Don Walker conveys the news from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Brookfield has been passed over in the CNN/Money rankings of Best Places to Live.
Wisconsin had a few communities on the list.
4 Middleton
34 New Berlin
61 Pewaukee
76 Germantown
78 Waunakee
The site explains:
CNNMoney’s Best Places database of 1,800-plus U.S. cities includes towns with populations 8,500 to 50,000 with satisfactory education and crime scores, where income is below 200% of the state median, and that are no more than 95% white – as well as cities with populations 90,000 and up.
Brookfield is in the “other cities” list, so I guess it was considered. I can’t figure out how the choices were made though.
I know, many will want to comment that these lists don’t mean anything. Except they do. What other kinds of tools are you going to use to make a decision on where to live? This is published for a reason. Like it or not, it matters.
Is Brookfield on a downhill stretch?
3 responses so far ↓
1 Beth // Jul 13, 2009 at 3:00 pm
I’d say it has a little (or a lot) to do with the useless spending of taxpayers dollars. Does each High School really need a field house? Then I think how annoying it must be to be a student or work in the Brookfield high schools while there is so much construction going on. Being a somewhat recent graduate (5 years ago) of Brookfield East I don’t recall the conditions being terrible; sure the science labs needed an upgrade and the gym’s ceiling tiles shouldn’t fall during an assembly but how many tax dollars have been spent for unneeded extras?
Not to mention everywhere I look there are new building developments; is this a suburb or a big city? It seems to me that there are condos or more business going up wherever there is green space. Couldn’t that money be more effective elsewhere?
Sure Brookfield has it’s bad points but still offers a lot of great things. Brookfield Park and Rec kept me occupied during my summers as a child with day camps and a variety of parks to visit. Not to mention all the community events and a great Library which I still go to on a weekly basis. I love the city I grew up in; but, that doesn’t mean I always agree with what goes on.
With all things considered in more recent years I’d say Brookfield is on a downward stretch for overspending taxpayers dollars. Being a taxpayer in WI is bad enough thanks to our state legislature but does the City of Brookfield need to add to the hurt even more?
2 Congrats to area suburbs for ranking in CNN Money’s “Top 100 Places to Live” | Metro Milwaukee Today // Jul 14, 2009 at 1:36 pm
[...] since 2007, Middleton again ranked in the top 10…at #4. Brookfield blogger Cindy Kilkenny takes her concern to a whole new level, asking whether or not the current model of growth and leadership is leading the community in a [...]
3 Anthony // Jul 14, 2009 at 3:13 pm
I personally like Brookfield’s low taxes and most of the community is friendly. And I have to say it is definitely better than living in Milwaukee.
But I think we’ll make it on the list next year. Brookfield’s high education rates and low crime levels should put it somewhere on the top 100.
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