Development

Every city needs development. As the old deteriorates from age or neglect, new development will take its place. Determining how this happens—including design guidelines, residents’ and stakeholders’ input and appropriate land use—is crucial. Some cities are good at this, and others are great. I’m working to move us into the second category.

As chair of the Riverwest Neighborhood Association, I resurrected our Development Committee. In addition, I have been participating in the City’s North East Side plan since February. This plan will set new zoning into place for the East Side, Riverwest and Harambee. At my invitation, the city’s consultant met with the RNA’s Development Committee so we could get help in encouraging more local, small businesses and jobs in Riverwest, and determine ways of preserving the Milwaukee River from inappropriate development into the environmental corridor and the river viewshed.

Sustainable Development
One of the things that deeply motivated me to run for Alderperson was seeing that “development” in this district was viewed in the narrowest of terms, mainly new housing in the form of condos, dorms, and apartments. But we cannot pin our city’s future only on creating more housing. As a former real estate broker, I have to ask how many condos can responsibly be built when we’re seeing record foreclosures in Milwaukee? How much publicly owned land will be given away at no cost to developers—with the ostensible reason of increasing the tax base—as condos go vacant or stay on the market for months?

Clearly, what we need is Sustainable development, “balancing the fulfillment of human needs with the protection of the natural environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but in the indefinite future.” Sustainable development encompasses economic, environmental and social policies. This includes creating buildings and usages that will endure, that are environmentally sustainable and that are socially supported.

Social Contract
As citizens, we have a social contract with those whom we place in positions of governance. When we show up at public input meetings, and if we have an interest in what our neighborhoods look like, we should be engaged in the process. People who have a sense of history of what their neighborhoods were, and what they can be again have much to offer, as do those who want to explore new methods, new designs and innovative plans. I think there’s a way to accommodate everyone’s desire to discuss visions and concerns. Reality will probably force compromises at times, from all of us. This does not mean that we shouldn’t work for the best possible outcome: appropriate, high-quality, sustainable development that serves the public good.

The current alderman has shown a real lack of willingness to differentiate between suitable and unsuitable development. He has shut out people who have opposed poor-quality or inappropriate development and has labeled them “naysayers” or “anti-development.” This does nothing to further productive resident involvement, good design or solid decision making.

In fact, bringing people together who have different ideas often results in better outcomes for everyone. Architects, near neighbors, business owners, developers, historic buffs, environmentalists—getting all voices into the discussions and work meetings before the “deal is done” can result in something that everyone is happier with, because it’s good for all of us.

Right now, that’s not happening. We need more sensible, immediate and long-range planning in the area of development. Community standards should be foremost in designing our neighborhoods. Favoritism toward certain developers by the alderman should never be a factor.

Small Business
I’m a huge proponent of locally owned small businesses. Small businesses are the bread and butter of our economy, and real assets to the community. Small business owners develop relationships with their customers. They don’t close up shop when the wages or taxes are lower in another state or country. They provide jobs. A recent report showed small businesses—those with 50 or fewer employees—adding 44,000 employees during the month of August. In medium and large businesses, employment decreased by 6,000.

People with entrepreneurial skills are critical to our economic strength, to building our future, to reinforcing a sense of community.

Before we go looking for something “bigger and better,” let’s cultivate our own unique style and support entrepreneurs with their visions. Our neighborhoods can support more shops and services, food stores and diners. This district could host a thriving international hostel that could help attract visitors to Milwaukee. Organic, urban agriculture at Growing Power is providing jobs and attracting international attention. We could use that as a model on unused vacant lots to help make our city less reliant on factory farming, gas-dependent trucking and genetic engineering.

In the long run, development encompasses more than new condos, hotels and apartments. It also means economic development, cultural development, organizational development and preservation of that which is historic, traditional or environmental.

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