Milwaukee: The Divided City
"Why is Milwaukee considered one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States?"
The Downhill Spiral
Milwaukee's North Side
Charles explains why conditions in African American neighborhoods cease to get better in her article. Her explanation could easily be applied to the situation on Milwaukee's North side. She explains that the reason that conditions don't improve is due to "welfare dependence, out-of-wedlock births, and a blatant disregard for the law" (168). [5] Why have conditions in African American communities gotten so bad though? Well, in the 60's, some African Americans were able to find opportunities outside of the ghettos due to the Civil Rights Movement; however, this left only poor African Americans trapped in a place with limited job opportunities and resources. This goes back to the comment posed earlier from Charles about why neighborhoods are important because they give people exposure to such things like social interactions, jobs, and opportunities. The North side of Milwaukee has been stuck in this vicious cycle: those who could get out, got out when they could, and ever since, those who remained have been trapped with limited jobs, a lack of quality education, and limited resources. This cycle has then been put on repeat since the 60's and will likely continue to carry on for generations hereafter.
As previously mentioned, industrialization caused the African American population to explode in Milwaukee from 1956 to 1960, tripling in size, from 22,000 to 62,000. A majority of the African Americans that moved to Milwaukee settled on the North side. As if discrimination wasn't troublesome enough, Urban Renewal projects made conditions even worse on the North side. [2] Regardless of the poor conditions in the 60's, why is it that over 50 years later, the North side hasn't experienced much change?
Neighborhoods
Charles' comments about the ongoing cycle of events that make African American ghettos almost as inescapable as a black hole are reaffirmed by PBS's study "How Does a Good Neighborhood Turn Bad - A Downward Spiral". The study explains this "Downward Spiral" occurs as a chain of events; the first one being white flight. White flight occurs because once nonwhites begin moving to an area, the whites perceive that the neighborhood is declining. Businesses and jobs also begin to leave with the whites. White flight continues to occur, and "Once the minority share in a community's schools reaches 10-20%, white flight accelerates until minority percentages are more than 80%." [6]
The next thing that happens is that property values begin to decrease. Property values decrease because whites make up 80% of the housing market. With 80% of the housing market gone, demands decreases, and consequently, so do property values. In order to sustain the deteriorating community, the vacated homes are usually turned into rentals or low-income housing. This draws poorer families into the community. [6]
While property values decrease, property taxes increase. Why does this happen? In a community where there is a lot of wealth, they usually have lower taxes and better services, but this is just the opposite in poor communities. Why is this so? Well public services are largely funded by property taxes, so in a community with deteriorating property values, they run out of funds to provide these services at the same rate they could prior to white flight, thus, they must increase the property taxes. The increase in property taxes drives middle-class people of all races to flee from the community. This results in the "poor getting poorer". Since public services ultimately end up underfunded, conditions in the community also decline. They cannot provide sufficient public transportation, schools, police departments, or sanitation. Eventually, the community hits what PBS calls, "Rock Bottom" and becomes the site for highways, prisons, and waste storage. While these do bring jobs into the community, it also catalyzes depopulation. [6]
This series of events seems to be exactly what happened on Milwaukee's North side. Industrialization drew African Americans in, white people perceived that the neighborhood was declining, and left. With them, they took businesses and jobs. Eventually the North side property value decreased, which caused property taxes to increase. Conditions on the North side began deteriorating, and in a last ditch effort to save the North side, Urban Renewal Projects were brought in, which just uprooted more families and contributed to the decay of the community. These chain of events are likely responsible for the conditions described by Charles as earlier mentioned.
PBS concludes,"Neighborhoods don’t decline because nonwhites move in; they suffer because whites leave and they take the resources with them. If whites didn’t leave this downward spiral might not have happened. Preventing this decline is dependent on the residents of a community to work across racial lines to preserve resources, property values, and opportunities." [6]
The Downward Spiral
PBS holds whites responsible for this "Downhill Spiral" in communities. Based on that notion, it seems the solution to this problem is to simply convince whites to remain in these communities with growing minority populations rather than fleeing. However, whites leave due to preconceptions they've developed. These preconceptions have been created over a series of generations. So why is it so hard to change these perceptions? And why do white people make up such a large part of the housing market?