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Old 01-15-2009, 03:41 PM
 
1,869 posts, read 5,782,309 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jessysunshine View Post
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.
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Old 02-08-2009, 04:47 PM
 
Location: Unlike most on CD, I'm not afraid to give my location: Milwaukee, WI.
1,773 posts, read 4,125,546 times
Reputation: 4048
Quote:
Originally Posted by 43north87west View Post

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??
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Old 02-08-2009, 06:48 PM
 
Location: La Jolla, CA
7,284 posts, read 16,606,000 times
Reputation: 11675
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrkool View Post
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.
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Old 02-08-2009, 07:39 PM
 
335 posts, read 1,205,617 times
Reputation: 241
Default aarrgghhh

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.
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Old 02-08-2009, 08:58 PM
 
Location: IL
2,987 posts, read 5,228,920 times
Reputation: 3111
Quote:
Originally Posted by berries View Post
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?
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Old 02-08-2009, 11:19 PM
 
Location: Mequon, WI
8,276 posts, read 23,004,060 times
Reputation: 5620
Quote:
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.
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Old 02-09-2009, 10:40 AM
 
Location: La Jolla, CA
7,284 posts, read 16,606,000 times
Reputation: 11675
Quote:
Originally Posted by berries View Post
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.
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Old 02-10-2009, 12:33 AM
 
Location: Metro Milwaukee, WI
3,198 posts, read 12,676,557 times
Reputation: 2241
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".
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Old 06-27-2012, 09:06 PM
 
3 posts, read 5,530 times
Reputation: 16
Folks i gotta know. First of all I consider myself a very ,positive person and I am blessed to live in a very nice town (Princeton, N.J.) and I happen to be a professional African American family man, who is accepting of others. I have never had the pleasure of visiting Milwaukee and I am sure it's a great city but everts me I read posts about Milwaukee and the way it's depicted (especially the thinly veiled racial code words - yea it's obvious people) you'd think we were in Mississippi in the mid 50's. Does the seemingly endless separitism/borderline segregationist attitude that is openly discussed on this forum really exist in this city and surrounding areas to this day? I mean code like "salt of the earth" and "safe areas" were used in the 60's during freedom marches. Seriously is it this city stuck in a time warp? People of color, various religions, and different backgrounds live harmoniously just about everywhere I've traveled to include the deep south and post after post on this forum depending on who comments (by race of course) recommends areas to live in as if a person of another color or background will be shunned or burned at the stake. I am in no way naive to the fact that yes reality is racism is alive and well but it seems economics determines where people want to live in most places but the recurring patterns in Milwaukee is the stuff that could comprise thesis work. Educate me folks. Am I missing something?
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Old 06-27-2012, 11:41 PM
 
Location: Bay View, Milwaukee
2,567 posts, read 5,286,324 times
Reputation: 3673
Quote:
Originally Posted by njphenom View Post
Folks i gotta know. First of all I consider myself a very ,positive person and I am blessed to live in a very nice town (Princeton, N.J.) and I happen to be a professional African American family man, who is accepting of others. I have never had the pleasure of visiting Milwaukee and I am sure it's a great city but everts me I read posts about Milwaukee and the way it's depicted (especially the thinly veiled racial code words - yea it's obvious people) you'd think we were in Mississippi in the mid 50's. Does the seemingly endless separitism/borderline segregationist attitude that is openly discussed on this forum really exist in this city and surrounding areas to this day? I mean code like "salt of the earth" and "safe areas" were used in the 60's during freedom marches. Seriously is it this city stuck in a time warp? People of color, various religions, and different backgrounds live harmoniously just about everywhere I've traveled to include the deep south and post after post on this forum depending on who comments (by race of course) recommends areas to live in as if a person of another color or background will be shunned or burned at the stake. I am in no way naive to the fact that yes reality is racism is alive and well but it seems economics determines where people want to live in most places but the recurring patterns in Milwaukee is the stuff that could comprise thesis work. Educate me folks. Am I missing something?
I think the situation is a little more complicated than how you seem to see it. As far as the language (codewords like "unsafe areas," etc.) goes, it all depends on the person using it. Some do refer specifically to African-American-dominated areas, but unfortunately many of these areas do have high crime. But there are communities that are safe and pleasant, too. Other people use the language to refer to the heavily Latino parts of southside Milwaukee. These areas have their problems, but I've never felt unsafe in them. And other people use the language to talk about some white-dominant areas, such as the blue-collar community of Cudahy or the student-dominant district near the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

I agree that some cities/metros do a better job of racial/ethnic coexistence. But don't forget that Milwaukee, like many northern cities, originated as a city of neighborhoods (ethnic enclaves), and that template persists to this day. Things are slowly changing, but it would help if the economy were more vibrant and if people moving into the city would live in places with diversity in mind.

The language and discussion you see dealing with Milwaukee is also true for Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and many other cities. In fact, if you're in Princeton, just direct your attention to Trenton and Newark and any number of other places in New Jersey that have had to bear the brunt of race/ethnic/class stigmas. The richest communities in NJ are predominantly white and Asian; the poorest are African-American and Latino. Maybe your circle in Princeton doesn't discuss these disparities in your own state, but you can bet that many middle-class and upper-middle-class parents in Princeton, Short Hills, Basking Ridge, Lawrenceville, etc. are telling their kids to "stay out of the 'bad areas' of the state." Milwaukee and New Jersey have more in common on this point than you might think.

Things might be better in some other parts of the country, but even as a kid in the Bay Area in California, I often heard warnings about East Palo Alto and Oakland. (The context of Rust Belt manufacturing life was not a part of the discussion, though, as it is in the upper midwest and northeast.) In the South, I'm not sure that things are all that different-- in Birmingham, Alabama, at least, the same language and race/ethnicity "dance" plays a part in how people do things. In the bedroom community where I lived, 45 minutes from Birmingham, the whites had "their" side of town and the African-Americans had "theirs."

Going back to Princeton, I lived there for five years. Even then, there was a small sliver of town, just north of campus, "where the African-Americans lived," and some people said this with fear. And true, when I went to that neighborhood, there were lots of black people. Was the neighborhood unsafe? No way. But for some people, the perceptions of fear and segregation operated there just as they operate in Milwaukee today. Fortunately, in all of these places, there are people working to bridge the gaps.

Last edited by Empidonax; 06-27-2012 at 11:55 PM..
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