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Milwaukee South Side SpiritBuilt by immigrants and home to new generations of them ever since, Milwaukee’s south side is dynamic, diverse and has a big futureBy Raul Vasquez Because it is close to downtown and the Menomonee Valley, near the lake and populated by youthful, dynamic immigrant communities (as it long has been), the south side of Milwaukee is poised to grow in the coming years. It already is, in fact. While most of Milwaukee's population is shrinking as people have fewer kids and move away, the south side's population is getting bigger. Right now, about 85,000 (or 15 percent of the city's residents) live in the area generally south of National Avenue, east of 41st Street and north of Cleveland Avenue. This area is not only the heart of Milwaukee's Hispanic community, but it continues to be home to thousands of Mexican, Puerto Rican and Hmong immigrants. More and more African American families are moving here as well, and you can still see the many descendants of the Polish and German immigrants that first settled the south side in the last century. Today, a walk through the south side's commercial corridors, parks and neighborhoods reveal a mix of people of all backgrounds. You'll see working people. Men and women. You'll see a lot of young people - especially young people. Today, one of every three south siders is under 19 years, while nearly two of every three residents is 39 or under. The number of businesses is also growing along streets like Cesar Chavez Avenue, Lincoln Avenue, Mitchell Street and National Avenue, thanks in large measure to hundreds of entrepreneurial immigrants who are investing in the area. For these and other reasons, Juan Bucio keeps coming back to the south side. On a 70-degree day in April, Bucio walks through Kosciusko Park with his wife Crystl Fischer and his son Alezandro. The Bucios live in Grafton, but visit often to walk through the park, eat out or shop. "I grew up here and it's always been home to us," says Bucio. "In Grafton everyone looks at you different because we are different, but here it's not like that, there's so much diversity here." But, Bucio adds, he won't bring his family to the park after a certain hour because of the local gangs in the area and the trouble they cause. And that is something that many residents say is problem in many parts of the south side, especially when conflict between different gangs arises. As Bucio and his family continue their walk, a glance at the rest of the park reveals a playground bursting at the seams with children screaming, running, laughing and playing as their parents huddle nearby. Beyond that a group of Mexican immigrant teenagers wander to a wide green grassy area to play some fútbol with friends and fellow soccer lovers as a paletero rings his bell to entice children with ice cream on a warm day. The Hispanic presence is strong on the south side. It's hard to not see it. Hispanics and Latinos make up nearly 60 percent of the local population, and Mexican immigrants first started coming to primarily the Walker's Point neighborhood to work in tanneries early in the last century. Soon afterwards, more churches sprung up and the Hispanic community formed strong social networks that have only grown stronger since. But the south side is not a static place. And some locals fear that what has happened to other similar neighborhoods in other cities will happen here. Gentrification, as it's called, is when lower income neighborhoods with little political power or organization are identified by developers to be transformed into enclaves for wealthy urbanites. Often, these gentrified neighborhoods have the ethnic flavor and immigrant spirit sucked out of them. Whether that ever happens on the south side, or whether the south side will instead grow to create more jobs and educational opportunities for local residents while celebrating its unique identity, must depend largely on the people who live and work here. So far, it seems, that interest in this community's future is bound to keep growing. |
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