Why These Midwest Millennials Are Choosing Milwaukee Over Chicago

In early 2011, a young Chicago couple found themselves unemployed at the same time. Kate Riley, 29, quit her tutoring job at Harold Washington College, and Dan Jacobs, 32, had been laid off from his executive chef position at a French bistro. They were renting a house in Chicago they couldn’t afford, and all their money from odd jobs went straight to rent and food. Both agreed it was time for a change.

Jacobs now works as the executive chef at a newer restaurant called Wolf Peach in Milwaukee’s Brewer’s Hill neighborhood, and Riley has been selling her plates to local restaurants. They pay $1300 a month for a 3-bedroom house with a garage and an art studio in Bayview, a neighborhood Jacobs describes as “the safest and chillest neighborhood in the city.” Most neighborhoods, he adds, are much cheaper.