General

• The first website I usually check is the Time Out New York. Both this website and the weekly magazine offer a huge list of events, both free and not, that are going on around the city. While the website it convenient, I have found that subscribing to the magazine is worth it. After buying a few issues off the rack for almost $5 apiece, the $19.95 for 51 issues seemed to make a lot of sense.
• Both nyc.com and nycvisit.com offer extenisve listings of activities and events. Both offer the capability to search by event, date, and location.

Concerts

There are numerous places to go for free concerts in NYC.

• The Central Park Summer Stage is a great outdoor venue for free music, comedy, and other shows. Admission in free (donations are accepted) and there are vendors inside the venue with reasonably priced food and beverages. Really what better place to spend and evening than in central park enjoying some entertainment.
• If you are lucky enough to not have to work and energetic enough to face crowds of tourists in the morning, both Good Morning America and the Today Show have free live concerts on Friday mornings.
• River to River Festival is a summer long event, which takes place at multiple venues throughout the Manhattan. The majority of the events are free and include concerts, art shows, and more.
• McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn offers free concerts on Sundays. In addition to the sun and music they have a large slip and slid, feed and beverages for purchase. (Also check out their calendar for concerts with admission prices).

Theater

• Shakespeare in the park takes place at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. There are free tickets available to most performance, based on a first come first serve basis. If you are outside of Manhattan check out the Shakespeare in the Boroughs page for information on how to get tickets if your borough, rather than having to trek into Manhattan to stand in line.

Movies

• Hudson Park features “Movies under the Stars“. On Wednesday night movies for adults are shown, while Friday mights are mostly kids movies. Pack a picnic and bring a blanket.
• In addition to concerts and Yoga classes there are also free movies in Bryant Park.
• The Brooklyn Bridge Conservancy hold “Movies with a View“. Go watch movies at Brooklyn Bridge Park and enjoy the view of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline.

Street Fairs and Festivals

Street fairs and festivals seems to be going on everywhere and all of the time in the city. On any given weekend you can find one. There are a great excuse to go and explore a your neighborhood, a new neighborhood, or venture into another borough. While it is probably impossible to find a complete schedule and listing of ALL of the street fairs and festivals going on in the city, here is a partial schedule for those put on by Mardi Gras productions.

Parks

• Bryant Park, located behind the main branch of the New York Public Library (on 5th ave and 42nd street) has events running though out the year. In late fall, winter, and early spring there is ice skating. During summer there are movies, concerts, and even yoga classes. Check out their site for a recent schedule of events.
• Check out the website for the park nearest your home or work. Many parks in NYC offer a variety of events and activities all summer long (some even offer event throughout the year).

Hopefully this list will help you get started in your search for what to do in NYC this summer. There are many other sites out there (way too many to list here). If you see a good one let us know and we can add it to the list.

Location wise, we are in a decent area. While our immediate neighborhood is pretty quiet and doesn’t not have a whole lot going on, we are close to a lot. Being in Western Queens give us easy access to Manhattan and we are within 10 – 15 blocks of everything we need. Our place is less than a block from the subway — it doesn’t get much better than that.

We like our building. All of the people who live there (at least those we have met) are friendly. For the most part it is quiet at night so we can actually sleep. Well, except for the lady who live above us who rearranges her furniture at least 3 nights a week at like 1 am.

On the downside our place in tiny. We really had to adjust from living in our seemingly huge apartment in Milwaukee, to something the size of a closet. I never thought I would be sleeping in a lofted bed and have to use a step ladder to go to bed when I was this age. I guess that is the price you pay to live in NYC.

Overall we have decided to stay where we are for another year. We really do not have the time or the patience to go out and look for a new place and then have to deal with the whole broker, broker fee, security deposit, first months rent thing again. Not to mention having to figure out the logistics of moving all of our stuff when we do not have a vehicle…

At this point I am just hoping a bigger apartment in our building opens up sometime soon. It would be so nice to actually have a bedroom, kitchen and a living room again instead of a bedlivkitroom!

Maz and I have both found jobs. He, lucky for him, found his right away. In November and December I worked for a coat checking company checking coats at fancy hotels for a bunch of holiday parties. Not exactly the most thrilling job (and I had to wear a vest and bow tie) but at least the pay decent. Finally in February I got a job with a non-profit doing research and program evaluation. This has taken up most of my time, especially since I get to travel about one a month. So far I have gotten to go to Providence, RI, Washington DC, and Boston. In the upcoming months I think I am going to Dallas, Denver, and somewhere in North Carolina. The traveling is one of the upsides of the job. The downside is that most of the time I have to work from home. A lot of people have said that I am lucky to be able to work from home, but I personally would prefer to actually go to work… not just roll out of bed and be at work. Especially since our apartment is the size of a closet. Either way I am glad that I found a job.

Besides working, Maz and I have been spending most of our time exploring the city. Often we just pick a neighborhood and walk. It is incredible to live in a city where you can do this! There is always something different to see and something going on. So far we have wandered many Manhattan neighborhoods, some in Brooklyn, and some in Queens. Anybody know of any good places in Brooklyn and Queens to just wander for a day or evening?

With that said, hopefully now that we’ve had a few months to settle in and get into a groove, we will have more time to post. I still expect us to write some articles about the process of moving to NYC, but now that summer is upon us, we may find ourselves writing about actually LIVING in NYC. There is so much to see and do in this city that it can be a bit overwhelming at times, but always worth it. Finding the balance between living life and working life has been a bit of a challenge. Time seems to move very fast in this city. Days turn into weeks which turn into months and sometimes it feels like its only been days since we moved. We’ve been here almost 9 months now, but it doesn’t feel like it, hopefully this is a good sign.

Stay tuned for the future.

When it comes to our jobs here Maz has a real job and I am currently working remotely for my job in Wisconsin. Maz doesn’t have a college degree or any certifications, but years and years of experience in IT. He got his current IT job through a recruiter. He started the interview process when we were still in Wisconsin, but knew we would be moving soon. He had his first in person interview 3 days after we moved here and was offered the position soon after. He said that if he didn’t find a full-time position he would have consulted by finding gigs on Craigslist etc. I have a bachelors in Environmental Science and a Master’s in Sociology. Currently I am still working for the consulting firm I worked for in Wisconsin. I will be with them until I finish the project that I started back in April so I should have work until December. I was lucky in this aspect that my boss in Wisconsin wanted me to stay on to finish the project. On the down side I am no longer salaried and am paid hourly for approximately 20 hours a week. I have been looking for full-time work out here without much luck, though very soon I am starting a contract project with a NYC based social service consulting firm. So we didn’t have jobs when we got here. We took vacations from our jobs in Wisconsin in August, came here to find an apartment, and then went back to Wisconsin, I put in my two-weeks (actually 2 1/2 weeks) notice and we moved here.

As for what to do first…. I think that really a tough one. We did the apartemtn first, though we wanted to get jobs first. Personally I feel that the best way to go about moving here is to save a bunch of money (at least enough to cover security, broker’s fee, and six months rent so at least $7,000), get the apartment, then look for a job. I figure that you can always go work at Starbucks, a temp agency or some place similar to make rent while you are looking for a better job. While it may be tough to find an apartment when you do not have a job in NYC, I think it would be harder to find a job when you do not have an apartment. In fact many of the job ads I have seen do not want you applying unless you live in the NYC area. I think part of it is the whole “we’ll believe it when we see it” at places probably get so many applications/resumes from people saying they are planning on moving to the area…

Many people have asked for basic tips, I have posted once with some tips and I will keep adding them as I think of them. Also check out the comments people leave as many of them give tips of their own. (Those of you that have given us tip, thank you!!!).

Last…. so far we LOVE IT HERE. It is much different from where we came from in some bad ways, but in many good ways. Maybe I will write about that after we are been here longer. But this city is fantastic so many people, places, and things to do, I dont; think I could ever get sick of it! And last week I was near Herald Square and Charles Schwab was giving out free $2 bills and Maz and I wandered in to a movie theater to see if anything intersting was playing and we got free tickets to a movie screening! Who wouldn’t love a city where bankers give out free money and theaters give you free tickets!?!

Thanks for the questions and keep them coming…

These three weeks were incredibly stressful. Between working 40+ hours a week and trying to tie things up at work and prepare to work remotely, packing, cleaning, and trying to see everyone that we wanted to before we leave it was insane. First thing first, we started to pack up the things that were going to go to our parents and into storage. The main thing that I couldn’t take to NYC, but did not want to get rid of was my books.

After I got those packed it was time to move on to packing everything else. Pretty much the problem with this was that how do you pack and clean and still try to find place to put all of the boxes? Overall we got it done, but our place was a complete mess for almost the entire 3 weeks.

Our Old Living Room

The Den

Another View of Our Living Room

Bed Room

More Clothes in the Bedroom

So learn a lesson from how we packed and moved… If you intend to move across the county, rule #1 plan ahead, #2 DO NOT procrastinate, #3 be organized.

To actually move to NYC we decided to use a U-Haul. Maz and my dad were going to drive out and my mom and I were going to fly. The Saturday before the move my parents came to Milwaukee and we packed up the U-Haul. The idea was that we were going to pack up the u-haul, go out to dinner with our parent and Maz’s brother and friend, and then Maz and I would go out with some of our friends. On Sunday my parents were going to come back to Milwaukee pick us up and we would be on our way. One problem…. the U-Haul we got was too small! To fix this my parents had to get a different U-haul on Sunday morning, and repack it, then we finished packing the rest of our things into the new U-Haul and we were off…

1. Pick a Day – pick the time frame you going to leave and stick to it. Be flexible within that time frame but stick to it.

2. Tell you Friends and Family – tell people that you are moving and when you are moving. The more people you tell the harder it will be for you to change your mind and back out. Do you really want to spend the months after you should have been in New York explaining to all of your family and friends why you are still home?

3. Plan Ahead – (if possible). Unless you are the type of person who can just buy a plane/train/bus ticket and go, start planning ahead of time. At this point I really wish Maz and I had a lot more time to get everything together before we were leaving. We started planning in June, I feel like we should have started planning in December.

4. Start Browsing Apartment Listings - While everthing that I have read says that you should plan on looking for your apartment 4-6 weeks before you plan on moving, start browsing the listings early. This will help you to get a feel for what is available, how much rent is, and whether or not you may want to consider a sub-lease or possibly a roommate.

5. Start Gathering Financial Documents - Brokers are going to want almost everything. Gather you tax returns, save your pay stubs (have at least 4 when you go apartment hunting), run a credit check on your self so you are aware of your credit situation (bad credit doesn’t mean you won’t get a place, but you may need to pre-pay more rent or give a higher security deposit), request letters of recommendation/reference from current landloard.

6. Research Neighborhoods – New York City is made up of hundreds to unique neighborhoods. Research them. Manhattan is expensive! Don’t discount the outer boroughs.

So Maz and I were in NYC last week hunting for apartment. After days of checking adds, calling, seeing places, and e-mailing people we finally found a place. I will admit that this week was probably one of the most stressful weeks I have ever had; surprisingly I only broke down in tears once. When we first arrived in NYC I was pretty confident about finding an apartment. I didn’t think it could be that hard. I figured if millions of other people had done it, so could we.

So on Sunday Maz and I went to check out a few places we saw listed on Craigslist. One of the places we checked out was in Sunset Park. The place was $1150 and consisted of a bedroom and an eat in kitchen. It was also in the basement of a Brownstone. Not too bad, but I figured that we should look some more, especially since the price was towards the high end of our budget. For the rest of the day Sunday we walked around Brooklyn and checked out a few neighborhoods (Bay Ridge, Crown Heights, Bedford). At the end of the day we went back to our hostel (more on the hostel in another post) to check listings and figure out who we should call the next day.

In the morning on Monday we called a few brokers only to be told that they had no one bedroom apartments in our price range. This amazed me since on most of their websites they had places listed in our range. We did make appointments to see two places in Brooklyn. The first place was in Flatbush and the second one was on the boarder of Flatbush and Kensington. The first place was OK but pretty far from a subway stop. The second apartment was really nice. It had full sized kitchen appliance (something that seems to be rare in both Milwaukee and NYC). It also had a nice sized living room and bedroom AND it was only $950 a month. Not bad. I wasn’t too fond of the neighborhood so I wanted to wait until after Tuesday when we were supposed to meet with a broker in Queens.

On Tuesday we went to meet the broker at Metropolis Realty. We spent an hour getting to their office only to be told that they had nothing in our price range. Since we actually had a scheduled appointment with them and they knew what we were looking for you would think that they would have called to tell us that they didn’t have anything. No instead they made us waste our entire morning!!! After this we went to Starbucks to get coffee and figure out what to do next. This is the one time a actually broke down in tears. I was so frustrated with the whole ordeal. We set up an RSS feed through netvibes Maz’s to phone that would show us new Craigslist postings, but nothing was coming in, the brokers had nothing, and the only prospective apartment was in a neighborhood that I still didn’t know if I felt comfortable in. Finally a few brokers who we had contracted the day before started returning calls, unfortunately none of them had anything. We started to head back to the hostel to grab our computers and go somewhere to get coffee and use the internet. Finally we got a call from a person at First Executive Realty who said they had some places in our price range. Great!!! We set up an appointment for the next morning. In the late afternoon we went to our appointment with Vertical City Realty. They actually had apartments in our range!!! We went with the broker and looked at two different apartments. The first one had a bedroom that was the size of a closet and a tiny living room. The next one was a bit bigger, but a bit out of our price range.

We started to head back to the hostel to grab our computers and go somewhere to get coffee and use the internet.

When we got to First Executive’s offices on Wednesday morning they told us that they didn’t have any one bedrooms in our price range (WTF!!!), but they did have a studio for $1000 if we wanted to look at it. So we figured why not… we hadn’t looked at any studios at this point. So we went with the broker (who luckily drove since my feet hurt bad at this point). It was small…. way small, like 12 by 15 feet, but at least it was an apartment.

So after looking at the small place, we headed to a Starbucks is the neighborhood and started filling out the application for the apartment in Brooklyn. I figured $950 for a nice-sized place…. I would get used to the neighborhood. While we were filling out the applications First Executive called and said that if we wanted the studio we could have it. I told them that there was a one bedroom in Brooklyn that we were considering, that at the time we preferred. The broker told me that he would hold the studio until Thursday morning and no longer. WOW!!! From what I understand, it is unheard of for a broker to hold an apartment for you….

We spent about 2 hours filling out the applications for the place in Brooklyn. There was one application for the broker and a separate one for the property owner. Once we finished filling out the applications and putting together all the necessary informatin (tax returns, w2’s, bank statements, credit reports, pay stubs, letters of recommendation etc.) we spent about $60 to fax everything to the broker and to the owner. Then we had some time to relax…. we figured at least we had the studio to fall back on if the one bedroom fell through.

Later Wednesday night I get a call from the broker for the one bedroom… he said that since my parents were going to guarantee they needed each of them to fill out an application and fax over all of their information. Yeah right. considering my parents were currently at work, how was I supposed to get them to gather all of their info, fill out the application, and fax it back to NY ASAP. Also this would only mean that we would have a chance at getting the apartment. At this point we decided to forget it and just take the studio apartment. So here it is….

The apartment is actually is a really nice neighborhood and only 1/2 block from the subway!

Here’s the livingroom/bedroom. It’s about 12X16 feet. Maybe a bit more…

Our new “kitchen”. Not really a kitchen, but it will work.

And the bathroom. At least it is a decent size and has a bathtub!

So we signed the lease for a year and received the keys Friday morning. It felt really good to go home to Milwaukee with the keys to our NYC apartment in hand!!!

Total Cost:

$2000 security (double the normal since we did not have jobs in NYC)

$1000 first months rent

$1500 brokers fee (something close to 1500, I can’t remember the exact amount)

So we did it! We have an apartment and we did it with a day to spare!

I stood in line outside the park on the sidewalk for about 1 1/2 hours.  At 5 they started letting people in and this is when it became chaotic and completely unorganized.   Volunteers were supposed to be directing people, but many of them didn’t seem to know where people with the different ticket colors were supposed to go once they actually entered the park.  Eventually I ended up in a massive mob-like line where everyone else (ticket or any color or no ticket at all) ended up.  This seemed to be the place where all the lines from the outside of the park were merged so people could go through security.  So there I was with 20,000 people all trying to get through one of 4 metal detectors…

This mob-line moved about 2 or 3 steps forward every 20 minutes or so.  Some people were getting out of the mob and going over the fenced off grass areas to try to get in faster.  At about 6:30 some people started to chant “Let us in, let us in”.  Around 6:45 the entire crowd started to move forward quickly.  Apparently someone made the decision to just let people in without the metal detectors.

So the speech itself….

At about 7 pm Barack began his speec, which lasted about 40 minutes…  While I have yet to decide which candidate I will support in the primary election I do have to say that Barack Obama is a magnificent speaker.  He really knows how to get the crowd rallied.

While I could write a word for word review of the speech I feel that it is best to see or hear it.  (This is an edited version of the speech but it really is the best I have found so far.)

The Senator really got the crowd rallied with his speech about the need for a change, but there seemed to be something missing.  Sure things need to change in the United States.  Yeah, he went through  the laudry list of things that he will change if elected president…. health care, social security, the war in Iraq, student loans, energy, school, environmental policy … These are things that most people feel need to change, the big questions I still have after the speech is HOW do you intend to change these things?

If you read up on Barack’s position on the issues,  he has really great intentions and I feel that his track record agrees with his current take on the issues.  But, like so many of the speeches that are given during the primaries, little information was given as to how he intends to make these changes if he is elected president.

Upsides…  it was a great speech, great crowd, I finally had the chance to register to vote in NY.  Downsides… now I really have to do some hard core research before the primaries.

Besides that job rejection I had my garage sale last weekend. Apparently the things that I had such a hard time putting price tags on is worthless to other people.

Here we are (not me) at the garage sale waiting for people to come…  Eventually people came.

Clothes anyone!!!  I sold most of my clothes.  My mom, aunt, sister-in-law, cousins, and niece all  had clothes for sale too.

I packed up and decided to sell most of everything else that I owned.  I have kept my books, some clothes, and few few other things, but a lot is gone.

After the garage sale I picked a few things that didn’t sell that I am going to store at my mom’s house for the time being.  Everything else was taken to Goodwill.  While it was hard to get rid of some of it, I am glad a lot of it is gone (I think).  I am way to young to have this much stuff, especially to be moving it so far.

So…. after the sale I unfortunately only made $100.  But that is still a hundred more dollars than I had before and when you are moving to NYC, it all counts.

Since we are looking mainly in Brooklyn and Queens those friends in that area were able to fill us in on aspects of certain neighborhoods. Thi was much more useful than a guide book or article written by some random person on the internet. Since we know these people, we know their frame of reference. If a friend says a neighborhood is safe, and you know what they consider safe, it is much more useful than some other source telling you a neighborhood is safe/dangerous/chic/boring.

Besides neighborhoods to look at, Maz and I were offered couches to crash on while we searched for a place, advice about what to have when you look for an apartment (some way to pay the deposit be it cash or certified checks, credit reports, pay stubs, letters of reference, and if needed a guaranteer who has and knows how to use a fax machine), tips on how to look for jobs, places to search for apartment, and where to live if you plan to ride your bike a lot.

If you are going to move to NYC call your friends, e-mail them, message them, send them a telegraph, it doesn’t matter just get a hold of them. While some people may not believe you that you are actually moving (the whole I’ll believe it when I see it deal) others will be more than willing to spend 5 to 10 minutes to help make your move less of a hassle than theirs probably was.

I have a friend that says he like to go through everything he owns every six months and rid himself of the things he no longer uses. Me on the other hand, I still have clothes/shoes/tapes etc. that I have had since I have 12.

While trying to sort through some things, we are also trying to pack other things. As of right now I will only be home for two more weekends before we move. This week end is the garage sale, then two weekends in New York, the we have three weeks til the move. So… I have decided to start packing some things that I don’t think I will be using before we leave (baking pans, random things in the bathroom, extra dishes). This seems to be working except now amongst the pile of stuff we also have boxes.

In the midst of the mess we are still managing to make some progress on the other aspects of the move. Maz has a potential interview with a recruiter set up for when we get to NYC in August. (I still haven’t heard anything since my phone interview…). We have been getting the financial paperwork in order, choosing brokers we may want to work with if we need to use a broker…

Maz and I have one car between the two of us, which we plan to sell before we move, my Dad said he is willing to drive his pick-up out to New York, and my Mom want to come with us when we move. So…how do we get four people and a apartment sized load of stuff half-way across the country?

First our stuff. Between what can fit in the back of my Dad’s truck we figure renting a U-Haul trailer should work for the rest. Prices for the biggest a U-Haul my Dad can tow, from Wisconsin to Brooklyn, are around $300 – $350. Not too bad… cheaper than having to replace our bed, dressers, etc. Luckily for us this one way seems to be cheap. I checked the price for renting the same trailer from Brooklyn to Milwaukee and it’s over $700. I guess that means once we get to New York we aren’t coming back since we wouldn’t be able to afford it.

So that will get our stuff there. What about four people? My Dad’s truck has two jump seats in the back, but I still don’t think all four of us will fit in there together. Especially if we all want to still be speaking to each other when we arrive….

The truck will take care of two of us. While I like to ride my bike, I think that is out of the question. Train tickets are expensive. That leaves flying. We found tickets on JetBlue for about $175 round-trip for when we go in August. If we could get similar priced tickets for September, flying may be doable. The upside of having two of us fly out is being able to pack some extra stuff in our suitcases. It might also be nice to have someone pick up the keys to the new place before the truck packed full of stuff arrive. So now the question is, who rides in the truck for 17 hours and who flies for 3 hours?

Slowly but surely we are purging our apartment of everything we do not need; more and more has been going in the pile to sell. Hopefully the garage sale at the beginning of August will be successful. I have also been trying to pack some things. Our place is a mess right now; boxes of stuff to sell, stuff to bring, and piles of things to decide what to do with.

While I tend to go for the old fashioned garage sale idea, Maz, being much more technologically savvy, is posting a lot of his things on online with some success. He has sold most of his video games and some other electronic gadgets.

The hardest thing to deal with right now, besides the piles all over our apartment, is deciding what to keep, sell, throw away, or beg my parents to hold on to for the time being. Having gone to school for 22 years, seven or those being undergrad or grad studies, I have a TON of books. I really do not want to part with any of them. Most of them I haven’t looked at in months (or years) but I still have an attachment to all of them. After we actually find an apartment I will know if I can some (or all) take them.

I have also decided to sell most of what I own at a garage sale in August before we leave for New York. Most of the stuff I own I don’t really need. I still want most of it, but do not need it.. It is really hard to go through all of your things and put prices on it all (especially when the price tags are for a dollar or a quarter). I guess if I can make an extra couple hundred dollars it will be worth it.

The most exciting thing that happened recently was a job interview. I had an interview with a major policy research institute about a week ago. The interview was by phone and I should be hearing in about a week if they want to fly me out for an in-person interview…. keep your fingers crossed for me.

Other than that I have been busy getting together everything we are going to need to find an apartment: bank statements, credit reports, reference letters… Now if only we could find a way to be positive we will find a place in August. My goal is to sign a lease while we are there in August and move in sometime around September 15th. We are still struggling with whether or not to use a broker. I like the idea of just finding a place on our own, but I don’t know how possible that will be…

We purchased our flight to NYC from JetBlue. The airfare was reasonably cheap. The plan is to stay in a hostel while we are in NYC. I’ve been looking at JazzHostels as a possible place to stay. We want to save as much of our cash for actually moving out there as possible. I’m hoping that the hostels in New York don’t suck, as I’ve never been. I’ll let everybody know how the discount airline and the hostel stays went in future posts. It will be an adventure, thats for sure.

For the most part I believe we’ll be looking for apartments somewhere in Brooklyn or Long Island City. I am looking forward to exploring a couple of neighborhoods while we are out there in August. Access to public transportation will be an important factor in our decision. Most bang for the buck is also a high priority. We are considering paying a fee for some listings of apartments. We’ve looked at ads in the Village Voice that appear reasonable so we’ll see about that in the next couple weeks as well.

For my own job hunt I’m hoping to set up an interview or 2 with some IT consulting recruiters or headhunters. If I can schedule an interview with a direct company or non-profit as well that would be extra awesome. At this point from some of the research I’ve done I’m fairly confident in my ability to find a job. Work has been really slow in Milwaukee the past few summers, so I’ll be looking forward to the extended gig options that will come with NYC.

We will keep you updated as the plot thickens….

Don’t get me wrong, Milwaukee is a great city. But sometimes it gets old. Perhaps it is because Milwaukee’s population is only about 600,000. NYC’s population is somewhere near 8,000,000 people. With more people involved and interested in different things, I believe it creates more opportunity, whatever that may be. Everybody uses computers these days and as a consultant more computers equates to more jobs in my field. It is unfortunate that Milwaukee is considered to be in a state of “brain drain”. Many of the brilliant people I’ve known over the years have left Milwaukee for places with better prospects. I used to believe that you should stay in your city and make it a better place instead of leaving, but it looks like I’ve changed my mind.