Capital has flowed inequitably to communities across the US for decades, often with a racialized motivation or a racialized effect. This report analyzes investment flows in Milwaukee from 2005 to 2019, studying what kinds of money have been flowing, and for what purposes, into the city’s neighborhoods. The report builds on previous investment flow studies we have conducted in other cities, such as Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, and Minneapolis and Saint Paul, as well as national studies.

Our analysis of investment flows in Milwaukee by neighborhood race and poverty rate reveals disparate market conditions among neighborhoods and differential levels of wealth and access to credit. In addition to capital flows inequities across neighborhoods, our data show that the city overall needs greater mainstream capital flows.