Millennials Emigrate from Milwaukee

Joseph Steiner originally lived in Boise, Idaho but in 2013 moved to Milwaukee to pursue an arts degree at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 

He’s part of a small fraction of millennials emigrating to Milwaukee, according to a report by the Office of Workforce Development.

But Milwaukee is home to exactly what he is looking for: a vibrant art scene, music scene, and clear identity of itself, which was something Boise lacked. 

He graduated from UWM in 2018 and now lives in Bayview and works at Stone Creek Coffee in the Third Ward. He’s planning on staying in Milwaukee for the time being and he accredits that to the cheap cost-of-living the city has compared to other cities like Chicago. 

However, he’s noticed that something feels off about the city.

“Something I do notice about Milwaukee is that the Downtown area, besides Third Ward, is just barren,” Steiner said. “I wish the activity was more spread out. Parts of the city are just ugly. The city shows its industrial roots, while that’s kind of nice, it creates parts of the city that are less desirable to be in.”

While Steiner isn’t planning on leaving Milwaukee anytime soon, more Millennials are leaving the city than staying.

According to a report by Tristan Barron in the Office of Workforce Development, Milwaukee has a 1.8% decrease in people aged 25 to 34, meanwhile, the age group increased by 3.8% nationally. 

Alderman Cavalier Johnson advocated for the creation of a Millennial Task Force to investigate why Millennials and Gen Z are leaving Milwaukee.

“Millennials help add a sense of energy and dynamism to the city, and making sure those voices have a seat at the table is important,” said Johnson. “The goal should always be to attract and retain diverse, young and talented individuals to Milwaukee.”

The Milwaukee Millennial Task Force was sponsored by Alderman Johnson and has since been meeting to discuss what should be done about this “brain drain.”

The task force has since been meeting virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic and for the safety of the members. However, that has not stopped them from coming with some striking ways to combat this “brain drain.”

Noel Kegel talked to individuals at the Department of Public Works and according to him, some individuals within the organization want to abolish the DPW. 

Individuals within the DPW have been “bogged down by the inertia of this is how we’ve always done it,” said Kegel.

Long-term the DPW wants to replace the organization with a modern transportation agency that addresses equity, climate change, safety, economic development, mobility, and load-shift. While also committing to vision-zero, a statement that there should be zero deaths on the roadways. 

They also want to find a new source of revenue for the DPW as it currently relies on state-funding and they believe that to not be a sustainable method to ensure building and developing.

“Those are really big things that we should be focusing on within our systems,” said task force member Adam Gabornitz. “While it may be radical to say, let’s get rid of the whole thing and start over, all of the things that come after that are things we should be working on today, and if we’re not that’s a real red flag.”

Gabornitz said he found it interesting that people actually in the DPW recognize that sometimes just changing a system isn’t enough, sometimes you actually have to start over.

“It’s gonna be really difficult to make real, sustainable change in a system that wasn’t built for it,” said Gabornitz.

Kegel also mentioned that the DPW suggests joining the National Association of City Transportation Officials. NACTO provides insight and a forum for discussion on transportation issues facing metropolitan areas across the nation.

He stated that it was weird that Milwaukee is not already a part of it, as dozens of major cities across the United States are. 

“By joining this organization you are making a statement that you want to develop city transportation in a new way and for whatever reason Milwaukee hasn’t joined,” said Kegel. “Milwaukee’s just not there.”

The Millennial Task Force meets every two to three weeks, virtually. You can find the meeting times here.