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Real Estate & Homes in Milwaukee - Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Wisconsin homes and communities Milwaukee
Background The largest city in Wisconsin and the 19th largest in the United States, Milwaukee sits on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, 90 miles north of Chicago. Known as the “Cream City” because of the color of the bricks used to construct its earliest buildings, Milwaukee is the quintessential Wisconsin city: friendly, ethnic, and practical. Known for its breweries, summer festivals and its blue-collar work ethic, Milwaukee is Wisconsin’s only city that really qualifies as an urban environment. History The Milwaukee area was originally home to Native Americans of the Fox, Mascouten, Potawatomi and Winnebago tribes. The origin of Milwaukee’s name is disputed; although the most common etymology given is that it’s from the Alqonquin word “millioke” meaning either “the good land” or “gathering place by the water.” The area was a common stopover for French missionaries and traders coming through the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence River, and in 1795 a fur-trading post were established there by Jacques Vieau. In 1818, Vieau’s son-in-law, Solomon Juneau, settled in the area and bought out the trading post. He founded a town on the Milwaukee River in 1833. The city of Milwaukee was incorporated in 1846 when Juneau’s town consolidated with two neighboring towns, Kilbourn Town and Walker’s Point. After its incorporation, the city grew through a large influx of German immigrants; even today, a third of Milwaukee’s citizens claim a German heritage. Milwaukee grew as a major Great Lakes port and became known for its brewing and meatpacking industries. After the Civil War, the liberal politics, which the city’s German inhabitants brought with them, resulted in several decades of Socialist leadership largely in the person of politician Victor Berger, founding member of the Socialist Party of America. The citizens of Milwaukee elected him to the House of Representatives despite the fact that he was under indictment on largely trumped-up charges of insubordination and disloyalty. Milwaukee is by far the most racially diverse city in Wisconsin, and it was not spared from the civil unrest of the 1960s. Right upon the heels of these difficult times, the city was hit hard by the recession of the early 1980’s, losing many jobs in the industrial sectors. The end of that decade found prosperity returning to Milwaukee as the major local companies expanded to include international exports, especially tools and machinery. Milwaukee still produces eleven percent of the malt-based beverages consumed in the United States, although Miller is the only remaining major brewery in operation. Fast Facts City population: 596,974 Community Milwaukee’s demographics run the gamut; its neighborhoods reflect this as well as its ethnic diversity. Generally speaking, the East Side (anything east of the Milwaukee River and north of downtown) is the diverse, urban part of town and the West Side is the suburban, middle-class part of town. Milwaukee is known to be a segregated town, with whites and non-whites sorting themselves into distinct geographic locations, but certain neighborhoods defy this tendency, notably Riverwest, which boasts an even three-part split between white, black and other ethnic groups (mostly Hispanic, Asian and Iranian). Just across the river from the East Side, it’s a higher-rent district. Other notable neighborhoods include Brady Street, the original hipster avenue and a little pocket of big-city urbanism. The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee campus is also located in the east side neighborhoods, as is the lakefront and the marina. The residences in the east side range from posh high-rises to brownstones to low-end duplexes. The Third Ward, Milwaukee’s hip warehouse district, is becoming increasingly popular with yuppies and has a very cosmopolitan feeling. Walker’s Point, just south of the Third Ward, is the less-well-groomed warehouse neighborhood; its population is a vibrant mix of artists, yuppies, gays and ethnic people. Walker’s Point is also the gateway to Milwaukee’s vast south side Hispanic community. Milwaukee has a dangerous inner city, however. Metcalfe Park, for example, a half-demolished 40-block area, is known as “Little Beirut” around the city. Nearby neighborhood Washington Park and northern neighborhood Walnut Hill are two additional examples of Milwaukee’s poverty-stricken locales. The North End, especially near the lake, is chiefly known for its upper-middle-class neighborhoods and lavish homes, which are often targets for Sunday drive-takers and sightseers.
Attractions Milwaukee boasts a widely varied collection of cultural attractions, especially in the area of architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright designed a number of homes in the area, and a tour of his buildings is available. Other must-sees for the architecture buff are City Hall, a Flemish renaissance structure most famous for its appearance in the opening credits to the TV sitcom “Laverne and Shirley,” and the impressive Pabst mansion on West Wisconsin Avenue. The brewery tours are a popular Milwaukee tourist activity; the largest of these is the Miller Brewery Tour. The tours are guided, free, and offered Monday through Saturday – with free beer samples at the end of the tour! The Harley-Davidson motorcycle plant is also a frequent tourist destination; tours are given at the engine plant. In keeping with the plant’s presence, there is also a company that gives tours of Milwaukee on the back of a motorcycle. The Milwaukee County Zoo is also a large draw from all over the state. Its collection of 2500 animals includes a petting zoo, a raptor show, a sea lion show, and a pleasant, park-like environment. Notable for their unusual geodesic shapes as much as their contents, The Domes (as they are colloquially known; their official name is the Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory) are a three building garden paradise featuring three distinct climates inside. Milwaukee has also taken advantage of its extensive riverfront to design an attractive river walk, a frequent stop for sightseeing, relaxing and dining. Arts & Culture The Milwaukee Public Museum is an eclectic collection of history, life science, anthropology, and just about every other subject. Life-size “Streets of Old Milwaukee” and “European Village” dioramas co-exist with the museum’s extensive Native American collection and an impressive dinosaurs-and-geology section. The museum also has a 6-story IMAX theater. The visually striking Milwaukee Art Museum, with its graceful new multimillion-dollar Quadracci Pavilion designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava in his first American Commission, has an excellent collection of German Expressionism, American decorative arts, and a large number of works by Georgia O’Keefe. Milwaukee is also home to the Florentine Opera, the fifth-oldest opera company in the United States, which puts on three staged productions per season at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. Recently, the opera has become more interested in new American operas. The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, in its 46th year of existence, performs a series of classics concerts and pops concerts, as well as performing with the Florentine Opera. Sports & Recreation Milwaukee is home to two major-league sports teams: the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team and the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team. The Brewers play in brand-new Miller Park, which replaced the city’s venerable Milwaukee County Stadium, famous for its gargantuan beer mug sitting at right center field. No matter how badly the Brewers play, the games are more a cultural event than a sports contest. At the end of each sixth inning, the crowd favorite “Sausage Race” is held, in which a Polish Sausage, a hot dog, a Bratwurst, and an Italian Sausage race around the bases. The Milwaukee Bucks play at the Bradley Center, which is also home to Milwaukee’s American Hockey League team, the Admirals as well as the Marquette University men’s basketball team. Milwaukee also has two professional soccer teams, both minor-league. Education The University of Wisconsin, although its main campus is in Madison, maintains many sizable regional campuses, including one in Milwaukee that has an enrollment of over 25,000 students and offers 146-degree programs. Marquette University, a private Catholic university with a student body of 11,000, has particular academic strengths in engineering and life sciences. Other notable institutions in the area include Alverno College, Cardinal Stritch University, Milwaukee Area Technical College, and the Medical College of Wisconsin, a top-notch medical school. Festivals This is an area where Milwaukee stands out; in fact, it’s sometimes called the City of Festivals. With an ethnic fair for every summertime weekend, Milwaukee’s summer festivals are a huge draw into the city. The most famous festival is Summerfest; according to Guinness, it is the largest music festival in the world. With 12 stages featuring acts from all genres of music, Summerfest typically draws almost a million visitors to Maier Festival Park along the Milwaukee lakefront and the 24,000 seat Marcus Amphitheater. Summerfest also features water shows, shopping, and amusement park rides. This is the city’s biggest event of the year, and it’s made of Milwaukee a major hub on the live-music circuit. Other festivals held at Maier Festival Park include Pridefest, the largest gay and lesbian event in the state, the Asian Moon Festival, Polish Fest, Mexican Fiesta, and the famous Irish Fest, the world’s largest Irish cultural festival. The Irish Fest features over 50 Irish entertainers, including musicians, dancers, and artists. Over 100,000 guests attend the August festival every year; the Festival has an associated summer school that offers instruction in Irish music, dance and arts. The Milwaukee Art Museum hosts the Lakefront Festival of the Arts featuring the work of over 170 artists, and in August the Wisconsin State Fair is held in Milwaukee. Milwaukee also puts on a Festa Italiana, German Fest, Arab World Fest, African World Fiesta, and a Bastille Days street fair. Finally, in September, the jam-packed summer festival season winds down with the Indian Summer festival of Native American culture featuring dance troops, storytellers, food and music. Dining Milwaukee’s many ethnic neighborhoods make for some interesting dining choices. Brady Street is home to so many Italian restaurants that there’s a tour of them, the Bellissimo Brady Street Tour. For a taste of the unusual, there’s Three Brothers or Balkanian New Star for Serbian food, Abu’s for Lebanese, Cubanitas for Cuban fare, Shahrazad for Mediterranean, the King and I for Thai, African Hut for West African food, or the Dancing Ganesha for East Indian. For lovers of Mexican food there’s La Fuente and Conejito’s Place. Naturally, Milwaukee is replete with German restaurants. For authentic sauerbraten the place to go is Karl Ratzsch’s, and while you’re there you can try their roast goose. Mader’s is probably the most famous German restaurant in town, although it’s just as old as Ratzsch’s and a bit more expensive. The other dominant ethnicity in town, Irish, is also well represented. County Clare features live Irish music on Sunday mornings and a store stocked with Irish imports and candies, while Mo’s Irish Pub is located downtown and offers a good selection of ales. Milwaukee also has offerings for the health-conscious: Beans & Barley is part restaurant, part grocery/deli and features many vegetarian dishes, while Bombay Sweets is a completely vegetarian restaurant. In a beer-drinking town such as Milwaukee, there are plenty of breweries and brewpubs. The Water Street Brewery is centrally located and features ten distinct lagers and ales brewed on-site. The Rock Bottom Brewery is located along the downtown riverwalk and features a wide selection of microbrews to be sipped on its outdoor terrace overlooking the water. The Milwaukee Ale House, also on Water Street, offers riverfront seating as well. Last but not least, a Wisconsin staple and Milwaukee specialty is frozen custard. Similar to ice cream, frozen custard contains eggs, which makes for a richer product. Kopp’s Frozen Custard is a Milwaukee landmark, as is Gille’s, and both will be swarming with people during warm weather. Economy Despite the fact that Milwaukee is so strongly associated with breweries, in fact they currently employ less than one percent of the city’s workers. The city’s reputation as a blue-collar town, however, is still deserved. Twenty-two percent of the workforce is involved in manufacturing, the second-highest percentage in the country. Milwaukee’s manufacturing sector is heavily dependent on the export of machinery, tools, and automotive parts. Fortune 1000 manufacturers in the area include Briggs & Stratton, Harley-Davidson, and Johnson Controls. The city also has a large number of financial service firms and a disproportionate number of publishing and printing companies. The ports of Milwaukee are crucial to its economic health; it serves as an entry point for heavy cargo from the St. Lawrence Seaway on its way to the Midwest. It is also connected by ferry to Michigan, enabling it to receive and send shipments from points to the east over land. The median income is $32,216 for a Milwaukee household and $37,879 for a family. The city’s population definitely skews towards the poor end of the spectrum; of the citizens under the age of 18 a whopping 31.6% live below the poverty line.
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