Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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This article is about Milwaukee in Wisconsin. There is also Milwaukie, Oregon.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Image:Milwaukeeflag.jpg Image:Milseal.gif
City flag City seal
City nickname: "The City of Festivals, The Genuine American City, Cream City, Brewtown/Brew City"
Location
Image:Milwaukee Milwaukee.png
Location of Milwaukee in
Milwaukee County, Wisconsin
Government
County Milwaukee
Mayor Tom Barrett (D)
Physical characteristics
Area
     Land
     Water 		251.0 km²
     248.8 km²
     2.2 km²
Population
     Total (2000)
     Density 		1,709,926 (metro area)
     596,974 (city proper)
     2399.5/km²
Latitude 43°3' N
Longitude 87°57' W
Time zone
     Summer (DST) 		CST (UTC-6)
     CDT (UTC-5)
Official website: http://www.milwaukee.gov/

Milwaukee is the largest city in the state of Wisconsin, United States and the county of Milwaukee. The city's population is 583,624 (2004 estimate) with an estimated total of 1,709,926 in the Milwaukee metropolitan area (2005). The city of Milwaukee is the 22nd largest city in the United States. The city is located in the southeastern portion of the state on the western shore of Lake Michigan.

Contents

History

The Milwaukee area was originally inhabited by the Fox, Mascouten, Potawatomi, and Winnebago Indian tribes. Milwaukee received its name from the Indian word Millioke which is thought to have meant "The Good Land", or "gathering place by the water". French missionaries and traders passed through the area in the late 1600s and 1700s.

In 1818, Frenchman Solomon Juneau settled in the area. Juneau bought out his father-in-law's trading business, and in 1833 he founded a town on the east side of the Milwaukee River. In 1846, Juneau's town combined with two neighboring rival towns to incorporate as the City of Milwaukee: Kilbourntown to the west, which was founded by Byron Kilbourn, and Walker's Point to the south. Juneau was Milwaukee's first mayor. (His statue is part of the montage at the right — the frontiersman with the rifle, in the center of the montage. Juneau's statue gazes upon the buildings of downtown Milwaukee, with its back to Lake Michigan. A replica of his tiny log cabin is in the same park.) German immigrants helped increase the city's population during the 1840s and the following decades. Milwaukee still today has a large German-American population. The liberal tradition of these peoples led to decades of socialist government in Milwaukee during the twentieth century.

Geography and climate

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 251.0 km² (96.9 square miles). 248.8 km² (96.1 square miles) of it is land and 2.2 km² (0.9 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 0.88% water.

Cityscape

Milwaukee's downtown area is about 90 miles north of the Chicago Loop. Milwaukee lies along the shores of Lake Michigan near the meeting points of three rivers: the Menomonee, the Kinnickinnic and the Milwaukee. It is crossed by Interstate 43 and Interstate 94, which come together downtown at the Marquette Interchange.

Climate

  • Average January high/low temperatures: 26°F/11°F (-3°C/-12°C)
  • Average July high/low temperatures: 79°F/62°F (26°C/17°C)

Milwaukee's proximity to Lake Michigan causes a convection current to form mid-afternoon, resulting in the so-called lake effect, causing the temperatures to be warmer in the winter, and cooler in the summer ("cooler by the lake" is practically boilerplate language for local meteorologists during the summer). Also, the relative humidity in the summer is far higher than that of comparable cities at the same latitude, meaning that it feels hotter than it really is.

Milwaukee's all-time record high temperature is 105°F (41°C) set on July 17, 1995. The coldest temperature ever experienced by the city was -26°F (-32°C) on both January 17, 1982 and February 4, 1996. The 1982 event, also known as Cold Sunday, featured temperatures as low as -40°F (-40°C) in some of the suburbs as little as 10 miles (16km) to the north of Milwaukee, although the city itself did not approach such cold temperatures.

Demographics

City of Milwaukee
Population by year [1]

1850 - 20,061
1860 - 45,246
1870 - 71,440
1880 - 115,587
1890 - 204,468
1900 - 285,315
1910 - 373,857
1920 - 457,147
1930 - 578,249
1940 - 587,472
1950 - 637,392
1960 - 741,324
1970 - 717,099
1980 - 636,212
1990 - 628,088
2000 - 596,974

In the 2000 census, over a third (38 percent) of Milwaukeeans reported that they were of German descent. Other large population groups include Polish (12.7%), Irish (10%), English (5.1%), Italian (4.4%), French (3.9%), and Hispanic origin totaled 6.3%.

As of the census estimate of 2004, there are 596,974 people, 232,188 households, and 135,133 families residing in the city. The population density is 2,399.5/km² (6,214.3 per square mile). There are 249,225 housing units at an average density of 1,001.7/km² (2,594.4 per square mile). The racial makeup of the city is 46.7% White, 39.5% African American, 13.3% Hispanic or Latino (of any race), 3.6% Asian, 0.8% Native American, and 7.3% from other races. Approximately 2% of indivduals reported being of two or more races.

There are 232,188 households out of which 30.5% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 32.2% are married couples living together, 21.1% have a female householder with no husband present, and 41.8% are non-families. 33.5% of all households are made up of individuals and 9.5% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.50 and the average family size is 3.25.

In the city the population is spread out with 28.6% under the age of 18, 12.2% from 18 to 24, 30.2% from 25 to 44, 18.1% from 45 to 64, and 10.9% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 31 years. For every 100 females there are 91.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 87.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city is $32,216, and the median income for a family is $37,879. Males have a median income of $32,244 versus $26,013 for females. The per capita income for the city is $16,181. 21.3% of the population and 17.4% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 31.6% of those under the age of 18 and 11.0% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

Economy

Although most people associate Milwaukee with beer, today companies like Miller Brewing employ less than one percent of the city's workers. Milwaukee's reputation as a blue collar town is more accurate, however, with 22 percent of the workforce involved in manufacturing — second only to San Jose, CA and far higher than the national average of 16.5%. Service and managerial jobs are the fastest growing segments of the Milwaukee economy, and healthcare makes up 27% of all service jobs in the city.

Milwaukee is headquarters to six Fortune 1000 manufacturers and six Fortune 1000 service companies. Among these are Briggs & Stratton, Harley-Davidson, Johnson Controls, Manpower Inc., Marshall & Ilsley, Northwestern Mutual, Rockwell Automation, Roundy's, Metavante, and Wisconsin Energy. Milwaukee also has a large number of financial service firms, particularly those specializing in mutual funds and transaction processing systems, and a disproportionate number of publishing and printing companies.

Education

Colleges and universities

High schools

Culture and sports

Culture

Image:Milwaukee Art Museum.jpg

Milwaukee's most visually prominent cultural attraction is the Milwaukee Art Museum, especially its new $100 million wing designed by Santiago Calatrava in his first American commission. The museum includes a "brise soleil," a moving sunscreen that quite literally unfolds like the wing of a bird. The Milwaukee Public Museum and Milwaukee County Zoo are also notable public attractions.

Milwaukee is home to the Florentine Opera, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Ballet, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Skylight Opera Theatre, and a number of other arts organizations.

Milwaukee, "A Great Place on a Great Lake", has also advertised itself as the "City of Festivals," emphasizing an annual lakefront fair called Summerfest. Listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest music festival in the world, Summerfest attracts around 900,000 visitors a year to its twelve stages. Smaller festivals througout the year celebrate the city's German, Native American, African-American, Italian, Irish, Asian, Arab, and Polish heritage.

Although Milwaukee isn't known historically as a club scene music mecca, it does have a vibrant history of rock, blues, punk, ska, industrial music, goth and pop music bands. A range of musicians have called Milwaukee home, including Hildegarde, Woody Herman, Liberace, blues giant Hubert Sumlin, the BoDeans, Violent Femmes, Citizen King, The Gufs, The Promise Ring, Oil Tasters, Die Kruezen, Boy Dirt Car, Shiverhead, among others. Local hip-hop action includes acts like Rusty Ps and Black Elephant. Beer City Skateboards is not only a skateboard company, but a punk rock label as well, home to DRI and Millions of Dead Cops. Venues such as Pabst Theater and The Rave bring internationally-known and critically acclaimed acts to Milwaukee every day.

Milwaukee is also home to a vibrant club scene booking regular international DJs such as Richie Hawtin, LTJ Bukem, Mark Farina, Derrick Carter and others. Milwaukee was home to a vibrant rave scene in the early Nineties, especially fostering hardcore techno, thanks to Drop Bass; but the scene moved south to Chicago after reaction by city authorities. Milwaukee was also an epicenter of the breakcore scene in early 2000s with labels like Addict Records and Zod Records.

Sports

It is also home to a number of professional sports teams including:

The Milwaukee Mile auto racing facility, the oldest active auto race track in the United States, is located on the Wisconsin State Fair Grounds in West Allis. The Mile is not far from the Petit National Ice Center, a U.S. Olympic Team training facility for speed skating.

Media

Newspapers serving Milwaukee include:

Broadcast media:

Airports

Neighborhoods

  • Bay View Known for its affordable rents, views of the city skyline, and proximity to Lake Michigan. Features a heavy concentration of trendy stores and music venues. Located about 3 miles south of downtown on the lake, within the area including Kinnickinnic Avenue. [2]
  • Brady Street Another neighborhood in Milwaukee noted for its trendiness. The neighborhood is filled with coffee houses, nightclubs, trendy restaurants, vintage clothing, and thrift stores. [3]
  • Brewers Hill A small, diverse community north of downtown on the Milwaukee River. The name is derived from the large amount of breweries that once blanketed the area. Some of the factories are still intact. The neighborhood is bordered by the Riverwest neighborhood on the north, the East Side on the east, the Milwaukee River on the south, and Martin Luther King Drive on the west. The area near the river, especially along Commerce Street, has been significantly revitalized in the past few years with upscale residential and commercial development, the most notable being the Beerline Development. For better or worse, Brewers Hill is generally regarded as Milwaukee's most prominent example of gentrification in action.
  • Capitol West
  • Concordia A neighborhood located on the near west side of Milwaukee; it once housed Concordia college. The college's former facilities now house a Native American high school. This neighborhood once housed families like the Pabsts, Harnischfegers, Gettlemans, and many others in large mansions. Many of these homes have been converted into bed and breakfasts, and Concordia was declared Milwaukee's only bed and breakfast district.
  • East Side The "east side" is a broad area that basically refers to anything east of the Milwaukee River, north of downtown, and south of the suburb of Shorewood. This area includes Brady Street, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, the lakefront, and the marina. The streets and buildings in this neighborhood range from towering, expensive high rises and condominiums along the lake to brownstones and walkups a few blocks inland to cheap duplexes near the river. An economically diverse group of people live in this neighborhood.
  • East Town Home to Milwaukee's central business district. East Town is bordered by the lower east side and Brady street on the north, the Third Ward on the south, West Town on the west, and Lake Michigan on the east. East Town began as a different incorporated city than its sister neighborhood, West Town, and thus has a remarkably different feel. East Town has dense, narrower streets and a more intimate feel, whereas West Town has broad, vast streets with older buildings. Many buildings in East Town are not as well kept as the buildings in West Town, the more vibrant side of downtown; however, it is the heart of Milwaukee's financial district. The strikingly modern skyscrapers of the Northwestern Mutual Life complex and Milwaukee's tallest building, the US Bank tower, as well as the city's four other tallest buildings, dominate the eastern portion of the neighborhood. Other noteworthy buildings include the Chase Bank building, the Faison building, and the Morgan Stanley building. Also, two large condominium developments, Kilbourn Tower and University Club tower, are under construction or have been recently completed in the northern half of the neighborhood. Both buildings are over 32 stories tall and have units priced at two million dollars apiece.
  • East Village
  • Granville A working class neighborhood located on Milwaukee's far northwest side.
  • Havenswoods A working class, mostly African-American neighborhood on Milwaukee's north side, centered near Silver Spring Drive and 60th Street. The neighborhood itself is moderately urban in character, with a mix of strip malls, older retail buildings, and townhouses. Within the neighborhood's boundaries lie Havenwoods State Forest and the US Army Reserve Center.
  • Hillside/Lapham Park
  • Historic West Mitchell Street A street located about 1.5 miles southwest of downtown, the Mitchell Street neighborhood is the heart of a densely-populated, largely Hispanic area of Milwaukee's near south side. Most of the houses in the neighborhood are two or three story Polish flats, but this area also has a fair amount of five to six story brick walk-ups and apartment buildings. Mitchell Street itself is narrow, vibrant and has buildings reminiscent of the Bronx in New York. A four story building, the Mitchell Street mall, lies on the street directly off the sidewalk and has no surface parking lot, due to the shortage of open space. The retail district, although vibrant, only lasts for six blocks before it turns into a residential street.
  • Jackson Park Neighborhood on the south side of Milwaukee, located about 6 miles south of downtown. Jackson Park's architecture consists largely of two-story wood frame houses that were constructed in the early 20th century. Jackson Park's makeup is mostly Caucasian, lower middle class, and blue collar. In recent years, it has also seen a growing number of Hispanic residents.
  • Jacobus Park A neighborhood on the far west side of the city near the city limits of Wauwatosa. It is is a moderately urban neighborhood, with brick bungalows and two story brick apartments being the main housing stock. The area's populace is mostly Caucasian and middle class.
  • Jones Island A peninsula located underneath the Hoan Bridge, began as a fishing village populated by Polish settlers from the Kaszubes region in 1870. Having never officially obtained a deed for the land, they were considered squatters by the City of Milwaukee and evicted in the 1940s to make way for a shipping port. This is where MMSD and United Water Works have the main water treatment plant.
  • Town of Lake Located near the airport, this neighborhood is based on its namesake township which was established by the Territorial Legislature in 1838 and covered much of what is now the south side of Milwaukee, as well as the city of St. Francis. Over time, the township was parceled out among different area cities. The original boundaries for the Town of Lake were Greenfield Ave to the North, Lake Michigan to the East, College Ave (originally called Town Line Rd) to the south, and 27th Street to the west. In 1951, St. Francis incorporated to prevent annexation by Milwaukee, in effect "seceding" from the Town of Lake. Before being annexed, the township's northern boundary was Howard Ave, except for a strip of land west of 20th Street going farther north to Morgan Ave. The old town hall on 6th & Howard is still referred to as the "Town of Lake Water Tower". Now officially called the Anderson Water Tower by the City of Milwaukee, it currently serves as a municipal building and water treatment facility. The Town of Lake was officially annexed in 1954. The township's residents had voted not to incorporate as the "City of Lake" in 1928; had they chosen to incorporate, the remaining area of the Town of Lake would probably have never been annexed by Milwaukee, and Milwaukee would have likely expanded further west and north instead. In addition, it is also likely that the Milwaukee suburb of St. Francis would not have felt the pressure to incorporate, nor (hypothetically) would Cudahy have made further strides into the township's agricultural land.
  • Layton Park
  • Martin Drive
  • Metcalfe Park An area bordered by Center Street on the north, North Avenue on the south, 27th Street on the east, and 35th Street on the west. The neighborhood has had some problems with crime in recent years.
  • Mount Mary surrounds Mount Mary College. It is bordered by Concordia Ave. on the north, 89th St. on the east, Center St. on the south and Menomonee River Parkway on the west. With its curvelinear streets and few sidewalks, it resembles a suburban neighborhood.
  • Piggsville is the west end of the Menomonee River Valley, below Miller Brewing and the Wisconsin Avenue viaduct. Various theories have been proposed about its name, but none has been proved true.
  • Riverwest A neighborhood located west of the Milwaukee River, near Milwaukee's east side. Riverwest is noted for its ethnic diversity (including a growing Iranian, Asian and Hispanic population), as well as its increasing numbers of artists and musicians. [4]
  • Sherman Park A west side middle class, very integrated neighborhood, that was once the heart of Milwaukee's Jewish population.
  • Story Hill A neighborhood located directly north of Miller Park on the west side of Milwaukee. The housing stock consists of ornate early 20th century houses, usually made of brick. The neighborhood itself lies on a hill just south of Wisconsin Avenue and is characterized by quiet, tree-lined streets and an isolated feel, in sharp contrast to the busier and more depressed neighborhoods that surround it. Most inhabitants of this neighborhood are Caucasian.
  • Third Ward An upper class neighborhood located just to the south of downtown, the Third Ward is noted for a large number of condominiums and loft apartments, antique stores, and art galleries. It is also a center of Milwaukee's gay community.
  • University Hill A downtown neighborhood that is the home of Marquette University
  • Walker's Point A neighborhood that lies south of the Third Ward, it is noted for being the center of Milwaukee's Hispanic community, as well as the location of most of the city's gay and lesbian nightclubs and bars.
  • Walnut Hill An inner-city, predominately African-American neighborhood on the west side, bordered by 27th Street, 35th Street, Vliet Street, and North Avenue. The neighborhood is economically mixed, ranging from impoverished to middle class. There is also a strong southeast Asian presence here.
  • Washington Heights A neighborhood noted for its strong community organization and 1920s Arts & Crafts housing stock.
  • Washington Park A predominately African-American and Southeast-Asian-American neighborhood bordering Metcalfe Park.
  • West Town An area west of the Milwaukee River and downtown, bounded by I-794 on the south, Marquette University on the west, McKinley Avenue on the north, and the river on the east. This neighborhood makes up part of downtown Milwaukee. Downtown's Grand Avenue Mall, along with various theaters, restaurants, nightclubs, and condominiums, lies along Wisconsin Avenue, the busiest street that runs through downtown. Other attractions in this neighborhood include the Bradley Center, the US Cellular Arena, the Milwaukee County Courthouse and Old World Third Street. The area has also become a focal point for Milwaukee's booming urban scene.

See also

External links

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Image:Wisconsin state flag.png
Suburbs

Brookfield | Brown Deer | Cedarburg | Cudahy | Delafield | Franklin | Germantown | Glendale | Grafton | Greendale | Greenfield | Menomonee Falls | Mequon | Muskego | New Berlin | Oak Creek | Oconomowoc | Pewaukee | Shorewood | South Milwaukee | Waukesha | Wauwatosa | West Allis | Whitefish Bay |

Bayside | Big Bend | Butler | Caledonia | Chenequa | Dousman | Elm Grove | Fox Point | Genesee | Hales Corners | Hartland | Ixonia | Lake Lac La Belle | Lannon | Lisbon | Merton | Nashotah | North Prairie | Oconomowoc Lake | Okauchee Lake | Ottawa | Richfield | River Hills | Saukville | Saint Francis | Summit | Sussex | Thiensville | Vernon | Wales | West Milwaukee |

Counties

Jefferson | Milwaukee | Ozaukee | Racine | Washington | Waukesha |

 
Wisconsin 		Image:Wisconsin state flag.png
Regions: Central Plain | Eastern Ridges and Lowlands | Lake Superior Lowland | Northern Highland | Western Upland
Largest cities: Appleton | Beloit | Brookfield | Eau Claire | Fond du Lac | Franklin | Green Bay | Greenfield | Janesville | Kenosha | La Crosse | Madison | Milwaukee | New Berlin | Oshkosh | Racine | Sheboygan | Waukesha | Wausau | Wauwatosa
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