Considering College and Relo in Milwaukee (Madison, Green Bay: crime, homes, job market)

[Daniel_T]

Hi, I am considering some colleges in Milwaukee and am interested in coming. I have heard nice things and bad things about the city. More bad than good. pay is no good. Crime is bad. The city is in ruins. What is the scoop on Milwaukee? Is it really crime ridden, dirty, and poor? Thanks.

Daniel True

[ggaetti]

That would depend on where you live and work. Which colleges are you looking at?

[Daniel_T]

Hi, I am considering University of WI-Milwaukee. Not only and I considering college there, but actually staying and settling down. I heard that North and South Milwaukee are bad, as is most of the city. There has been a lot of revitalization efforts right? How dirty is Milwaukee? On a scale of 1-10. 10 being the worst. How about crime? I heard property taxes are pretty high as well.

Is it easy to find work? Does work pay well? Thanks and I appreciate your answers. I found this pic on flickr. Milwaukee looks dirty. Is the city like this all over? http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=8687124&size=l

I took this quote from someone. "Milwaukee is not a bad city, but it is full of urban decay. I cant stress to you how many buildings and homes in this city are just falling apart, it just gives the city a creepy appearance."

Is this statement true?

Daniel True

[ggaetti]

There are good and bad areas in Milwaukee. There are also many VERY NICE suburbs of Milwaukee. University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee is in a safe and pretty nice area. (That cannot be said of Marquette University).
Crime is increasing in the "core" of Milwaukee and on the North side. The location of UW-Milwaukee is on the East side...quite a noticeable difference.
The photo you have is not representative of all parts of Milwaukee. There are some older industrial buildings that are being demolished. That is the type of picture I see from the parking lot of the Milwaukee Brewers stadium.
Non-Wisconsinites think property taxes are high here but we really get a lot for our money.
Like any large city, parts of Milwaukee are dirty. Most is not. Compared to what I personally have seen in other large cities (you asked for a number), I would rate Milwaukee a 3 out of 10 with 10 being the worst.
Again, there are many wonderful suburbs and communities. I personally was searching for employment in the Milwaukee area with 3 relatives in the last 6 months and we found jobs in abundance. Some jobs were a bit lower-paying to start but we found most to be well-paying with benefits.
As far the "urban decay" statement, it depends on where you are in the big city of Milwaukee. I would agree with that statement for perhaps 20-25 percent of the city limits...but not near UW-Milwaukee. The 20-25 percent would be for the inner city and the Northside.
What will your major be in college? I would then possibly know more about jobs in that field.
Hope this helps.

[Mohawk41]

Daniel T

I found a website which might interest you. Here's the address:
http://www.december.com/places/mke/album/html (broken link)

There are about 300 photos of Milwaukee, all sorted into neighborhoods including the East Side and UWM area. There are some really nice pictures that will give you a pretty good idea of what Milwaukee really looks like. There are also a lot of pictures of street scenes and neighborhood cafes and pubs. The kind of places you would probably end up going to if you go to UWM.
I think Milwaukee is a great place to settle down. Like any big city just learn where the bad areas are and stay away from them. You have to go looking for the crime and poverty, it won't come chasing after you.
As far as Milwaukee's suburbs go, you almost can't go wrong in any of them. The Whitnall Park area on the south west side is one of my favorite areas. But you could live your whole life in the suburbs of Milwaukee and never even be aware that there is crime and poverty in Milwaukee.
The places within Milwaukee proper that I would live in are:
the East Side (just north of downtown and EAST of the Milwaukee river.
The closer you stay to the lake, the better.)
The Historic 3rd Ward (just south of downtown and East of the Milwaukee
River. The Summerfest grounds will be your
back yard.)
Bayview ( Milwaukee's other East Side. Off the south end of the Hoan
Bridge and close to the lake.)

I would recommend you make a trip up here and check out these areas. But wait til spring or summer, the winters can be grey and dreary.

[Daniel_T]

I want to go into journalism. It shouldn't be too hard to find jobs in that sector. It is while I am in college that I am most worried about. I want to work while in college and am not sure about the pay and availability. Thanks.

Daniel True

[illwauk]

Wow @ the unapologetic racism and classism thread. Although considering that we're talking about UWM, I'm not surprised. It has a well-deserved reputation of being a whitebred campus that is completely apathetic to the Black and Hispanic communities which make up the majority of the city.

Simply put, UWM and the area surrounding it is nothing but a bunch of pompous white kids from places like Green Bay and the Fox Valley who want to pretend to live in the "big city," but don't actually want to deal with any of the things that comes with the territory of being in a place like Milwaukee (i.e. living near Blacks/Latinos and people who don't make 50,000/year). Not to mention the rate of minorites at UWM has been declining for at least the past 5 years.

Basically, Milwaukee is a majority-minority city (people of color outnumber whites). The north side is predominantly Black, the south side is predmoninantly Hispanic. The east side (which includes UWM) is mostly white out-of-towners who actually believe that if they dare go anywhere past the locust street bridge they'll be shot on site. This is news to me since I'm white, grew up in a mostly Black neighborhood near Marquette and never had any problems.

In other words, I wouldn't suggest Milwaukee for someone like you. Most of the students at UWM deal with the "trauma" of having to see more than 5 people of color everyday by going back up north every weekend. Since you're from Arizona, that option wouldn't be open to you and you'd have to actually sit around and deal with what you see as the city's "dirtyness."

[dkmisol]

Originally Posted by Daniel_T

Hi, I am considering some colleges in Milwaukee and am interested in coming. I have heard nice things and bad things about the city. More bad than good. pay is no good. Crime is bad. The city is in ruins. What is the scoop on Milwaukee? Is it really crime ridden, dirty, and poor? Thanks.

Daniel True

Daniel...

I was born and raised in Milwaukee, and just graduated UW-Milwaukee with a BA in Economics and a BBA in Finance... UWM is a great school regionally... however, I'm finding that its not nearly as well known as UW. That being said... I feel UWM is highly underrated, and often gets the shaft in terms of funding (because the regents are highly biased towards Madison). Its a great school, and you'll get a good education there.

And contrary to popular belief, there is a fair amount of diversity at UWM... but its more international diversity than blacks/Hispanics from the city (although they are on the increase too, IMO). Its true that its a primarily white campus, but thats because WI is a primarily white state. Every college will have stuck up, pompous people... it'd be dumb to not expect that.

Crime is only bad in the central parts of the city, both north and south (but north more); however, its not worse than any other city. I grocery shop at El Rey's Mexican grocery stores in the "bad areas" (south of the stadium), and its ok during the day. I grew up on the NW side, which isn't really highly regarded, but its ok depending on where you are. You'll be fine if you stick to the nice parts, namely:

1) Anywhere on the East Side or 3rd Ward (53202)
2) Parts of Glendale (53209)
2) Shorewood (and the North Shore - 53211, 53217)
3) Wauwatosa & Milwaukee by the Milwaukee Regional Medical Complex (53226)
4) Bay View (parts of 53207, pretty much the area east of 794, North of the airport, and south of the Hoan bridge).

Anywhere else is going to be a hell of a drive from school, esp. with the congestion caused by the I-94/Marquette Interchange project.

In terms of being dirty, I think its been getting worse. I used to swim at Bradford beach growing up, but I wouldn't think of going in the water any time soon. Milwaukee Sanitation District has been repeatedly dumping raw sewerage into the lake anytime it rains (due to the way we handle our water - long story). Also, the zebra mussels in the lake have been causing large algae blooms in the water... as a result, the entire beach is green... its EXTREMELY DISGUSTING and SMELLY! I know people who live in the multi-million dollar mansions on Lake Michigan, who have to smell that crap rotting in the sun all summer.

Aside from the water, the air quality is nothing that bad... certainly better than LA or NYC.

In terms of employment, like anything else, it really depends... my wife is a nurse at Children's hospital, and makes serious money here. For anything else, you really have to have some experience to get the really good jobs... not a lot of entry level things (although this is just in the financial field, IMO). Milwaukee takes the back seat to Chicago and Minneapolis (and increasingly, to Madison), so jobs can be very tough to get. There are many people who love it, who will settle for lower pay just to live here - and take many others out of the job market.

Taxes overall are absolutely absurd, esp. Milwaukee RE taxes.

Milwaukee doesn't have alot to offer in terms of fun things to do (aside from drinking - one of our favorite past-times). In the summer its ok, but my wife and I go nuts during the winter.... too much to explain here.

And, last but not least, is the weather... the primary reason I'm saying bye bye to the city. If it were warmer more, I'd probably stay, or at least migrate to Chicago. We just went through 5-6 day period where you couldn't go outside more than a minute without getting frostbite (-20 degree windchills). Also, we're currently melting out of a blizzard, and more snow is expected this week. After 25 years of hating the way I physically feel when I'm cold, its time to move on.

IMO, if you're looking for a great education, I would come here, but I wouldn't stay (unless it grew on you). There are much better places to be.

Please email me if you would like any further elaboration... I have much to tell.


PS.... If you come for a visit, you must try the following places to eat:

1) Rudy's Mexican Restaurant
2) Water Street Brewery
3) Chip & Py's (in Mequon)
4) Jean Pierre's (in Shorewood)
5) Lake Park Bistro

[illwauk]

Originally Posted by dkmisol

Daniel...

And contrary to popular belief, there is a fair amount of diversity at UWM... but its more international diversity than blacks/Hispanics from the city (although they are on the increase too, IMO). Its true that its a primarily white campus, but thats because WI is a primarily white state. Every college will have stuck up, pompous people... it'd be dumb to not expect that.

Actually, the rate of white students has been increased every year for the past 5 while the rate of Blacks and Hispanics has been declining. The statistics back this up so I don't know how you can say IMO to that.

BTW, every state in the union is predominantly white, so that's no excuse. Every public institution in a major Great Lakes city has a larger percentage of Blacks/Hispanics than UWM.

Don't take my word for it. Look it up on collegeboard.com

And while there are stuck up students on every campus, the level to which the UWM students look at the city at large is absolutely disgusting. They talk about Milwaukee as if were perpetual war zone and act like they're the only thing "civilized" in it. Most of them go their entire 4 years without ever having left the east side (except for maybe downtown or the occasional drive down North Ave on their way to Mayfair).

To be blunt... UWM deserves its reputation. It tries to be UW-Madison without Madison's budget while ignoring all the problems in Milwaukee that it could help solve. The only time it's even a presence outside of the East Side is downtown during hoops season.

[dkmisol]

The word increased (regarding white students) implies that the UWM admissions committee is actively raising the total percent of white students, and by further implication implies that they're turning away minorities. This is not the case.

Also, please cite the exact metrics you're indicating from collegeboard.com... e.g. new freshmen, transfer students, PT students. I somehow doubt the keep extremely comprehensive statistics on the last 5 years.

The report I'm drawing from is compiled by UWM from http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/Acad_Aff/ass...ook/fb0506.pdf

To be more specific, I'm looking at the "Enrollment by Year Level & Ethnicity" on pg. 22 of the pdf file. In this table, it shows the level of African Americans at 275 in Fall of 2000, and 288 in Fall of 2005 (it declined in between, but came back above the base year). For Latinos (for the above years, respectively) enrollment was 122, then 167. All of these figures are for new freshmen (probably the most representative metric), and are in tenths of total units.

UWM is approaching capacity constraints in terms of the number of students its able to educate, and the demand admission here is increasing drastically. UWM has been getting pickier (slowly approaching Madison's standards) in its admissions process.

I'm curious... have you ever actually been to UWM? Did you attend school here? I highly doubt most of them go their entire four years without ever leaving the east side... have you seen the number of students on the 62 bus going to the capital drive walmart? Or the student teachers, who, odds are, are teaching in MPS? How about the nursing students doing clinicals at St. Lukes? Perhaps the bio/engineering students who study/work at the various WATERBASE projects in the valley (esp. the station off of highway 41, south of North Avenue)? Or the Social Work students going out into the field? Many (certainly not all) students who come here from limited exposure to the city often come away seeing first hand the problems going on, and often end up working in the city (where a good portion of the jobs in the state are) to address those problems.

UWM will never be a UW-Madison as long as the regents are based in Madison, and as such are biased towards it. UW-Milwaukee is in the process of expanding, and building several partnerships around the city (esp. with the milwaukee regional medical center and MCW). I've listened to several strategic planning sessions given by the Chancellor regarding growth and transforming the school to be much more research oriented. However, for the immediate term, UWM will be a regionally known school - second to Madison in the UW System; but UWM's presence in the area is most certainly on the rise.

Originally Posted by illwauk

Actually, the rate of white students has been increased every year for the past 5 while the rate of Blacks and Hispanics has been declining. The statistics back this up so I don't know how you can say IMO to that.

BTW, every state in the union is predominantly white, so that's no excuse. Every public institution in a major Great Lakes city has a larger percentage of Blacks/Hispanics than UWM.

Don't take my word for it. Look it up on collegeboard.com

And while there are stuck up students on every campus, the level to which the UWM students look at the city at large is absolutely disgusting. They talk about Milwaukee as if were perpetual war zone and act like they're the only thing "civilized" in it. Most of them go their entire 4 years without ever having left the east side (except for maybe downtown or the occasional drive down North Ave on their way to Mayfair).

To be blunt... UWM deserves its reputation. It tries to be UW-Madison without Madison's budget while ignoring all the problems in Milwaukee that it could help solve. The only time it's even a presence outside of the East Side is downtown during hoops season.