Urban Reinvestment in Milwaukee

By Andrew Savagian

As brownfield practitioners, we understand the positive effects brownfield redevelopment can have in a community, especially in neighborhoods that are suffering economically and socially. Investigate and clean up the nasty sites in these hard-scrabbled spots, the theory goes, and the redevelopment and good times will follow.

Rarely, however, do many of us working in the brownfield arena ever get to put these “if you clean it up, they will come” ideas to work in urban areas of high poverty and blight. In Wisconsin, state and local officials are teaming up with a neighborhood group in Milwaukee to do just that.

Wisconsin’s Urban Reinvestment Initiative
Last year the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) created a partnership with the city of Milwaukee and the 30th Street Industrial Corridor Corporation (ICC) to help implement Governor Jim Doyle’s Urban Reinvestment Initiative. This initiative makes it a state priority to clean up urban neighborhoods in specific economically and environmentally distressed areas.

“The goal of this initiative is to raise the reinvestment potential in some of Wisconsin’s most economically challenged neighborhoods,” said Governor Doyle. “As part of ‘Grow Wisconsin,’ the partnership’s long-term goals between the city, state and community groups include creating living-wage jobs, expanding existing businesses and improving residents’ quality of life.”

Those “quality of life” indicators are exactly what the partnership is attempting to deal with — health, housing, jobs, transportation and safety to name a few — with brownfield cleanup as the cornerstone for improving those indicators.

All too often a community’s social and economic welfare are stalled by the usual fears that go along with brownfields — fears of environmental contamination, safety concerns due to dilapidated buildings, and lack of adequate space for new buildings. Ensuring a safe and economically viable neighborhood and creating and retaining living wage jobs are the key. These goals require long-term, coordinated efforts by both public and private resources.

Target #1: 30th Street
The first target of that initiative is Milwaukee’s 30th Street Corridor, a five-mile strip located on Milwaukee’s north side. Once a thriving business center with tanneries, breweries, foundries and motor manufacturers employing 40 percent of the local population, today fewer than 15 percent of neighborhood residents are employed in the area and total unemployment is at 19 percent (according to the 2000 census).
Minority residents make up 97 percent of the neighborhood, with 34 percent living below poverty level. Approximately 15 percent of neighborhood housing units are vacant.