Lincoln Village was founded by Milwaukee’s Polish community in the late 19th century. Given its rapidly expanding Polish population a larger Catholic Church was quickly needed in the turn of the 20th century. St. Josaphat’s Bascilia was born modeled after St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome but also using de-constructed materials from the Chicago Federal Building. It is certainly a wonderful to behold both inside and out and is a striking landmark for the neighborhood.

The newest residents of Lincoln Village have immigrated predominately from the Jalisco and Michoacán States of Mexico. This recently wave of immigration has helped stabilize Lincoln Village with most of its urban fabric remaining in tact.  From an urban perspective Lincoln Village is Milwaukee’s most dense neighborhood, hosts quality public transit and good bike infrastructure, great parking amenities (esp. Kosciuszko Park), decent retail amenities, and pretty good urban massing along Lincoln Avenue. Lincoln Village’s biggest need is more investment to repurpose its many vacant commercial spaces, improve its infrastructure, and add more retail and cultural amenities to the community. The district also still struggles with some lingering crime and perception issues, could use better sidewalk and ADA infrastructure, and lacks many “listed rentals”.  With its density, this could become a truly walkable district and premiere Milwaukee district.

Click here to view my Lincoln Village Album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

* Great density.
* Good public transit and bike infrastructure with solid access to Dwtn.
* Great generational diversity as this is a very family friendly neighborhood.
* Great park amenities including the expansive Kosciuszko Park & Community Center, the many ballfields at Baran Park Pulaski park including an indoor pool, and Modrzejewski Playground.
* Decent schools but mixed ratings.
* Lots of affordable for-sale product available. Small # of 1-bed homes selling btwn 65K-100K, 2-beds sell for 85K-175K. 3&4 beds sell btwn 85K-225K.
* Good retail amenities including an Aldi’s, several ethnic grocerias (mostly Hispanic), a bike store, several banks, record store, a couple clothing stores, plenty of salons/barber shops, several bakeries & dessert joints, and lots of churches.
* Decent urban massing along Lincoln Ave but plenty of holes

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Ok racial diversity. Still a high poverty rate as about 1/3 of residents are living in poverty.
* Overall good sidewalk and ADA infrastructure but about 1/2 of the curb cuts are out of date.
* Rentals are a bit limited (at lease listed ones) but affordable. 1-beds lease for ~$650. 2-beds for $700-1K, 3-beds for ~ 1K.
* Pretty limited cultural amenities including several ethnic restaurants (mostly Mexican) and a couple of bars.
* No public library or post office
* Some safety and blight issues here but not terrible.
* Really no modern in-fill other some auto centric businesses.
* Some nice historic commercial structures and of course the gorgeous Basilica of Saint Josaphat but the residential is uninspiring architecturally.
* Tired looking streetscaping.
* Pedestrian activity is so .
* Neighborhood still struggles from image issues.