Searching For Answers on Water Street Violence

Food trucks parked on N. Water Street. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Ald. Robert Bauman agrees there is a violence and disorder problem with the Water Street bar district. But he no longer thinks he has the ability to craft a solution.

“We have no legislative solution,” said Bauman in an interview on Sept. 1.

On Friday, he even walked back one idea he earlier tried: banning food trucks from the district after 10 p.m. Judge Jean Kies had already blocked the policy from going into effect while a lawsuit plays out, but Bauman is now throwing in the towel in an attempt to avoid years of litigation.

Since 2021, the bar district has been plagued by high-profile violent incidents that peak every summer and fade in the winter. The issue, according to several sources, stems from loiterers who never go into the bars. Based on arrest records and reports on the age of those injured, many of the individuals are not even old enough to go into the bars.

“I think the Water Street entertainment district is going to go away as we’ve known it,” Bauman said during Friday’s Public Safety & Health Committee meeting.

He does have one solution, but it’s not something the Common Council can control. And it might not even be something Police Chief Jeffrey Norman can reasonably control.

“I think there needs to be a much larger police presence so they can actually enforce quality-of-life ordinances,” said Bauman on Sept. 1. On Friday he doubled down. “We understand the police department has conflicting demands on their resources. We understand they prioritize and probably should prioritize our neighborhoods where there is a much higher propensity of actual violent crime in the form of non-fatal shootings and homicides and robberies. That’s a command staff decision. We can’t control how they deploy their resources. But basically, absent a substantial change in resource deployment in the entertainment districts, I think the days are numbered for the Water Street entertainment district as we’ve come to know it. I think that should be acknowledged because we just don’t have the police resources to provide the adequate staffing to both patrol and hold people accountable for misbehavior. It’s just that straightforward in my view.”

Even if it wanted to surge patrols on Water Street, it doesn’t realistically have the officers. Later in the meeting, MPD command staff briefed the committee on their challenges with staffing and recruiting. The council has funded the maximum possible three recruiting classes with up to 65 members in recent years, but the upcoming class will only graduate 29 members.

“They do try very hard,” said Kendall Breunig, a real estate developer and Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) regent, of the police on Friday. But he said the police are only reactive. A more proactive solution, he believes, is restricting reasons for people to gather. “The food trucks themselves are not the problem. It’s the people who gather around them,” he said.

Bauman thinks people need to be honest about the role of food trucks. “They are the problem because they are the magnet for the people who assemble underage, without entering bars and just want to hang out,” he said.

MSOE owns the parking lot adjacent to where the food trucks park and has a residence hall, with 300 students, a block to the south, across from many of the bars.

“It becomes a matter of priority. Is it more important to be concerned about 300 students or the rights of food truck operators to be able to sell later at night?” asked Breunig while donning an MSOE hat. He’s been one of the few individuals willing to speak on the record about the problem and its possible solutions.

Multiple bar owners contacted by Urban Milwaukee declined to speak on the record. Bauman said it’s because they’re trying to protect their business interests. But one bar, the Silk on Water strip club, announced it was temporarily closing because of the violence. A spokesperson told Urban Milwaukee that the bar would reopen if there were material changes and pushed back on skepticism by Bauman and others that the violence is not the reason for the closing.

Breunig has also attempted to interject himself further into the situation. He purchased the building at 1207 N. Water St. that housed Duke’s on Water and Varsity. After blocking a lease renewal for the bars, he’s offering the Duke’s space to MPD.

The Milwaukee Police Department said, in advance of Friday’s meeting, that it had no updates on the proposed substation or its strategy for the bar district.

Breunig is also proposing that the city switch the version of its food truck regulations it uses on Water Street to the other option it created in 2024: a density limit. Thinning out the number of trucks would improve things, he said. Breunig called it an “in-between compromise.”

Ald. JoCasta Zamarripa, who was a co-author of the food truck ordinance, said she supports the repeal. “Food truck policy has been the most difficult thing to work on here on the Common Council,” she said. Zamarripa, who is running for secretary of state, said she hopes her colleagues don’t give up on the issue, despite its difficulty, and is pleased with legislation crafted by herself and the late Jonathan Brostoff to end the practice of block-by-block bans. “It was good stuff that benefited all entrepreneurs, whether they were food truck operators or brick-and-mortar restaurant owners.”

The 10 p.m. downtown ban also included an 11 p.m. citywide restriction. Zamarripa introduced an amendment to Bauman’s repeal that would lift both restrictions to 1 a.m., the prior limit.

“I don’t fault Alderman Bauman for what he tried to do, he did it, if you recall, during a very urgent time,” she said, citing shootings and other disorder.

Bauman also previously introduced a proposal to reduce late-night scooter access and to fence off the bar district, which he told Urban Milwaukee he doesn’t expect to advance without area business improvement districts or the administration advocating for it.

And while Bauman thinks his quiver might be out of arrows, City Attorney Evan Goyke believes the council can still act if it chooses. “This repeal takes us back to where we were. It does not foreclose any type of future legislative endeavor,” he said.

Ald. Sharlen P. Moore said she was interested in a midnight restriction, which Bauman and Zamarripa expressed support for. But Assistant City Attorney Joshua B. Cronin said only a repeal would stop the litigation.

The committee voted unanimously to withdraw the restriction. The full council will consider the repeal in two weeks.

The law firm suing the city on behalf of a food truck owner supports the decision. “This is an encouraging step forward, we look forward to a full Common Council vote and the Mayor’s ultimate approval,” said Lucas Vebber, deputy counsel for Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty.

But Bauman said it was ironic that Hammes Company, the landlord for WILL in the nearby Palladium building, has now submitted a letter saying not to repeal the food truck ban. “I’m glad they finally came out of the woodwork to participate in this process and state their position, but they’re frankly about five months too late.”

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