In the past few weeks, Milwaukee has experienced a sudden increase in violent crimes. Stray bullets have taken the lives of several of its citizens and thefts have increased throughout the city.

New students from quaint Wisconsin suburbs may see this as a perfect reason to move out of the city and travel to campus every day. Some may even fear their own neighborhoods and go back to their suburban hideaways to attend smaller schools.

Judging by the news, it would appear that Milwaukee is becoming dangerous and unlivable. Well I have good news for everyone worried about the increase in violence: We live in a city!

If anyone moved to Milwaukee thinking it was going to be like living on Main Street USA they were either given false information or have just begun standing upright and wearing clothing. This is a largely populated city only a small distance from Chicago — another big city with a high crime rate.

Unlike Chicago, however, Milwaukee has a fighting chance to show every other metropolis how to keep crime down and to prevent the chance for a CSI: Milwaukee spin-off.

This city is just too great to give up on. I live just off of Brady Street. From there I can walk to almost anywhere I need to go, even campus. I've got a large grocery store just down the road and a smaller one even closer for the late-night trips.

I walk down to the shore of Lake Michigan and afterward stroll over to any family-owned restaurant. The restaurants are a diverse treat on their own. I can go to an Italian restaurant and get real Italian food from a cook that just stepped off the boat. I can go to a market and get little candies made from fruit grown in China. All this can be done without even touching the car keys.

Saving Milwaukee is simple and involves changes that start out tough, but are a great investment into Brew City's future. To start off, there needs to be a huge increase in the police budget. Not just to get more badges on the street, but to create a stronger organization within its own branches.

Ask any former police chief in any city and they'll tell you that gang members cause the most violent crimes. Remove the gangs, and the crime rate will go down. This involves removing all symbols throughout the city.

Make it a free service for any business that has a symbol sprayed on its building to get the symbol removed. However, it must be removed within 24 hours or the owner would get fined. This sounds harsh, but it will only be needed for a small amount of time since eventually the gangs will give up.

After disposal comes prevention. All over the country there are former gang members that speak to young children about the problems with gangs. Ante-up the green to get them into the school system to prevent future gang bangers.

I could write a whole book about how to solve Milwaukee's crime problems, but so many people already have. It just takes citizens who have the rocks to stay in their city and pay the dues needed to fix the problem, not to run and hide from it. When your pet messes himself in the kitchen you don't stop cooking, you roll up your sleeves and start cleaning.

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