Featuring
Helena Fruscio
Executive Director, Berkshire Creative
www.berkshirecreative.org

The mission of Berkshire Creative is to stimulate new job growth and economic opportunity in the region by sparking innovative collaborations between artists, designers, cultural institutions and businesses.

$5 in advance
$10 at the door
appetizers and cash bar

Location:

CLEAR
Intercontinental Hotel
139 E. Kilbourn

RSVP

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 mission of the Department of Public Works, including the construction and maintenance of county highways, bridges and public structures are the responsibility of this Committee. Members discuss all matters pertaining to the policy of mass transit and the Milwaukee County Transit System, including fares, service routes and capital improvements. The Committee discusses all matters under its jurisdiction pertaining to railroads and public utilities in the county.

Meets at 9:00 A.M. on the 3rd Wednesday before the County Board Meeting

Agenda

Addendum No. 1

Hide House Lofts

Hide House Lofts

Hide House Lofts

Hide House Lofts

Hide House Lofts

The Public Safety Committee is concerned with issues brought forth from the fire, police, health and neighborhood services departments as well as traffic control, emergency medical services and parking. It also licenses alarm businesses and public passenger vehicles and drivers.

Agenda

The Public Works Committee is responsible for physical services provided by the city such as street and alley maintenance, waste collection, disposal and recycling, sewer, water and flood control projects, assessments, public buildings, land and waterways.

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

Agenda

A rendering of the streetcar coming up Broadway out of the Historic Third Ward.

The Milwaukee Streetcar project was approved for further study this morning by the Milwaukee Connector Study Group. The approval will allow preliminary engineering to begin for the proposed streetcar starter system.

The Milwaukee Connector Study Group is the federally designated body that oversees the early 1990′s allocated $289 million for transit in Milwaukee (which has only $91.5 million remaining). The group consists of a single voting member each from the City of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, MMAC, and the Wisconsin Center District. The study group approved the Milwaukee Streetcar for further study on a 3-1 vote with Milwaukee County casting the lone dissenting vote.

The Milwaukee Streetcar will need approval from the Milwaukee Common Council and the Mayor before construction can begin. The Common Council is likely to vote on the streetcar in early 2011, when the preliminary engineering work will be available that provides better estimates of financial and operating details.

As has been discussed previously, the streetcar will not compete with the existing MCTS system for future federal dollars, as the FTA has funds set aside for fixed-guideway systems under which the streetcar would fall. Also, implementation of a regional transit authority is still extremely important, so that the existing bus system does not see severe cuts.

As planned, the streetcar would be a key piece of the backbone for a truly regional transit system serving as a vital link between the Milwaukee Intermodal Station (stop on route of Madison-Milwaukee-Chicago high-speed rail and KRM commuter rail system), existing MCTS bus routes, and Milwaukee’s densest neighborhoods including the East Side, East Town, the Historic Third Ward, and Westown.

Please take time to look at the photo gallery to get a sense of what the streetcar would look like on Milwaukee streets, and how it might interface with traffic and existing buildings.

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Streetcar

At the May 4th, 2010 meeting of the Common Council, Alderman Bauman brought forward an item that would allow the City of Milwaukee to enter into a contract with an expert consultant, Jeffery Boothe, for the purpose of facilitating the next steps of the Milwaukee Streetcar project.  Jeffery Boothe is a principal at Washington, D.C.-based Holland & Knight LLP., a Vice Chair of Reconnecting American, chairs the New Starts Working Group, is an active member of the American Public Transportation Association’s Legislative Committee and Light Rail Task Force, is the Executive Director of the Community Streetcar Coalition, and has a long history of working on transit projects in municipalities across the U.S.

The plan of bringing Jeffery Boothe in, is to facilitate moving the recently announced City of Milwaukee’s Streetcar proposal through the Federal Transportation Administration bureaucracy.  This help is of value because the FTA is unsure of how to handle Milwaukee’s project as it isn’t a typical New Starts Proposal, and his experience working with the FTA could speed up the process.  During the Common Council meeting Alderman Bauman explained that this hire is “simply enabling the city to negotiate the best possible deal with the FTA,” and that this is simply “committing money already budgeted.”  He later went on to add that “this individual will be advocating on our behalf,” and made clear that this contract isn’t about obtaining additional funds it is simply to assist in moving the current proposal forward.  Alderman Kovac added that “it really will help to have someone who knows their way around the hallways of that bureaucracy.”

This proposal was approved on a narrow vote, will now go before Mayor Barrett for approval, and should help move the Milwaukee Streetcar project forward.

At the May 3rd, 2010  City Plan Commission meeting the proposed Milwaukee River Greenway Overlay District was brought for the commission for approval.  This overlay district would impact 370 properties, these are properties that property lines are within approximately 50 feet of the river bluff, of which 70 to 80% is existing parkland.

The proposed district would establish rules for new development within this corridor.  Specifically, it would restrict development within 50 feet of the top of the bluff, so as to protect tree roots and bluff stability.  Though, there are measures that would allow buildings to encroach into this area, but additional requirements such as enhanced storm water management practices, and additional landscape screening would need to be met.  The proposed legislation also includes height limitations to protect the scenic quality of the river corridor.  For example, in areas where the corridor crosses commercial districts building height limitations would force a step back configuration to hide the buildings from being viewed from within the river corridor.  Additionally, it includes, new green building requirements, the restriction of some building materials and designs, which would exclude blank walls or vinyl siding along the river.  Surface parking lots would have additional landscape requirements, and any signage along the corridor would have to be of the city’s Type A style.  Existing single family homes and duplexes are exempted from the new requirements as it is particularly targeted at new multi-family developments along the corridor.

It was apparent that some compromises had been made in regards to property south of North Ave. which made this legislation palatable to property owners and developers in this area, as there was minimal opposition to the legislation.  It was also pointed out that an Planned Development would trump the overlay district so Mandel Group’s property on the west side of the river south of North Ave. could still be developed according to its existing plan.

A large group appeared to support the project, with only some minor opposition.  During the presentation the topic of the height limitations came up as an issue that the Department of City Development had a philosophical issue with, so some members of the audience spoke in support of the “viewshed” restrictions.  Ann Brummitt, of the Milwaukee River Work Group, argued that the “urban hardscape” had crept up the river and that is was infringing on the scenic beauty of the corridor.  In fact she argued that the “public trust doctrine” supported the “viewshed.”  Linda Keen, Architect from Studio 1032, argued that even Frederick Olmsted would recognize the “viewshed” as vital to the corridor, though this seems contrary to the evidence as one of his most famous works, Central Park in New York City, is surrounded by high-rise development.  Alderman Kovac wrapped up explain that “there have been several compromises,” and that he felt “that makes this a win win for everyone.”  This was approved at the City Plan Commission and will now go before the Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee.

E. State St.

Sound familiar?  Earlier this year Wells St. was under construction, effectively narrowing the street for a period of time, and the impact on traffic was negligible.  Now, another one of the vastly overbuilt streets in Milwaukee is narrowed due to construction, and again the world hasn’t come to an end as traffic has been able to find another route or simply slow down.  This limited impact is worth repeating, as the belief that Milwaukee’s streets are so congested that we need three lane automobile sewers cutting through our neighborhoods is simply not true.

Interestingly enough, this temporary narrowing is part of the process of converting E. State St. to two-way traffic, which has been a long awaited improvement for the East Town neighborhood.  In years past East Town saw Broadway converted to two-way traffic and there were almost undoubtedly discussion that the street’s rating would drop from an “A” to an “F”, meaning traffic congestion would rise dramatically.  It certainly doesn’t appear to have happened then, and it’s probably not going to happen on E. State St. as there simply isn’t a lot of traffic on E. State St.  What will happen is it will be easier to get around the neighborhood by automobile, and E. State St. will become more pedestrian friendly, because the current one-way configuration encourages speeding.

The two-way conversion is great first step towards making the area more connected and walkable, while evidently not significantly impacting congestion, but the plan could have been better.  The plan for this two-way conversion includes express lanes, which would remove parking during “peak” times, to allow a greater traffic flow than the two-way configuration would otherwise allow.  I can only imagine that this “peak” time is the few minutes around 5:00 pm as it is petty rare for there to be more than a handful of cars on this street at anytime of the day.  Further, the two-way conversion truncates at MGIC’s offices instead of Water St., which limits the level of connectivity, and will add a level of confusion.

Overall this is a great step forward for East Town, and another example of how many of Milwaukee’s streets are simply overbuilt.