ABSTRACT
American cities face a moment of truth. Many cities today show evidence of considerable decline. The loss of industrial jobs has eaten away at their cores. This chapter shows that how Milwaukee became a city and how it became transformed over time through a matter of critical events and specific stages. It considers whether the happenings to industrial Milwaukee are unique or whether they also parallel events in other industrial cities. The chapter also shows that the two cities went through the same process of construction and destruction, leaving them with massive social and economic problems in their inner cores, but with problems that are now spreading outward, into the suburban areas. It suggests that if one accepts the parallels and the evolution of cities by stages, residents of places like Austin— the high-growth cities—would be well advised to prepare in advance for their own decline at some point in the future.
