The document summarizes how William Julius Wilson's work on urban joblessness in Chicago is supported by findings in the 2005 Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council report. Some key similarities highlighted are the lack of vehicle ownership in inner cities limiting access to suburban jobs, racial segregation concentrating poverty and lack of opportunities, and income disparities between white and minority groups. Both cities experienced the suburbanization of jobs leaving few opportunities in the urban core.

1. The 2005 Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Council report shows many aspects of
Milwaukee’s inner city that supports the work of William Julius Wilson’s work on the
urban joblessness in Chicago.
The first distinct correlation is automobile ownership. According to Wilson this is a
prime contributor to the growth of jobless ghettos and continuation of segregation in
Chicago. He attributes the suburbanization of most jobs as a main contribution to
poverty, segregation and declining education.
Just as the jobs in the inner cities of Chicago disappear, they have left Milwaukee’s inner
city as well. Leaving many residents without access to jobs. Residents of Milwaukee are
experiencing the same difficulties as those residents in Chicago. Residents don’t own
vehicles and are left to utilize a faulty metro transit system that is costly and extremely
time consuming. In 1995 32.3 % of Milwaukee’s black households did not own a car.
That means that 32.3 % of Milwaukee city residents have difficulty commuting to jobs if
the job lies outside of Milwaukee county or is a significant distance on the bus line. A
person could leave their residency in Milwaukee to arrive at Highway 100 in
approximately 40 minutes, not including transfer times nor traveling any further. To get to
Waukesha it could easily take two or more hours during rush hour. Not only do the bus
schedules not accommodate people who work outside the city they increases the
competitiveness for low skilled jobs within the city. Missing a bus can cause even more
problems thus preventing residents to even attempt to find work outside of the city, even
though there is no work in the city. For myself, when I lived in a run down rental on 76th
and Mill I was attending MATC. It took 3 bus transfers and 2 hours just to get to class at
MATC Milwaukee. If I had class at 8:00 am I would have to leave around 5:30 am and if

2. I missed that bus, I would not make class. Many people with the demands of family and
having to transfer many bus lines incur many problems. Not always is it the fault of the
traveler for missing a bus, busses run late with traffic conditions and it is easy to miss a
transfer and depending on the bus route and how populated the area it could be another
28 minutes before the next bus arrives. This makes it hard on persons who rely on the
transit system to be dependable employees- even job applications to work in restaurants
as a busser ask if you have your own vehicle because the hours on weekends can extend
after the busses run. This leaves people who already have little skill or advantage to
further themselves. Not only do they have to leave early and come home late, they spend
extra time in travel and some need to provide care for their kids, but cannot afford lost
hours to pay a babysitter or put their child in daycare. That is if they can find a reliable,
day care that stays open late or opens as early as need be. Not only does lack of
automobile ownership put a damper on availability to jobs, but it contributes to
residential segregation. The bus line is an invisible fence trapping those in
circumstances beyond their control from infecting the suburbs with their imposed
stereotypes.
According to Wilson, “racial segregation interacts with changes in society to
produce the escalating rate of joblessness.” “ The demographic
composition has contributed to economic disadvantages. As in Chicago there is a
decline in resources for the inner city and Milwaukee exhibit’s the same lack of social
organization and control as the cities in Chicago. The reasons for this racial segregation
in Milwaukee according to the 2005 fair housing report is because of discrimination,
economics and choice. Even though legally sanctioned discriminatory housing practices

3. such as requiring homeowners to only to sell to people of their own race, redlining by
banks and insurance companies prior to the Fair Housing Act of 1968 it does not mean
that it does not occur illegally today. People do it as a matter of choice to discriminate
minority groups from entering their subdivisions and blocks. Numerous actions once
used to segregate minorities by implementing urban removal and exclusionary zoning
have created neighborhoods that are racially segregated and minorities have been forced
into these areas and away from access to jobs, transportation, good education and retail.
Yet have also created a heaven for minorities to escape to the discrimination and
prejudice of Milwaukee and Chicago. These imaginary boundaries of race and class
neighborhoods has lead to a detrimental decrease in educational, healthcare and job
opportunities resulting in inferior schools systems, denial of employment due to living in
isolated areas and employers views of residents in those areas and lack of quality care.
Quality health care is a huge problem for minorities, not only are they getting
compromised care if at all, but if they do receive it they can not afford to pay for it and if
truly sick this poverty can result in death through political malpractice. People cannot
afford to meet their basic needs. Wilson discusses the decline in the importance of
relationships and marriage and an increase in out of wed lock births because of the
economic conditions- with the same conditions in Milwaukee. Joblessness is destroying
humanity. It is not only the discriminatory actions and prejudicial views about
minorities, it is the lack of transportation, racial segregation, lack of education and
compromised basic needs that contributes to joblessness and inability to get ahead.
Unemployment, the critical factor to the creation of the urban ghettos. What
Wilson refers to as the suburbazation of jobs, the census report calls a “ structural spatial

4. mismatch.” Calling attention to the high rate of unemployment in the city of Milwaukee
and the location of job growth, being the suburbs. Just as in Chicago the residents of
Milwaukee are experiencing this disconnect from prosperity and thus there is an
increased concentration of poverty in the area. The fair housing report states that all new
net job growth since 1995 has been outside of the city. Not only does this hinder
jobseekers without transportation, it further provides barricades to employment because
of employer discrimination and one’s educational level. People are experiencing what
Wilson refers to as “loss of attachment to the formal job market” ( 330) this leading to
incoherent lifestyles with no routine. The concerns of employers according to Wilson are
the same as employers in Milwaukee and outlying communities. People from these
poverty stricken areas lack the necessary hard and soft skills and are being disadvantaged
by the Milwaukee Public School System, just as the Chicago Public School system has
failed minorities. Now not only do people lack the necessary skills to get the job, but
even if they acquire them, they shall still be judged and discriminated against because of
the location they live in. With the median age lowering amongst minorities, we have
more persons who are uneducated, have no form of transportation, seeking housing and
income to support themselves or their family. As Wilson said, it will be a “ flood pool
with low-skilled jobless workers.”
Income disparities among minorities are also a substantial set back. In 2005,
unemployment for Latinos, American Indians and Asians is double that of whites and
Blacks unemployment rate is triple that of whites. Not only are minorities less able to
acquire work, but Blacks earned .45 cents on the dollar compared to that of whites and
Latinos were at .66 cents on the dollar than that of whites. How are these people

5. expected to get ahead or even try if the chance to change is not available to them or of the
requirements are too difficult. Minorities are already making less money because of
ethnic and racial factors, it almost becomes impossible to get out of the circumstance one
is in. After paying 30% or often more on rent plus the daily costs of living, one can not
be expected to also save and buy a reliable form of transportation to travel to a better job
to get out of a decaying area and in housing with conditions beyond sub-par. Income
disparity and concentration of affordable housing contributes to racial segregation.
Housing that is affordable to middle an low income is in the central city, here and
Chicago. Section 8 of HACM does not require landlords to participate- so housing
opportunities tend to be confined to areas with high levels of poverty only increasing
racial segregation once again. Some people are paying 50% of their income on housing
and only bringing in $10,000-15,000 a year.
Lower income is attributed to lower education and Blacks and Hispanics have
the highest percent of population that do not have a high school diploma. A lower
education level carries the weight of a lower income and the stresses of limited available
homes- not to mention the disrepair of most of this housing, education and financial
resources to aid in obtaining homeownership. Also with increasing immigration more
and more individuals do not have an equivalent high school education and increase the
demographics of those linguistically isolated. Not a focus of Wilson’s, but a strong case
for Milwaukee’s jobless ghettos and perpetual segregation of minorities within the inner
city. There are 46 blocks in Milwaukee between 100 Pierce to 2300 Lincoln where
16-40% of homes are linguistically isolated. ( 25) Left without ability to acculturate into
society- socially, academically or economically and are stuck in low-wage “menial” jobs

6. ( 25) and also have the lowest percent of automobile owners further cutting them out of
the American Dream.
In conclusion, .Milwaukee can be paralleled to Wilson’s hypothesis for the
creation of a jobless ghetto and urban poverty through empirical evidence found in the
2005 Fair Housing Commission Report. In each case- male dominated positions, pimps
and drug dealers are the leaders of the community- they may not be contributing to the
upward motility through economics, but through these means also provide jobs for many
of their fellows, revenue for the community and an antidote to the messed up reality. It
is more than the government has done here or in Chicago.
Not much was defended in Wilson’s epiphany about women of poverty and
minority. Women in these circumstances are in even more trouble then the unemployed
minority males. Yet I don’t have any statistics from either reading on women in the
workforce and only conclude that not only are they in dangerous jobs when seeking
employment outside of the traditional workforce, but even in the traditional labor force
they are granted very little to get ahead. Urban decay.