For a city with historical socialist ties, it does appear that the real workers don't feel especially well represented by the past and current socialist/democratic parties.
Check out the comments thread for a good read: http://www.jsonline.com/content/forum/population.asp
The real interesting phenomenon is despite these cities losing population, they seem to be increasing their voter rolls every cycle and coming ever closer to 100% turnout! You can observe this strange occurrence in places such as Detroit, Cleveland and of course Milwaukee.
Cook County, my home and the home of the City of Chicago,
lost 88,000 people. Just wait, the age of Daley will be followed by the age of depopulation.
I'll bet the editors of the JS didn't expect to see this response and you will never see another online poll like this taken ever again.
The liberals can't stand the paradise they have created and are leaving. Problem is they take their politics with them and create another sewer where they move to.
That one was kind of fun to read. I am amazed by the number of people who are sick of the crap that goes on in Milwaukee.
Who'd want to live in that craphole anyway? I grew up in Racine, which was just as bad as Milwaukee. The whole SE corner of Wisconsin stinks.
Too bad. Milwaukee has some of best home architecture in the nation. In 1900, European craftsmen moved into the city and built outstanding cabinetry and woodwork inside these homes.
Bridgeport CT was another industrial town that used to elect Socialist Mayors and out and out Marxists to the city council. You do not want to even drive through there at night...
I'm a former Clevelander transplanted to Indianapolis.
Cleveland is much the same situation as Detroit and Milwaukee. You get a negative cycle of higher taxes, less jobs, more blight and crime, reduced population, reduced revenue, more taxes and repeat. Dennis Kucinich, the "boy mayor" is the guy who kicked off this disastrous trend. The fact that he keeps getting re-elected as a US Rep is solid proof of how few productive citizens remain in the area to vote.
In any area, when you get a high percentage of the voting population who pay no taxes, they have a big incentive to vote for more taxes in the mistaken belief it will improve services.
Indianapolis is now in the early stages of this cycle. Because it has a county rather than city based local government, the leadership stayed in good hands longer than most larger cities. However in the last 10 years as immigration and inner city population growth have increased, the county is now electing Democrats. So the big city cycle of spending, debt, taxes, and decline is starting to set in.
The reason “struggling peoples” moved to Milwaukee some time back was the super short residency requirement for government aid that was like old Velveeta to a bottom feeding carp. Half of Illinois’ Cook County went to Milwaukee for Milwaukee government manna.