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Kenosha is a city in Kenosha County, Wisconsin . As of a 2002 census estimate, its population is 92,513. It is the County Seat of Kenosha County , the southeasternmost county in Wisconsin. On the southwestern shores of Lake Michigan , Kenosha is the fourth largest city in Wisconsin. Only Milwaukee , Madison , and Green Bay have more people. Kenosha is considered to be greater Chicagoland 's northernmost suburb at 55 miles distance from the Chicago epicenter even though Kenosha is only 35 miles south of Milwaukee {Link without Title} Kenosha is ringed by an emerald necklace of recreational city and county parks, and has eighteen miles of Lake Michigan shoreline frontage, nearly all of which is public. Kenosha has four , Italy (since 1979); Douai , France (since 1981); Quezon City , Philippines (since 1986) and Wolfenbüttel , Germany (since 1970). {Link without Title} HISTORY The Paleo Indians were the earliest settlers 19,000 years B.C. , according to '' National Geographic ''. The Potawatomi originally named the area "Mas-ke-no-zha", which means "place of the Pike". The first white settlers arrived in the early 1830s from Hannibal and Troy , New York . As more settlers arrived and the first post office was established, the community was first known as Pike in 1836. In the ensuing years the area became an important Great Lakes shipping port, and the village was once again renamed, this time to '''Southport'''. ("Southport" is still the name given to a southeast-side neighborhood, park and elementary school as well as several businesses). In 1850, another change brought the growing city (and later Kenosha County) its current title, an Anglicized version of the early name '''Mas-ke-no-zha'''. Kenoshans often refer to their city as "K-Town" and "Keno" (the latter often adopted over the decades on various local businesses and most notably on Kenosha's historic 1949 Keno Family Outdoor Theatre , Wisconsin's oldest drive-in theatre). {Link without Title} GEOGRAPHY Kenosha is located at 42°34'56" North, 87°50'44" West (42.582220, -87.845624). According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 62.1 Km&2 (24.0 Mi&2 ). 61.7 km&2 (23.8 mi&2) of it is land and 0.4 km&2 (0.2 mi&2) of it is water. The total area is 0.63% water. Kenosha is located on Lake Michigan , and is surrounded by the towns of Somers and Bristol and the village of Pleasant Prairie . ECONOMY Over most of the 20th Century, Kenosha produced millions of automobiles and trucks under such well-remembered and lesser-famous marques and sub-makes as Jeffery , Rambler , Nash , Hudson , LaFayette , Ambassador , Marlin , Pacer , Gremlin , Hornet , Concord , Spirit , Matador , Eagle , Renault Alliance , Renault Encore, Winther, Earl , Petrel , Badger , and True. American Motors had two assembly plants in the city until AMC was merged into what was then the Chrysler Corporation in 1987. An engine plant for DaimlerChrysler remains, but the American Motors (formerly Simmons Company ) lakeshore assembly plant was demolished in 1990 and repatriated into upscale HarborPark. AMC's predecessor in the area, Nash Motors , was formed in Kenosha in 1916 by Charles W. Nash . (A 47-acre park on the west side and a nearby elementary school are named for him.) Kenosha's employment and residency demographics are mainly White-collar , and Tourism is a major contributor to the city's economy which sees over $200 million tourist dollars per year. The city's largest employer is the multi-level educational system. (see #Education ) Kenosha's largest private employer is Abbott Laboratories , which has recently been expanding its local real-estate holdings. Local companies
LAW AND GOVERNMENT Kenosha is run by a mayor, considered to be the chief executive, and a city administrator, considered to be the chief operating officer. The mayor is elected every four years. The city also has a Common Council consisting of 17 alderman from each of Kenosha's 17 districts, elected for two year terms in even numbered years. The mayor of Kenosha since April 1992 is John M. Antaramian. He is the longest serving mayor in the city's history. {Link without Title} TRANSPORTATION Kenosha has had commuter rail service to and from . Plans are underway to extend passenger service northwards from the Kenosha Metra Station through Racine County and into Milwaukee via the proposed KRM Line {Link without Title} . Kenosha was the first city to color-code transit routes (with the Blue, Green, Red and Orange Lines) and the first city to utilize electric trolley buses in full transit service, both on February 14 , 1932 . Kenosha is served by the major expressway Interstate 94 between Chicago and Milwaukee, and also by Amtrak 's Hiawatha Line service (via the Sturtevant station in Racine County ) between Chicago and Milwaukee, which runs several times daily. The street system in Kenosha is somewhat unusual. While numbered streets run east-west and numbered avenues run north-south like in many American cities, the street numbering does not begin in the center of the city but rather at Kenosha County's northern border. As such, the downtown area is in the area between 50th and 60th streets. Avenue numbers increase as one heads west from the lakefront. This numbering system continues through all of Kenosha County ending with 408th Ave. Edmonton, Alberta has a similar numbering system. Streetcar line At the turn of the 21st Century, Kenosha constructed a modern electric Streetcar system utilizing historic PCC Streetcar s in coordination with the HarborPark development on the shores of Lake Michigan . The line has become a model project visited by Urban Planner s from around the world. Installation of the Rail Track sub-base was completed in the fall of 1998, and the streets in HarborPark were completed in the fall of 1999 including the streetcar track of welded 115-lb. rail over concrete ties (except for wooden ties at Grade Crossing s). Electric overhead construction for 600-volt DC current was completed in April 2000 and energized by a modern solid-state Substation . The first of Kenosha's five ex- Toronto Transit Commission ' Red Rocket ' PCC A15-class streetcars (4610 ' Toronto ') was delivered on May 4 , 2000 . Each car is painted in a unique Livery representing an historic American transit system that also operated PCC streetcars. The four other cities and systems thereby represented include Chicago Surface Lines (4606 'Green Hornet'), Pittsburgh Railways Company (4609), Johnstown Traction Company (4615), and Cincinnati Street Railways (4616). The ceremonial dedication of the streetcar line and the new Transit Center was held on June 17 2000 , and the memorial ribbon was broken at 11 AM by 4610 'Toronto', piloted by Richard Lindgren who had been a Motorman for the original Kenosha Electric Railway until 1932. Scheduled streetcar service started on Monday morning, June 19 2000 . The city plans to expand the current two-mile downtown route (which currently carries about 60,000 passengers yearly) to the southwest and through the Uptown Business District . Kenosha's HarborPark Plan, which is served by the streetcar line, comprises 400 upscale urban housing units and retail, commercial and restaurant facilities. The streetcar circulator project demonstrates the feasibility of reintroducing zero-emission electric transit into midwest cities and the application of special short-haul transit applications. CULTURE Museum Completed in 2000, the Kenosha Public Museum is located by the lakeshore. Its main exhibit is a Wooly Mammoth skeleton uncovered in western Kenosha in 1992. The bones revealed vital new clues about ancient American history — you can see cut marks on the bones indicating the animals were butchered by humans using stone tools. Carbon Dating of those bones indicates their age to be 12,500 years old — 1,000 years earlier than the previously accepted presence of humans in the Americas. The museum also has other ice age and fine art exhibits. {Link without Title} Kenosha's Civil War Museum is under construction nearby. {Link without Title} Music Summer band performances have been Kenosha favorites for over eighty years, traditionally by the Kenosha American Legion Band (renamed the Kenosha Concert Band in 1963 and now the Kenosha Pops Concert Band .) Since the 1980s the concerts have been at Kenosha's Sesquicentennial Bandshell in Pennoyer Park each Wednesday from June 14 to August 2 . Admission is free, and it is recommended that attendees bring their own lawn blankets or seating. Band-O-Rama is a concert held annually since the mid-1950s, and features the Kenosha Unified School District's grades 5-through-12 bands totaling about 1,700 students. It typically begins with the National Anthem by grades 7-12; then, each grade plays several selections. At the finale, the massed bands offer John Phillip Sousa 's " The Stars And Stripes Forever ". (Sousa gave many band concerts in Kenosha.) The KUSD music program has long been a national model, and its student concerts are led by guest conductors of world reknown. The Band-O-Rama in particular usually sells over 3000 tickets over the weekend it is offered. The Kenosha Symphony Orchestra under Maestra Miriam Burns is highly regarded, and concerts are in the acoustically-correct Reuther Central Auditorium in downtown Kenosha. Since 2002, the outdoor Peanut Butter and Jam Noontime Concert Series has been held every Wednesday in August. Approximately three hundred attend each concert at Navy Park. Lincoln Park Live! concerts began in 2005 and are held on the Lincoln Park lawn near the Warren Taylor Memorial Gardens. The city was, until 2005, the international headquarters of the Barbershop Harmony Society , an international fraternal organization of male singers. The organization is now based in Nashville, Tennessee . EDUCATION Kenosha is home to Carthage College (just over full-time 2,000 students), the University Of Wisconsin-Parkside (5,000 students, mostly commuters) and Gateway Technical College . Both Concordia University Wisconsin and Marquette University maintain Kenosha branch campuses. Kenosha is served by the Kenosha Unified School District {Link without Title} . Kenosha also has a number of faith-based schools, independent academies and professional schools. St. Joseph High School (Kenosha) is the city's Roman Catholic High School. The Kenosha Public Library has four locations throughout the city. It is a part of the Kenosha County Library System. {Link without Title} MEDIA Listeners in Kenosha can receive most major radio and television stations from both Milwaukee and Chicago. Kenosha is considered a part of the Chicago radio market by Arbitron but a part of the Milwaukee television market by Nielsen . Regional newspapers include the '''', and '' News Sun ''. ''see also:'' SPORTS AND RECREATION Parks Kenosha has 74 municipal parks, totalling 781.52 acres {Link without Title} Kenosha's Washington Park includes the oldest operating Velodrome in the United States. The Kenosha Velodrome Association sponsors American Bike Racing sanctioned races as well as training sessions at the "bowl" throughout the summer. Races are held every Tuesday night beginning in mid-May and continuing through August. Free seating is given on the inside of the track, and on more important race days, food and music is offered, attracting many people. DEMOGRAPHICS As of the Census of 2000, there were 90,352 people, 34,411 households, and 22,539 families residing in the city. The Population Density was 1,465.1/km&2 (3,795.1/mi&2). There were 36,004 housing units at an average density of 583.8/km&2 (1,512.3/mi&2). The racial makeup of the city was 83.64% White , 7.68% African American , 0.44% Native American , 0.99% Asian , 0.04% Pacific Islander , 4.83% from Other Races , and 2.38% from two or more races. 9.96% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 34,411 households out of which 34.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.1% were Married Couples living together, 13.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.5% were non-families. 28.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.54 and the average family size was 3.13. In the city the population was spread out with 27.2% under the age of 18, 10.1% from 18 to 24, 31.5% from 25 to 44, 19.0% from 45 to 64, and 12.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 96.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.2 males. The median income for a household in the city was $41,902, and the median income for a family was $51,016. Males had a median income of $38,217 versus $26,678 for females. The Per Capita Income for the city was $19,578. 9.5% of the population and 7.0% of families were below the Poverty Line . 12.9% of those under the age of 18 and 7.3% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line. KENOSHA IN CULTURE AND IN TRIVIA
NOTABLE KENOSHANS Many Kenosha citizens have achieved fame and notoriety in a variety of fields. On June 7 , 1990 the '' Chicago Tribune '', in a feature article entitled "The Kenosha Connection", marveled at the large number of Kenoshans in the arts and sciences. See also: List Of Kenoshans EXTERNAL LINKS |
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