Thank the Suburbs, Don't F**k the Suburbs!

State Senator Julian Bradley
July 13, 2023

“F**k the suburbs because they don’t know a g**dam thing about how life is in the city.” Wisconsin State Senator LaTonya Johnson, who represents parts of the City of Milwaukee, chose to close her remarks with these words during recent debate on Wisconsin’s biennial budget.

She is wrong. People living in the suburbs know all too well about life in the city.

People living in the suburbs fled the city because they know all about the failing public school system in the City of Milwaukee. They know that a quality education opens up opportunities and leads to lower crime and poverty rates. They know that only 13.6% of students in Milwaukee Public Schools are proficient in English and that number drops to 9.1% proficiency for Math. This is despite the state continuing to invest more and more money. 

People living in the suburbs fled the city because they know all too well the sorrow caused by the increasing murder rate that continues to set records. In 2019, Milwaukee saw 97 homicides. That number nearly doubled to 190 homicides in 2020. 2021 saw a new record set with 193 homicides; that record too would last only a year as we saw 214 homicides in 2022. People deserve to feel safe in their homes and neighborhoods. Milwaukee has let them down, and that’s why so many have voted with their feet, building new lives in the suburbs where laws are enforced and law enforcement are respected.

People living in the suburbs know what it’s like to be the victims of car theft, reckless driving, and the soft on crime District Attorney’s office that lets criminals run the streets. In 2021, there were actually more cars stolen in the City of Milwaukee than there were in Chicago, despite Chicago having five times as many residents. That’s mind-boggling and it’s just another reason why the suburbs are booming with people who have fled the city in search of a safer community to call home.

Things haven’t always been this way.

Milwaukee used to be the 11th largest city in the nation with a population of 741,000 residents. Since 1970, the City of Milwaukee has experienced steep population decline, falling to 576,000 in the 2020 census. That trend has continued over the past three years, as the City of Milwaukee’s population has fallen an additional 2.3% to 563,000 today. The recent decline in population has been paired with decades of mismanagement by city officials who prioritize woke initiatives and defunding the police over public safety and education.

Just two weeks prior to the budget vote, Senator Johnson voted to allow the City of Milwaukee to raise their sales tax. After years of local leaders ignoring the city’s pension obligations, proponents made the argument that the only way to address this fiscal mismanagement and keep the city from falling off of a fiscal cliff was to capture additional revenue from people outside of the city. In plain English – they needed a bailout from the suburbs.

So instead of saying “f**k the suburbs,” Senator Johnson and all of those that have defended her statement should be issuing an apology and thanking the suburbs. Thank the people living in the suburbs that continue to come into the city and spend their hard-earned money attending Brewers and Bucks games, eating at local restaurants, and patronizing neighborhood stores. Thank the people living in the suburbs who, by doing so, will be bailing Milwaukee out of a situation that they didn’t cause. Most importantly, thank the people living in the suburbs for continuing to not give up on trying to make the city of Milwaukee all that we know and hope it can be.

For Wisconsin to be the best it can be, we need a strong, vibrant, and safe Milwaukee. But hurling expletives won’t solve Milwaukee’s problems. To do that will require cooperation, understanding, and a level of respect not found in Senator Johnson’s remarks.

Julian Bradley is the first Black Republican elected to the Wisconsin State Senate. His district includes southeast Wisconsin suburbs and part of the City of Milwaukee.