Research Paper on Milwaukee

Tyler Laurent

English 102

October 18, 2009

Milwaukee’s Downfall

Located right on Lake Michigan, Milwaukee, Wisconsin provides many breathtaking sights. Unfortunately, the breathtaking sights are being overlooked by the unbelievably high unemployment rate. Not many people realize this, but in the past five years Milwaukee has had one of the highest unemployment rate per capita in the whole United States. One huge factor that has affected the unemployment rate is the big companies waving goodbye to Milwaukee. There used to be four of the biggest breweries in the world located here, now there is just one. Another reason why Milwaukee is getting hit so hard today is the big investments the city has recently made. They have just added many new unnecessary buildings and other things that cost several millions of dollars that the city just does not have. Many people have taken to the streets to earn a living and that has led to a huge leap in murder rates within the city. In 2006, according to FBI figures, Milwaukee saw the country’s largest jump in homicides – up 40%, from 88 to 121 (Kingsbury paragraph 3). On a normal day in inner city Milwaukee you could likely walk down the street and see a number of illegal activities going down. Recently, helpful programs have been developed to help people get out of misery, but the programs are still too new to know rather or not they will work. Milwaukee is definitely in a downfall and will definitely have to make some changes to bring this city back to its prime where there were jobs available almost everywhere.

For a city such as Milwaukee that used to have a ton of manufacturing and industrial plants, there is no reason for it to be in such hard times. Today there is just a handful of plants left. For instance, Milwaukee was once known as the brewery capital of the United States, if not the world. It was home to four of the largest breweries in Schlitz, Pabst, Blatz, and Miller. Today only Miller remains as the others...