Update: Note one of the comments below. The Blakewood event is typically held the Saturday evening before Halloween. My apologies for the mistake … but it doesn’t change my point of view on this. I support trick-or-treating on Halloween evening.
The debate continues on when communities should allow trick-or-treating.
From a story in Sunday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Marauding, candy-hoarding kids descending on the suburbs by the vanload? For trick-or-treating? Where are all the mayors and the village presidents in the face of this debauchery?
They plan to tackle the problem Monday – 9 1/2 months before Halloween. To be decided: Should each community in Milwaukee County have trick-or-treating on the same day and at roughly the same time?
The concern is that, without a uniform time, outsiders will pour into those communities that are hosting trick-or-treating and ruin the experience for residents.
According to the story: “You can make light of folks getting upset about overly ambitious sugar seekers. But last Halloween, some Hales Corners residents were ‘gouged’ by kids from Milwaukee, Muskego and elsewhere who poured into neighborhoods where the homes are closest together, said Hales Corners Village President Robert Ruesch.”
South Milwaukee typically holds its trick-or-treating on the Sunday before Halloween. This year, because Halloween was on a Saturday, the Council, after initially voting to stay with tradition, changed its mind and voted to hold trick-or-treating on Halloween itself.
I supported Halloween trick-or-treating from the start, and I believe it should be done on that day every year … even if it falls on a weekday.
Yes, that would mean night-time trick or treating, but I don’t see any major concerns with allowing it from 5 to 7 p.m.
I understand this was commonplace decades ago, but communities were scared into changing this practice in large part due to the horrific Lisa French case.
I hate to see that communities are still influenced by the acts of one man 37 years ago.
And I’m not alone. Communities across the state again host trick-or-treat again on Halloween evening. You’re even seeing it in South Milwaukee, where the Blakewood subdivision hosts its own neighborhood trick-or-treat on October 31.
It’s time to extend that citywide.
South Milwaukee Blog 
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Actually the area around Blakewood holds trick-or-treating on the Saturday evening before Halloween (although this past year it fell on Halloween). It has worked very well with high participation among residents, many with elaborate decorations and costumes.
Interesting about Blakewood. So, what do we need the city setting a date for? Maybe if each neighborhood set its own time/date and only publicized it in that neighborhood, the concerns would go away. Some questions though:
1. How can one neighborhood get away with doing its own thing?
2. “Chris H.” says there was good participation “by the residents”. Only the residents? If so, this means that word has not got out yet. So far, so good. That’s what Halloween should be – by the neighborhood and for the neighborhood. That’s it.
3. What’s going to happen if/when the Journal gets word of this and publishes it so that everyone in Metro Milwaukee knows where to go and when, like happens when the city sets a time?
4. Are the Blakewood residents staying home during the “official” trick or treat or are they just as greedy and running to the other neighborhoods after their own private party?
5. Again, what do we need city government for if everybody is doing their own thing?