Mayor Cavalier Johnson Talks Harm of Freeway Construction, Bronzeville During DNC Speech
Johnson promotes federal grant to overhaul 6th Street through Downtown, surrounding neighborhoods.
Mayor Cavalier Johnson addresses the 2024 Democratic National Convention. Image from DNC feed.
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson got his moment in the spotlight early Wednesday evening during the Democratic National Convention.
Johnson and Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval jointly told stories about how infrastructure investments from the Biden-Harris administration are helping their communities. Milwaukee’s mayor also used his 90 seconds to note how past infrastructure projects were a “mistake” that harmed urban residents to benefit suburban commuters.
Johnson said the Bronzeville neighborhood was a hub for Black music, culture and entrepreneurship until the 1960s. “Then came urban renewal and the construction of interstates 94 and 43, ripping our communities apart. Sixth Street was widened and people of color were displaced. Homes destroyed, businesses shuttered, all for a quicker commute. Under Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, we’re bringing Bronzeville back,” said the mayor to the crowd at the United Center in Chicago.
President Biden visited Milwaukee in March to announce a $36.6 million grant from the Reconnecting Communities program to rebuild 6th Street through Downtown, Bronzeville and several surrounding neighborhoods.
“With more green space, bike paths and walkable streets to serve people that actually live there, the music is coming back, the culture is coming back and thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the opportunities are coming back,” said Johnson, attending his first DNC.
The mayor, in office since the end of 2021, has been effusive in his praise for Biden-era programs that have aided the city’s beleaguered budget and boosted the city’s infrastructure investments. While Milwaukee hosted the Republican National Convention in July, Johnson said Milwaukee would have been “insolvent” without the American Rescue Plan Act. He was also a staunch public backer of Biden staying in the race. But now he’s all in for Harris, having ridden back from the DNC on Tuesday to welcome the vice president at a rally in Milwaukee.
The mayor’s remarks come as he’s being viewed as increasingly likely to pursue a run for governor in the coming years. Even though the proud Democrat wasn’t given a speaking slot during the RNC, Johnson landed major media coverage.
During his brief remarks, Johnson did not touch on three other freeway projects in various stages of planning. In April, he endorsed a proposal to convert a small portion of Interstate 794 into a boulevard. It builds on a 2022 endorsement of a widely-supported vision to replace Wisconsin Highway 175, a stub-end freeway, with a boulevard. Johnson has not taken a defined public stand on the state’s planned expansion of Interstate 94, which opponents are now challenging in federal court.
Johnson finished his remarks Wednesday by introducing two more Milwaukee residents, Rashawn Spivey and Deanna Branch, who gave brief remarks on the Biden-Harris administration’s promise to remove all lead service lines from the nation’s water systems.
Branch’s son Aidan was previously hospitalized because of lead poisoning. “Lead was everywhere, in our pipes, in our paint and in our soil,” said Branch. She praised the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for accelerating the removal of lead laterals. She also mentioned her 2022 book about her son, Aidan: The Lead Free Superhero.
Spivey is the head of Hero Plumbing, one of the city’s leading plumbing contractors for replacing lead service lines. Biden, during a December 2023 stop in Milwaukee to tour Black business construction, visited Hero’s plumbing workshop. “Hero stepped up to help make that vision a reality,” said Spivey. He said his firm has replaced more than 1,000 lead laterals. The city has approximately 65,000 lead service lines remaining, but is now aiming to replace all of them within a decade.
Both Branch and Spivey met with Harris during her January 2022 visit to Milwaukee to discuss ways to expand the number of trained workers able to replace lead service lines.
Other Milwaukee area residents to speak at the convention include retired truck driver Kenneth Stribling, president of the National United Committee to Protect Pensions, who praised the Biden-Harris led American Rescue Plan Act on Tuesday for protecting private sector pensions from 50% cuts. Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez, a nurse from Brookfield before her career in politics, spoke Monday about reproductive rights.
Johnson’s predecessor, Tom Barrett, got to address the 2020 Democratic National Convention, ostensibly held in Milwaukee. However, the COVID-19 pandemic rendered that convention a largely virtual affair, and Barrett delivered his remarks in a mostly empty room at the Wisconsin Center (now the Baird Center).
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