A sad thing to see happening to the closest thing I have to a hometown:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6960961.stm
From the article:
In Milwaukee alone, 20 to 25 new homes with a combined market value of some $2m (£1m) are being foreclosed, or repossessed, every day. State-wide there was a 34% rise in the number of people who faced eviction in 2006 and Ms Derus believes that that number will double this year.
and:
Some observers say the fact that Wisconsin should end up with a large middle class sub-prime problem is a warning for the rest of the United States as it is famed for is financial conservatism.
The fact that we live in a country where crippling debt is normal, even expected, for the working middle class is sad enough. The fact that they can’t pay for medical care and are thus victim to institutionalized loan sharks is really awful. And it’s unfortunate to see Milwaukee hit so hard, though I know it’s happening everywhere. While I’d never move back to Milwaukee for personal reasons, it is one of the better places in the U.S. to live…
Professional computer geek and linguist living in Germany, doing infosec stuff and being the freakiest mother ever.
Being a fellow person who grew up in the Milwaukee area, but would not move back, it is sad to hear about the pushing out of the middle class, especially since I was of the middle class growing up. I went back to the area in April and was surprised at the growth at the local mall where I used to shop. Most of the stores had gone so upscale that I knew that growing up I never could have afforded to shop there.
Actually, it’s less about the pushing out of the middle class by wealthier folks and more that the middle class can’t afford anything and overextends itself. It’s not like wealthier people have moved in, although there was a problem with young couples not having been able to afford to move in to places like Shorewood before the housing bubble burst (which caused a huge problem for the school district, as you might imagine). The real issue is that the middle class can’t afford the homes they already have!!! Many people took out second mortgages with teaser rates because they already had equity in the homes they owned and are now finding that those rates have changed dramatically and they can’t pay the mortgages back – those people lose their homes, and that sucks. It’s not that neighborhoods have become more exclusive per se – it’s that the people that already live there can’t afford to stay there, and so houses end up on the market, and, right now, empty, since no one can/will buy them…
As for the mall, I presume you mean Bayshore – yeah, that’s pretty amazing, but according to my mom (you decide what volume of salt you need to take this with), the reason for that is apparently that they wanted an “outdoor mall” so that “gangs, teenagers, and hoodlums” wouldn’t loiter there. Sounds like a load of bullcrap to me – Bayshore had been heading downhill for years – but eh, I don’t live there, so who knows. And 50% of Bayshore’s shops were *always* too expensive to shop at, or at least they were for me and mine – we just never went inside them