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A Letter from Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett
July 26, 2007
Posted by: Carol
As news of Portland's Green Dividend makes its way around the country, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has been advocating the development and use of a comprehensive public transportation system in his city. He recently visited Portland and Denver to get an understanding of how those cities' transit systems are used along with the economic development opportunities they afford. Following his trips, he wrote this open letter, which appeared on the Small Business Times Milwaukee Biz Blog:
Dear Friends:
Earlier this month, I traveled to Portland, Ore., and Denver, Colo., to study the highly successful public transportation systems in those cities.
Our Milwaukee delegation included County Executive Scott Walker, Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce president Tim Sheehy and philanthropist Michael Cudahy. We met with engineers, local transit experts and city officials in Portland and Denver, and toured and rode the transportation systems in both cities.
Our goal was to learn what public transportation means to these communities, and to see first-hand the tremendous economic development opportunities generated by successful mass transit systems.
We saw how a modern, intermodal public transportation system can create jobs, spark economic growth, reduce sprawl, attract young professionals and help a city reach new levels of greatness.
Read the full letter from Mayor Barrett here.
Brendan, July 26, 2007
As a former Milwaukeean, I'm skeptical of anything Barrett gets behind. He has a tendancy of being rather embarassingly populist, and has always lacked any kind of real vision for the city. I'll never forget when he was running for mayor and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel interviewed him and his opponent; one of the questions was about their dream urban planning project, and Barrett's answer was that he'd love to have a hotline where people could call in to report potholes around the city. That was *it*. Another glowing example of his incompetence came after the blessed failure of the abysmal PabstCity "redevelopment" that proposed to tear down so much of the historic Pabst Brewery complex that it would have lost its historic landmark status. Barrett expressed outrage and railed against the city council for nixing this project. Now, a visionary developer is restoring the complex and selling it off lot by lot, preserving much of the complex and creating a mixed use hub instead of the glorified suburban mall bubble that was originally proposed. If Barrett had had his way...I shudder just thinking about it. Now, he comes out with this transit system...when it was first proposed a few months ago, I laughed out loud. I find it amazing that anyone would propose another Detroit Peoplemover. The whole thing seems rather short-sighted, and I'm not surprised to see the mayor using the "everyone else is doing it" argument to push his plan. I hope and pray that someone with some spark and innovative ideas steps up to the plate in the next mayoral election...Barrett is dead weight tied to Milwaukee's feet -- an especially disappointing mayor after John Norquist. Norquist may have had some personal issues, but vision was one thing that he never lacked.
Link: http://thewhereblog.blogspot.com
daver, July 30, 2007
Barrett's plan has much more in common with Portland's streetcar than Detroit's Peoplemover.