Learn what it means to live green! Join us for an activity-filled day, featuring talks by green leaders in the midwestern community, artist demonstrations, gallery presentations, and a craft fair of environmentally friendly products. Visitors will even learn to make their own furniture from newspapers and wood scraps, and how to build sofas from old sweatshirts.

Schedule of Events:

10:30 AM–5 PM Green Marketplace

10:30 AM–5 PM Artist Demonstrations

11 AM & 3:30 PM Artist Gallery Talks

1–3 PM Green Symposium

The fair is being held in conjunction with the exhibition Green Furniture, on view in the Decorative Arts Gallery through March 14, 2010.

Free with Milwaukee Art Museum admission

Milwaukee Art Museum
700 N Art Museum Dr
Milwaukee, WI USA 53202

Green Drinks is a monthly event where you can meet people, network, do a business deal, learn something new or maybe even find a job! Check out green drinks to get an idea of the scope of this movement!

Join like-minded people in an informal and unstructured setting to talk about the latest sustainability happenings in Milwaukee and globally. Meet people in various green professions. Have a drink (alcoholic or not), order food (or not), but enjoy lively conversations and good ideas.

Anyone interested in green and sustainability is welcome.  No RSVP is necessary and feel free to pass this notice on to others who might be interested.

Location:

Club Charlies (located between Milwaukee St. and Broadway St. – across from MIAD in the third ward).
320 E. Menomonee, Milwaukee, WI 53202.

The back area of the bar will be reserved for Milwaukee Green Drinks and there is lots of street parking out front.

The Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee reviews issues relating to city development, zoning, historic preservation, incremental tax financing, building codes and housing projects.

The Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee meetings start at 9:00 a.m. and are held in the Room 301-B, City Hall, unless otherwise noted.

Agenda

The Community and Economic Development Committee hears matters relating to community development, block grants, job development, business improvement districts, city public relations, industrial land banks and revenue bonds, emerging business enterprises, recreation, cultural arts and the library system.

The Community and Economic Development Committee meetings start at 9:00 a.m. and are held in the Room 301-B, City Hall, unless otherwise noted.

Agenda

Latitude

Saint John’s on the Lake

Cambridge Commons

Corcoran Lofts

Corcoran Lofts

At the January 6th, 2010 Public Works Committee meeting the first step was taken towards creating a special water rate that could be given to businesses in return for job creation within the City of Milwaukee.  Specifically, the committee approved an application to the Public Service Commission requesting a rate category be created to accommodate this request.  This rate would allow discounted, potentially free, water use for companies relocating or expanding in Milwaukee provided they create 25 new jobs, and require 35,000 gallons of water a day.  The discounted rate would be eligible for five years for a firm relocating to Milwaukee and three years for a firm expanding in Milwaukee.  It would also require the firm to submit a water use plan to insure that water wasn’t being wasted.

This concept, which had been floated by Mayor Barrett recently, is just one part of a bigger vision of branding Milwaukee as a water industry hub.  Other pieces of this puzzle include UWM’s School of Freshwater Sciences, Marquette University’s new water law specialty, the proposed Reed Street Yards redevelopment, the 30th Street Industrial Corridor redevelopment, and a variety of other initiatives and ideas.  As Alderman Murphy explained this is a “unique, creative idea,” but it also just one piece of the plan.

Although, somewhat similar proposals have turned down by the Public Service Commission in the past, Carrie Lewis, Superintendent of the Milwaukee Water Works, explained that this particular rate’s likelihood of being approved is “excellent.”  She explained that the previous proposals were viewed as “discriminatory,” by the commission but that this proposal isn’t being viewed similarly because the Milwaukee Water Works has excess capacity, and that this would allow the Milwaukee Water Works to better utilize the existing system, and therefore in the long run hold costs down for all users.

It’s time to look back at all the predictions we made for last year, and see how overly optimistic we were.  As it turns out, I don’t think we were that far off.  It was nice to read over this list and see how many things did happen in urban Milwaukee in 2009, as it seemed like a rather bleak year at times.

Last year at this time it would have been hard to imagine that two 20+ story buildings will soon be under construction in Milwaukee. Yet, The Moderne is preparing to break ground and St. John’s on the Lake is under construction.  Each took a form of government assistance to get started (St. John’s no-interest bonds, The Moderne received two municipal loans), but when each is finished they will begin paying property taxes.

Without further ado, here’s a breakdown of our predictions for 2009.  Comments on what actually happened are in red.

Top 10 Milwaukee Urbanist Wishes for 2009

1. UWM Expands Engineering School in downtown Milwaukee. Santa has yet to deliver.
2. The RTA receives funding in the Governor’s budget and the KRM project moves forward. Trying again this year.
3. The Mayor’s streetcar plan is selected as the preferred alternative and the project moves forward. – Things are looking good.  The $91.5 million was divided between the County and City, and the Mayor has pushed forward a plan for a streetcar starter system.
4. The proposed widening of I-94 is dropped by the DOT. Well that didn’t happen.
5. The City of Milwaukee enters into no water deals that would send water across the continental divide. At least for now, no deal has been made with Waukesha. All signs, however, point to the fact that a deal is likely, and that it will likely be a huge issue in 2010 for both cities. Will the terms of the deal favor Milwaukee, Waukesha, or both? Only time will tell.
6. The plans to replace the Hoan Bridge with a lower bridge that activates the land at the north and south ends of the bridge move forward. A lack of political will appears to have doomed any action here, even a simple study. And it’s a shame, because when you spend $200+ million, you should probably ask, could I do this differently? In the meantime, however, Patricia Jursik was entertaining with her witch hunt for anyone she thought might be trying to deprive her constituents of access to downtown.
7. The City of Milwaukee moves aggressively to convert more one-way streets to two-way streets in Downtown Milwaukee. East State Street is being converted to two-ways, but in a way that’s way more confusing than it needs to be. This appears to be a result of the Mayor caving to the wishes of MGIC.
8. The City of Milwaukee makes additional bike lane improvements and enhancements, including “cycle tracks.” Hasn’t happened yet.
9. Milwaukee County finally moves forward and installs bike racks on buses. Good news, it happened. And even today, in freezing cold Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I saw two bike racks being used. Finally MCTS was able to take advantage of federal funds that were available to pay for 95% of the project.  Predictably, County Executive Walker, no friend of buses or bicycles, called the entire thing “ridiculous”.
10. The City of Milwaukee utilizes market rate parking at meters throughout downtown Milwaukee. Rates went up, not in any way that truly works as a parking benefits district though.

Top 10 Development Projects We Would Like To See Move Forward in 2009

1. The Moderne – It’s happening, full-on construction is awaiting some utility work to be completed over the next few weeks.
2. The Catalyst – It’s not happening, nor will it likely ever be happening as it was originally proposed.
3. Pleasant Street Market – Hard to see this project happening when a high-end grocery store is announced across the river by New Land Enterprises and the Nehrings, who were to be the rumored anchor tenant.
4. Bradley Center redevelopment – No big news in 2009, other than the state (which technically owns the Bradley Center) awarded the facility $500,000/year over the next ten years for capital improvements. That money will apparently lead to a new scoreboard next year.
5. The Gallun Tannery redevelopment. – Nothing to report on here. There were rumors it was going to be sold, but nothing ever materialized from that.
6. Second Phase of The North End – It’s likely that sometime this year, the Mandel Group will bring a financing request similar to the Moderne or Bookends North to the Common Council. The Common Council and Mayor seemed to grease the skids with loans and loan guarantees for other projects that will make this project more likely to go forward in 2010.
7. The Transera (Goll Mansion redevelopment) – It has full Common Council approval, but there is no indication that construction will start on this Prospect Avenue tower anytime soon.
8. Second Phase of the Downer Avenue redevelopment – There was serious discussion of building a boutique hotel on the north end of commercial corridor on the site of the old Associated Bank (E Park Place and Downer Avenue), as the bank is now relocated into the parking garage. For reasons that aren’t totally clearly though, nothing materialized.
9. Riverboat Landing Condos – Not going to happen, the land is now for sale. At least there will be a brand new bridge next door. For $2,500,000 the land is yours, but don’t let the description fool you, the land isn’t on the East Side, and the bridge isn’t finished yet.
10. Second Phase of The Edge – No sign that the second phase of The Edge will happen anytime soon, as the first phase didn’t open until the spring of 2009. It would be surprising to see news on the second phase in 2010.

Top 10 Development Projects We Will Likely Be Following in 2009

1. Openings of numerous projects at The Brewery (former Pabst Brewery). Cardinal Stritch University, Zilber Park, The Brewery Parking Garage, Blue Ribbon Hall, Blue Ribbon Loft Apartments, Albion Group Architects, Inland Companies, AMB Development Group LLC. Open!
2. Openings at the South Water Works (former Transpak buildings). Open!
3. Construction of the UWM Hometown site dormitory. Under Construction (and ahead of schedule)
4. Construction of the Aloft Hotel. Just opened!
5. Construction of St. Johns on the Lake. Construction started recently.
6. Completion of 1824 E Park Place. Open!
7. Construction of New Land Enterprises’ Kenilworth and Farwell apartment building. No longer property of New Land, but still under construction on track for a 2010 opening.
8. Expansion of Marquette Engineering School on the edge of downtown Milwaukee. Under construction
9. Expansion of Cardinal Stritch into downtown Milwaukee (at The Brewery). One building open, potentially more to come.
10. Expansion of UWM Engineering School in Wauwatosa. They bought the land, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Lake Michigan faces a wide range of threats, but the most pressing is the latest in a long line of invasive species, Asian Carp.  The issue isn’t simply that these fish consume the food supply of salmon, trout, bass, and perch, destroying the ecosystem in the process, but the havoc that these fish create is a danger to recreational users.  These fish can grow up to 100 pounds and have a dangerous habit of jumping out of the water when disturbed by boats.  This isn’t simply an environmental threat, it is a threat to the recreational boating industry, the $7 billion Great Lakes fishing industry, use of our beaches, our jewel of a lakefront, and in fact Milwaukee’s quality of life.

The Asian carp have been working their way up the Mississippi River and its tributaries, and are now just a few short miles short of gaining access to Lake Michigan. The Asian Carp are only held back, in theory, by an electric barrier.  A flood, barrier outage or failure, and the Asian Carp will quickly enter Lake Michigan.  Unfortunately, it looks like the electric barrier has already failed as DNA from Asian Xarp has been found beyond the barrier.  As the solution of electrifying the water to stop the carp from proceeding into Lake Michigan via the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal doesn’t appear to be a viable solution a permanent solution is needed.

In recent days, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin have taken Illinois to court, calling for an immediate closing of the locks in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal with the goal of sealing off Lake Michigan.  Certainly this is a dramatic step to take and would be detrimental to Chicago’s barge industry, and if permanently closed, it would force Chicago to revamp, at great expense, its handling of waste water.  It is unfortunate that it has come to this, but the threat to the Lake Michigan and all of the Great Lakes is simply too big to ignore.  It is time to close the locks, at least until a permanent solution can be developed.

The $55.24 million The Moderne high-rise development has begun preparing for construction.  Recently, the shipping container building that housed The Moderne’s sales office was packed up and removed from the site.  Additionally, utility work is ongoing adjacent to the site as the property is being staged for construction.  When complete the 30-story high-rise will have 203 apartments, 14 condominiums, and first floor retail.  This project is located adjacent to the Park East redevelopment corridor and kitty corner from the recently completed Aloft Hotel.

The project is being funding with $9.3 million in loans from the City of Milwaukee and a $41.4 million loan from the AFL-CIO Investment Trust.  The city loans were approved despite concerns over the potential risk to the city, and the potential for over-saturation within the residential market in downtown Milwaukee.  To obtain the city loans the development team, led by Rick Barrett, agreed to an Emerging Business Enterprise goal of 25%, a Residents Preference Program goal of 30%, and secured the personal guarantee with a first lien on assets of $3.3 million.