Cleaning up Milwaukee

What would you do?

It sucks for me because i have a house on the cusp of a bad area. Yet everyday i hear of people getting robbed only a few miles away. As it gets closer to where i live i get more fed up with it. Part of me thinks that due to the gas prices people will be moving closer to the city to be where their jobs are, or where the "action is".

Drastic measures need to be taken at some point. The way i see it, no one wants to take that first step because it may be political suicide to do something extreme, such as sterylization of criminals on a 3rd or 4th offense. Or something as off the wall as the death penalty for continual petty crimes.

Unjust? Most likely but things will only get worse. People tend to wait until all the chips are down before they fully take a step at making amends, i just wish it wasn't happening in my home town.

While I agree that throwing a lot of people in jail might serve as a good wake-up call for the people running roughshod in Milwaukee, a more fundamental issue gets to the heart of what ails Milwaukee.

Family values. Seems like a simple phrase. Most people are born into some type of family structure, where they are told by other family members what is right andwrong, and how to behave towards others. They are also told the values of education, hard work, and the institution of marriage.

Ok. Now remember what I just talked about in the paragraph above. I'm going to transpose the issue of family values to African Americans currently in Milwaukee. Each year there are tens of thousands of kids being born in Milwaukee that have essentially no chance to be prosperous. Why is that you might ask? Its because they will not be taught family values. And the reason they won't learn these values is not that the values are difficult, its that there isn't a proper structure or educational background in African American communities to pass this vital information on.

Consider the following statement; Milwaukee is in the top 5 of ALL cities in the country in teen pregnancies, high school dropout rates, and African American unemployment. So what we have basically is children being born to a single mother who likely dropped out of high school, to a father who is likely not working and not educated, and into a community that can't teach this young child what it needs to be successful.

From day one, that child is almost a statistical certainty to be heavily reliant on government programs and funding for survival. The child's mother almost certainly didn't pay for the hospital visit, and will also not be able to pay to care for the kid. The father, if he hasn't disappeared, is more likely to spend the days walking the streets then to be holding down a job. And why is he not working? Discrimination? No, because he doesn't have a degree.

As the child grows up, the cycle will continue to gain momentum. The child will not be taught about education, or hard work, or about birth control. Instead, the child will figure that since her mother either didn't know basic values or chose to ignore them, then it is ok for him/her to do the same. The child may very well drop out of school and be responsible for the birth of ANOTHER child. The cycle continues.

No amount of police work can really change the climate. We can arrest every lazy bum and crook in the city, but in a few years, there will be a new group ready to roam the streets unless something is done.

It is time for leaders in the African American community to put an end to the injustices done to these babies. It is time for these leaders to hold members of their own community accountable for their actions. It is time for African Americans to stop blaming others for the hand they are dealt, and to put their efforts into giving these children, these unwilling participants in this vicious cycle, a chance to succeed.

damn good post amigo.

I do think that the base of the problem is family, what concerns me is that there is no one making a push to either teach values or show that the govt will not fully support these fathers that have nine and ten kids.

You'd think this situation has to be on the mends at some point. As i recall, the 70's had a very similar problem with uneducated individuals making no motion to become part of society. I wish i knew what they did back then but something has to change.

I remember reading this same type of writing somewhere before...oh yeah...Mein Kampf. Sweet, i hear that author really made a name for himself. Good work guys.

I do not believe there is an easy solution or one problem that can be fixed in order to make Milwaukee into a safer and cleaner city. While education and a focus on "family values" within the African American community is one part, there are also too many factors outside of that to just ignore. One main problem is how segregated the city and the area around the city has become. There needs to be work by all leaders of all groups within the city, and it needs to be done in unison. The city needs to present itself as an industrious and growing city again in order to help the job market grow. The state needs to focus on Milwaukee more, and shuttle some funding away from Madison and into Milwaukee. All of this, unfortunately, is only a small part of what needs to be done.

RCBooba wrote:I do not believe there is an easy solution or one problem that can be fixed in order to make Milwaukee into a safer and cleaner city. While education and a focus on "family values" within the African American community is one part, there are also too many factors outside of that to just ignore. One main problem is how segregated the city and the area around the city has become. There needs to be work by all leaders of all groups within the city, and it needs to be done in unison. The city needs to present itself as an industrious and growing city again in order to help the job market grow. The state needs to focus on Milwaukee more, and shuttle some funding away from Madison and into Milwaukee. All of this, unfortunately, is only a small part of what needs to be done.

good post bro, although i don't really know how much money is actually being sent to madison as apposed to Milwaukee. You could make a good arguement either way, when it comes down to it, all cities need money. However, milwaukee might need a bomb.

Ollie Octagon wrote:I remember reading this same type of writing somewhere before...oh yeah...Mein Kampf. Sweet, i hear that author really made a name for himself. Good work guys.

I'm going to assume this comparison is a joke. Or maybe you nead to read Mein Kampf again.

RCBooba wrote:I do not believe there is an easy solution or one problem that can be fixed in order to make Milwaukee into a safer and cleaner city. While education and a focus on "family values" within the African American community is one part, there are also too many factors outside of that to just ignore. One main problem is how segregated the city and the area around the city has become. There needs to be work by all leaders of all groups within the city, and it needs to be done in unison. The city needs to present itself as an industrious and growing city again in order to help the job market grow. The state needs to focus on Milwaukee more, and shuttle some funding away from Madison and into Milwaukee. All of this, unfortunately, is only a small part of what needs to be done.

I can see where you are trying to go with this post, but it would be nice if you could elaborate. How should the state "focus" on Milwaukee more? And also, what do you think should be done with the funding?

btw, not being critical or anything, I just would like some more clarification so we can really open up the discussion.

datrain711 wrote:

Ollie Octagon wrote:I remember reading this same type of writing somewhere before...oh yeah...Mein Kampf. Sweet, i hear that author really made a name for himself. Good work guys.

I'm going to *** this comparison is a joke. Or maybe you nead to read Mein Kampf again.

not a direct comparison, clearly. Just that you are doing a great job of steryotyping a whole group of people as bad for a city. Even if that group is in the majority, it is still overly harsh to classify all of them as the same.

I don't know much about Milwaukee, so it's really not my topic to begin with.

datrain711 wrote:

RCBooba wrote:I do not believe there is an easy solution or one problem that can be fixed in order to make Milwaukee into a safer and cleaner city. While education and a focus on "family values" within the African American community is one part, there are also too many factors outside of that to just ignore. One main problem is how segregated the city and the area around the city has become. There needs to be work by all leaders of all groups within the city, and it needs to be done in unison. The city needs to present itself as an industrious and growing city again in order to help the job market grow. The state needs to focus on Milwaukee more, and shuttle some funding away from Madison and into Milwaukee. All of this, unfortunately, is only a small part of what needs to be done.

I can see where you are trying to go with this post, but it would be nice if you could elaborate. How should the state "focus" on Milwaukee more? And also, what do you think should be done with the funding?

btw, not being critical or anything, I just would like some more clarification so we can really open up the discussion.

I'll try and add some more tomorrow after I think about it for a while. But quickly, it seems to me that Madison is the "white city" (I mean that more as the good city rather than the people that live there) and Milwaukee is considered the embarrassment of the state. According to Wikipedia, which I do not consider the most valid source, but it is useful in this situation, Milwaukee is, I believe, the 22nd most populated city in the US. Obviously, then, there will be more crime and poverty in Milwaukee than Madison. However, living in Milwaukee I remember hearing about the crime and murders as more of a day-to-day thing, where in Madison when there is a murder there is an uproar for action to be taken immediately. Milwaukee's golden age was back in the early 1900's, but ever since the industries have either moved or eventually shut down, Milwaukee is a shell of it's former self (in terms of image). The people that live in Milwaukee, for the most part, seem to be proud of the city, but more so in a tough, gritty, and defensive way. Madison is still the apple of Wisconsin's eye, and will always come first in times of need. I'm not trying to say that the state should just start shuttling money to Milwaukee, because that wouldn't do anything anyway. But there should be a state-wide plan to completely renovate Milwaukee. The only problem is that I can see Milwaukee saying no, taking offense that there needs to be outsiders coming to fix this supposed problem. Maybe not, but I think it's possible. People are proud of the cities they live in. I'll try to clarify more tomorrow, or maybe I'll wake up and realize I'm wrong, and we can start fresh. Basically, the problem is not solely the African American community. There is definitely more involved and other factors that influence what is going on in the city and the areas around the city.

yeah i agree with you completely about Madison being the "ideal" city in the minds of many. That's basically the reason I can't stand our state government, all they care about is keeping Madison as a liberal paradise. They are so into themselves there it makes me sick thinking about it. The snobbish Madison political network is something that is truly a sight to behold, and if you want to see an example of it, read an area newspaper or spend a day near the capitol.

Also agree with you that milwaukee's image has changed. If you think about the media, Milwaukee used to be portrayed as a blue collar town with solid values, aka happy days, laverne and shirley, etc. Now everyone has become accustomed to what it is, a city that is rotting from within. Many of the big corparate businesses "aka taxpayers" are heading out to Wauwatosa and other locations. If that continues, things will only get worse.

I don't think that we have advanced enough yet where milwaukee nieghborhood leaders will hold their constituents accountable. After all, when you blame someone else for your plight, you let your people off the hook and keep them from blaming themselves. Their is just no sense of personal responsibility in Milwaukee politics. The racial and economic undertones are making it a near unworkable system.

datrain and i almost fully agree on this matter. I think the only disagreement could come in who will actually be best for the change. With politics as they are everything is getting so watered down. I'm more of a swing voter but would definatly go with someone that had a plan and convinced me they would stick to it.

Unfortunately for that person, they would never get around the race problem. You know damn well the idiot talking heads, jessie jackson to name one of them, would have a field day calling out the futur mayor or govenor for being a racist. Racism isn't the case, it's simple math. If 25% of a particular race, gender or creed were in prison then there is a problem. People need to get past this reverse racism where whites cannot mention a statistic without being nailed to the cross.

Someone needs to stand up and push back. I am tired of my neighborhood being overrun by little kids without a parent in site. If you do see a parent, they are likely getting drunk on the stoop of the house they are renting.

Ollie Octagon wrote:

datrain711 wrote:

Ollie Octagon wrote:I remember reading this same type of writing somewhere before...oh yeah...Mein Kampf. Sweet, i hear that author really made a name for himself. Good work guys.

I'm going to *** this comparison is a joke. Or maybe you nead to read Mein Kampf again.

not a direct comparison, clearly. Just that you are doing a great job of steryotyping a whole group of people as bad for a city. Even if that group is in the majority, it is still overly harsh to classify all of them as the same.

I don't know much about Milwaukee, so it's really not my topic to begin with.

Yes, African American children born out of wedlock to teenage parents are bad for the city. Its not a stereotype, its a fact. All children born into this situation suffer, its just that it happens in the African American community in huge numbers, and therefore, it is more of a problem then say the white children born into this unfortunate situation.

datrain711 wrote:

Ollie Octagon wrote:

datrain711 wrote:

Ollie Octagon wrote:I remember reading this same type of writing somewhere before...oh yeah...Mein Kampf. Sweet, i hear that author really made a name for himself. Good work guys.

I'm going to *** this comparison is a joke. Or maybe you nead to read Mein Kampf again.

not a direct comparison, clearly. Just that you are doing a great job of steryotyping a whole group of people as bad for a city. Even if that group is in the majority, it is still overly harsh to classify all of them as the same.

I don't know much about Milwaukee, so it's really not my topic to begin with.

Yes, African American children born out of wedlock to teenage parents are bad for the city. Its not a stereotype, its a fact. All children born into this situation suffer, its just that it happens in the African American community in huge numbers, and therefore, it is more of a problem then say the white children born into this unfortunate situation.

At least you are now getting more specific. You made it sound like blacks are flat out bad for a community. When you actually meant blacks born by teenage parents are bad for a community.

Just curious, but aren't whites born to teenage parents generally the same type of drain on a community/state?

Ollie Octagon wrote:

datrain711 wrote:

Ollie Octagon wrote:

datrain711 wrote:

Ollie Octagon wrote:I remember reading this same type of writing somewhere before...oh yeah...Mein Kampf. Sweet, i hear that author really made a name for himself. Good work guys.

I'm going to *** this comparison is a joke. Or maybe you nead to read Mein Kampf again.

not a direct comparison, clearly. Just that you are doing a great job of steryotyping a whole group of people as bad for a city. Even if that group is in the majority, it is still overly harsh to classify all of them as the same.

I don't know much about Milwaukee, so it's really not my topic to begin with.

Yes, African American children born out of wedlock to teenage parents are bad for the city. Its not a stereotype, its a fact. All children born into this situation suffer, its just that it happens in the African American community in huge numbers, and therefore, it is more of a problem then say the white children born into this unfortunate situation.

At least you are now getting more specific. You made it sound like blacks are flat out bad for a community. When you actually meant blacks born by teenage parents are bad for a community.

Just curious, but aren't whites born to teenage parents generally the same type of drain on a community/state?

As I alluded to above, any children born in this situation are going to have a rough go of it. But white communities tend to have more social structure and shared family responsibility, so the statistics aren't as devastating. A lot of this can be tied to money though, as a young white girl could probably afford getting child care or having a family member watch the kid while continuing her education. This rarely happens in the black communities in Milwaukee

The one thing i will say for the black community, if they do graduate high school they have a great chance at a free run at college. There weren't many blacks at my alma-matar (spell?) but the ones that i knew personally said they almost had all of school paid for by the school or the state.

By being a minority they were able to get loads of money to further their educations. Problem is, many don't take it that far or know about these programs. It's too bad too because i do believe it would help to show that 'rags to riches' can happen and they could go back to their communities as an example of what you can become.

I'ts still tough though, i've driven those streets at night, on a Friday you'd be in the minority not to hear a gun shot.