Is Milwaukee a good place to raise a family?

[Fishtacos]

Originally Posted by jessysunshine

We are still looking at Milwaukee as a place to move, to settle, to raise our family. My hubby would be working at General Mitchell since he is Air Force, so we would live somewhere in that area.

I'm wondering...Is Milwaukee a good place to raise a family? I've been searching the forums, but maybe I'm just not finding the right posts because I'm not finding much in the way of positive input on the issue.

Thanks!

Jessica

Yes.

[mrkool]

Originally Posted by 43north87west

I would personally avoid Cudahy ("Crudahy"), St. Francis, and adjacent areas of the city to the west. The most conspicuous thing about these areas, is the relative absence of people out walking, running, riding bikes, or being remotely athletic.

.

So... lack of athleticism is a reason to avoid an area???
Yet, in another post, you recommend the Bay View area, which has a BIG minus against it; Milwaukee Public Schools.
Have you seen Bay View High lately??
Maybe it's just me, but for a family wouldn't schools be a more important consideration than whether a town has people out walking and running??

[43north87west]

Originally Posted by mrkool

So... lack of athleticism is a reason to avoid an area???
Yet, in another post, you recommend the Bay View area, which has a BIG minus against it; Milwaukee Public Schools.
Have you seen Bay View High lately??
Maybe it's just me, but for a family wouldn't schools be a more important consideration than whether a town has people out walking and running??

Athleticism is indicative of healthy lifestyle choices, end of story. Not everyone leads a healthy lifestyle, or places value on doing so, but I certainly do.

Regarding schools: Since the OP explicitly stated that they would be home schooling, schools were excluded from the recommendation. If schools were the deciding factor, given the requirements and budget of the OP, the North Shore would be my recommendation. Not Cudahy.

I should note that my nephew lives on the East Side and uses an MPS voucher to attend private school, so that's an important option to consider for people who live in the city. Living three blocks from the closest school does not mean that a child must go to that school.

[berries]

I left Milwaukee 16 years ago, and all of my family is still there. I dread going back, and have not been back for 3 years now since my dads funeral. I have to go back in march for my moms 75th birthday and am dreading it. I know there are good places and I do like it near the airport, but I could not imagine living in that town with all my kids, and I have 5 young ones. If you have to go because of a military assignment, well,, you will have to make the best of it, and I wish you the best, but Milwaukee will never be my cup of tea.

I lived there for 23 years and it is sad to see what happpend to it. My grandma lived about 4 blocks from the airport and it used to be really nice on Howell ave, and down layton, and along howard ave.

Good luck and keep an eye on those kids, not the kinda town to let them run loose.

[almost3am]

Originally Posted by berries

Good luck and keep an eye on those kids, not the kinda town to let them run loose.

So, you are saying Milwaukee is dangerous for children to grow up? All of City of Milwaukee, all of milwaukee metro, or just a pocket where your family lives?

[Milwaukee City]

Good luck and keep an eye on those kids, not the kinda town to let them run loose.

What a bunch of crap! I like to show at least some class when posting but this topic boils thee ol' blood for me. Now when MOST people talk about Milwaukee they usually are talking about the whole area. The River Hills to Cudahy to Bay View type of Milwaukee. The city of Milwaukee is a decent place to raise your family of course it's not mayberry but any large metro area is going to give you the same challenges to raising a family. There always be parts of the city you don't want your kids going to, even in Madison this is true. Milwaukee has recently become one of the more safer big city's of late with our new police chief but any major city will always have problems no matter what you do. If you want Milwaukee to be like waterford when raising a family it ain't gonna happen as they say. When you share a metro area of over 2million and a city of over 600,000 you will always have an element of people or an area that is not safe. If your any good at being a parent you shouldn't have a hard time raising your family in Milwaukee. 16 yrs ago Milwaukee was at it's worst time period of crime when we as a city were averaging 160 homicides a year and now we had homicides fall to a 23yr low so it might be considered a little stupid to base assumptions on 16yrs ago. Milwaukee is a great place to raise a family and I'm speaking for the whole Milwaukee area.

[43north87west]

Originally Posted by berries

I left Milwaukee 16 years ago, and all of my family is still there. I dread going back, and have not been back for 3 years now since my dads funeral. I have to go back in march for my moms 75th birthday and am dreading it. I know there are good places and I do like it near the airport, but I could not imagine living in that town with all my kids, and I have 5 young ones. If you have to go because of a military assignment, well,, you will have to make the best of it, and I wish you the best, but Milwaukee will never be my cup of tea.

I lived there for 23 years and it is sad to see what happpend to it. My grandma lived about 4 blocks from the airport and it used to be really nice on Howell ave, and down layton, and along howard ave.

Good luck and keep an eye on those kids, not the kinda town to let them run loose.

In the last 16 years, much of Milwaukee has seen a massive upturn in the quality of neighborhoods. Anything from Bay View through the East Side, Riverwest, and Brewers Hill, including downtown, has done nothing but improve. The same goes for the area around Marquette University, and other sections bordering Wauwatosa. There was an increase in crime in localized areas, but those areas are easily identified by anyone with encephalographic activity, on a drive-through trip. The nicer areas have become a lot nicer, with total tear down and rebuilds, or rehabilitated properties. The nice areas of the city from 16 years ago are almost all still as nice, but some are much nicer. The rougher areas have migrated, along with blight, out to areas of the northwest side.

I would agree that living in a large metropolitan area or even a large city itself, presents different risks than living up in the North Woods in a remote residence with no neighbors. In the city there is usually more crime. In the North Woods, there are drunk drivers everywhere, thin ice on lakes, large travel times on winding two lane roads to reach jobs and schools, plus the occasional backwoods types who are on the edge of cracking from the pressure of self-inflicted solitary confinement. And let's not forget about hunting season. I've never been a hunter, but it seems that each time I hear a hunting story, I think it should be renamed "drinking season with guns". Finally, once kids reach their mid teens, they have decidedly fewer options to keep them busy, which is not a good thing. If the few constructive options fail to interest them, they usually discover that they can have big booze parties out in their buddy's farm field where nobody notices, then they can hit the road **** drunk, with little risk of apprehension.

So it's really about tradeoffs. Cities and countries can both be dangerous, although the dangers may differ greatly.

[EnjoyEP]

Guys -

This (berries) is a guy that lives "Up North" and would fear anything semi-urban like Milwaukee metro is now. To act like a community like Greendale (where I am, which is literally a 5-to-10 minute drive from MKE Int. Airport) is anything less than a million percent safe is just delusional (with all due respect).

I mean, I have two young kids who I fiercely love and who I fiercely am defensive of, would care 1000% of their safety, but yet, we'd go absolutely nuts living anywhere ultra-rural like "Up North".

There is a tradeoff to live in an urban area. You have to use maybe a few more wits about you and to semi-intelligent of where/when to go, but you also have a jillion more things to do with your kids nearby at your disposal, plus they have a much more worldly understanding / perspective.

There are a TON of areas in metro Milwaukee that are almost as "safe" if not *as safe* as anywhere in Ruralville USA or "Up North".