27 Miles of Bike Lanes

If you’ve noticed new bike lanes appearing all over Milwaukee this summer it’s because the City of Milwaukee is working on striping 27 miles of new bike lanes this year.  As of August 29th the city has striped 16.55 miles of new lanes this year with 10.45 miles left to be completed.

The lanes are being paid for with a $384,000 Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality (CMAQ) federal grant and $96,000 of city funds.

Kristin Bennett, City of Milwaukee Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator, informed Urban Milwaukee via email that, “this grant is targeting ‘low hanging fruit’ locations that are included in or consistent with the City’s Milwaukee by Bicycle Plan.” Meaning the city is targeting those streets which are wide enough to install bicycle lanes with little changes to intersections, lane configurations, transit operations, parking, and did not require any construction, beyond striping, to implement.

The remaining 10.45 miles of bike lanes will painted through October as long as the weather allows.

Completed Bike Lanes in 2013

Street	Project Limits	New Mileage Added / To Be Added
N. 6th St.	McKinley to Brown	0.60
N. 12th St.	W. Wisconsin Ave. to W. North Ave. (except Vliet to Walnut)	1.20
S. 20th St.	College Ave. to Grange Ave.	1.00
N. 27th St.	Highland Ave. to Garfield	1.00
E. Buffalo St.	Water to Jefferson	0.20
W. Burleigh St.	8th to Teutonia	0.50
W. Cherry St.	Water to 6th	0.45
N. Downer St.	Park Pl. to Edgewood	1.00
N. Downer St.	Lake to Webster	0.15
E. Florida St.	Barclay to S. Water St.	0.20
W. Greenfield Av.	40th to Layton Blvd.	0.80
N. Holton St.	Center to Capitol	1.50
N. Hopkins St.	35th to Custer	1.65
W. Hopkins St.	31st to Locust	1.40
E. Juneau Av.	N. Van Buren to Market St.	0.30
E. Mason St.	N. Water St. to Prospect St.	0.50
E. Newberry Blvd.	Lake to Oakland	0.75
E. Oklahoma Av.	Kinnickinnic to Superior	0.50
N. Teutonia Av.	Locust Avenue to N. 20th St.	1.05
W. Vliet St.	13th to 40th	1,80

Bike Lanes Still Planned for 2013

Street	Project Limits	New Mileage Added / To Be Added
S. 13th St.	Howard to Lincoln	1.60
S. 16th St.	Howard to Oklahoma	1.00
N. 27th St.	Meinecke to Clarke	0.25
W. Howard Av.	Forest Home to 76th	0.75
W. Howard Av.	84th to 92nd	0.50
W. Layton Av.	S. 21st St. to S. 27th St.	0.50
W. Layton Av.	S. 13th St. to Howell Ave.	1.00
W. Morgan Av.	Beloit Ave. to S. 84th St.	0.95
W. Morgan Av.	S. 68th St. to Forest Home Ave.	0.85
S. Muskego Av.	Forest Home to Greenfield	1.10
E./W. Pleasant St.	Dr. MLK Drive to Palmer	0.30
W. Saint Paul Av.	S. 2nd St. to S. 12th St.	0.80
N. Teutonia Av.	N. 12th to Locust Ave.	0.85

Licensing Notes

Today’s meeting of the Common Council’s License Committee started with a bang.  The nightclub Onyx’s Class B Tavern and Public Entertainment Premise license was non-renewed on a 4 to 1 vote, with Ald. Milele Coggs voting against the motion. This hearing started at 8:30am and lasted until 1pm, with the Milwaukee Police Department giving extensive testimony regarding fights, public disorder, and shootings happening at the club.

On a lighter note the new Anodyne Coffee Roasting Co. at 224 W. Bruce St. will soon be adding a little kick to your coffee as they received approval for a Class B Fermented Malt Beverage, Class C Wine, Public Entertainment Premise (Requesting Bands and Instrumental Musicians), and Food Manufacturer Retailer’s License.

Quick Hits

• If you don’t make it to Barktoberfest on September 28th there’s another opportunity coming up for puppy love. The Brady Street Business Improvement District #11 is holding the 12th Annual Pet Parade on Sunday, October 6th from  11am – 3pm.
• Less sunshine? It’s unfortunate to see Sen. Glenn Grothman is working to insure less transparent campaign finances. He is sponsoring a bill that removes the requirement of providing the name and address of a contributor’s employer. Additionally, the weakened requirement will now only be required when the cumulative contributions for the year are in excess of $500, not the current $100 limit that is currently required.
• The Global Water Center opens today to great fanfare. UWM Chancellor Mike Lovell speaking on WUWM 89.7 FM Chancellor’s Report explained “we have 13 startup companies,” that are going to be located there. Sounds like a good start though he also noted due to state budget cuts UWM’s presence in the building is about half as large as had been planned.
• Anna-Marie Opgenorth, the former executive director of Historic Milwaukee Inc., has a new job.  She is now a Community Outreach and Development Associate at Mandel Group, Inc. She is planning to attend graduate school next fall.