Free-Falling in Milwaukee: A Close-Up on One City's Middle-Class Decline

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/12/free-falling-in-milwaukee-a-close-up-on-one-citys-middle-class-decline/250100/

In the last 30 years, Milwaukee's middle class families went from a plurality to its smallest minority. Its poorest parts have a higher infant mortality rate than the Gaza Strip.


MILWAUKEE -- As Washington and Madison fiddle, this city's middle class is slowly deteriorating.

First, the numbers. From 1970 to 2007, the percentage of families in the Milwaukee metropolitan area that were middle class declined from 37 to 24 percent, according to a new analysis by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. During the same period, the proportion of affluent families grew from 22 to 27 percent-while the percentage of poor households swelled from 23 to 31 percent. In short, Milwaukee's middle class families went from a plurality to its smallest minority.

The biggest culprit is the disappearance of well-paying manufacturing jobs. Despite a promising recent uptick in high-end manufacturing, Milwaukee has suffered a 40 percent decline in manufacturing jobs since 1970, when Schlitz, Pabst and American Motors reigned. Instead of shrinking, the city's urban poverty is creeping outward toward suburbs.


An unidentified volunteer fills racks with bread items at Project Concern, a non-profit center that supplies emergency food and household items to families in need in Cudahy, Wisconsin, December 14, 2011. Milwaukee is a once bustling industrial city that now suffers from a dying middle class that has been left out in the cold as good paying factory jobs have almost all departed.

Late Wednesday afternoon, that was evident in the Jefferson Elementary school of West Allis, a once solidly middle class suburb bordering Milwaukee. In a crowded school gymnasium, principal Shelly Strasser said that fifty percent of students now qualify for free or reduced price school lunch programs. In other local schools, the number is ninety percent.

"It breaks your heart," said Strasser, a West Allis native who said she now has homeless students. "That's something we've never seen as a district."

The change also emerges in Cudahy, a once middle class suburb just south of the city. As a child, Debby Pizur watched traffic jams form on local streets during factory shifts changes. Today, many of those factories are shuttered, Pizur works three jobs at the age of 59, and runs a non-profit that provides food, clothing and household items to the community's poor.

[hayrow1]

1. After what the policies of Ronald Reagan did to Milwaukee, from my understanding,

the school board is naming a new high school in the City after the mindless tool. To me, that is the definition of pathetic.

[Scuba]

2. Thanks for posting. Here's a few more comments...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=thread&address=100233718&togglemark=1

[City Lights]

3. Horrible.

I knew things were bad, but I didn't realize they were this horrid. It's hard to fathom that in Milwaukee's poorest areas, the infant mortality rate is worse than in the Gaza Strip, Colombia, and Bulgaria. Absolutely heartbreaking.

[tropicanarose]

4. Horrible indeed!

[IamK]

5. Milwaukee has been a Democratic stronghold for more than a century

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee

Milwaukee has a mayor-council form of government with a strong-mayor plan. The mayor oversees a Common Council of elected members, each representing one of 15 districts in the city. Milwaukee has a history of giving long tenures to its mayors; from Frank Zeidler to Tom Barrett, the city has had only four mayors in the last 60 years. When 28-year incumbent Henry Maier retired in 1988, he held the record for longest term of service for a city of Milwaukee's size.

Milwaukee has been a Democratic stronghold for more than a century, with Democrats dominating every level of government, except for its Socialist mayors and (for briefer periods) other city and county offices. The city is split among three state Senate districts, each of which is composed of three Assembly districts. All 12 of the officials representing the city in the State Legislature are Democrats.

Milwaukee makes up the overwhelming majority of Wisconsin's 4th congressional district. The district is heavily Democratic. The Democratic primary for the seat is considered more important than the general election.[41] The district is currently represented by Democrat Gwen Moore.

[SheilaT]

6. I've only been to Milwaukee once in my life,

about four or five years ago, and I really liked it.

When I was deciding to relocate after a divorce, I did give that city some serious thought, but then decided on Santa Fe, instead. If I were thirty years younger, I would spend the next several decades living from two to four years each in different cities, different parts of the country, and Milwaukee would definitely be one of those places. Alas, at 63 that doesn't seem to be a terrific idea.

[xmas74]

7. My family was once part of this.

None of this info surprised me at all.

[Skittles]

8. the results of pimping jobs offshore to the lowest bidders

and our government is not doing ANYTHING about this issue