Lower East Side is a neighborhood of 11,200 residents in Milwaukee, close to downtown · Updated November 2026
Is Lower East Side in Milwaukee safe?
Lower East Side is among the higher-crime places in the US: an overall CrimeGrade™ of F, with more crime than the neighborhoods where 93% of Americans live. Violent crime grades better than property crime here, B- against F. Milwaukee as a whole grades F. Its neighborhoods are much alike, from D- to F; see the map below.
F
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 32 of 1,000Less safe than nearly all US neighborhoodsi What this means
7% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Lower East Side as a whole, and 93% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Lower East Side scores 32.
Crime is concentrated in a small share of places, so most neighborhoods score high on the 0 to 1,000 scale. That is why a score in the 800s can still mean more crime than most US neighborhoods.
How to read the map: each area's color compares its crime with the people, homes and cars there, on one national scale, from green for the least crime to red for the most. Each area gets its own color, so a busy shopping center can show red while the homes beside it stay green. The interactive maps load faster on a strong connection. Compare high speed internet in Lower East Side, Milwaukee, WI at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Lower East Side in Milwaukee, and anyone thinking about buying or renting a home there.
Business and enterprise customers: this free map shows neighborhood areas. CrimeGrade™ business reports map crime at about 66-meter detail and estimate it for one address and type of business. See business reports
What stands out in Lower East Side
Car thefts and robberies both run high. In Lower East Side, each runs at more than triple the US rate: 17.1 car thefts and 3.3 robberies a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.7 and 0.62 nationally.
Thefts from cars happen on streets and sidewalks far more often than nationally. In Milwaukee as a whole, 55% of reported thefts from cars happen on streets and sidewalks, against 18% nationally.
How Lower East Side compares within Milwaukee
Every part of Lower East Side grades D or F on the national scale. Grades across Lower East Side run from D- to F; every part of Lower East Side has more crime than the typical US neighborhood.
100%
D or F 100%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Lower East Side has less crime than 36 of the 72 neighborhoods in Milwaukee. It covers much of the Lower East Side, Riverwest, and Harambee areas.
Is crime going up in Milwaukee?
Reported violent crime in Milwaukee as a whole peaked in 2021 and has fallen 15% since, back near its 2019 level. Property crime is up 5% from 2019. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults stayed at about 14 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts went from about 26 to 27 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
MilwaukeeUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Milwaukee. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Milwaukee
Violent, US
Property, Milwaukee
Property, US
2016
+13%
+4%
+58%
+15%
2017
+18%
+4%
+48%
+12%
2018
+6%
+0%
+18%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+22%
+4%
+10%
-8%
2021
+25%
+6%
+73%
-10%
2022
+13%
+5%
+27%
-6%
2023
+10%
+2%
+7%
-7%
2024
+6%
-4%
+5%
-15%
Crime rates and types in Lower East Side
CrimeGrade™ estimates Lower East Side has about 85 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, more than double the rate for the US as a whole and 28% more than Milwaukee as a whole.
Overall crime
Violent crime
Property crime
Reported crimes a year, per 1,000 residents. These figures include simple assaults and vandalism, which the FBI's violent and property crime rates leave out.
Theft is the most common crime in Lower East Side, about 30% of everything reported, but vehicle theft costs more, because each one does more harm.
Each CrimeGrade™ compares a crime with what it affects: people for assaults and robbery, homes for burglary, parked cars for vehicle theft. Rates count crimes per 1,000 residents.
Select a crime's name to see its map above. CrimeGrade™ business reports map each crime at about 66-meter detail.
Where and when crime happens in Milwaukee
The Milwaukee Police Department polices Lower East Side; these figures cover Milwaukee as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
In Milwaukee as a whole, 64% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Homes (64%)
Afternoon (noon to 6 pm)
Car theft
Streets and sidewalks (62%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Streets and sidewalks (55%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (37%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Streets and sidewalks (54%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (55%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Shares of the crimes reported to police, 2022 to 2024. Reports with no time recorded are left out of the times.
How Lower East Side compares with nearby neighborhoods
Of the 10 neighborhoods closest to Lower East Side, 8 have less crime. Downer Woods and Juneau Town have the least.
Nearest first, with each place's distance from Lower East Side. Beside each overall CrimeGrade™ is its safety score, from 0 to 1,000 (higher is safer).
Compared with neighborhoods of similar size and density, Lower East Side has more crime than 76% of them.
Nightlife, shops and walkability in Lower East Side
Two things set Lower East Side apart: it has 4.6 bars and nightlife spots for every 1,000 residents, against 0.6 nationally, and 21.7 stores and restaurants for every 1,000 residents, against 10.5 nationally. It also combines many bars with dense blocks: places with both tend to report more assault and robbery than places with only one of them, and they run high here.
Bars and nightlifeBars, lounges, clubs and casinos. Places with more bars tend to report more assault and robbery.4.6 per 1,000 residentsUS: 0.6Higher than for 98% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft and car theft.21.7 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Higher than for 90% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Walk GradeBestNeighborhood's grade for getting through daily life on foot, traced along real walking routes to shops, schools and parks. Walkable places tend to report more theft and assault. 100% of residents here live in walkable areas.A (87 of 100)US: 21Higher than for 89% of residents of US city neighborhoods
Show all 4
Residents in dense blocksBlocks of 10,000 or more people per square mile. Dense neighborhoods tend to report more robbery and car theft.97% of residentsUS: 24%Higher than for 84% of residents of US city neighborhoods
These traits tend to go with more or less crime; none of them causes it on its own. Sources: Census job counts and housing figures, OpenStreetMap and Overture business listings, CrimeGrade™ parking estimates, NASA night-light imagery, US Forest Service tree cover, EPA transit data and BestNeighborhood's Walk Grade.
What crime costs Lower East Side
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Lower East Side about $1,378 a year per household, 14% more than the US figure of $1,205.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost comes to about $28 million a year, or $2,537 per resident.
How CrimeGrade™ works
A CrimeGrade™ shows how much crime an area has compared with the rest of the country, from A+ for the least crime to F for the most. Every neighborhood in the US is graded on the same scale, so a B in Lower East Side means the same as a B anywhere else.
CrimeGrade™ starts from the crimes people report to police and measures each kind of crime against what it affects: people for assaults, homes for burglaries, parked cars for car thefts.
The rates on this page count crimes for every 1,000 people who live here, the way police departments report them.
Comparisons with US neighborhoods use the Census Bureau's block groups, small areas of about 1,400 residents, and count the people who live in each. The figures count crimes reported to police; many crimes, shoplifting above all, never are. Behind the grades, CrimeGrade™ tested 21,607 factors from 125 data families. For business owners, paid CrimeGrade™ location reports estimate crime at a single address for each type of business.
Where the numbers come from
Crime reports that police departments file with the FBI
State crime records and city crime data, where they are published
These are estimates of reported crime for whole areas, not a record of what happened on any one street. CrimeGrade™ updates them once a year and provides them free and without guarantee. Check local sources before you rely on them for a decision.
Schools in Lower East Side, Milwaukee, WI average a SchoolGrade of F: 19% of students test proficient, against 23% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in Lower East Side on SchoolGrade
