Milwaukee one of the poorest cities in America (Madison, Green Bay: real estate, crime)

[Northernest Southernest C]

Originally Posted by MassVt

A better definition would involve using the MSA as a standard of reference, for almost any city. Lots os wealth to the west and north of Milwaukee..

A city like Baltimore is quite poor ( all you need to do is look at it), but the suburbs are very wealthy..

Our poverty rate is 23.8% according to the census bureau while Milwaukee is 29.1% or 27% according to the article. Fact is poverty in all cities are going to be higher than national average but Baltimore is not as poor as some think. Suburbs are wealthy but there are many wealthy and middle class neighborhoods in the city.

[Mimidae]

I find this surprising as well. I've been to the downtown a couple of times on business and took walks for blocks - it seems like a really nice, well-kept city from that vantage point. It's like anything else, I guess - you can't get the full picture from one statistic. My city was recently called "Murder Capital USA". And it's got a nice downtown where there's a mugging maybe once a year. Totally safe. But because of some drug warfare on the outskirts... there you go. Suddenly we have a terrible reputation.

And I'd echo what the above poster said about Baltimore. Depending on where you go, Baltimore is a great city. There are many pockets of deep poverty, but it's far from being an overall slum.

[MassVt]

I'd take Milwaukee over Baltimore in a heartbeat. Large parts of Baltimore consist of slummy, falling-down/condemned rowhouses. The overpowering image of the city is one of downtrodden poverty.

Milwaukee is full of nice neighborhoods with 2-3 bedroom bungalows on fairly-wide plots of land, with fantastic views of Lake Michigan on its eastern shore. The loss of its historic manufacturing base has hurt it, without a doubt, but it certainly doesn't have the look of decay that much of Baltimore City has. I have seen posts on CD from ex-EMT staffers in Baltimore who were convinced that almost half the city was a slum, and other posters who were ecstatic to get as far away as possible from so-called "Charm City" ( absolutely sick of the crime). Everyone has preferences and dislikes, but the PHYSICAL CONDITION ( my main point) of much of Baltimore is appalling.

[MassVt]

Originally Posted by Allan Trafton

This title is a little misleading. It is the 50 largest cities, which have the highest percent in poverty, not average income or medium income or anything else. Also, keep in mind cities in the 30th place or so have 18% percent of their population in poverty. Cities such as Dallas, Minneapolis, New York, etc are only 6 or 7 percent points better. The gap isn't all that large and a new survey can change a cities standing from 4th to 15th real quick.

Excellent point--we're often talking about only one percentage point, or even less in some cases. It just makes for sensationalism to say "Top 50" or "Top 10"..

[UKWildcat1981]

Milwaukee one of the poorest US Cities never heard that one before, I seriously doubt its anywhere close to Baltimore, Detroit, Memphis, New Orleans, St. Louis, Miami in terms of being poor.

[Milwaukee City]

Brooklyn and Miami Beach are being listed as one of the poorest cities, I'd move there yesterday if you asked me!!!

[Allan Trafton]

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

Brooklyn and Miami Beach are being listed as one of the poorest cities, I'd move there yesterday if you asked me!!!

I'm with you on this one!

[43north87west]

Originally Posted by nickerman

Although Milwaukee doesn't seem economically vibrant it didn't seem like a third world country that it is made out to be.

It's not that at all, but it has a lot of challenges. It's kind of like Detroit in a lot of ways, for a lot of similar reasons. There are some areas of the city that are bad. The reality is, the city is a fantastic place if you make decent money, but I presume that there are many better places to be poor. For example, the aforementioned Miami Beach.

[Northernest Southernest C]

Originally Posted by MassVt

I'd take Milwaukee over Baltimore in a heartbeat. Large parts of Baltimore consist of slummy, falling-down/condemned rowhouses. The overpowering image of the city is one of downtrodden poverty.

Milwaukee is full of nice neighborhoods with 2-3 bedroom bungalows on fairly-wide plots of land, with fantastic views of Lake Michigan on its eastern shore. The loss of its historic manufacturing base has hurt it, without a doubt, but it certainly doesn't have the look of decay that much of Baltimore City has. I have seen posts on CD from ex-EMT staffers in Baltimore who were convinced that almost half the city was a slum, and other posters who were ecstatic to get as far away as possible from so-called "Charm City" ( absolutely sick of the crime). Everyone has preferences and dislikes, but the PHYSICAL CONDITION ( my main point) of much of Baltimore is appalling.

I seen this early in the morning an attempted to prove you all wrong on my smart phone but I couldn't type fast enough. So now I'm off from work and the laptop is out lets look at some of the things you people said.

Milwaukee one of the poorest US Cities never heard that one before, I seriously doubt its anywhere close to Baltimore, Detroit, Memphis, New Orleans, St. Louis, Miami in terms of being poor.
Really? Prepared to be fooled wrong cant speak for those other cities but can definitely speak for Baltimore

Milwaukee is full of nice neighborhoods yada yada...

I'm not going to describe how great my city is and the amenities, nice neighborhoods, and fantastic views it offer of the inner harbor. I would rather just bring the facts. Milwaukee might have nice neighborhoods you describe, yet it remains plagued by many urban woes like high levels of poverty, minority unemployment and infant mortality. That said a physical image of a city with vacant row homes like Baltimore obviously does not determine high poverty levels if Milwaukee with 2-3 bedroom bungalows on fairly-wide plots of land, with fantastic views of Lake Michigan on its eastern shore can look nice but still have the same problems like any other American city. To contradict your stereotypes of Baltimore and this whole thread of poorest cities lets look at richest cities above a population of 500,000. Milwaukee makes the list of 33 “richest” cities in the United States! Yeah at number 33 Baltimore number 22.

Milwaukee:
•Percentage of incomes over $150,000: 3.0% (17,893)
•Percentage of population with bachelor’s degree: 22.1%
Total population: 596,459

Baltimore:
•Percentage of incomes over $150,000: 6.4% (39,772)
•Percentage of population with bachelor’s degree: 26.8%
Total population: 621,445

Milwaukee makes the list of 33 “richest” cities in the United States! | FOX6Now.com



The loss of its historic manufacturing base has hurt it, without a doubt

Baltimore have vacant homes solely due to manufacturing decline not poverty! If you think the manufacturing base hurt Milwaukee then it killed Baltimore. You guys just should be thankful you didn't get hit as hard as other cities.

but it certainly doesn't have the look of decay that much of Baltimore City has...
To say this and try to compare the manufacturing history of the two cities and the long term effects you have to know your history. Milwaukee actually fared better than many cities which is why As I said above this is more of a hurt vs killed comparison. Why?

Here's how the loss of manufacturing boom effected Milwaukee

1. Since reaching its peak of 741,324 in 1960, Milwaukee has lost 21.3% of its population
2. From 1979 to 2008, the whole state of Wisconsin lost nearly the same amount of jobs that were in Baltimore alone (over 100,000 manufacturing jobs)
3. Manufacturing employed 583,000 Wisconsinites in 1979 and only 476,000 in 2008. That's better than Maryland which has little to no manufacturing base. Difference is the state never completely lost its manufacturing base in Maryland it is basically gone. Milwaukee and Wisconsin definitely made out better than Baltimore and Maryland as far as retaining some industrial jobs.
4. Although the city has lost population since the 1960s, its population losses were less than all but three big Frostbelt cities; Milwaukee ranked 4th of 14 in population "performance" between 1970 and 1996

[SIZE=1][/SIZE]
Here's how the loss of manufacturing boom effected Baltimore

1. Since reaching its peak of 949,708 in 1950, Baltimore has lost 40.3% of its population double the lose of Milwaukee.
2. In 1950, Baltimore was the sixth-largest city in the country
3. As the economic base of Maryland, Baltimore provided 75% of all jobs to workers in the region. Many were manufacturing jobs in textiles automobile production, shipping, and transportation. The region’s economic powerhouse, however, was the steel industry at Sparrows Point the largest mill in the country.
4. Baltimore lost over 100,000 manufacturing jobs between 1950 and 1995, 75% of its industrial employment — not to mention most of the jobs with union representation. Currently, only 6% of all jobs in the City are in manufacturing. Those jobs employed thousands of low-skill, high-wage jobs and many families and homeowners left the dense row homes for the suburbs to rot when jobs left. This is where our vacant homes come from.
5. Baltimore’s suburbs grew from 387,656 residents in 1950 to over 1.8 million in 1997
6. Prior to 1900, predominantly African-American neighborhoods did not exist in Baltimore: black residents were spread out throughout the City, and no single ward was more than one-third black. Between 1950 and 1970, Baltimore’s African-American population almost doubled, while whites moved away from the City. As a result, by 1997, Baltimore had gone from less than one-quarter to nearly two-thirds black. While in 1950, almost two-thirds of the region’s white population lived in Baltimore, only 12.5% lived in the City by 1997
7. The city now relies on a low-wage service economy, which accounts for 90% of jobs in the city. Such jobs have a heavily minority workforce.
8. While Baltimore City has a diverse economy, certain industries stand out. These industries include:

Education & Health Services
IT
Life Sciences
Port & Industrial
Professional Services
Retail
Tourism & Hospitality

[MassVt]

Type in the words "Milwaukee, poor" and look at the images...then type in "Baltimore, poor" and look at those images.

Absolutely no comparison. One author of a related article thought that Baltimore had the "worst decay" he'd ever seen in an American city, and thought that whatever "charm" the city once had, it's long gone now.

The photos of Milwaukee were only a few in number, and mostly depicted tenants being evicted from fairly decent-looking single family homes, with yards, and no obvious graffiti/garbage lying around. Baltimore, on the other hand, well...a different story, to put it mildly. Those neighborhoods look like something out of a 3rd world environment.

The days of Johnny U and Frank Robinson are long gone in Baltimore. Too bad, really...

Milwaukee has lost its manufacturing base, including steel and some breweries, and a famous, successful team (the Braves of Hank Aaron/Eddie Mathews of the 50s/early 60s) and the Packers ( who used to play 4 games a year in County Stadium, but now stay in Green Bay), but the city has remained physically decent, even picturesque in places..