There are small single family houses for sale in Milwaukee under $100,000. I’ve brought this up on the Milwaukee Reddit and the people on there seem to believe the only worthwhile places to live are in Wauwatosa, Bay View, Shorewood, etc. But not in Milwaukee.
If more good people move into a neighborhood and are vigilant, the gangs won’t want to stay. If the houses are run down, they can get fixed up. Neighborhoods can turn around.
There’s a pervasive view by people on Reddit (and I’m guessing Lemmy now too), that if the neighborhood contains mostly black people, it’s somehow bad.
I’ve lived on the Northwest side of Milwaukee for over a decade. Some people hear “North side” and they immediately think it’s a crime ridden place. My neighbors are a mixture of black, white, Asian, and Hispanic individuals. I think some people need to let go of their misguided perceptions and give different areas of Milwaukee a chance.
There are some really bad black neighborhoods. They are portrayed that way on TV and movies, even glorified in many respects due to music, and therefore the perception is that black neighborhoods are bad.
However, there are bad neighborhoods from every ethnicity - depends on the city. If you look at Tulsa/Oklahoma City, Tucson/Phoenix, Miami, even LA’s latino suburbs, the same can apply.
Cheap housing is not the primary focus for “good” people to move into a neighborhood. Gangs aren’t necessary going to leave just because a nice, white family moved in next door. In fact, the gang is more likely to taunt them into either fearing them into staying in their house or getting them to leave. Gangs make money from fear and hate. They will hurt, even kill, to maintain their territory and reputation.
“It takes a village” is a cliche, but it works. Your multi-ethnic neighborhood worked because together they allowed the group as a whole to be positive. These neighborhoods are going to have to do the same, collectively. The local government can help, along with dedicated organizations like the CDA, to work with those neighborhoods to do that. But in the end, it’s up to the neighborhoods. If they don’t want to, not much is really going to change.
The alternative is a developer swooping in, strip all the properties outright, and just putting in what he wants with bribes to the city under the guise of “fixing the blight”. It will no longer be a “neighborhood”; just a condo or apartment building, with tenants instead of owners.
A “nice family” doesn’t have to be white. A nice family can be of any race or color.
There’s no “bribes to the city”. The city already offers developers the ability to buy blighted properties for $5,000 each. There’s deed restrictions for selling it and development restrictions on needing to get work done in a certain timeframe.
Homeowners probably won’t be able to do this alone. It would take a combination of the city to provide the properties and subsidies for renovation, developers to renovate them, and homeowners to purchases in that area.