Maybe I've lived a sheltered life? (Milwaukee, Madison: condos, houses, neighborhoods)

[UWMEastsider]

So I have been living in Milwaukee the past two years attending UWM but I grew up in Waukesha. I have read many threads on here that suggest certain areas are very nice that i would NOT consider very nice. ex. Wauwatosa, south milwaukee, cudahy, st. francis. i'm especially getting at wauwatosa here. I'd live in any of these places just fine, and after graduating probably will but the second i have kids you better believe i'm leaving because i just don't think these are areas that are good for kids. wauwatosa to me just seems so ghetto. even the east side milwaukee where i live (about 2 blocks from shorewood)i think is safe enough but the other night walking home a cop pulled over and goes "did you here any gunshots?" and this is something that i can't even fathom happening in waukesha. in my opinion if i'm raising kids i want them in the best area possible which would not be any of these areas. what does everyone else think?

[Milwaukee City]

Originally Posted by UWMEastsider

. i'm especially getting at wauwatosa here. I'd live in any of these places just fine, and after graduating probably will but the second i have kids you better believe i'm leaving because i just don't think these are areas that are good for kids. wauwatosa to me just seems so ghetto. even the east side milwaukee where i live (about 2 blocks from shorewood)i think is safe enough but the other night walking home a cop pulled over and goes "did you here any gunshots?" and this is something that i can't even fathom happening in waukesha. in my opinion if i'm raising kids i want them in the best area possible which would not be any of these areas. what does everyone else think?

Just sounds like your a city rookie and from a rich town up north in the woods. Tosa is basically the same thing as living in New Berlin, based on per capita income.

Go down to Chicago or New York and people are getting shot right outside multi-million dollar homes and condos. I had met a person from Madison that thought the upper east side of NYC was ghetto trust upper east side may look gritty but it's where Bill Clinton and many famous people live yet you can always find homeless people right outside their building.

Not ripping you, just sounds like you don't have a lot of big city experience.

[pollywannacracker]

all four of the cities you mentioned are fine, but the only one on the slightly shady side is Tosa and that is just in on the east side of tosa, I certainly wouldn't wanna live there with kids. Cudahy is just trashy but not unsafe there are parts of cudahy that are quite nice too. south milwaukee is slightly trashy too, but most of it is nice too. nearly all of st. francis is nice but much busier than south milwaukee or cudahy.

ALSO when we were looking at houses and looking in Waukesha, holy sh@t, there are LARGE parts of that town that are horrible and certainly wouldn't want to live in.

[ladyblue09]

Yeah, if you think of all of Tosa (or even most of Tosa) as ghetto I would say that you haven't seen many actual ghettoes. I'm from Detroit originally. Now that's ghetto.

Since I am new to the area perhaps I haven't seen the worst areas yet but everytime I have driven through Tosa I felt very safe. I've also seen that there are a lot of pretty homes that the owners really care about keeping up (which is definitely not something you'd see in the ghetto).

[koalamama]

I think you have been living a sheltered life! lived in Tosa for three years...The majority of Wauwatosa is perfectly fine. The only dicey part would be the eastern edge as many have stated, but I know lots of families that live in Tosa (and on the east side of it ) and love it. I think St Francis is fine too (having lived next to it in Bayview previously). Can't really say about the other places, but I think you might need to get out a bit more.

[Allan Trafton]

Originally Posted by Milwaukee City

Just sounds like your a city rookie and from a rich town up north in the woods. Tosa is basically the same thing as living in New Berlin, based on per capita income.

Go down to Chicago or New York and people are getting shot right outside multi-million dollar homes and condos. I had met a person from Madison that thought the upper east side of NYC was ghetto trust upper east side may look gritty but it's where Bill Clinton and many famous people live yet you can always find homeless people right outside their building.

Not ripping you, just sounds like you don't have a lot of big city experience.

People getting shot outside of million dollar homes in New York and Chicago is very very rare. The upper east side of Manhattan is about as safe as you get. The Carnage Hill area on the upper east side may be the most exclusive area in the world. Anyone thats would describe 5th Ave or Park Ave as gritty is seriously confused. These homes and buildings were built by the Rockefellers, Vanderbuilts, Carnage and others. Not the richest people now, but the richest in the history of the world. Have you been to the upper east side? It doesn't sound like you have. There are no homeless at the doors of the buildings. The doormen always get rid of them and every building has a doorman. Maybe he was in East Harlem and didn't know it. As far as Wauwatosa being ghetto. Give me a break. What world is this guy living in. Go back to Waukesha. The paranoia on this board is off the charts.

[Creek Hollow]

Huh?

My daughter lives in Tosa and loves her neighborhood.

At least on her block, there are families with young children. Again, this may just be HER neighborhood, but it seems neighbors know neighbors and talk to each other, get together, go places together. A little bit of throw back to the way neighborhoods used to be, albeit to a smaller degree. It's a nice walkable area.

What I don't like are things I wouldn't like anywhere. As an example, a somewhat busy street that's a through street to a two more heavily traveled roads.

Two blocks away the houses sell for almost $100k more than hers. They're really nice homes.

She's a professional, the next door neighbors are professionals.

I'm not arguing there aren't shady areas in Tosa, but think the population there is varied from middle income to professionals. It's a great location for access to medical, school, shopping, and major roads.

[Milwaukee City]

Originally Posted by Allan Trafton

Have you been to the upper east side? It doesn't sound like you have. There are no homeless at the doors of the buildings.

I guess to clear it up that no people aren't always getting shot on the Upper East Side of NYC but it has happen and does happen, rare yes but a lot of people in Milwaukee as soon as a place has one shooting or homicide they seem to right the area off as bad without having been there. I have been to every part of NYC even bed stuy and east new york. When I was there last there were homeless people there but it wasn't like a ton of them, but you still do get hit up for change.

My overall point is just b/c an area looks bad or has a shooting doesn't mean it's bad.

As far as tosa being ghetto? sorry but that one is just laughable to me. Waukesha is no River Hills either so I don't know why you would feel that way. There are some people that just think all cities look ghetto and prefer more suburban areas. I really don't think east tosa is bad either, I would raise kids there and it's not a bad place to live just b/c their isn't 400K homes doesn't make it not nice.

Actually Tosa has a higher per capita income and median family income higher that Waukesha. So based on the numbers Tosa is wealthier than Waukesha.

Some people just think the hood is anything east of 124th St.

[Allan Trafton]

I'll argue that there are no shady area in Wauwatosa. To me this all center around the black inner city located on the other side of Washington Park and nothing to do with Wauawatosa. Some fear even living a mile or so from the ghetto and it reflex upon Tosa. Nothing more. The city itself is beautiful and one of the best in the state. The Washington Highland neighborhood is like a mini lake drive on the so called ghetto like eastern edge. Others areas have beautiful classic older brick and stone homes and others have more modest middle to upper middle class homes. There is nothing poor or ghetto about this place. It all has to do with an anti urban bias and anti Milwaukee bias. I would take a nice older home in Tosa on a tree lined street over the pre fab bloated cheap thin dry wall crap they sell all throughout Waukesha country. Now you want to talk about some crap.

[Milwaukee City]

Originally Posted by Allan Trafton

I'll argue that there are no shady area in Wauwatosa. To me this all center around the black inner city located on the other side of Washington Park and nothing to do with Wauawatosa. Some fear even living a mile or so from the ghetto and it reflex upon Tosa. Nothing more. The city itself is beautiful and one of the best in the state. The Washington Highland neighborhood is like a mini lake drive on the so called ghetto like eastern edge. Others areas have beautiful classic older brick and stone homes and others have more modest middle to upper middle class homes. There is nothing poor or ghetto about this place. It all has to do with an anti urban bias and anti Milwaukee bias. I would take a nice older home in Tosa on a tree lined street over the pre fab bloated cheap thin dry wall crap they sell all throughout Waukesha country. Now you want to talk about some crap.

I really think Tosa is a very beautiful area and I guess is underrated to some but heavily tree lined streets and a nice downtown and a very safe city.

On the other hand people will say south Milwaukee, West Allis is trashy and St.Francis. Cudahy maybe I'll give you that but only in parts.

I think the people that think these areas are white trash have never really seen rural southern white trash.