Jeff Polenske

Contribution to Tom Barrett of $500

Track The Hop in Real Time

Yes, real time data is now available, so you know exactly when to catch the streetcar.

Real-Time Vehicle Information Now Available to Hop Riders

TransLoc Rider app provides real-time positioning of streetcars and next vehicle arrival estimates for all stations along the route

Karen Dettmer Will Lead Water Works

Committee puts veteran engineer through the ringer before endorsing her appointment.

Streetcar Real Time App Coming “As Quickly As Possible”

City promises real time data for The Hop which was supposed to launch in December.

Contribution to Tom Barrett of $400

The Hop Has a Schedule

Streetcar begins operating with a public schedule. When will real-time data arrive?

Milwaukee Pride, City Debut Rainbow Crosswalks

Crosswalks near Cathedral Square Park celebrate city's LGBTQ community.

Barrett Taps Polenske For Public Works

Veteran City Engineer to become head of 2,300-employee Department of Public Works.

Barrett Signs Complete Streets Policy

Mayor, city officials and activists gather to celebrate new legislation.

When Will The Hop Have a Schedule?

Streetcar system could launch without one.

Regional Transit Leadership Council Names New Executive Director

Dave Steele named new executive director to move region’s connectivity and economy forward

Council Passes Complete Streets Policy

Streets for all, not just cars, is now the law of the land.

‘Hop-able’ Open House Slated for October 10

Special event designed to showcase The Hop’s accessibility features

Committee Okays Complete Streets Policy

Proposal on street design places pedestrians and cyclists on same level as motorists

Gonda Resigns from Water Works

Longtime city employee resigns as Milwaukee Water Works director for job at UWM.

Bring On the Dockless Bicycles!

City officials announce they will accept proposals for dockless bikeshare.

Milwaukee Streetcar Insider Tour

Get an up close look at The Hop and ask questions of the experts leading the project.

City Celebrates Bike to Work Week

Complete Streets policy set to be introduced.

First Streetcar Heading to Milwaukee

Left Pennsylvania plant, will arrive by on March 26, mayor announces.

$65 Million Spent on Streetcar

Construction of track is 90 percent complete, project ahead of schedule.

City Fighting County on Rapid Transit

Council committee puts restrictions on BRT project, charges county acted in bad faith.

Contribution to Tom Barrett of $400

How to Make a Pedestrian Friendly City

New district-by-district reports on improving city for bicycling and walking.

County Gets Waiver on Streetcar

Still in running to operate city's streetcar, but a long shot to win.

Bublr Opens New Downtown Office

Officials celebrate first office tenant to move into Grand Avenue Mall.

Behind the Headlines: The Status of the Streetcar

As part of its continuing effort to encourage in-depth analysis of the most important issues of the day, the Milwaukee Press Club is pleased to present its next Behind the Headlines topic.

Contribution to Nik Kovac of $50

Contribution to Tom Barrett of $400

Contribution to Terry Witkowski of $50

City Accepts $14 Million Federal Streetcar Grant

City wins TIGER grant after "a brutal competition" where demand for transit dollars greatly exceeded the sums appropriated.

City storm water efforts making an impact

News event Wednesday to tout newly constructed bioswales

Contribution to Terry Witkowski of $50

The Transportation Circus

Story and photos on Tuesday's celebration of transit in Milwaukee.

Streetcar Signing Is Quite a Celebration

The mayor, business leaders and pols toasted the streetcar in Cudahy's Irish Pub, with Michael Cudahy on hand.

Who is “Lobbying” For the Streetcar?

Money is being spent and wild rumors are flying. So what’s the truth?

Streetcar Backers Say They Have the Votes

Aldermen Witkowski and Perez now favor it, and touted plan to extend the line into their south-side districts.

Can Milwaukee Upgrade to Gold Ranking?

City officials pledge to work towards upgrading the city's national, bicycle-friendly ranking from bronze to gold.

Committee Takes No Action on Streetcar

Public Works Committee votes to send streetcar proposal to full council, setting up a showdown Dec. 16th.

Ambulance Chasing Lawyer Chases Abele

Plus: Bud Selig’s birthday bash and where will new Journal CEO live?

Cyclists, city officials gearing up for seventh annual Riverwest 24

Riverwest 24 Starts tonight -- News release from Alds. Kovac and Coggs

Seeking solutions to prevent another tragedy like Sherman Blvd. crash

Statement of Alderman Willie C. Wade July 11, 2014

A Streetcar Named Cooperation?

Republicans force city to pay to relocate utilities for streetcar and Barrett calls for cooperation from We Energies to keep costs down.

Bike Share Launching in 2014

Phase I of bike share program will have at least 28 stations and 250 bikes, thanks to a federal grant.

Alderman Donovan to Mayor Barrett: “What is happening with the streetcar project?”

Statement from Alderman Bob Donovan December 3, 2013

Grand Opening of KK River Bike Trail

Despite rainy weather, Mayor Barrett and a host of politicians celebrated the new bike trail.

Streetcar Social

Gathering of notables tracks the route of proposed streetcar. And HGTV comes to town to film a straw-bale home.

“Wait, Wait, Wait”

The city’s new audio crosswalk alerts are annoying -- and potentially dangerous.

Residents Reject Freshwater Name

Contest to rename Pittsburgh Ave. to honor water institute didn't convince street's residents, who nixed Freshwater Way.

Mayor Barrett Bikes to Work!

Mayor Barrett kicked off Bike to Work Week with his annual bike ride, and announced new city funding for bike-sharing.

Streetcar Meeting on Tuesday

Public invited to ask questions about project.

New Bike Transit System?

A city committee votes to support a system of bike-sharing kiosks. Other cities have cut auto traffic this way.

Public Safety Committee Approves New Milwaukee Bike Plan

The Bicycle Master Plan was presented to the Public Safety Committee at the September 16th, 2010 meeting.

Zweig Project Held by City Committee

This committee meeting had numerous items of significance relating to the built environment that were up for debate.  A couple highlights (or lowlights) included the holding of a file over budget concerns, a heated discussion over Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (“CMAQ”) grants, and a most intriguing debate on public art. The approval of the schematic designs of public artwork which is to be incorporated into streetscape improvements within the first block of East Wisconsin Avenue was up for approval.  The project put out a RFQ to which nearly fifty artists responded.  Artist Janet Zweig was selected to design the artwork and at a recent Streetscape Public Art Advisory Committee meeting the committee approved the schematic design.  The design would include five kiosks attached to five light poles.  Each kiosk would essentially be a historical reference to a type of flip board system that existed in train stations.  Each kiosk would display flip movies of Milwaukee, and would be custom built to hold 80 flaps.  This project was funded under the federal CMAQ program to promote walking as an alternative method of transportation by making improvements to the pedestrian experience.  Additionally, of the total project only a little over 1% of funds has been allocated to public art. Initially, Alderman Robert Bauman was concerned that there might be a cost to moving this project forward so he questioned, “tell us why this is even in front of us?”  After much discussion it became clear that this file was just the approval of the schematic design and that as he said “rejecting this concept saves no money.” At this point Alderman Bob Donovan began railing against the design saying “Thomas Edison had that 100 years ago,” and that “I refuse to have my name associated to something as ridiculous as that.”  Alderman Willie Wade took a more measured approach in his response to the work stating “I’m not impressed with this at all” and that “this is too old school for me.”  Attempting to bring the discussion back to the overall idea of improving public space through the addition of public art Alderman Bauman explained that “art is in the eye of the beholder.”  Debra Usinger, who appeared previously in regards to a Riverwalk project, explained that “public art is great” and that despite the sentiment in the room, this art works because “all of a sudden we’ve created discussion in here.”  She added that “I think this is really innovative.”  This file was held to all for public input. A file that would have funded a variety of nonassessable public improvements was held because of future budgetary concerns.  Alderman Joe Dudzik questioned the wisdom of this spending while planning on significant layoffs, which sparked the discussion regarding holding the file.  Wondering if there was a cost to delay action on the file, Alderman Dudzik questioned “is there any urgency in getting this file passed today?”  Apparently if delayed projects might see a increase of 10% to the cost so the […]

DPW Defends Pothole Filling Process

The hot topic of this committee meeting was a recent Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article accusing the Department of Public Works (“DPW“) of having a racial bias in their handling of pothole filling.  Jeff Mantes and Jeff Polenske laid out DPW’s process in regards to pothole repair.  Explaining that they prioritize arterial roads higher than neighborhood streets because these roads impact more drivers and have greater safety concerns because of higher speeds on these roads.Alderman Joe Davis, Sr. and Alderman Ashanti Hamilton were clearly bothered by this article’s findings and let DPW know it.  Alderman Hamilton stated that “my constituents can pay taxes but can’t get their potholes fixed on time” and further made his discontent clear saying “you have lost the benefit of the doubt”.  Ironically he also pointed out that many of his districts major arterial roads have recently been rebuilt.  This was key because representatives from DPW had explained that their priorities were to repair potholes along major arterial roads first and go into the neighborhood streets later. It was evident that the research for the article didn’t take this into account and as new roads wouldn’t need pothole filling the primarily work in this district revolved around neighborhood streets which DPW had indicated were a lower priority.The committee as whole appeared to question the report’s validity and the mayor’s staff pointed out a variety of methodology flaws.  These flaws including errors that could over count requests or place requests in the wrong census track, both of which could significantly sway the outcome of the research.  These concerns prompted Alderman Robert Bauman to question the article and pointed out how irresponsible an article like this is, if based on poor methodology.  Alderman Willie Wade joined in expressing his displeasure with the article’s methodology saying “personally I think we’ve been had” and that “we are here because of an article from the Journal Sentinel with bogus data”.  Generally the committee was concerned if the findings were valid but Alderman Bob Donovon seemed to wrap up the sentiment by repeating an old cliche, “you cant always believe everything you read in the paper”.

Public Works Committee Holds Up Appointments

The reappointment of Jeff Mantes to the position of Commission of the Department of Public Works and the reappointment of Jeff Polenske to the position of City Engineer were held to the call of the chair to start off this meeting. As numerous reappointments have flown through as of late it appears this may be in response to friction the Common Council has had working with the Department of Public Works. Specifically the Common Council has expressed their concern with how DPW handled snow plowing, leaf removal, and various street improvements. File number 080238 is a grouping of numerous assessable public improvements that included items such as street and alley re-construction. Similar files have experienced an ongoing problem whereas approximately half of individual projects are deleted because property owners are unwilling to pay exorbitantly high assessments. This has lead to the slow crumbling of city streets and ever increasing maintenance costs. Alderman Bob Donovon expressed his displeasure at Mayor Tom Barrett‘s unwillingness to replace the current assessment system with a recently proposed vehicle registration fee, by stating “I am hoping that this administration and the alderman in this community have the guts to move forward and do the right thing in changing the way we pay for paving projects.” This file was approved with numerous deletions and will move on to the Common Council for approval. File number 080195 is an ordinance relating to storm water management regulations. Alderman Michael Murphy argued that this resolution is important to because the “leading cause of pollution to our water system is really through non-point water sources” and this resolution targets those sources. Those sources includes streets and parking lots and this resolution address ways to reduce the amount of paved area which improves the grounds ability to absorb storm water. This resolution was passed and will go before the City Plan Commission for approval.

Why Businesses Are Attacking The State’s Freeway Plan

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation's latest freeway project could "virtually suffocate downtown Milwaukee," a letter from the Downtown Business Improvement District complains.