Working Together - Photo By Todd Montgomery

The Milwaukee Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative together with the Greater Milwaukee Foundation and the City of Milwaukee have developed the Milwaukee Makeover Project.  As covered earlier by UrbanMilwaukee.com, the Milwaukee Makeover Project brings homeowners in the nine Healthy Neighborhoods together with architects to create quality, exterior improvements on their homes.

The Milwaukee Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative has applied for a $250,000 grant in the Pepsi Refresh competition to continue this project and needs your vote.  There are three different ways you can vote to support this project:

• You can vote by visiting the Milwaukee Makeover project page here.  The first time you vote you will have to register. If you simply click on the “Vote for this idea” button it will take you through the registration process. You can vote for this project every day until October 31st.
• You can vote via text message. All you have to do is text “103316” to the number 73774.
• You can vote via Facebook. On the right side of our Milwaukee Makeover page there is an option to vote via Facebook. Click the link and follow the instructions. You do need a Facebook account for this option.

Additionally, on the right side of the project page you will find all sorts of tools for spreading the word about voting. There are links to post a message on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media.

The Milwaukee Makeover project is making Milwaukee a better place to live, lend your support today and help them win this grant to continue their efforts.

For more information on how the project has worked so far, please see the video below:

Working together

Every once in a while one finds a concept that is simple on the surface, but conveys a set of complex ideas. One such term is “urban husbandry” found in the writings of a contemporary urbanist Roberta Brandes Gratz. In Milwaukee, urban husbandry is not just a theory; it is a key component in the approach in the Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative.

In her work, Gratz calls for a small scale and incremental approach to neighborhood revitalization that she calls “urban husbandry.” In contrast to the belief in large scale redevelopment projects that have characterized many approaches to neighborhood revitalization, urban husbandry offers a different belief– a belief that places can be improved piece-by-piece, slowly, and organically. Urban husbandry recognizes the inherent value in building around what’s already there and promotes the care, management, and preservation of urban neighborhoods. Gratz demonstrates the advantage of low-cost, modest initiatives – actions that help rebuild neighborhoods, reconnect neighbors, and bring about innovative changes that are within people’s reach.

Working in the garden

For the last several years the groups participating in the Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative have been taking urban husbandry seriously in a set of middle market neighborhoods in Milwaukee – places that have inherent strengths but are also vulnerable to negative change.

A key pillar in the Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative’s approach in Milwaukee is the small neighborhood project – a prime example of urban husbandry in action. These very local efforts, also called pride projects, are designed to engage neighbors in simple, doable projects that not only make their blocks more livable, but also help bring neighbors together as partners in the care and feeling of those blocks. These projects have included such things as landscaping private and public spaces, alley lighting projects, house lighting projects, coordinated house numbers, the use of house flags, developing small community gardens – all efforts that slowly, but steadily send a message to neighbors and outsiders that the neighborhood is “under control” and that people not only live there but are proud of that fact.

A workday in the garden

A key to urban husbandry is, according to Enderis Park community organizer Bruce Cameron, finding out “what wants to happen” – believing that through a process of engaging neighbors ideas and energies will bubble up….the challenge is to find ways to help those ideas and energies take root.

Unlike many cities that are focused on the “big fix”, Milwaukee city government actually supports these small scale projects both in the neighborhoods participating in the Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative as well as other neighborhoods. These projects don’t cost a lot of money – but they do have a substantial impact on not only the physical environment but the social environment as well – as neighbors get to know each other through work on a common task.

For more information on the Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative in Milwaukee contact Mike Schubert at mfscds@aol.com

Guest Post By: Michael Schubert

Michael Schubert is currently a consultant to the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. He has over thirty five years of experience in community development, working for the last 18 years as a consultant to municipal governments, nonprofits, and foundations. He also served as the Commissioner of the City of Chicago Department of Housing during the first term of Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Working Together - Photo By Todd Montgomery

Imagine bringing together a group of talented architects and designers with Milwaukee homeowners from “middle-market” neighborhoods to explore how the look of their basic homes can be transformed through quality design. That’s the idea behind the Milwaukee Makeover Project.

This unique effort aims to improve modest Milwaukee homes by connecting homeowners to the design community. These homes – many built in the 1950s and 1960s – provide solid housing, but often lack visual appeal. By encouraging strong design and high-quality standard setting improvements, the Milwaukee Makeover Project hopes to add beauty and stimulate greater reinvestment from adjacent homeowners.

The Makeover Project is organized by the Milwaukee Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative (MHNI), a partnership effort to strengthen Milwaukee’s middle-market neighborhoods. Currently the Initiative is operating in nine Milwaukee neighborhoods: Sherman Park, Thurston Woods, Layton Boulevard, Enderis Park, Martin Drive, Havenwoods, Johnson’s Park, Lincoln Village, and Capitol Heights. Key partners in the Initiative are the Greater Milwaukee Foundation and the City of Milwaukee Neighborhood Improvement Development Corporation (NIDC). The Makeover Project has also been promoted by the Milwaukee Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Designs - Photo By Todd Montgomery

So here’s what happened….twelve architects and designers worked with nine homeowners on Saturday June 26th – first visiting their homes, and then participating in a design charrette at the UWM School of Architecture and Urban Planning. Each family worked with an architect to come up with an exterior makeover that would add substantial curb appeal and value to their home. The designs were all exciting – often small-scale, but nonetheless significant transformations.

But this was not simply an exercise in design. Staff from the HNI neighborhoods will work with the homeowners to implement their projects. NIDC is also helping advance the implementation by providing rebates based on homeowner’s income. And the HNI is also working with lenders to develop a pool of low interest loans to support this project. More charrettes will be planned for late summer and early fall.

If you are an architect and reading this blog and you would like to participate, please contact Dru Chapman at this email address: MKEover@gmail.com.

Designs - Photo By Todd Montgomery

Guest Post By: Michael Schubert

Michael Schubert is currently a consultant to the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. He has over thirty five years of experience in community development, working for the last 18 years as a consultant to municipal governments, nonprofits, and foundations. He also served as the Commissioner of the City of Chicago Department of Housing during the first term of Mayor Richard M. Daley.