Anyone leave Milwaukee and come back? Or recently move here? (Whitefish Bay: best city, 2014) - Wisconsin (WI) - City-Data Forum

HereToDate · 05-23-2018, 02:38 PM

Has anyone here moved away from Milwaukee and then returned? Or simply moved away? Or recently moved to Milwaukee?

What brought you back/to Milwaukee? What did you expect when you moved vs what was reality?

Just curious about how people compare Milwaukee to other places they have lived.

Vegabern · 05-24-2018, 07:38 AM

I'm new here. We moved in Nov. 2017.

When I first heard Milwaukee floated as a possible job relocation for my husband I immediately dismissed the idea. I had negative stereotypes of a rustbelt wasteland (ignorant, I know). Eventually I decided to at least check into it online. I was intrigued by what I found. My husband began a 4 month temporary detail here while I stayed in Michigan. I came to visit one weekend and it happened to be during Bastille Days. I was sold. I loved the downtown, the lakefront, the festivals, and the neighborhoods.

We landed in Shorewood and we all love it. Our kids are happy and thriving in their new school (which they're thrilled they can walk to). We've made great friends, explored the city, ride the bus or bike to work, and are planning to make this our home until the kids graduate. We've moved around enough but nothing has felt permanent until we got here.

I can't really compare it to the previous places we've lived as they are completely different. We spent 3 years in hell, i.e. Upper Peninsula, 5 years in Helena, MT, 5 years in Butte, MT and we're both originally from Toledo. Toledo is the obvious comparison but since I left when I was only 21 I didn't exactly look at it with the same set of eyes. I really haven't spent anytime there since.

All in all, I love Milwaukee!

Milwaukee City · 05-24-2018, 03:05 PM

I'll add this, I left Milwaukee as soon as I could and traveled to search for a new home. I spent time in San Diego, Houston, Baton rouge/New Orleans, Miami, Tampa, Cincy, New York City. After seeing many other cities I realized how nice Milwaukee and Wisconsin is. I thought I would love Houston, but not for me. Atlanta while most people like it, I didn't like the layout of the city and the traffic of course. To me Milwaukee is great, not to dismiss our problems but I think you have to leave and grow up a little bit to really appreciate Milwaukee for what it is. You couldn't pay me to live in Portland, Atlanta, Houston, Memphis or St.Louis. Milwaukee has a certain "feel", the city and the suburbs that I can't compare to other cities. I love it here and only would leave to live in a few select cities. I'm just at home on S.20th & Becher as I am out on Okauchee Lake for the weekend. It's almost like the people that dislike Milwaukee the most are the person who has never left Milwaukee and the person who has never been here.

brrabbit · 05-29-2018, 08:15 AM

I moved into Milwaukee twice (not grown up in WI, not at all).

First time I lived in Boston's suburbs (travelled of course to NYC and DC) - so I did not know what to expect from Milwaukee. But I had great job offer secured and my motto was "other people are living there, so could I". When I arrived, I immediately felt in love to the city without traffic, with all the great amenities of the city, with walkable suburbs (I am talking more of Whitefish Bay here, not Mke specifically). I felt in love with the green summer, when summer turned into the fall - I learned to hunt deer and joys of camping in the fall, when it turned to dreaded (by many) winter - I found biathlon group and cross-country skiing. So, I found WI to be outdoors paradise all year round.

Then my job relocated me to Los Angeles and I had opportunity to learn to live in the many people's dreamland. I never wanted to move there, and never loved the place, but it had its advantages to me. I was doing just fine there. Then I came back. My expectations were - I would immediately "enter into the same river again"... Not so! I forgot all about city's layout, it took my body 2 winters to reacquaint itself to cold weather, my hobbies changed and did not excite me anymore. While being down in that spiral of relearning WI, it was only my memories of the old good times (and understanding that each place has problems) that supported me in my choice to stick to Milwaukee.

Well, I still think it's about the best city in USA - if you have a decent job, that's it. And it has a lot of potential to go better

And I think it has been tested by the Great Recession and survived (better than Detroit), so we know it won't go down too easy.

Trina88 · 05-30-2018, 09:40 PM

I'm from Milwaukee, moved to Las Vegas in 2014 and been here since. I use to like Milwaukee until the crime took over majorly. The North side of Milwaukee is the worst. I would hate to have to go to that area to run errands. I would always get a place on the south side, it was safe for a while until people from the North side began moving to the south and crime began over there as well. I finally had enough and left. Shorewood is a good area, but living directly in Milwaukee, noooo wayyyy

brrabbit · 05-31-2018, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trina88

I'm from Milwaukee, moved to Las Vegas in 2014 and been here since. I use to like Milwaukee until the crime took over majorly. The North side of Milwaukee is the worst. I would hate to have to go to that area to run errands. I would always get a place on the south side, it was safe for a while until people from the North side began moving to the south and crime began over there as well. I finally had enough and left. Shorewood is a good area, but living directly in Milwaukee, noooo wayyyy

My elder relatives bought a house in "Thurston Woods" area. It might look like a scary area, but there are white people who lives there on the same street for 20 years or so. I don't argue, there is crime going on, evictions, loud noise, etc. But they aren't necessarily directed at you.

dfwuno · 06-25-2018, 10:56 AM

Hopefully someday we can ask those who left with Harley to go to the new plant in the EU and someday come back when we have a new and improved POTUS. But reality is that they will be lost forever. So much winning......Thanks Trump voters

Milwaukee City · 06-25-2018, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dfwuno

Hopefully someday we can ask those who left with Harley to go to the new plant in the EU and someday come back when we have a new and improved POTUS. But reality is that they will be lost forever. So much winning......Thanks Trump voters

The politics section is over there...

dfwuno · 06-25-2018, 08:15 PM

Sorry I thought losing jobs was a local issue. Oh well I DONT CARE DO YOU?

sub · 06-25-2018, 09:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dfwuno

Sorry I thought losing jobs was a local issue. Oh well I DONT CARE DO YOU?

If this were the politics forum, I might say something like: we've been losing jobs for at least 40 years to overseas labor regardless of president or congress. Nothing new there. Obama's TPP might have been Harley X 1000. Who knows?

But this isn't the politics forum, so I'll just say that Milwaukee is a great town that stands out if you "get" it. Go elsewhere, come back, and you might see the difference that makes it special.