Greater Milwaukee (Kenosha, Racine, Waukesha: jobs, subdivision, suburban)

[MILWCITY]

Do you live in Oconomowoc and consider yourself as living in a Milw suburb? how about West Bend, Mukwonago, Racine, Port Washington? Are these suburbs or exurbs? do you tell people that you live in a Milw suburb?
Oconomowoc is a suburb due to the fact that from Pewaukee to Lac La Belle is all connected. How about Wales? or Port do you considered these as suburbs as well? or you just tell visitors because it's easier?

Also...Our metro area needs a more identifiable name like "chicagoland"
it seems people argue over Greater Milwaukee vs Mega Milwaukee what do you call it? and suggestions?

[Dea13]

I live in the Village of Caledonia in Racine County. I NEVER say I live in a Milw suburb. Racine is it's own county with it's own personality. With all the people moving here from Chicago I'd say we're turning into more of a Chicago suburb .

Where I live is still an agricultural area and very wide open and green. If I say I live in Milw they assume I live in the middle of a city or a subdivision. It gets annoying to explain that the whole area isn't built up like the City of Milwaukee.

[414Milwaukee]

Originally Posted by MILWCITY

Do you live in Oconomowoc and consider yourself as living in a Milw suburb? how about West Bend, Mukwonago, Racine, Port Washington? Are these suburbs or exurbs? do you tell people that you live in a Milw suburb?
Oconomowoc is a suburb due to the fact that from Pewaukee to Lac La Belle is all connected. How about Wales? or Port do you considered these as suburbs as well? or you just tell visitors because it's easier?

Also...Our metro area needs a more identifiable name like "chicagoland"
it seems people argue over Greater Milwaukee vs Mega Milwaukee what do you call it? and suggestions?

I like Mega Milwaukee
or Monster Milwaukee

i didnt even know we had that many suburbs i thought we had
St francis,South Milwaukee, Wauwatosa, Bay View, West Allis, Oak Creek ,Kenosha and Racine i thought that was all our suburbs

[Nuclear_Art]

Mega Milwaukee is always what they say on those auto sales extravaganza radio ads. Yeah, it sounds silly. Greater Milwaukee is probably the standard although Milwaukee County really says it all. People outside of the county generally try to disassociate themselves from the city.

[EnjoyEP]

Originally Posted by MILWCITY

Do you live in Oconomowoc and consider yourself as living in a Milw suburb?

It is part of Waukesha county, so yes, it is a suburb.

"Exurbs" are just a classification within suburbs. Thus, you can be both suburb and exurb, however, you cannot be an exurb without being also a suburb.

Oconomowoc would be both.

Here is the definition by most any standard for how towns are defined as a suburb - if they are included in the MSA for the metro of the major city. For Milwaukee, that means the towns in:

-Milwaukee County
-Waukesha County
-Washington County
-Ozaukee County
-Racine County (although some exclude Racine County and just use the above four counties...I believe Racine County should be included, and it is included in official MSA stats)

Thus...

Originally Posted by MILWCITY

-West Bend

YES (Washington)

Originally Posted by MILWCITY

Mukwonago

YES (Mostly in Waukesha Co., although a small sliver is in Walworth...not enough though)

Originally Posted by MILWCITY

Racine

YES (Racine County, although again, some leave Racine County out - more and more that has changed though)

Originally Posted by MILWCITY

Port Washington

YES (Ozaukee County)

Originally Posted by MILWCITY

Oconomowoc is a suburb due to the fact that from Pewaukee to Lac La Belle is all connected.

That's not why. Its because it is in Waukesha County.

Originally Posted by MILWCITY

How about Wales?

Yep, part of Waukesha County.

Originally Posted by MILWCITY

Also...Our metro area needs a more identifiable name like "chicagoland"

Most cities don't have a identifiable name like "Chicagoland". Chicagoland is unique because it has a metro population of 10+ million and is the 3rd biggest city in the US by far.

There aren't many Chicagolands. Trying to compare ourselves / Milwaukee to Chicago in almost any way is just a futile endeavor. Compare us to Kansas City, St. Louis, Omaha, Cleveland, Cincinnati...not Chicago.

A brand like this works for a Chicago due to its massive size and population, similarly to the few other regions with a similar moniker (Bay Area CA, DFW TX, etc.).

Originally Posted by MILWCITY

it seems people argue over Greater Milwaukee vs Mega Milwaukee what do you call it? and suggestions?

Metro Milwaukee. That is what it is. Greater Milwaukee also works and is accepted vernacular, like it would be elsewhere (eg: Greater Seattle, Greater Portland, Greater Austin, etc.).

[43north87west]

Originally Posted by MILWCITY

Do you live in Oconomowoc and consider yourself as living in a Milw suburb? how about West Bend, Mukwonago, Racine, Port Washington? Are these suburbs or exurbs? do you tell people that you live in a Milw suburb?
Oconomowoc is a suburb due to the fact that from Pewaukee to Lac La Belle is all connected. How about Wales? or Port do you considered these as suburbs as well? or you just tell visitors because it's easier?

Also...Our metro area needs a more identifiable name like "chicagoland"
it seems people argue over Greater Milwaukee vs Mega Milwaukee what do you call it? and suggestions?

On top of Enjoy's post, I have noticed something of an aversion to referring to many suburbs (by definition) as having anything to do with Milwaukee. It probably has a lot to do with the large number of people who have lived in the area for generations, sometimes in the same community.

When I worked on the north side, I'd sometimes hear walk-ins in our office, talking to the office staff. They'd say something to the effect of "We drove all the way from New Berlin", and I'd think to myself, lady, I ride my mountain bike farther than that every day. But boundaries sometimes sound far, and some people don't want to be lumped with a metropolitan area.

In my opinion, if a community falls within the MSA, which absolutely includes Racine and Washington counties, the community is part of the metropolitan area, which is linked to the Milwaukee-Chicago-Gary CMSA (Consolidated)--a continuous metropolitan area by definition, from Ozaukee County, WI all the way around the bottom of Lake Michigan to Lake County, IN.

While the MSA of Milwaukee has some more rural patches, it's still considered a metropolitan area. The same goes for Chicagoland. You can find rural areas within the Chicagoland area, but most of the areas are more suburban or urban.

[Milwaukee Ronnie]

It seems that people in Milwaukee's suburbs, more so than suburbanites in a lot of other metro areas, really buy into the fallacy that they "live out in the country" and are not tethered to any urban area. Folks in Germantown, a whole 20 miles from Downtown Milwaukee, think they live "way out" in the countryside somewhere, and only "happen" to live within proximity to the city of Milwaukee.

I understand people's desire to live in the country. But if you're going to go around claiming that you live in the country, then go whole-hog with it. Buy a farm and start working it, get a job in feed mill or something and move out into the real sticks in Bumbleberry, Iowa. Live where you want to. But when you live in a place like Germantown, the very reason you don't work on a farm or a feedmill is because of the city of Milwaukee. Suburbanites owe their jobs and their standard of living to the very urban center that they repudiate. They trying to have it both ways, which is their right if they can afford it. But it's not sustainable, and it's a way of life that's not going to last very long under $5 gasoline.

[Fishtacos]

There aren't many Chicagolands. Trying to compare ourselves / Milwaukee to Chicago in almost any way is just a futile endeavor. Compare us to Kansas City, St. Louis, Omaha, Cleveland, Cincinnati...not Chicago.

I'd definitely take St. Louis out of that mix in terms of size, ...while not Chicago, it's significantly larger than Milwaukee in metro size, more of a medium sized metro, compared to a smaller sized Milwaukee or Large Chicago.

Most of the places listed in this thread are considered Metro Milwaukee. The idea that one lives in Oconomowoc, or Germantown and not "Metro Milwaukee" is pretty silly.

[EnjoyEP]

Originally Posted by Fishtacos

I'd definitely take St. Louis out of that mix in terms of size, ...while not Chicago, it's significantly larger than Milwaukee in metro size,

Definitely agreed.

I guess though just like Milwaukee metro is double-size that of Omaha metro, and St. Louis metro about a million more than Milwaukee metro, I would still say - despite the disparities you rightly point out - comparing a StL metro of 2.8 million to Milwaukee metro of 1.7 million is at least going to put some one a hare closer to the ballpark than comparing Milwaukee metro to Chicago metro.

I just have seen a lot of posts recently here trying to compare or compete with Chicago. I just don't get that mentality. To me it comes from the insular nature of Milwaukeeans often, where to them there is Milwaukee, Chicago...and maybe the Twin Cities. That is it. People need to realize that even though they may hate Cubs fans or not like Illinois drivers, acting like we are "rivals" with Chicago in areas such as commerce / the economy / infrastructure, etc. is not only futile and pointless but it is downright silly.

[tone_bone25]

Here are some suburbs:
Shorewood, Whitefish Bay, West Allis, Wauwatosa, Greenfield, Bayview...
These areas directly border the actual city limits of Milwaukee. Anything else is its own entity!