Milwaukee

Milwaukee is a wonderful city to live in – but it can also be a terrible place to live in. Depending upon your means, your income, and your location. It is historically a very racially divided city with the Caucasians, African-Americans, and Hispanic all living in different sectors of the city.

Milwaukee has a very nice city center that is currently undergoing a grand makeover with millions and millions of dollars being pushed into remodeling and reviving. But Milwaukee also has a crumbling core that the city is seemingly paying little attention to because of its racial and economic make up.

Thirty years ago Milwaukee was a booming industrial city and known as the beer capital of the US. But since the mid-80’s it has seen a mass exodus of industry, jobs, and residents – in a time where there have been tens of thousands of jobs lost.

The population of the city of Milwaukee is somewhere around 600,000 – down from nearly a million 20 years ago. Milwaukee Co. has over a million residents making the Milwaukee urban area a major metro area. But the city has deep levels of poverty – recently ranking as the 8th poorest city in the nation – and consistently ranks as one of the drunkest cities in America.

Milwaukee is home to 2 major universities – Marquette and University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, along with several other smaller colleges. Miller Brewing Co. & Harley Davidson headline industry here. The city seems to have an identity crisis currently – moving from a heavily industry area into what seems like an emerging artistic community. The Milwaukee Art Museum has become the icon of the city which sits on Lake Michigan as a symbol of what Milwaukee is trying to become.

Summers here are simply wonderful, winters are not.

Religiouslly, it is heavily influence by the Catholic and Lutheran church.

Overall, Milwaukee has the potential to be a wonderful city, but has its share of problems. As a church we want to invest ourselves in this city, we want to not just live here, we want to really live here. That’s why this Community Project is so exciting.