Expanded I-94 Will Damage Pigsville
A thriving, integrated neighborhood will be hurt by expansion plan.
I live in perhaps one of the quirkiest neighborhoods in Milwaukee. Piggsville, depending on who you ask, may be spelled with two g’s and named after George Pigg, or it may be spelled with one g and named after an old pig farm. Go to our neighborhood bar, the Valley Inn, and see pictures of people canoeing down the street on the days it used to flood due to being beside the Menomonee River. In fact, the flooding made the neighborhood almost too much trouble for the city. The neighborhood had to organize to build protection from flooding and to save itself from demolition and we now have a beautiful little park by the river: Valley Park.
I also teach high school US History. Unsurprisingly, the theme of racial discrimination is prevalent in my subject. One of the most infamous examples of systemic racism is the interstate highway system. I-94 and I-43 notoriously demolished anchor Black businesses in Milwaukee. Even in the past, we knew highways destroyed the fabric of neighborhoods. Highway 175, just west of my neighborhood, stops abruptly after only a couple exits, having been stopped by the then-middle class and white residents of the area.
Thanks in part to this destruction of north side anchor businesses, segments of the north side are scarred by abandoned lots and a lack of local businesses or necessary amenities like grocery stores. Many northside residents have no choice but to buy a car that may be out of their price range just to buy food. My own neighborhood is a food desert. Besides our wonderful tavern, our only food source in walking distance is a Hometown Gas Station.

Neighborhood families taking a group photo after an afternoon of volunteering through Friends of Valley Park. Photo courtesy of Leland Pan.
In this context, expansion of I-94 is both an insult to lessons learned from the past and a direct attack on my neighborhood. A proposed new on-ramp from I-94 to the truncated Highway 175 could affect the lighting and setting of our Valley Park, reducing the number of families who view it as a safe place for their kids to play. The additional fumes and sound pollution from moving the highway closer to our neighborhood could exacerbate the health disparities working class, non-white communities face in Wisconsin. Most insultingly, our neighborhood gas station has expressed interest in expansion to provide real food options to the neighborhood. Instead, it may face shuttered doors as the expansion would demolish it, an urgent care center, and a Black owned bar on N. 35th St.
What would actually help my neighborhood and northside residents generally would be improved public transportation infrastructure and investing in necessities like grocery stores. Worsening conditions for our residents so wealthy suburbanites can shave off 30 seconds from their commute is continuing the decades of policy insults Milwaukee has had to endure, despite it being the economic engine and cultural hub of the state. I hope the whole state can learn from the past and support neighborhoods like mine by stopping the I-94 expansion.
Leland Pan, Milwaukee resident and outgoing president of Friends of Valley Park.
More about the I-94 East-West Expansion
- Eyes on Milwaukee: I-94 Expansion Public Comment Deadline Extended - Jeramey Jannene - Jan 6th, 2023
- I-94 East-West study public comment period extended to January 31, 2023 - Wisconsin Department of Transportation - Jan 3rd, 2023
- Transportation: Opponents Assail I-94 Expansion at Public Hearing - Graham Kilmer - Dec 13th, 2022
- Transportation: County Committee Backs I-94 ‘Fix at Six’ - Graham Kilmer - Nov 30th, 2022
- I-94 Fix-At-Six Resolution Recommended for Adoption by Milwaukee County Transportation and Transit Committee - Sup. Peter Burgelis - Nov 29th, 2022
- Rep. Brostoff Statement in Opposition to Eight-Lane I-94 Expansion - Rep. Jonathan Brostoff - Nov 14th, 2022
- Supervisor Burgelis Decries DOT Preferred Alternative for I-94 East-West project - Sup. Peter Burgelis - Nov 11th, 2022
- Advocates oppose expansion announcement of I-94 East-West project - Coalition for More Responsible Transportation - Nov 11th, 2022
- Eight-lane I-94 East-West project proposal not in the best interest of area residents - Ald. Michael Murphy - Nov 11th, 2022
- Transportation: State Picks I-94 Expansion Over ‘Fix at Six’ Proposal - Jeramey Jannene - Nov 11th, 2022
Read more about I-94 East-West Expansion here
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I surveyed that stretch of the Menomonee River in Pigsville when I worked for the Wisconsin DNR. Valley Park is a quiet, beautiful, hidden gem. You never know what kind of wildlife you’ll see when you walk up to the long, winding, stone wall in the park and look down to the river. The neighborhood is quiet and hidden with little traffic. It reminds me of paradise lost.
It would be a crime if Milwaukee politicians decide to destroy Valley Park and Pigsville with a wider concrete freeway so that 90% of City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County employees can drive like SOBs to their new homes in Waukesha, Washington, and Jefferson Counties.
I have lived in the Hilltop/Valkey/Piggsville neighborhood in a 1903 railroad house since Match 1977. Totally agree with Leland and would add concerns about increased pollution and noise. Expanding freeways does not ease congestion – just brings more cars.
Write your legislators and write the governor. We don’t need more concrete, Just repair/maintain the freeway that is there.
There seems to be a website problem with the article. The comments refer to an entirely DIFFERENT article (although both refer to I-94).
How else do you explain how the comments were all posted 10 months BEFORE the article was written?
Building more highway capacity is like building an extension on the bedroom of your child who refuses to clean the room, but promises that the room extension will solve the problem once and for all.