George H. Bush was President, Robin Yount was roaming centerfield, and Milwaukee was being allocated funds that were to be dedicated for the development of a new mass transit mode. The funds, $289 million worth, represented a substantial amount of purchasing power in 1991. But the transit improvements never came.

The Milwaukee Streetcar is projected to go before the Steering & Rules Committee of the Milwaukee Common Council next week. If the project is able to pass the Steering & Rules Committee it is widely believed that it will pass the Common Council as a whole. However, passage by the Steering & Rules Committee is far from a sure thing, and now is a critical time to make your voice heard so that the project can move forward.

The Milwaukee Streetcar is finally poised to move forward. Following last May’s approval of a preliminary engineering study by the Milwaukee Connector Study Group, the Milwaukee Streetcar project has progressed to the next step in its development. In late June the Public Works Committee and Steering and Rules Committee will take up the project on subsequent days, followed by the full Milwaukee Common Council in early July.

“That’s our story. Now it’s probably not the one you have been reading in the papers, the one being written by folks who’ve never even been here.”

Numerous signs point to a national economy that is recovering. Hiring has started to pick up, banks are starting to lend again, and locally ‘failed’ projects are slowly filling up. But everything isn’t great just yet, as here in Wisconsin there is a 14 month supply of homes available on the market, and nationally unemployment sits at 9.4%.

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.

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.

Don’t forget that this Thursday is the open house for the Milwaukee Connector Downtown Streetcar plan. The open house runs from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Zeidler Municipal Building on the corner of Kilbourn Ave and Broadway. There will be short presentations at 3:30 and 6, come and leave a comment on the proposed system.

On Friday, Mayor Barrett unveiled three streetcar routes under study to the attendees of UEDA’s Community Development Summit.

The Mayor walked through the three possible routes and numerous possible future extensions. He broke down how successful systems in cities such as Seattle, Portland, and Tacoma have started with routes similar in length to the proposed for the Milwaukee Streetcar system (2 to 3 miles).

The Milwaukee circulator streetcar is moving forward, but there is still confusion in the mind of many. We’ve covered the issue in the past, but this article attempts to bring everything together in one place, the history, the frequently asked questions, and the proposed route.