Category Archives: Mayor Tom Barrett

SOTU 2012…Disney Meets Washington

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Disney Meets Washington

SOTU 2012 WW Style!

As I tucked my kids in for bed last night I was not the only one telling fairytales and painting dreams of a most vivid and vibrant future and a “happily ever after.” I was joined by President Obama in fantasy and fiction telling. As we lay our “kids” to bed in the hopes they are nourished in the dreams and alternate realities we lay out for them, what did we really say? NOT MUCH!! Although I was preaching from the gospel of Disney. Mr. Obama’s  fairytale should have come from the Brothers Grimm!

 

We all knew what he would say; we just wanted to see the delivery. Something akin to watching the Olympics. We knew the routine but will it be presented in the manner in which it had been so well scripted and crafted? Yes he stuck his landing pretty good last night. He got 9’s and 10’s from the masses of those holding out for hope and change 3 years in, but for those of us living in reality we walked away questioning “where IS the beef?”

For those of us in Wisconsin who seem to have short term memory loss regarding this president, I was baffled that his message was not met with a little more pessimism. He had promised so much yet delivered nothing to those who waited in vain for the man who would supposedly lace up his sneakers and join the picket line. I watched as these same people who are so disgusted with the progress in Wisconsin and Milwaukee, give a clear pass to this man simply based on his vocal stylings. What else could it be? He has created no substantial hope or change, just more of the same. He is an average politician with above average rhetoric but we dare not call him out or lest we be cast out of this sheep society for free thought.

If you had put his record out there of job loss, dismal education progress, and his relationship with Wall Street/rich cronies, just to name a few, you could easily compare him to Scott Walker, but you would love him instead of hate him. And I make this comparison using the left’s logic. If I took left pundit talking points and used their definition (or rhetoric) of failed leadership, I could easily insert and invoke the name of Obama and be meaning Scott Walker (or vice versa). “Doesn’t care about blacks, loss of economic empowerment for blacks, hanging with the rich instead of the poor, doesn’t give his millions to charity,” etc. al.

The man who met with Hispanics and the LBGT communities but told us to stop our whining, this is your hero? The same man who left you at the altar in Wisconsin and never backed you up when you absolutely needed him, you want to give him another 4 years to do the same ignoring of you? I just do not get it. I really don’t.

He spoke about teachers and supporting good ones, while letting bad ones go. That is just what we did here in Wisconsin! You are welcome Mr. President courtesy of Governor Walker and the Republican Party. We gave back to the school districts and tax payers what the union fat cats took away. We gave communities tools like Act 10 and the right to not have to enter into affluent contracts with the likes of WEA Trust who were really only union tax stealing money pits. Instead we put in accountability and mandates to teach our 4 year olds how to read or answer to” we the people.” We chose CHOICE over forced; we opted out of unhealthy relationships and into thriving partnerships of true transparency and government of the people, by the people. We created a manageable budget and began to pay back those we owed.

The President thrust out General Motors as if it is the company we once knew it to be. It is not! The jobs are mostly gone. The company is pretty much fluent in Spanish or Asian. Sure on the books some of it is here but it is not the General Motors your parents once owned or worked for! Those jobs are gone and only administration and lobbying positions remain. We as a country do not own much at all as most of our jobs are all overseas and creation has been in stagnation. We are owned by China and have a downgraded credit rating. Mr. President close the tax loop holes already. You keep saying it but you never do it. Stand for something before you use Martin’s name. We bailed out everyone but the middle class yet you stood their last night and spun yarns of the brightest of prosperities which is neither our reality nor will it be anytime soon.

He said the unemployment cycle was “a maze.” You betcha it’s a maze and under whose watch did it become this ongoing forest of trees for which we cannot see the sun anymore?

He talked about the American Dream, the precious American Dream as if it was the governments to give and take away. What happened to capitalism and free enterprise? What’s mine is mine dammit! It is not the government’s to do with as it sees fit. You can have your taxed share, but you are not entitled to sustain life on the backs of the middle class and do away with the things that make people self-sufficient. Government is not supposed to be growing and all powerful. Its job is to monitor and assist, not become the provider and head of household. It is already enough that welfare, the great failed social experiment, has grown and continues to fester yet we wonder why jobs are going away, education sucks, and the onus of personal responsibility has been replaced with apathetic sheep who know nothing of economic empowerment and SAVING!!!

Mr. President you warned about shady dealings in the Congress but yet you have no answer for Solyndra or the “Fast and Furious “ programs. Did you think we would forget? How about the fact that the CBC Head, Emanuel Clever said if it where Clinton and he had done what you have done to your own, he would have been marched upon. Africa is seeing the worst of times yet you do far less than the last president.  Not to mention you an African killed leader we had no impending threat from. You are one of their own sons, their own. If you could do this to them why should we African Americans expect more?

However we extended our card and gave this “brother” a great big pass and turned a sorry blind eye to our treatment. We keep worrying about the known racists yet we refuse to call out the ones WE OURSELVES keep in the dark. And if we don’t bring him and those like him to light, who are we to demand anything more from anyone else when the most powerful person on the planet is given a pass to ignore and destroy us? Sheep! Stand and defend yourselves.

We in Wisconsin have our own flock of sheep and we sheep follow loyally those with family name and privilege to the grave in hopes they may rise to the standards of their ancestors. Most of them have not and yet we say nothing or elect more of them or give them new titles and benefits without questioning one word about their lack of assistance and support to this community. We also follow those who have been our “brother” or “sister” because we are too wimpy to ask them what they have done for us, US!!!! So it is no surprise to me that the Wisconsin black will not stand now.

As an aside the potential candidates for many of our races here back home in “Wisconsinland” (which seems to be the last bastion for real hope and change) have criminal backgrounds or of misappropriation of funds that should send us screaming away if we really wanted to make a difference. Instead we line up and get their white “masas” to line up for us too! Sandy Paasch has no business in county politics! Barrett has no business in state politics! They are not our allies. Barrett has reigned over a Milwaukee that had gone from #3 in segregation to #1, staying strong in first place, and yet we clap and cheer him on. No one vets these new black potential candidates anymore in the community. We depend on Bice, Ingram, or Kane to possibly do that. One little visit to CCAP should put the fear of God into your hearts and wallets, but we only use that on potential soul mates.

Sorry went off on a little tangent, but it needed to be pointed out…

MILWAUKEE CITY AND COUNTY RESIDENTS USE CCAP and/or GOOGLE AND VOTE ACCORDINGLY!!!

Just a little friendly warning before you regret giving even more pathetic, benefit seeking, lying, cheating, living off us, smile in your face, dagger behind the back, desperate for incomes, lacking leadership, low life scum, these new jobs and then wonder why we cannot get rid of them and why our communities look tore up!!! HALLEJUAH AMEN! I hope I emphasized enough that there are some real threats to our own community from within trying to take advantage while we are putting all our resources and attention into getting rid of Scott Walker. WATCH OUT LITTLE SHEEP! Danger, danger!!!! Scott Walker is NOT our biggest threat.

As with any relationship do a little searching and ask them the questions. CCAP and Google are our best tools in deciding local elections.

I will elaborate more on this as we get closer to these elections.

Anway back to POTUS. His speech was great. I respect the man, I really do, but at the same time like any jilted lover, I cannot forget! “Let’s stay together.” Indeed Mr. President. I will meet you on Main Street but I will not be messed over twice, not if I can help it. You made promises of hope and change, gave us visions of grandeur and have delivered very little especially to US!

So as with any fairytale, I have come to the conclusion that American reality was not found in the great oratorical spectacle given last night. It is pending lore from the fairytales found in the Brothers Grimm tales. Three years of ignoring US and ignoring the platform you ran upon shan’t be rewarded but must be accounted for and we are owed an apology at the very least for invoking in America, especially Black America, visions of a real future of growth and opportunity. Very little progress was made in the great race debate and that was because it was used, used to create feelings of true change and real hope when in reality there really never was an US in your heart. Just opportunity for you and yours alone.

Whites cannot say it, nor will they address it openly or honestly. They are scared and have their own agenda which is not ours at all. Instead they created Occupy movements that mask their criticisms and racism. They do not intend to give you more rope, nor do they intend to ever” Occupy” us with money or time. They simply do not have need for us and use us as a means to an end. This, this was another failed experiment in social justice gone horribly wrong. I hope we at least can see that this man is not MLK or Malcolm. He does not intend to change the path of the African American or make a significant dent in Black history, other than being the first biracial president with a hype swag and flare. This man is a smooth-talking object of affection sent from the left, designed to tide us over until they get their power and move on sans us.

Peace Family,

WW

This is Thriller, Thriller Night!

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This is Thriller, Thriller Night!

Returning Halloween Trick-or-Treating in Milwaukee back to Saturday Night!

 

I will be dating myself in this article, but for good reason. In the 70’s we enjoyed night time trick-or-treating and all the things that Halloween conjured up leading up to that event. Moms would help us make costumes (no one dared come out of the house without one), dads would decorate the house and surrounding areas, neighbors would come together to assure safety, and earn bragging rights for their decorations or pumpkin carving skills! Pumpkins were left untouched and lit up the porches and streets at night to celebrate the coming of this most boisterous event for everyone. It was a community celebration that rivaled the old fashioned block party. It was a block party and everyone played a role, even that grumpy old neighbor would contribute something or risk getting egged!

The streets were filled with ghosts and goblins, princesses and superheroes, or beloved cartoon characters hauling bags heaped with goodies, fruit (yuk!) and pennies! Afterwards we bragged about our costumes, the candy count, the merriment! It was indeed a great time to be a kid in Milwaukee. The 70’s were simply magical despite the negativity we were sheltered from and/or took a truce from on occasions such as Halloween.

Now we fast forward to today. Because of over sensationalized news stories about crime and food tampering during trick-or-treating; Milwaukee like many cities moved its official trick-or treat hours to Sunday afternoon. On Sunday afternoon, vans of costume-less kids and ghetto “adults” steer the vans into the “good” communities to beg for their treats. People get mad with each passing year because there are fewer and fewer doors that open up. The destruction of pumpkins and tearing down of Halloween decorations has replaced this once pleasurable community building exercise. Possibly this happens in retaliation to the time change or maybe in response to the closed doors and lack of participants.

I feel it is time to take back our Halloween nights like so many of our surrounding neighbors do. In fact Mayor Barrett celebrates with Washington Heights and does not participate in the “Sunday Funday” event he helps continue! Like our good neighbors, we too can reinstate night time trick-or treating and get back to community building and all the things we used to do, if we are willing to work at it. I know there will always be people who ruin the fun, but if the good outnumber the bad, we can certainly give it a try. We now know that crime is down in Milwaukee thanks to Chief Flynn’s constant reminders of such. We also know that the stories of sabotaged candies and treats were unfortunately mostly family related and are not as wide spread as we were first told. In fact they are few and far between. We also have x-ray machines that can scan goodie bags in seconds and if needed, some communities ask for donations and have a few representatives buy the candy and disperse it among the participating households.

Since I am familiar with Washington Heights, I will use them as the example of what we are missing out on. I already discussed the community building aspects, but they do A LOT!! Movies in the streets, games and face painting, streets blocked off for safety for the little ones who can dance and play in the streets, awards for best costume, best house decoration, best concepts and much, much more. One year I saw a small flash mob perform “Thriller” and it was fantastic! The kids are treated to quality family time and the night is a spectacle that is worthy of revisiting as a citywide happening. Neighbors volunteer as security working each corner and barricade. Other than the kid who ate too much candy, there are few incidents or disturbances reported.

However if you go to the Heights on Sunday afternoon, including the mayor’s house, you won’t get much. It is liken to a barren wasteland of what appeared to be a great party. Remnants of what looked like a “festival of fright” are all that remain. People every single year drive to the “good” houses in search of the “good” candy, lined up with blaring vans, extra bags for “ailing” relatives, and no costumes, all for not. Washington Heights like many surrounding communities already did Halloween the night before and they don’t do Sunday much anymore if at all. Many communities are doing their own thing in the evening hours on Saturday nights like Washington Heights and are meeting with great support. Meanwhile it is a fading tradition here in Milwaukee because point blank the daytime event sucks! Not to mention how boring it is to get in a costume and parade around in the middle of the day taking the fun and thrill away from night time events. It is not scary; unless you include the “depths of ghetto” people will exhibit. That is scary indeed! Adults, parents, a little fyi…grow up and act like you have sense! Pretend if you must. Do it for the children. Spend some time with your kids and train them in the way they should go! You are robbing the next generation of an outright good time and the freeing experiences of being a kid participating in a very old and rich tradition in Halloween. Also would it hurt to clean up after yourself and teach your kids to not walk on grass and use trash cans? Yes a teachable moment can also be had during trick-or-treating. How ignorant can some people be? You don’t have to answer, I already know!

My thoughts are that maybe if Milwaukee did bring back trick-or-treating to Saturday nights, maybe the not-so-knowledgeable people (aka hood rats) will learn how it’s done. Maybe their kids will get to enjoy Halloween as it was meant to be. Maybe they too will enjoy the nighttime bewitching Halloween fun and start to pitch in with community building efforts such as this. They would get to know their immediate neighbors, they would get to meet and talk with MPD and city officials in a positive setting, feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves, and of course walk away with some great treats and smiling, painted faces. Why should we keep depriving kids of this fun Hallowed Eve for the sake of things that are no longer relevant? If Chief Flynn and Mayor Barrett say Milwaukee is safe, we believe them right? If the candy tampering was mostly due to a few highly publicized domestic issues, it would be simple to have scanners on standby. Last I checked hospitals were still scanning goodie bags. There are also portable scanners as well.

Time to take back the night and rebuild our communities in an uplifting and positive way. Please Mayor Barrett (and Common Council), since you are on this “Sabbath” kick (much like Obama’s Beer Summit), how about a Halloween Sabbath and give us back our night time trick-or-treating just like your kids get to have?

Peace Family,

WW

 

 

I have included the 2011 Haunted House and Halloween Guide provided by Onmilwaukee.com

http://onmilwaukee.com/market/articles/hauntedhouse10.html

Shepherd Express Milwaukee Halloween Guide

http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/flex-96-milwaukee-halloween-guid.html

 

Support MPL. Our Libraries Need Us!

Please do help support some of our other local Nature Spots and your local library as they too offer great Family Halloween events that we need to attend. Especially the library since the city wants to cut hours and deems it not as valuable. It truly is valuable and we need to show our support to our libraries!!

http://www.mpl.org

A Time to Heal: Where is the Memorial for Dahmer’s Surviving Victims Families?

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A Time to Heal

Where is the Memorial for Surviving Victims Families of Dahmer?

Twenty years ago our community was torn apart by a monster from within. He tore apart families and no one really understood why. What kind of evil was in the mind of this typical looking guy who seemed to live a typical life? None the less, he was a monster in every way. Even though twenty years have come and gone, many people are grieving as if it happened yesterday. Twenty years and we are still missing these angels taken for a purpose we don’t quite understand, taken and nothing left behind but broken hearts and memories of loved ones who did not deserve to die this way.

Ernest Miller this one is for you. Peace my brother!

A Memorial of Honor

 

For twenty years we watched the news and saw the local media make these families relive (or recreate in some cases), the pain they have lived with for the sake of ratings. Even though the local media has trivialized this tragic event, there are many in the community who continue to care and pray with these families as they felt the torment the families have been left to deal with. For their part, the local media refuses to acknowledge their lack of involvement when families asked for their help to find missing loved ones, yet they benefit from the aftermath. I hope they can sleep at night!

This year marks the 20th year remembrance of this tragedy. We have been bombarded with ratings driven stories of pain and sorrow of families still in the grieving process. The cameras in their faces, constant images of the dead, even more constant images of the monster, talks with the defense team, the police, and anyone who ever met Dahmer were on display this past week. What was seldom covered by any media outlet and hurtfully glossed over was the fact that we have not yet created a memorial for these victims or for their families. A memorial to help them heal, to help us heal, and to say to them as a community, we are sorry for your lose, our lose and to apologize for the things we could have done to prevent this from happening, namely our ignoring of the reporting of a number disappearing Black men in a brief time span, because it was not important at the time, nor did the MPD deem it worthy to investigate.

Sadly there is already a memorial for Dahmer and please do not go looking for it. They do not need our attention. It is disgusting and sickening that he is more popular in death to some people than these innocent victims. Outside of the families who is championing for them right now?

When a little child is abused or harmed like little Caylee Anthony, instantly a law or memorial is created post haste, but still in segregated Milwaukee, we have to beg for this too. To add insult to injury we even have a memorial for the firefighters of 911 but we can’t we memorialize this, an event that happened right in our own backyard?

Why won’t the city of Milwaukee bring peace to the families? It is very simple. They do not want to conjure up memories of Jeffery Dahmer because it is bad for business. Secondly, Milwaukee refuses to atone for blatantly turning its back on Black families who pleaded with city police, government officials, and local media to help find their loved ones until it was too late. These families were left to search for their missing sons, brothers, uncles, and cousins in vain. If the city, the police department, or the local media would have put in one ounce of effort, the magnitude of this tragedy may have been prevented. If someone would have taken one minute more to investigate to Konerak Sinthasomphone’s situation…well we could speculate for another twenty years but why? He is gone now and the people who had the power to prevent his untimely death are nestled away living normal lives as are their children and families. His family gets to relive his nightmare ending over and over again.

We need to help these families heal and yes they are still hurting. In this case we do have power to knock down this wall of segregation and come together for this one purpose. We can bring peace and be messengers of healing and God’s grace in the time of storm.

Jim Stingl wrote a good article which I share with you because it is powerful testimony from a victim’s family member.

Excerpt taken from

“It’s Hard to Forget Dahmer, but Please Remember His Victims.”

Jim Stingl Journal Sentinel

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/125993113.html

“The discovery of Dahmer’s acts widened racial divisions in the city. He was white and many of his victims were black…” “There was a sense that Dahmer was able to get away with it for so long because of the perception that the missing males were marginalized because of race or sexual orientation.”

“Carolyn Smith reported her brother, Eddie Smith, missing in the summer of 1990, but she doesn’t think the police took her seriously. She tried to get TV news to run his photo, but officials declined. As it turns out, he was Dahmer’s sixth victim.

Smith doesn’t have the luxury of forgetting about Dahmer. Milwaukee has recovered, but the families never will. Every day she thinks about what he did to her brother, which has caused her tremendous stress, depression and fear of leaving her Milwaukee home.

She wants a memorial erected, but not at the 25th and State site where the Oxford Apartments building, … was razed.”

 

My beloved community there is not much more I can say. I think Ms. Smith said it best. Let us show these families some real love and respect from this community NOW. Let us come together to claim victory over tragedy and support those still grieving the loss of cherished family members. We need to be more vocal on this and insist on the need to have this not waiting for uninterested political officials to take up our cause or to do it only because it is election season. Sadly this memorial seems to be a non-issue; we need to change that asap.

Please take a moment to contact your representative and let your voice be heard.

To contact your representatives please click the link below.

http://itmdapps.milwaukee.gov/electedreps/electrep.jsp

Contact your state and city officials!!!!!!

Presently this governor has a tentative committee looking into a memorial at the request of concerned community members and families. I have heard nothing back from our mayor about this other than what I heard on TV which was that it was something they could pursue sometime in the future. It’s been 20 years, the future is today!

Peace Family,

WW

 
 

A $treetcar Named $egregation

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Family I am telling you I am neither against streetcars nor urban development. However I am against development for the city that is void any meaningful, deep exchange and void all representatives of the city at the table (not including aldermen as the single Black voice, we are not the Borg, we don’t all look and think alike). I understand there were “stake holders” at the streetcar meetings, but yet no one has named as of this blog, one Black business person or Black organization that attended or were welcomed at ongoing discussions regarding the streetcar. However I find it peculiar that off the top of their head Alderman Kovac and his legion had 150 emails of support which included area business leaders and groups that were not invested into the entire city of Milwaukee. Some of these supporters bragged about their countless hours of meetings. So to be blunt the inner city was absent in these discussions unless you include the alder people, who may or may not have been given a bone. Just mere speculation.

Addendum to Streetcar Named Debt

What we did not know last week regarding debt is that ATT & WE Energies will either find a way for the city to pick up their expenses, including consultant fees and the ripping up of streets and removal and restoring their lines elsewhere. Those utilities have said they could pass on those costs to the customers, you and I. The city is looking into tax hikes and other solutions to finance this piece of the project which is not included into some of the figures we have seen from the city.

Instead of spending money on the streetcars this pothole ridden city should first repair streets and help neighborhood business districts.

The city is spending a lot of money to benefit very few people, white people. This proposal does not pass one Black business or person unless you ride the train frequently and live in the downtown district. My apologies to all 5 of you brothers and sisters!!

Ongoing Operating Costs

Big capital spending has to make sense for the long term!

Unforeseen costs and higher project rates for ongoing and implementation expenditures could mean a loss of city services or tax increases to residents of the city. Loss of services could include fire and police, city services, road maintenance, tax hikes, MPS support. Those of us who were outraged at Walker should take note of these operating costs if we are serious about the need to improve MPS. You will be deciding if MPS or streetcars are more important.

Additional Expenses

What about all the money we just spent in the same proposed area for bike paths, costing millions? We are going to rip those up to lay tracks? The paint isn’t even good and dry on those fancy bike paths.

Due to our weather, street bulking and other maintenance cost could be astronomical. We already have severe pothole damage, imagine a streetcar and the mess from the tracks.

MCTS VS. Streetcars

Busses can go around traffic delays, streetcars must wait behind street obstructions further slowing their travel times.

Speed and reliability are eternal values; going forth, people will still choose a faster service over a slower one. The “on-the-go” business person will not be patient; they will opt for the faster more reliable product.  If we need proof, we need only look at Amtrak and how pretty and empty it is. It has not seen a profit, nor will it, but it does see subsidies, you and I picking up the tab. Looking in to my crystal ball I am not certain people will choose an electric vehicle on rails over a bus of the same size and shape, with many of the same characteristics, running on tires.  MCTS and the county have worked hard to make our busses look sleek, run smooth, be green compliant, and you can even watch TV onboard. They have bike racks and kneel easily for the disabled.

But operations in mixed traffic in the slow lane are only going to get slower and less reliable as traffic increases with development.  The cost of ongoing maintenance and upkeep or development of the streetcars will also play in the aforementioned loss of services or tax hikes. MCTS is the heart of urban city life. Already the feds and state will be cutting aid and if the city follows suit than we will see higher costs in fares and possibly a competition between the two which would pit the bus rider against a small number of streetcar riders that are only going in a few places for the next few years to a decade until expansion is created or the streetcar fails.

Studies can be found supporting coexistence of both, or support for one over the other. It depends on which you prefer to side with. However I am going to use the debate from the past weeks as my premise for Milwaukee’s streetcar debate. Based on the somewhat loosely racist comments, I am choosing not to support the streetcar of debt and segregation. After I got past the financial components, I started to really listen to the mostly white audience and their message was pretty clear! We want to get away from you negros not help you get closer to us. There were a few who were generally streetcar enthusiasts, but a bit naive.

Eco Friendly

The only green in this proposal will be the green coming out of your pockets.

Segregation Streetcar

In my opinion the current streetcar proposal seeks to bring “wanted” visitors to Milwaukee’s downtown business district. To make this streetcar “user friendly” they must eradicate the “unwanted.” As possible riders theoretically move in, we will be moved out.

 Remember what happened at Northridge? Well the same arguments are being made here. This small starter rail some are now calling “white rail” is the catalyst to making downtown and surrounding areas more attractive to potential streetcar riders. These areas would fill up with businesses dedicated to those riders and not so much to MCTS riders. We see MLK is already aligned with condos and some unaffordable living spaces. We can then speculate the blight will be replaced with even more white sprawl and businesses. The last thing the city would want is ghettos in their cherished business district that would “scare off” potential home/condo owners and consumers.

The Promise of What’s to Come

The city, Mayor Barrett and Alderman Kovac specifically promise this starter car will create even more development and therefore connect us to jobs and businesses in time. Alderman Kovac says that once the streetcar is built there is intention to keep developing to the inner city, Bronzeville, Walnut Way, Midtown and so forth. How high are we on that priority list? What if Tosa comes in and says they want a piece of the action, than we get pushed back even further. However didn’t the mayor already promise to fix up these neighborhoods from what they are now? Does he not see the sun warped signs promoting Bronzeville, emptiness and blight in Walnut Way, incomplete and failed businesses in Midtown? If we wait longer (probably another decade) masta says we will get something from this streetcar that is worth waiting for. Really? How much longer before we send this mayor packing? The unemployment of Milwaukee is the highest for Black males and the segregation is still the worst in the country. He had years to fix this or even show some action and work toward these goals. He only stops in to check on us at election time or when escorted by his personal body guard Chief Flynn to tell us to be good little negros and not shoot each other up. This mayor is the biggest slum landlord of Milwaukee. At least with Norquist (who also tried to implement segregation) he rode the bus every day, walked amongst us, stood with us. This mayor is unreachable for the most part, unless you are a church pastor or crime fighter.

Reality

In their words…

“as someone who sat through the committee testimony for hours, all arguments against the streetcar are totally bogus. You can call it a train to nowhere or a boondoggle, or lament the lack of inner-city focus, this money can’t create jobs in Bronzeville, and you can’t get the votes to get the project there…”

“Many of my friends won’t ride the bus, but I know they will (and Republicans will too) ride that streetcar.”

“This growth in public transportation ridership has proven to be the catalyst that finds people in other neighborhoods demanding streetcar service.”

“I’d say to a large extent what Bronzeville needs is private investment, working with the city and WHEDA.”

“The goal of the past few year’s worth of transportation initiatives has been to link people with jobs – and not just the entry level entertainment-type jobs Bronzeville would attract, but family sustaining jobs at a higher pay scale than McDonald’s.…”

“Furthermore, there are very legitimate reasons to be suspicious that a streetcar will intentionally avoid the ghettos. Cities across the nation and around the world design their public transit to keep people from the ghetto away from wealthy areas and downtown.”

“I used to live in Portland, and have many friends there. I go back and visit regularly. One thing I notice is that as the light rail has developed and the city has gentrified, poor people and people of color have been pushed out of the city into the suburbs. It is a pity that our very segregated city rarely does anything to address these issues and often promotes gentrification and the development that precedes it. I would not be surprised if after the city develops Bronzeville that some years from now the folks living around there get pushed out…”Furthermore, there are very legitimate reasons to be suspicious that a streetcar will intentionally avoid the ghettos. Cities across the nation and around the world design their public transit to keep people from the ghetto away from wealthy areas and downtown. In order to calm this fear, @Nik, please give solid commitments to expand the streetcar into the ghettos after this first stage. You will garner far more support and respect from residents if you do. I would like to see a map of proposed future lines after this first one.Furthermore, there are very legitimate reasons to be suspicious that a streetcar will intentionally avoid the ghettos. Cities across the nation and around the world design their public transit to keep people from the ghetto away from wealthy areas and downtown. In order to calm this fear, @Nik, please give solid commitments to expand the streetcar into the ghettos after this first stage. You will garner far more support and respect from residents if you do. I would like to see a map of proposed future lines after this first one.

Back To Me

In my debates I found people saying things that I deemed borderline racist. I found some of the comments “color coded” and some buzz words and terms that mean for whites only!

This means that the city by any means necessary will get this street car one way or the other unless we take a stand and either demand this streetcar be created linking Amtrak to us first, or by demanding our neighborhood projects come first, the ones we have been waiting to have completed for decades in some cases. This streetcar will be used to grow and expand the business district alone for years without expansion. This streetcar will remove urban blight to the further corners of the city where it will once and for all be out of sight and out of mind.

Why do I think this? If we are trying to develop more jobs and a healthy prospering tax base, why would you not start in the bleakest part of the city? We are desperate for job creation and business development that is not “McDonald’s type businesses,” but real jobs that pay living wages and sustain families and communities. We did not bring this upon ourselves so the thought of doing it on our own with a city that seems to accept segregation and racism, is working just as hard against us as we are trying to build us up.  However I am not easily fooled so I know the only way out of this mess is for us to come together. Waiting on the mayor and most elected officials is a futile exercise. Whenever we decide to get our act together and be the people this mayor must answer to, only then will we get all the finances other parts of the city enjoy. No vote for you until we get our 40 acres and a mule!

So I say to you, please do take a minute longer to read this long blog and then make a call or email to your alderperson and tell them just say no. It is not feasible in this economy, Milwaukee shows clear lack of ability to create and sustain far too many projects, and the community most in need should be the community where emphasis and development is focused first, not the areas that have the least population per capita.

That is the way I see it and I don’t see any welcome mats in Mr. Rogers neighborhood laid out for us.

Peace Family,

WW