 20th century that turned the city to dust? Apathy.

Milwaukee may one day be a great city again, but like the first time, it will be the people who make it happen...not some dirty politicians telling them they are owed or entitled, and the govt. will fix it.

One major thing that happened was Milwaukee slowly lost it's machine tool industry, the industry that built the city. I also remember Briggs&Stratton sending assembly work to Mexico in the early 1980s, long before China came on the scene.