Milwaukee in top 20 cities for losing local U.S. residents (Johnson: construction, to live)

[Empidonax]

According to this report (using comparative data from 2000 and 2012), the Milwaukee metro has seen an increase in 25-34-year-olds with a college degree. The report also reveals that this demographic has increased significantly (+32%) in and around the Milwaukee city center (no surprise to those of us who know downtown, the Third Ward, etc.). Milwaukee's growth in these areas has not been as robust as some other cities, but it's still a positive sign.

Young and Restless | City Observatory

[svicious22]

Originally Posted by Allan Trafton

I think people need to read the article. It states metro area not the city. Also, it doesn't mean the area is losing population, just domestic out migration. New York City has grown by 300,000 residents since 2010, yet is 2nd on the list. Immigration and birth rate play a larger role.

Northern metro areas will always have a higher out migration due to weather and retirees moving to Florida and other warmer locals.

I don't think crime and schools play into this very much. Milwaukee Public Schools has less than 30% of the total metro student population, actually 50% of the city of Milwaukee student population attends a private school or suburban school. MPS factors into things much less than most realize. As far as crime, the metro area has a low crime rate and crime is generally located in inner city neighborhoods among poor blacks. The majority of the population has little crime issues.

The overwhelming majority of the metro population does not send it's children to bad schools or live in high crime areas.

Weather plays by far the largest role.


As far as moving to NYC, LA or other high prices glamor towns.. This is a select few who graduate from high end universities with special skills which enable them to make very large money and to move up quickly. This is a small select group. Not the tech school grads, or even UWM types. Maybe Wisconsin, Northwestern or Marquette. Over 90% of the young adults in Wisconsin do not have the backgrounds to make it worth their while to move to high prices, ultra competitive alpha cities such as NYC. Cities such as Green Bay, Milwaukee and Kenosha are better suited for them..

I think you are over-generalizing. I left MKE and it was lack of jobs 1st and crime a distant 2nd. Haven't been unemployed in over two decades and only have experienced crime once a decade instead of multiple times per year, and no, I didn't live in areas any worse than average for crime. Weather had zero to do with it.

[cheese plate]

Originally Posted by Empidonax

According to this report (using comparative data from 2000 and 2012), the Milwaukee metro has seen an increase in 25-34-year-olds with a college degree. The report also reveals that this demographic has increased significantly (+32%) in and around the Milwaukee city center (no surprise to those of us who know downtown, the Third Ward, etc.). Milwaukee's growth in these areas has not been as robust as some other cities, but it's still a positive sign.

Young and Restless | City Observatory

You bet. I keep telling suburbanites this, and they are still in denial. There's an urban renaissance growing downtown and the near-downtown neighborhoods, fairly drastic in some areas.

[brrabbit]

Me and my wife were driving through Milwaukee (around Brady street) recently. She hasn't been in Mke for 4 years and her reaction was "Mke is definitely more active (and less ghostly) nowadays than it was 4 years ago.

[Allan Trafton]

Originally Posted by cheese plate

You bet. I keep telling suburbanites this, and they are still in denial. There's an urban renaissance growing downtown and the near-downtown neighborhoods, fairly drastic in some areas.

I agree. If someone hasn't been to Milwaukee in 10 or 15 years and drove from Shorewood south through the east side, through downtown, the Third Ward, Walkers Point and finally into Bay View down KK they would be shocked. I'm shocked sometimes and I live here. People that live in the hinterlands, only watched the local news and don't venture into Milwaukee would be in for a major surprise. My hunch is that they have little idea what is going on.

[MassVt]

I don't think I would be overly worried about taxes, and considering moving to a "low" tax state, if I was buying a single family home for only 150K. You can't buy a closet in Boston for that money.

Milwaukee seems to have in inordinate percentage of suburbanites who never actually visit the city, let alone spend any significant time in it. The city/suburb divide, and voting patterns, seem outrageously wide..

[Vegas_Cabbie]

I think the city/suburb obliviousness is a two-way street in the Milwaukee area. While it may be mostly true that suburbanites stick to the outskirts and are out of the loop in regards to the urban cores of their city, there is essentially zero respect given to these people from the city dwellers... That song and dance gets a little tiresome as well.

As far as low tax states goes, why is Massachusetts being brought up? If you are a buyer, they have an unfortunate combination of above average property tax as well as above average home prices.

Maybe this will help:
Property Tax Rates By State 2015 - Tax-Rates.org

[Allan Trafton]

Originally Posted by Vegas_Cabbie

I think the city/suburb obliviousness is a two-way street in the Milwaukee area. While it may be mostly true that suburbanites stick to the outskirts and are out of the loop in regards to the urban cores of their city, there is essentially zero respect given to these people from the city dwellers... That song and dance gets a little tiresome as well.

As far as low tax states goes, why is Massachusetts being brought up? If you are a buyer, they have an unfortunate combination of above average property tax as well as above average home prices.

Maybe this will help:
Property Tax Rates By State 2015 - Tax-Rates.org

Any resentment from city dweller towards suburbanites is clearly due to the long standing degrading attitude exhibited by some in the suburbs. They are responsible for this. It's an odd situation. Many in the 60's and 70's could have stayed in the city and helped it with the problems the city faced at the time, but they didn't and that is their choose, I have no problems with this, but what comes afterwards is odd. They left with the industry and tax base and took it upon themselves to make a sport of degrading the place they left, and they took a strange pride in doing so. I believe some of this may stem from the old putting something down to make them feel better about where they reside, as if it makes them feel superior in some way.

Your observation is clearly a false comparison. I stand by what I have written in a previous post. The insults and degrades towards Milwaukee are many times greater than any suburb faces. Imagine degrading someones home town to their face and see the reaction you'll get - probably worse than you when Las Vegas is attacked. They will find it totally unacceptable, but towards Milwaukee it's fine.

I'm not buying you assessment at all.

[thefragile]

Originally Posted by Vegas_Cabbie

I think the city/suburb obliviousness is a two-way street in the Milwaukee area. While it may be mostly true that suburbanites stick to the outskirts and are out of the loop in regards to the urban cores of their city, there is essentially zero respect given to these people from the city dwellers... That song and dance gets a little tiresome as well.

How can it get tiresome for you, you don't live here. However, you know why people in the city don't respect suburbanites? Because they talk ignorant smack about the city on a consistent basis, they act like they're going to be immediately murdered if they cross the city line, and if they DO venture into the city, they have no idea how to drive or park.

[Allan Trafton]

I will also add that much of this resentment is a generational thing. The younger the person is the less hostility you'll find. Many in their 20's regardless of where they reside have little loathing towards the city, but many in there 50's and 60's you'll find plenty of hostility.

I think some of this may stem from an anti urban bias that was prevalent after WWII until maybe the 1990's. There was a generation or two that was taught to hate cities and a sign of success was a single family home on 3/4 of an acre lot. This was enhanced by government policy and marketing. Developers realized big business by having as many as possible move to a new location. The development was huge, new schools, shopping, homes, office etc., this helped the economy explode for 40 years. Hate of anything old or urban and develop new was the mindset. It was a marketing scheme and it worked great.

I believe this has radically change in the past twenty years. The era of tearing down stunning neo classical buildings, block busting, clearing of homes and buildings for freeways and large soviet block public housing is over. Most older large urban cities are entering a new promising future - Milwaukee included.