ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the full dimensions of Milwaukee's decline and why the efforts to limit its harm, especially to the minority residents of the Inner Core, proved so futile. Milwaukee's decline as a major urban center attracted public attention in the early 1940s. State law and the Wisconsin State Legislature thus brought to a close the attempt by Milwaukee's municipal government to extend its own sovereign powers outward, into other territories. Many of the problems for the local capitalist economy sprang from the continuing divide that lay between capital and labor in this heavily industrialized city. The nature of transportation in Milwaukee had played a major part in helping to shape the physical geography of the city. Lifestyle has been added as a key element to the social stratification and social nexus of Americans, a lifestyle centered primarily on the realm of neighborhood.
