Group XIII – Urban Issues Seminar

THANKS to Seminar Chairs:
Ron Kuramoto, Director of Future Milwaukee, College of Professional Studies, Marquette University
Kim Beck, Director, UWM School of Continuing Education

Article written by Heidi Clausen, Group XIII, Regional Editor for The Country Today, Polk County

November 11-14, 2009, Milwaukee

I’ve always thought of Milwaukee as Wisconsin’s “problem child.” Living in northwest Wisconsin, most of the news I hear from the state’s biggest city has to do with crime and racial tension, so it’s been easy for me to believe Milwaukee’s bad reputation. But after exploring the city’s issues with the Leadership Wisconsin Program, I’m pleased to report that I didn’t have all the facts.

Urban leaders are working to shed the city’s battered image, and a renewed sense of pride has emerged. That’s not to say that Milwaukee doesn’t still have problems – poverty rates are as high as 60 percent in some areas, and the public school system is broken — but there are glimmers of hope. In its glory days, Milwaukee was an industrial powerhouse, home to major manufacturers such as Allis-Chalmers. The city still leans heavily on manufacturing.

More than half of the 300,000 jobs in the seven-county region are manufacturing-based. But when businesses succumbed to market pressures, the city’s wealth and quality of life went with them. That trend has been reversing: Milwaukee’s population has topped 600,000, and the once-crumbling historic downtown is seeing a renaissance. Neighborhoods are being revitalized to provide affordable housing and community gardens. Drug houses are being remodeled for more positive gatherings. Brown field eyesores are being transformed into eye-pleasing green space.

“When people think about Milwaukee, they get the impression that the city is filled with disorder, chaos and mayhem. It’s really not that way,” said Leo Ries of the nonprofit Local Initiative Support Corporation. People in Wisconsin’s most racially-diverse city are partnering in new ways to move beyond the history of infighting to foster a better future. What happens in Milwaukee has implications for those of us living out-state, too. “If Milwaukee does not succeed, the region does not succeed, and, in many ways, the state will be taken down,” said Rocky Marcoux, Department of City Development commissioner.

Hope for industry
Freshwater is the world’s “new oil,” and with the Great Lakes (a fifth of the world’s freshwater) in our backyard, Wisconsin is the envy of many states and nations. On Lake Michigan’s shores, Milwaukee seems a natural place to specialize in water quality, quantity and security. The area is home to a cluster of about 120 water-related businesses and hoping to attract more. “We’re trying to make Milwaukee the Silicon Valley of water,” said Jim Lubner of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Great Lakes WATER Institute. Researchers there are diving into ecosystem dynamics, marine engineering and aquaculture in a cutting-edge lab minutes away from open water. Recently, the UW-Milwaukee approved a new School of Freshwater Sciences – the first of its kind in the U.S. There’s much to be learned, Lubner said, adding, “The Great Lakes are a dynamic and evolving system; so is the institute.” Plans include a signature lakefront building, research park and new exploratory vessel. Milwaukee 7, which builds awareness that Milwaukee and six surrounding counties are “open for business,” has formed a Water Council to assist these efforts.

Hope for neighborhoods
In Milwaukee’s large Hispanic neighborhoods, the United Community Center takes a multi-generational approach to meeting peoples’ needs. Since Mexicans were recruited to Milwaukee in the 1920s to work in tanneries, the city’s Hispanic population has expanded to 100,000. UCC students and staff are proud of their heritage and optimistic about tomorrow. “It’s all about growing the Hispanic middle class,” said Jose Vasquez of the Felician Sponsored Ministries-Milwaukee, “because when you reach middle class, then you achieve a certain lifestyle that opens many, many doors.” The unique center includes a 1,000-student Latino K-8 charter school where eighth-grade test scores surpass those of the state’s Hispanic population and Milwaukee Public Schools. School leaders have debated adding a high school but concluded that students benefit from integration. “They are the majority here,” Principal Pascual Rodriguez said. “They need to know what it’s like to be with others of different cultures, different backgrounds, different economic status.” We also saw how removing staff hierarchy has resulted in patient-centered inner-city healthcare at Aurora Sinai Medical Center.

The significance of visiting the Wisconsin Black Historical Society Museum a week after Barack Obama’s election as the first African-American president didn’t escape us. And we stopped by the ground-breaking Urban Ecology Center and Independence First, which helps disabled people join the workforce.