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County adopts resolution ending ICE detainers for non-criminal immigrants | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
May 29, 2012
Peggy West, county supervisor for the 12th district, speaks to the board. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
Immigrants in Milwaukee who are detained for non-violent offenses will no longer be subject to additional Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigations, following the passage of Resolution 12-224 by the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors.
In a victory for the immigrant rights group Voces De La Frontera and its supporters, the county board passed the resolution, championed by 12 District County Supervisor Peggy West, by a vote of 14-4.
The resolution directs Milwaukee sheriffs to decline ICE detention requests unless they involve persons who have specific kinds of criminal records (such as felony or non-traffic misdemeanor convictions, for example), are criminal defendants or have outstanding criminal warrants, or are suspected of gang or terrorist activities.
Currently, the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) honors all ICE detainer requests. Sheriffs are asked to place a hold of up to 48 hours on an inmate to allow ICE to investigate whether that person should be processed for deportation.
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Supporters of the resolution argued that detainer policies are harming families and that even those guilty of only minor traffic offenses are being deported.
Voces president, Primitivo Torres (center) celebrates with supporters outside the board room after the vote. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
“The vote was a good step in keeping families together here in Milwaukee; these hard working people are non-criminals and pose no threat to society,” said Primitivo Torres, president of Voces.
Supervisor Deanna Alexander of the 18 District, one of four board members who voted against the resolution, said she couldn’t support it because it amounted to failing to cooperate with ICE.
County Executive Chris Abele, who had previously threatened to veto the resolution, said that it would have no practical effect because ICE detainers are federal law, and thus would not be impacted by local policies.
The 14 votes were enough to make the resolution veto-proof.
West disagrees with Abele’s interpretation, saying that the detainers from ICE are not mandatory, but are simply requests.
She said that passage of the resolution would save the sheriff’s department money. Its budget has been cut $14 million this year. West added that some counties in Arizona have adopted a similar policy.
Supervisor David Bowen (10 District), who also sponsored the resolution, said that the measure helps protect the working class and the poor.
“We’re here to do what’s right; we should be pursuing cases that are worth the time,” Bowen said.
About 20 supporters of the resolution, included many from religious groups, attended the hearing.
Joyce Ellwanger wore a black Milwaukee Inner-city Congregations Allied for Hope (MICAH) shirt and held a sign in support of the measure.
“We are all immigrants and need to be treated with equity rather than punitively.”


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7279479038_0047ab0f94_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
May 28, 2012

source: news-milwaukeenns

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Adam Carr


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7279480880_b5028fb2b5_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
May 28, 2012


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Photo 12: The colorful bike racks of Thurston Woods | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
May 29, 2012
One of the colorful bicycle racks in Thurston Woods. The staff and youth of the Agape Community Center came up with a way to beautify the neighborhood, and inspire kids to bike.
Named for William J. Thurston, an oyster trader who also dealt in real estate, Thurston Woods is very green and tree-lined, giving it the feeling of a suburban neighborhood. It is home to the Agape Community Center and the Historic Berryland housing development.


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thurstonwoods_composite | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
May 27, 2012


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thurstonwoods_sign | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
May 27, 2012


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Neighbors plant and mingle at ‘Bloom and Groom’ events | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
May 30, 2012
For the second straight year, residents of Milwaukee neighborhoods purchased low-cost flowers and planted them at their homes and community gardens as part of the city’s Bloom and Groom event.
A project of Milwaukee Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative (HNI), Bloom and Groom aimed to beautify neighborhoods and foster cooperation within communities.
The event, co-sponsored by Lowe’s, which contributed $18,000 worth of flowers and free delivery, included low-cost flower sales in each participating neighborhood.
Fransisco Sandoval, who attended the Layton Boulevard West Neighbors (LBWN) Bloom and Groom with his wife, purchased lilies and coneflowers.
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“My house needed something nice for the front yard,” said Sandoval as he paid about  $10 for the annuals.
Sandoval was one of hundreds who attended community-building activities held at three LBW locations.
Volunteers turned over soil and planted at two community gardens, one in Burnham Park and the other at the pocket park on the corner of South 29 and West Burnham Avenue that replaced a demolished nuisance property.
Bill Baskerville, who tended to a plot at the pocket park, began at 8:30 in the morning planting tomatoes, beets, green beans and cucumbers.
“I’m doing it for the good of the community,” Baskerville said.
Other Bloom and Groom events were held in the Havenwoods, Lincoln Village, Thurston Woods, Enderis Park, Holler Park, Sherman Park and Amani neighborhoods.
Organizers of the Amani event invited visitors to explore an art exhibit, while at Lincoln Village visitors were introduced to the new “Peoples Park,” an educational and recreational addition to the neighborhood.
David Weber, community outreach liaison for the city of Milwaukee, explained that providing low-cost flowers to residents was secondary. The event’s real goal is to get people from the neighborhoods to spend time together.
Each location hosted a block party after the flower sale.
“We want neighbors to come out and get to know each other; to care about each other,” Weber said.

author: Edgar Mendez


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Adam Carr
May 29, 2012


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Photo 13: Washington High School’s “Old Main” in Sherman Park | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
May 30, 2012
Celebrating its 100th anniversary last year, Washington High School (2525 N. Sherman Blvd.) is one of MPS’s oldest and most storied schools. This corridor, complete with mural, chandelier and purple Purgolder “W”s on the doors, has been known to generations of students as “Old Main.” Prominent Washington graduates include Senator Herb Kohl, former Wisconsin governor Lee Dreyfus, Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig, NBA star Latrell Sprewell, actor Gene Wilder and many more.
Sherman Park has had a longstanding commitment to diversity. In the 1970s, the Sherman Park Community Association successfully fought against predatory real estate practices known as redlining and blockbusting and halted a freeway from
dividing the neighborhood. Today, the spirit of integration lives on in this large,
diverse neighborhood.
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sherman_park_signii | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
May 27, 2012


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shermanpark_compositeiii | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
May 29, 2012


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Photo 14: Heart & Hope and Baylor murals in Harambee | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
May 31, 2012
Pedestrians and vehicles passing Heart and Hope Place, at the intersection of Port Washington and MLK Drive, are greeted by colorful, powerful paintings by Milwaukee artist Reggie Baylor. The housing development and the artwork have brought new life to the street since their completion last year.
In the 1970s and ’80s, Harambee (which means “all pull together” in Swahili) once had more than 100 active block clubs. Today, the neighborhood has seen a rise in investment, clearly evidenced on a drive through the historic renovation and new development on Martin Luther King Drive.


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DSC_5712 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
May 27, 2012


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harambee_composite | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
May 27, 2012


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Victory Garden Initiative aims to make city ‘harvestable’ | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Jennifer Reinke
May 31, 2012
Volunteers Chao Y. Lor, Sasha Peters and Barbara Richards shovel soil into a new raised-bed garden installed by Victory Garden Initiative and St. Michael’s Parish Green Team. (Photo by Jennifer Reinke)
Imagine being able to walk out your door or down the block to pluck plump red tomatoes fresh from the vine, crisp sugar snap peas, organic lettuce, baby bok choy, sweet carrots or spicy radishes.
Victory Garden Initiative’s fourth annual “blitz” made this possible for many Milwaukee residents when 300 volunteers installed nearly 300 raised-bed gardens throughout the city.
Victory Garden Initiative builds communities of people who grow their own food. The organization envisions “a Milwaukee where in the [growing] season every person – not just people with resources – has access to fresh… fruits and veggies,” said Executive Director Gretchen Mead. “We really could make Milwaukee a harvestable city.”
This year, Victory Garden Initiative partnered with the City of Milwaukee Neighborhood Improvement Development Corporation (NIDC) to install gardens in Uptown Crossing, Silver City, Harambee, Amani and Borchert Field – all Targeted Investment Neighborhoods. Residents paid $25 and other funds came from NIDC.
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The 4-foot-by-8-foot gardens usually cost $150 and are made of untreated lumber filled with one cubic yard of Purple Cow Organics soil. It’s a simple, replicable structure, which makes installation possible with volunteer labor.
Martin Drive residents Steve Falsetti and Mary Ellen Clegg discuss gardening at Clegg’s new raised-bed garden. (Photo by Jennifer Reinke)
Each garden should produce $400 worth of food in a season – “if you know what you’re doing,” Mead said. Victory Garden Initiative has created a Garden Mentor Program to help educate new gardeners.
Mead founded the organization and coordinated the first blitz in 2008 after witnessing the negative impact of the industrialized food system on the vulnerable people she worked with as a social worker. “There are many, many issues our society is facing [that] can be responded to with food, from basic things [such as] ‘let’s turn off the TV and get outside more and meet our neighbors’,” she said.
Similar sentiments brought Barbara Richards, a retired Milwaukee Public Schools Montessori teacher, to install gardens with Victory Garden Initiative. “We need strong, resilient food production and communities that work together,” she said. A member of the Green Team at St. Michael’s Parish, 1445 N. 24th St., Richards helped start a community garden last year on land owned by the nearby Urban Day School, 1441 N. 24th St.
The garden, used by six parish families, was a collaborative effort among the Green Team, the school and Nehemiah Project, a neighboring organization at 2506 W. Vliet St., which installed three raised beds to grow fresh ingredients for salsa and hot sauce used in a jobs program.
This year, St. Michael’s Green Team worked with Victory Garden Initiative to install eight gardens on city land across the street from its first garden. Milwaukee Urban Gardens helped secure the land.
Chao Y. Lor was one of the volunteers who installed the gardens, along with Richards and about 10 other Victory Garden Initiative volunteers. Lor’s sister’s family is one of two parish families who will use the raised beds.
Some of the same volunteers braved the rain a few days later to install three gardens in the Martin Drive Community Garden on 46 Street, bringing its total number of raised beds to 11. Four are used for growing food that anyone in the neighborhood may eat.
The two beds closest to the street host bright orange poppies, a money plant with delicate purple flowers and shimmering seed pods, fuchsia bell flowers, lilies, hyssop and sunflowers. In the beds behind them Swiss chard, bok choy, kale, lettuce, mint, broccoli, kohlrabi and radishes emerge.
Steve Falsetti, a Martin Drive resident and third grade teacher at Victory K8 School for the Gifted and Talented, spearheaded the effort to build the garden after moving to the neighborhood in 2008.
“It has become a center for neighbors to orbit themselves around,” he said. Neighborhood kids have helped to plant, move wood chips and build beds. The garden is home to an annual picnic and last year a white sheet hung on the fence became a movie screen for nighttime entertainment.
Soon after the raised beds were installed, Martin Drive resident Mary Ellen Clegg stopped by the garden with seed packets in hand, eager to start planting sunflowers, radishes, tomatoes, onions, green beans and lavender.
Clegg lives in an apartment that doesn’t have adequate gardening space but grew up with a dad who was an excellent gardener.
“I enjoyed having [a garden] because [food] was fresh and you could get [it] right away,” she said. “It’s an accomplishment. It’s fun to watch things grow,” she added before getting to work on her garden.

author: Jennifer Reinke


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Adam Carr
May 30, 2012


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Adam Carr
May 30, 2012


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Fondy Food Center in tight race for fruit orchard | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Jennifer Reinke
June 1, 2012
Fondy farmers assist a customer at the market. (Photo by Dwayne Burtin)
Fondy Food Center moved up to fourth place in a nationwide competition to win an organic fruit orchard valued at $5,000. Fondy was in ninth place when orchards were awarded to the top five vote-getters in the first round of competition. Ninety-five organizations are now competing for the orchards.
The second round of competition, which ends July 2, will award orchards to the next four vote-getters. Voting is allowed once per day at www.communitiestakeroot.com. The contest will run until Aug. 30.
The winners will receive 20 fruit trees, shrubs, an irrigation system and training in organic fruit production. If Fondy is one of the top 17 vote-getters, it would plant the trees at its Port Washington farm and the fruit would be sold at the Fondy Farmers Market.
“Winning this orchard will allow our farmers, most of whom are low-income, predominantly immigrant farmers, the opportunity to plant and grow fruit trees and shrubs using organic growing methods,” said Young Kim, Fondy Food Center’s executive director.
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The competition is sponsored by Edy’s Fruit Bars Communities Take Root Program. Edy’s has partnered with Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to benefiting communities across the world by planting fruit trees and plants.


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Adam Carr
May 31, 2012


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Informal poll suggests high turnout in Tuesday election | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Sharon McGowan
June 4, 2012
Washington Park resident Melissa Johnson, 34, fishing at the Washington Park pond. (Photo by Jennifer Reinke)
An unscientific poll of central city residents conducted during the past weekend found that of those eligible to vote, 88 percent plan to go to the polls tomorrow. Fifty-three percent said they voted in the 2010 matchup between Gov. Scott Walker and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service surveyed 70 people, 59 of whom were eligible to vote. Of those, 52 plan to vote; only 44 voted in 2010.
Not surprisingly in a city in which Barrett received nearly 74 percent of the vote in the 2010 gubernatorial election, a sizable percent of those interviewed said they plan to vote for Barrett. Of likely voters, 69 percent said they’d vote for the Milwaukee mayor compared to 6 percent for the current governor. Twenty-five percent said they are undecided or declined to reveal their choice.
Confirming the importance of voter turnout, 75 percent of those who said they did not vote in 2010 plan to vote this year. Nine plan to vote for Barrett and one plans to vote for Walker; the rest were undecided or declined to identify their candidate.
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Connie Lind, 28, interviewed in Lincoln Village, was the only person who said she was planning to switch candidates, from Barrett to Walker. Her main reason, she said, was “lower taxes.”
Horam Alfaro, 54, stands in his yard. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
Debbie Miller, 58, was interviewed in Walker’s Point. She said she did not vote in 2010, but plans to vote this time because she doesn’t like “the divisiveness of the state. I don’t trust what Walker is saying. It hasn’t been a shared sacrifice.”
The survey was conducted in the communities of Clarke Square, Layton Boulevard West, Lindsay Heights, Concordia, Harambee, Washington Park, Lincoln Village and Walker’s Point.
Asked what the winner can do to help their community, jobs was the most frequent response, followed by education. Other issues raised included safety, property taxes, debt reduction, more help for senior citizens, the poor and middle class, and more accessible government.

author: Sharon McGowan


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Adam Carr
June 4, 2012


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Adam Carr
June 4, 2012


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Photo 15: An Asian market in Havenwoods | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
June 4, 2012
Once a car repair shop, the Milwaukee Asian Market on Mill Road and 76 in Havenwoods opened in June 2009. Although unremarkable on the outside, its interior is colorful, lively and has everything from food to clothing to toys to toiletries.
On the far north side of Milwaukee, Havenwoods gets its name from the 237-acre Havenwoods State Forest. The neighborhood features an active industrial corridor, a growing Hmong population, and is home to Uihlein Soccer Park and Growing Power, Inc.
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havenwoods_composite | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
May 27, 2012


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havenwoods_sign | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
May 27, 2012


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Journey House holds grand opening for new center | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
June 5, 2012
A new chapter began for Journey House when it unveiled the Center for Family Learning and Youth Athletics, located at 2110 W. Scott St. in the Clarke Square neighborhood.
The long-awaited center, which will house programming for both Journey House and Longfellow, began as the vision of former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist and Michele Bria, now CEO of Journey House, in the late 1990s.
The striking new building features amenities such as a dance studio, a state-of-the-art computer lab, a teen lounge, classrooms, a large cafeteria and a gymnasium. Journey House administrative offices are also consolidated in the facility.
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The building alleviates a space crunch that has hampered Journey House and Longfellow for decades.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett praised the partnerships that have developed while turning the idea into reality.
“This center is what the city is all about,” Barrett said.
Bria thanked a large crowd of volunteers, donors and community partners assembled in the cream, red and blue gymnasium.
In particular, she singled out Wendell Smith, principal of Longfellow, for praise.
“Sometimes it was dark and chaotic, but he always saw the light,” Bria said of Smith.
Bria, who cited the center as proof that dreams do come true, concluded her speech with a Chinese proverb.
“The journey is the reward,” she said.
The center will hold a grand opening for the public on July 21.


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jh1 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
June 4, 2012


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Student exhibition brings “March to Equality” to life | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Mark Doremus and Karen Slattery
June 6, 2012
The civil rights era is alive and very real in the minds of high school students who’ve created a museum-quality exhibit that documents Milwaukee’s open housing movement of the sixties.
The students from NOVA School, a middle school and high school on the city’s north side, hosted their exhibition at the Arts@Large gallery Monday night. Arts@Large partnered with the Northwest Opportunities Vocational Academy, an MPS alternative school, to help students curate the exhibit. It draws on archival photos and interviews to tell the story of the “March to Equality” — the campaign that helped desegregate the Milwaukee housing market.
In the sixties, Milwaukee’s rapidly increasing black population was pressing hard against the boundaries of a 75-block area of the city’s inner core. Written and unwritten codes of racial discrimination prevented them from moving outside the core to better housing in other neighborhoods.
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Starting in 1967, blacks responded by taking to the streets to demand an open housing ordinance in Milwaukee. For 200 nights they marched, joined by supporters from across the nation. The movement was led by the Milwaukee NAACP Youth Council, an affiliated group called the Commandos and Father James Groppi, a Catholic priest who was a mentor to the Youth Council and the Commandos.
In the Arts@Large gallery, students from NOVA school have assembled dramatic photos from the archives of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. They’ve created other exhibits from scratch that depict key elements of the open housing movement.  And they have interviewed movement veterans, including Vel Phillips, Prentice McKinney and Peggy Rozga. That research allows the students to speak authoritatively on the movement.
The students shared their knowledge recently as docents of the Arts@Large installation. Groppi’s widow (he left the priesthood in 1976) was also there to share memories and lead a discussion and poetry workshop. Together, the students and Rozga were able to draw a vivid picture of the open housing movement and its consequences for Milwaukee.

author: Mark Doremus and Karen Slattery


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Adam Carr
June 6, 2012


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Milwaukee turnout not enough for Barrett | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Sharon McGowan
June 7, 2012
Nearly three-quarters of registered voters in the city of Milwaukee turned out for the recall election on Tuesday, according to the City of Milwaukee Election Commission. The unofficial count showed that 73.1 percent of eligible Milwaukeeans voted.
A total of 223,044 ballots were cast in Milwaukee. Mayor Tom Barrett got 170,702 votes, or 76.5 percent, compared to 50,582 for Gov. Scott Walker, 22.7 percent.
In the 2010 general election, 62.3 percent of Milwaukee voters cast ballots, with Barrett receiving 73.9 percent of the votes and Walker receiving 25.4 percent. The turnout in Milwaukee was higher this year, with nearly 37,000 more votes cast for governor than in 2010.
Statewide, more than 2.5 million voters participated in this year’s governor’s race, with Walker receiving 53 percent compared to Barrett’s 46 percent.
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Stein Scholars celebrate high school and college graduation | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Jennifer Reinke
June 7, 2012
Rufus King High School graduate and Stein Scholar September Winzer stands with her parents during the Kente celebration. (Photo by Jennifer Reinke)
Larsharae Hooker and the late businessman and philanthropist Martin “Marty” Stein share the same alma mater: Washington High School. Hooker graduates on June 6; Stein graduated in 1956. Despite being separated by decades, Stein’s endowment to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee connects them through the Stein Scholars pre-college program.
Stein, who died in 2006, strongly believed in education as a means to build better futures and greater opportunities. The program carries his legacy by making higher education attainable for young people in need from southeast Wisconsin. Students apply after completing their sophomore year of high school.
Hooker is one of 33 Stein Scholars graduating from high school this year. All will attend college this fall, 27 in Wisconsin.
A first-generation college student, Hooker said, “I needed somebody who’d actually been through the process to help me.”
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The program’s workshops teach participating high school juniors and seniors skills that will help them with school, careers and life. Hooker credits the program with helping her increase her ACT score and secure funding to attend Clark Atlanta University, where she plans to study accounting.
Stein Scholar Larsharae Hooker shows off her Washington High School class ring. (Photo by Jennifer Reinke)
Without the program, “I’d take on more loans,” she said.
African drumming accompanied a special recognition ceremony held Sunday at Marquette University’s Alumni Memorial Union.
“This year is special because we are able to use the plural,” said Alfred Parchia, director of program development-Graduation Plus. Graduation Plus is a collection of pre-college programs run by Boys & Girls Clubs. The attendees celebrated both the graduating high school seniors and the program’s first class of college graduates. This year 111 Stein Scholars were enrolled in either a two-year or four-year college degree program.
High school graduating class speakers September Winzer and Kenneth Myatt credited program staff with their success.
“This is also a family for me,” said Winzer, a Rufus King High School graduate. “I feel I can take on any challenge and I’m more than ready to take on my first year of college and beyond.” In fact, the program provides support – financial, emotional and logistical – through college.
Myatt, a Messmer High School graduate, recalled the “nonstop emails, calls and voicemails” from staff members to combat his “skills of procrastination.” In the end, he said, “Those were what I really needed to give me the push.” Because of their persistence, he will be attending the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater to study graphic design.
A Kente celebration, which has West African origins, recognized the role others played in the graduates’ success. One by one, each student stood in front facing a chosen parent, friend or role model. Program staff read what the student had written in thanks for support from that person or persons. The role models then welcomed the graduates into adulthood by placing a kente stole around their necks.
In addition to this emotional recognition, Stein’s sons, Dan and Larry, shared anecdotes from their father’s life, revealing his belief that education is key to improving lives. The students received starfish key chains as a reminder of Stein’s favorite inspirational story, which teaches that each person can make a positive impact on another’s life.
Gabrielle Gray was one of two graduating college students in attendance, representing the first class of Stein Scholars.
In addition to helping her graduate from Rufus King High School and obtain a degree in political science from Marquette University, she said, “Stein Scholars really helped me to grow up a bit and to realize what I wanted in life.”
Gray still applies the program’s goal-setting tools to her life, and she’s ambitious. Her one-year plan is to attend graduate school for public administration and, next summer, buy a foreclosed home in Milwaukee and fix it up. In the next five years, she hopes to work on educational policy in Washington, DC. In the next 10 years, Gray plans to have a family and obtain her PhD.
Stein Scholars has been with her all along, Gray said, supporting her when she was stressed; helping her decide on a major; encouraging her to study abroad in Ghana, Madrid and Washington, DC.
“They were always there, and they’ll always be there,” she said, adding that she plans to follow the advice of program staff to do “whatever’s right in your heart.”


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Adam Carr
June 6, 2012


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Adam Carr
June 6, 2012


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Youth group protests sale of tobacco at Family Dollar | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
June 11, 2012
Marty Hagedorn, program coordinator at Pathfinders, leads the group in protest. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
The Youth Rising Up group at Pathfinders is not happy that tobacco is now among the products the Family Dollar store chain now sells to its budget-conscious clientele.
The group recently held a boisterous protest in front of the Family Dollar store at 930 N. 27th Street, one of nine in Milwaukee.
Youth Rising Up is one of several programs at Pathfinders, 4200 N. Holton St., that aim to help young people take charge of their lives, connect with resources and contribute to the community.
Chanting “knock knock, who’s there, a company who doesn’t care,” the group of teens marched up and down the store’s west sidewalk, gaining the attention of drivers passing down the busy street, police patrols and Family Dollar customers.
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The young people followed that protest by speaking out against Family Dollar at the city’s Judiciary and Legislation Committee meeting at City Hall.
Members of Youth Rising Up protest the sale of cigarettes at the Family Dollar store, 2510 W. North Ave. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
Youth Rising Up member Mike Chojnacki called the chain’s decision to sell tobacco inappropriate and harmful.
“They shouldn’t have them here; now they sell baby food, clothes and cigars,” said Chojnacki, shaking his head and rejoining the group for a chant of “no cigs for the kids.”
Shante House, who lives near the store on North Avenue, said that the group is wrong in singling out Family Dollar.
House said that Family Dollar is just like any other store and should be able to sell what it wants, adding that cigarettes are sold at every gas station.
Marty Hagedorn, leader of the Youth Rising Up group and program coordinator at Pathfinders, disagreed, saying that the decision to sell tobacco conflicts with the store’s family-friendly image and also that it’s unfair that people in poor neighborhoods are bombarded with damaging products.
By protesting, Hagedorn hopes his group can open the eyes of the community and also county supervisors, who are expected to draft a statement soon opposing the ease in which stores are allowed to sell alcohol and tobacco in poor neighborhoods, according to Hagedorn.
“There are not enough limits or regulations keeping stores from selling harmful products in disadvantaged neighborhoods,” Hagedorn said.
County Supervisor David Bowen of the 10th District also lent his support to the protest in a press release. He stated, “This demonstration lets Family Dollar know that people in neighborhoods where these stores are located want them to stop making it easy for kids to get hooked on these harmful products.”
He also noted that low-income people have the highest smoking rates, mostly due to targeted marketing.
Most of the Family Dollar stores in Milwaukee are located in high-poverty neighborhoods.
The group plans to follow up with more protests at Family Dollar stores across Milwaukee, Hagedorn said. Family Dollar representatives could not be reached for comment.


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Adam Carr
June 10, 2012


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Adam Carr
June 10, 2012


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Youth philanthropy group seeks community project ideas | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
June 12, 2012
DreamBig! is a new grant program of Lead2Change, Inc. Two grants for $5,000 will be disbursed to two youth groups who have an idea to make Milwaukee a better place as a result of their community service project. Instruction for submission are as follows:
1. Applications must be submitted to the Lead2Change offices by Monday, July 16, 2012 at 5pm.
2. After submission, applicants will be required to make formal presentations of their proposals to Lead2Change’s Youth Advisory Council on Monday, July 30th or Tuesday, July 31st, 2012.
3. The August 17, 2012 event celebrates the recipients of the 2012 DreamBig! grant.  This event will be held at ManpowerGroup Headquarters: 100 Manpower Place, Milwaukee, WI 53212.  To RSVP, please call the Lead2Change office at 414-226-2410.  Reception starts at 5pm, event starts at 6pm.
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*Please note, youth representatives must be present at the interviews and DreamBig! event to receive the DreamBig! grant.
There are almost no limits with what kind of project you can create, what kind of need you want to address, or how you want to make Milwaukee a better place.
Be creative, have fun, and submit a grant proposal today.


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Palermo’s strike leader speaks out | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
June 19, 2012
Strikers march in front of Palermo’s Pizza, 3301 W. Canal St. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
Roberto Silva thinks back to 1999, when he began working for Palermo’s Pizza company, then run out of two houses connected front-to-back on West Maple Street on the south side of Milwaukee.
He remembers the company expanding to include the house on the left and then the one on the right.
Now, Palermo’s is housed in a sprawling new building at 3301 W. Canal St., but instead of being inside doing his job as a second shift team lead, he’s outside, marching up and down the sidewalk as the sun beams down on his gray hood.
Silva and 150 of his co-workers are on strike.
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They’re marching for improved work conditions, better wages and job security, which they believe will come only if they form a union.
The strike began on June 1.
According to Silva, company representatives have yet to sit down and negotiate. He said that the company is trying to thwart their effort to unionize.
Strikers march in front of Palermo’s Pizza, 3301 W. Canal St. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
According to Silva, most of the workers’ grievances are related to the company’s expansion. As the company grew, pressure for production increased, time spent training new employees was slashed and intimidation grew, Silva said.
Palermo’s representatives could not be reached for comment.
“People who’ve been working here for a long time were damaging their bodies while new workers are being forced to run dangerous machinery with little to no training all because of the pressure to produce,” Silva said in Spanish.
There was also verbal abuse, according to Silva, recalling a supervisor he says spurred the effort to organize in about 2006.
The workers approached Voces De La Frontera, 1027 S. 5th St., in 2008, asking organizers for the immigrant rights group how they could defend themselves from what they felt were unfair working conditions, Silva said.
The workers and representatives of Voces decided that a union should be formed.
Years later, groups of workers began circulating petitions calling on workers to unionize. Silva says that once word about the petitions got back to supervisors the situation got much worse.
Soon, the tension and frustration reached a limit, and the situation exploded to its current state, he added.
It’s a tough pill to swallow for Silva, who said that sometimes he used to work seven days a week and 14 hours a day for the company, at the expense of spending time with his family.
He walks the line with his co-workers knowing that his wife is carrying his second child, a girl.
The workers are living off their savings and food donated by sympathizers. Eventually, they might get some pay from a strike fund, said Silva.
He considers the situation at Palermo’s an example of corporate greed. “It’s about money and numbers; we aren’t anything,” Silva says glumly.
Workers at Palermo’s Pizza will vote July 6 to decide whether or not to unionize.
Silva acknowledges that the strikers could lose their jobs, and though it saddens him, he said feels the risk is worth the reward or the sacrifice.
“Even if it harms us personally, it will benefit us because we’ll know that the next group of workers there won’t have to suffer and pay the sacrifices that we did.”


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Adam Carr
June 18, 2012


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Adam Carr
June 18, 2012


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PEARLS expands programming for at-risk girls | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Jennifer Reinke
June 19, 2012
PEARLS chief executive officer Danae D. Davis (center) with PEARLS girls Shantell Cox, Alissa Evans, Alliyha Bowman and Ambryon McKinnie during Shop the Third Ward, a fundraiser for the organization. (Photo by Jennifer Reinke)
Alliyha Bowman, 15, a sophomore at St. Joan Antida High School does not want to become a statistic. That’s why last year Bowman joined PEARLS for Teen Girls, an innovative nonprofit organization that aims to increase graduation rates and reduce teen pregnancy among Milwaukee’s girls of color ages 10 – 19.
Through community collaborations and a curriculum using girl-adult partnerships, PEARLS encourages girls’ self-development and emphasizes goal-setting and leadership.
The challenges faced by at-risk girls are numerous and complex.
“There’s the obvious and the not so obvious,” said Danae D. Davis, PEARLS chief executive officer. We’re all too aware of the obvious: poverty, dysfunction, incarceration, abuse, failing schools, teen pregnancy – to name a few. Then, there’s the unobvious.
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“On the surface she looks like she’s fine. But she lacks self-esteem so deeply that she’s making all the wrong choices,” said Davis.
PEARLS girl Shantell Cox, a junior at Riverside University High School, looks on as Mayor Tom Barrett reads a proclamation celebrating PEARLS Day. (Photo by Jennifer Reinke)
Despite this range of challenges, Davis believes PEARLS can work for every girl.
“The reasoning can be different but the impact just the same,” said Davis, who said she was once one of those “unobvious” girls who could have benefitted from the program. Today, she’s a picture of success, having graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School and held leadership roles in both the private and public sectors for more than 25 years.
Always involved in youth development, Davis jumped at the opportunity to lead PEARLS in 2006 during a time of organizational transition. Since then, PEARLS has grown from serving 120 to 850 girls annually.
Alissa Evans, 14, and Ambryon McKinnie, 15, joined PEARLS along with Bowman in their first year at St. Joan Antida. Shantell Cox, 16, a junior at Riverside University High School has been in PEARLS since joining in fifth grade at Business and Economics Academy of Milwaukee. The program helped them to become better leaders and communicators, achieve goals and participate in the community, they said.
McKinnie said the program has given her a sisterhood of “people to depend on when [she needs] to talk.” The girls giggled collectively when they explained that PEARLS allows them to talk about things they don’t want to discuss with parents or others who would judge – important topics such as boys, sex and puberty.
This summer Evans, who was named St. Joan Antida PEARLS Girl of the Year, will travel with the PEARLS National College Tour to visit historically black colleges and universities in Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Having observed her mother’s struggle to find a trustworthy auto mechanic and inspired by PEARLS’ commitment to women, she aspires to major in business and minor in auto mechanic engineering, and then open her own auto body shop catering to female customers.
PEARLS’ 10,000 Girls Initiative will extend the organization’s programming to reach even more girls through a five-phase growth plan. The timeline is flexible, Davis said, because she wants to be sure the quality of programming doesn’t diminish as capacity increases.
By 2013, PEARLS plans to add 250 girls at 10 new sites, bringing the total number of girls served annually to 1,100. The outreach and recruitment plan maintains PEARLS’ practice of leveraging community partnerships and complementing services offered by site partners, such as schools and health clinics.
Traditionally, organizations have requested PEARLS services at their sites. With the new initiative, PEARLS will also reach out to new demographics. A partnership with the award-winning Wraparound Milwaukee program will serve girls with complex mental health problems and partnerships with Hmong American Peace Academy and International Peace Academy will bring PEARLS’ curriculum to Hmong girls.
To honor PEARLS’ success, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett – a former classmate of Davis’ at the UW Law School – recently issued a proclamation celebrating PEARLS Day.
As part of the celebration, the community was invited to participate in the “PEARL of Wisdom” social media campaign. The advice will be shared with PEARLS’ 25 graduating high school seniors and the community.
Asked for her own PEARL of Wisdom in 140 characters or less, Davis revealed the organization’s values: “You can be anything that you want to be. Believe in yourself and go for it. It is yours to have. You are worthy of whatever it is.”
Bowman said: “We are all loved so we should love ourselves. We can accomplish anything we set our minds to.”


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Adam Carr
June 18, 2012


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Adam Carr
June 18, 2012


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Washington Park market opens for the season | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Sue Vliet
June 20, 2012
Claire Woodall purchases a bouquet of flowers from farmer/vendor Pa Thao at the Washington Park Farmers Market. (Photo by Sue Vliet)
Opening day at the Washington Park Senior Center featured entertainment, a flea market and the opportunity for children to decorate their own reusable shopping bag, in addition to flowers, produce and prepared food.
The market will be open through Oct. 14 at the senior center, 4420 W. Vliet.
Early-season lettuce for sale at the Farmer’s Market. (Photo by Sue Vliet)
Alana, Alexis and their father, Tom Mainville, decorate shopping bags at the Washington Park Farmer’s Market. (Photo by Sue Vliet)
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Fresh flowers at the opening day of the market in Washington Park. (Photo by Sue Vliet)

author: Sue Vliet


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Adam Carr
June 19, 2012


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Adam Carr
June 19, 2012


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Adam Carr
June 19, 2012


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Adam Carr
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Prospects looking up for Walker Square Farmers’ Market | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
June 25, 2012
Customers check out the produce on opening day of the Walker Square Farmers’ Market (Photo by Sue Vliet)
Jason Cleereman, an immigration lawyer, moved to the Walker Square neighborhood in 2005, saw the park down the block and thought “what a wonderful place to have a farmer’s market.”
And, despite many ups and downs, the Walker Square Farmers’ Market, 1031 S. 9 St. in Walker Square Park, has celebrated the grand opening of its second season, offering fresh, inexpensive and healthy fruits and vegetables for neighborhood residents.
The market originally opened in 2008, though Cleereman admits it was a complete flop.
“The farmers were afraid to get out of their car; they’d come by the park and keep on driving,” Cleereman said.
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It lasted only two months.
Cleereman, who’s also president of the Walker Square Neighborhood Association, was left pondering whether the neighborhood actually wanted a farmers’ market.
The area went without a market for a few years, but in 2010, one of the few farmers who had sold his produce at the market informed Cleereman that the nearby Mitchell Street Farmers’ Market, run by Growing Power, was closing while a loft was built on the lot where it stood.
Cleereman and his partner, Chava Lee, a professor at Springfield College, approached Growing Power representatives and made a deal to bring the farmers from the Mitchell Street market to Walker Square Park to sell their produce.
The market opened in May 2011.
Sales were slow at the beginning but had picked up enough by late August to convince Cleereman and Lee that the market could thrive in the neighborhood and that the residents needed it.
After a dispute with Growing Power, Cleereman, Lee, other organizers and most of the farmers, nearly all of whom are Hmong, cut ties with the organization and ran the market on their own.
Most of the farmers from last year have returned, and the market appears to have gained the momentum that eluded it during its original run.
Open every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., the market offers residents everything from small russet potatoes, peas, onions and many other fruits and vegetables that are in season and grown locally.
Sunday’s grand opening ceremony featured live music, smiles, an abundance of healthy food and shoppers.
Vendors at the market, which sits across the street from UCC, accept WIC checks.
The market, situated in a one-square-block park, sits right where Cleereman envisioned it seven years and many sleepless nights ago.
Through it all, Cleereman is glad that the group’s persistence has resulted in healthier and more affordable food for residents of Walker Square, a neighborhood he’s spent countless hours advocating for.
“It’s easy to get down on yourself when things start falling apart, but I think this market is essential to reviving this community.”


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Adam Carr
June 24, 2012


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Adam Carr
June 24, 2012


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Adam Carr
June 24, 2012


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E.B. Garner Fishing Club reaches 400 youth | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Jennifer Reinke
June 26, 2012
Certified angler E.B. Garner instructs Jeffery Williams, 15, during Garner’s fishing club at Washington Park Pond as Malik Poston, 16, looks on. (Photo by Jennifer Reinke)
It’s a sweltering summer day, and E.B. Garner is wondering if anyone will brave the heat to show up for the bi-weekly fishing club he founded and hosts at Washington Park Pond just outside the Urban Ecology Center.
Gradually, a handful of youth gather at the pond.
Ajalae Adams, 12, a seventh grader at Whitman Middle School in Wauwatosa is the first to arrive, with her grandparents, Stephanie and Kevin Hardison. She wants to learn to fish, and “grandchildren always prevail,” says Kevin Hardison.
Friends and Washington High School students Malik Poston, 16; Raphael Bell, 16; and Jeffery Williams, 15 arrive shortly thereafter. It is Bell’s first time fishing.
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Garner, who buys all the equipment with his own funds and with some donations, walks his new students through the basics.
Emphasizing the pole’s straight path in a cast, he says, “It’s just like shooting a basketball.” Using a giant demonstration hook, he warns about its sharpness and shows how to tie the line to it.
E.B. Garner demonstrates how to tie a line to a fishing hook at Washington Park Pond during his fishing club. (Photo by Jennifer Reinke)
For the first couple rounds, he baits the participants’ hooks with plump nightcrawlers. After that, they’re on their own. That’s Garner’s system.
“A dollar to the first fish,” says Garner. Seconds later, Stephanie Hardison is reeling in the first catch of the day.
Ironically, Garner grew up near a river and had to eat fish every weekend, so now, he said, “I don’t eat fish period.
A certified angler and retired county parks employee, Garner started the club 15 years ago after promising a neighbor boy he’d teach him to fish if his grades and behavior improved. His own grandchildren also had been begging him to take them fishing. What started as a group of 12 quickly grew.
This year, 400 youth turned out for Garner’s club during Wisconsin’s annual Free Fishing Weekend in early June.
He recalled one girl, about 7 years old, who showed up at 9 a.m. and fished all day long. Just before 4 p.m., she caught her first fish. Garner knows she’ll succeed at fishing because she had “so much patience,” he said.
“That little girl did a dance I never seen before.”


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Adam Carr
June 26, 2012


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Adam Carr
June 26, 2012


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Hunger Task Force takes over county hatchery | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Jennifer Reinke
June 27, 2012
E.B. Garner shows youth how to cast at Washington Park Pond. (Photo by Jennifer Reinke)
For the first time this year, the Hunger Task Force has leased the former Milwaukee County Fish Hatchery located on a 150-acre farm in Franklin.
Hunger Task Force has operated the farm since 2002 in partnership with Milwaukee County. In 2007, Hunger Task Force signed a 10-year lease with the County that included the farmland, machinery and some buildings, but not the hatchery.
The County’s 2012 budget called for the closure of the hatchery in the spring of 2014, after all fish were released. The budget also directed the Parks Department to “seek out potential entities that would be interested in assuming full responsibility for the Fish Hatchery operations from the County.”
“The Hunger Task Force already leased most of the property here and saw the value of the hatchery,” said Hunger Task Force fish culturist Dave Mueller.
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E.B. Garner has been teaching kids to fish at Washington Park Pond for 15 years, since promising a neighbor boy he’d teach him if his grades and behavior improved. What started as a group of 12 grew to 400 during Wisconsin’s annual Free Fishing Weekend in early June. Read More
E.B. Garner has been teaching kids to fish at Washington Park Pond for 15 years, since promising a neighbor boy he’d teach him if his grades and behavior improved. What started as a group of 12 grew to 400 during Wisconsin’s annual Free Fishing Weekend in early June.
So, this year the lease was renegotiated to include all of the buildings and the hatchery. “The renegotiated lease stipulates that the Hunger Task Force continue the hatchery’s mission of stocking fish into Milwaukee County parks,” said Mueller.
The hatchery raises and stocks approximately 40,000 fish annually— yellow perch, sunfish, rainbow trout and largemouth bass —in 17 County Park ponds and lagoons. In addition, the Department of Natural Resources stocks 77,000 rainbow trout in 57 Southeast Wisconsin community-fishing waters, including about two dozen in Milwaukee County.
The fish are safe to eat, as long as consumers follow the Department of Natural Resource’s safe-eating guidelines for Wisconsin’s inland waters. These indicate the recommended monthly limit of different kinds of fish for women, men and children.
“The fish aren’t staving off hunger,” said Mueller, but they do “support recreational fishing for the citizens of Milwaukee County.” He referred to the old adage, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
The hatchery is a year-round operation. Community members are able to tour the hatchery to see fish spawning, incubating and hatching. Fish also are donated to the Milwaukee County Zoo, the Department of Natural Resources and Discovery World for use in educational displays.
Mueller, who grew up fishing in county ponds, touted the social and economic benefits of fishing, noting that it encourages family bonding, keeps kids out of trouble and generates revenue for fishing-related businesses.
The Department of Natural Resources determines fishing regulations. The number of fish people are allowed to keep per day are posted at the lagoons. All anglers are required to have a fishing license and inland trout stamp, except youth under 16 and Wisconsin residents born before Jan. 1, 1927.
Each year, the state has a Free Fishing Weekend, and people of all ages can fish without a license, although other rules still apply. This took place the first weekend of June.
“The kids are really what this is meant for,” said Department of Natural Resources urban fisheries biologist Matt Coffaro.
Ajalae Adams, 12, takes a look at her bait as she learns to fish at the E.B. Garner Fishing Club at Washington Park Pond. (Photo by Jennifer Reinke)
And, the parks are a particularly good place for them to start fishing. Kids, said Mueller, “will get [their] feet wet but won’t drown.”
At E.B. Garner’s Fishing Club, youth learn the basics, from water safety to baiting a hook and casting, at Washington Park Pond just outside the Urban Ecology Center.
Before investing in expensive equipment, said Garner, “I encourage all parents to see if [their kids] show any interest.”
In addition to Garner’s club, youth can learn to fish at annual clinics hosted in 11 Milwaukee parks in April, in collaboration with volunteers from the Wisconsin Council of Sport Fishing Organizations and the Department of Natural Resources. There are also several ice fishing clinics in Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties.
Plenty of residents take their catch home to eat.
“Our [hatchery] fish are definitely safe and I would guess that whatever wild fish are in there are safe also,” said Mueller. This includes hardier fish such as bullheads, catfish and carp.
Coffaro noted that two major environmental contaminants, mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), aren’t a concern in most Milwaukee County park lagoons. Mercury is of greater concern in northern Wisconsin.
Both chemicals are accumulated through the food chain, which isn’t a problem because there are no large predators in urban park ponds, according to Coffaro. Moreover, he said, “stocked fish aren’t there for a long enough time” to accumulate harmful levels of pollutants.
Although Coffaro said that there generally is not a problem with contaminants in urban park ponds, the Department of Natural Resources does water quality testing where problems are suspected. Jackson Park Pond is known to contain PCBs so it is not stocked with fish.
At Washington Park Pond, Glen Grieger, a volunteer naturalist with the Urban Ecology Center, has done his own aquatic organism sampling. He said he found “biological diversity and indications of a healthy ecosystem.”


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Adam Carr
June 26, 2012


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Adam Carr
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Health care reform advocates laud Affordable Care Act ruling | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Jennifer Reinke
June 29, 2012
Citizen Action of Wisconsin executive director Robert Kraig speaks to media about the Supreme Court’s Affordable Care Act ruling while Milwaukee state representatives Jon Richards and Sandy Pasch look on. (Photo by Jennifer Reinke)
Wisconsin health care professionals and advocates lauded the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision to uphold most provisions of the Affordable Care Act, including the controversial individual mandate requiring most Americans to obtain health insurance by 2014.
“I was relieved and happy because I believe that health care reform is necessary to improve the situation for the uninsured here in Milwaukee,” said Dr. Madelaine Tully, a family physician at Lisbon Avenue Health Center. Twenty-five percent of the center’s patients are uninsured and many are underinsured.
“It’s going to have the most impact on my uninsured patients,” said Tully. “A lot of folks who have burdensome co-pays will be relieved.”
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Patients won’t be the only beneficiaries. With more patients insured, the clinic will have more resources to carry out a planned expansion, she said.
“Every single one of [our uninsured] patients will be getting new options for health care – it’s huge for our bottom line,” said Tully. “We’re poised to grow with the growing demand.”
Dr. Earnestine Willis, Kellner professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin, foresees that “the greatest benefit to my patient population…is that it gives consumers more protection.” She added that the law emphasizes preventive health services at no cost. “I believe that is a benefit to children and families.”
According to a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report issued in March 2011, an estimated 57 percent of uninsured Wisconsin residents would gain coverage as a result of the Affordable Care Act, dropping the uninsured rate to 5.1 percent. More than half of uninsured individuals in the U.S. will be able to get coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
“This is a great day for the patients and consumers of Wisconsin,” said Candice Owley, a registered nurse and president of the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals at a news conference outside Milwaukee’s federal courthouse. “As front line workers our nurses…know this is the right thing to do.”
Added Bruce Colburn, executive officer at Service Employees International Union Healthcare Wisconsin, “(With the ruling) we see that health care for all is a right for every man, woman and child in this country.”
Designed to be implemented in stages beginning with its enactment in 2010, the law already has had a positive effect on thousands of people in Wisconsin. For example, as of December 2011, 43,000 young adults in Wisconsin gained insurance coverage under a provision of the act that allows parents to insure children up to age 26 on their family plan.
With the law upheld, said Marquette University assistant professor of political science Paul Nolette, “Simply put, the provisions of the Affordable Care Act will continue to be enforced.”
However, how provisions of the law are implemented by individual state governments remains to be seen.
“The law by itself has a lot of dotted lines that need to be filled in,” said Marquette University associate professor of law Edward Fallone.
The expansion of Medicaid, the joint federal-state program that provides health care to poor and disabled people, is one such dotted line.
“Because of the particular demographics of Milwaukee, the Medicaid expansion will provide one of the strongest benefits for people in Milwaukee, particularly low-income people,” said Nolette. However, the state may choose not to expand the program.
In its ruling the court found that Congress overstepped its authority by threatening to revoke existing Medicaid payments to states choosing not to expand. Individual states may now choose not to accept additional federal payments without penalty.
Nevertheless, Nolette predicted that Wisconsin will expand Medicaid. “It’s going to be tough for states to give up the money because people already pay for it in income taxes,” he said.
Gov. Scott Walker said Thursday that Wisconsin will not go ahead with implementing the law in hopes that it will be repealed next year by a new president and Republican-controlled Congress. In January, the state turned down $38 million in federal funds earmarked for a health exchange, which would provide an online marketplace to shop for insurance. The governor’s office declined to be interviewed for this article.
At the news conference, Owley disagreed with the governor’s stance. “We really think it’s critical that the government implement the law as soon as possible because our citizens and our patients can’t wait. We need to have the health care coverage now and make sure that our health insurance exchanges go into effect.”
Contributing: Alec Brooks, Adam Carr, Carolyn Portner, Kate Sheka, Carolyn Vidmar, Andrea Waxman


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Adam Carr
June 29, 2012


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June 29, 2012


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Adam Carr
June 29, 2012


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Impact of Wisconsin smoking ban on businesses hazy | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Jennifer Reinke
July 5, 2012
Jessica Casarez, manager and bartender at La Perla, 734 S. Fifth St. (Photo by Jennifer Reinke)
It’s been two years since people could legally smoke in public places and workplaces in Wisconsin. Today, the smoking ban’s impact on business at bars and restaurants is varied.
The law’s strongest opposition came from the state Tavern League, which feared decreased revenues for its members. At the Wilson Club, 1008 W. Center St., and T’s Inn, 1979 S. 15th St., the League’s concerns have come true. Other local bars and restaurants have seen no changes, and some report business has improved.
T’s Inn manager and bartender Patzy Piotrowski and Wilson Club owner Kitty Wilson both said their customer traffic has decreased by 50 percent. They put half the blame on a struggling economy and half on the smoking ban.
“It’s hurt the bar. There’s less people coming in because of the ban,” said Piotrowski. Since the ban came into effect, the bar has cut late night hours and is closed Mondays. “Customers stay home now. They just don’t want to deal with it,” she said.
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Piotrowski was especially concerned for women because men try to pick them up when they stand outside to smoke. “It’s unfair to the ladies and very unsafe,” she said.
Wilson estimated that 95 percent of her customers like to smoke when they drink. Now, she said, “They don’t come.” If she could afford to install an outside smoking area on her property, she would. But, she said, “I used to make a living in this business and now I’m looking for a job. The little money I make I put into liquor, energy, security.”
Mohammad A. Patel, owner of Pakistani restaurant Anmol, 711 W. Historic Mitchell St. (Photo by Jennifer Reinke)
Wilson said she wants the bar, which was started by her father-in-law more than 70 years ago, to remain open. “I’m trying to stay here because I’ve been here forever. People have been coming for 40 years. This is like a home base for them,” she said.
Other bars reported no impact, and even increased revenues after the ban went into effect.
“I really ain’t seen any change,” said Janine Hegwood, a bartender at Geno’s Bar & Grill, 3910 W. Fond du Lac Ave. “At first [customers were] kind of mad but they got used to it ‘cause they couldn’t go nowhere else and smoke,” she said.
Business has improved at bar and restaurant Conejito’s Place, 539 W. Virginia St., since the ban.
“Some people used to walk out because it was so smoky,” said manager Janie Gonzalez. “Especially families didn’t like coming here. Now, more families come,” she said.
Gonzalez said that the increase in business might also be due to increased media attention after founder Jose “Conejito” Garza died in October 2010.
Jessica Casarez, manager and bartender at La Perla, 734 S. Fifth St., was a bartender at Club Desperados, 828 S. First St., when the ban went into effect. She said she didn’t notice any change in business. “The bar still got full. People just went outside,” she said.
Once a smoker herself, Casarez said, “I like [the ban]. I wish they would have done that a long time ago.” She mentioned that a long-time, daily customer at La Perla is now a lung cancer survivor, despite being a non-smoker. “I think [the ban] is best because the people who aren’t smoking aren’t getting affected by this anymore,” she said.
Customers are able to smoke at the far end of La Perla’s patio, but if it’s too crowded, no smoking is allowed, said Casarez.
Other restaurant and beverage businesses such as Ashley’s Bar-B-Que, 1501 W. Center St., and Coffee Makes You Black, 2803 N. Teutonia Ave., weren’t impacted by the ban because they never allowed smoking in the first place.
Mohammad A. Patel, owner of Pakistani restaurant Anmol, 711 W. Historic Mitchell St., said he didn’t allow smoking and supports the ban. He said that the purpose of the ban to improve public health is in line with his mission to provide customers with healthy food.
Protecting the health and economy of her community is why Tinelia Rivera, tobacco program coordinator at UMOS (United Migrant Opportunity Services), worked on the smoking ban for more than 10 years before it was passed.
“Our goal is to keep families safe and healthy,” Rivera said. “It’s affecting them financially as well as health-wise,” she said.
Before the ban was implemented, the Wisconsin Hispanic/Latino Tobacco Prevention Network that Rivera coordinates met with a group of Latino small business owners at restaurant Trés Hermanos, 1332 W. Lincoln Ave. Ninety percent of those present were in support of the ban.
To the other 10 percent, she said, “We tried to tell ‘em we’re doing it for your workers, kids, families.”
Trés Hermanos’ owner decided to go smoke-free before the law required it. He “came behind us and enforced what we taught,” said Rivera.


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Fondy online voting effort bears fruit | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Jim McGowan
July 7, 2012
Fondy Farmer’s Market, last day of the season 11/2010 (Photo by Dwayne Burtin)
A strong get-out-the-vote effort has resulted in a fruit orchard for the Fondy Food Center.
The center was one of four neighborhood organizations across the country that will receive what’s necessary for the orchard—including 20 fruit trees, shrubs, an irrigation system and training in organic fruit production. The prize, valued at $5,000, comes from the Edy’s Fruit Bars Communities Take Root Program. Edy’s has partnered with the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to benefiting communities across the world by planting fruit trees and plants.
Fondy officials credit the efforts of staff members, volunteers and friends in casting the 33,346 online votes the organization received. Fondy finished fourth in the latest round of voting, and the top four finishers were awarded the orchards. Winners were announced July 3.
Four other organizations were awarded orchards in a previous round of voting; nine more are expected to be awarded by the time the contest ends on Aug. 30.
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Fondy plans to plant the orchard at its Port Washington farm, and the fruit will be sold at the Fondy Farmers Market, at 2200 W. Fond du Lac Ave.

author: Jim McGowan


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5468581817_c3c091f94c_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
July 7, 2012


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Deportation tears apart family of seven | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
July 9, 2012
Maria Rodriguez walks with her daughter, 11, and son, 4, during a solidarity and immigrant rights march in Milwaukee. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
The federal Secure Communities program was created to protect communities by identifying and deporting immigrants who have broken criminal laws. However, one-third of those deported from Milwaukee County had no criminal record. Read more
The nightmare began on July 11, 2011, for Maria Rodriguez of Milwaukee. Knocking at the door of her South Side home were several police officers. Behind them stood men wearing the uniform of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
That day, they left with Hector Gregorio Arenas, the father of Rodriguez’s children, and she hasn’t been the same since.
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Arenas, 38, was one of 119 undocumented immigrants from Milwaukee County taken into immigration custody and deported under the federal Secure Communities program between Jan. 11, 2011, and April 30, 2012, when data were last made available.
Arenas was convicted once in 1993, when he was 19, for resisting an officer and possessing a small amount of marijuana, and again at 22 for theft. That was the last time he’d had any contact with law enforcement until he was deported to Tijuana.
“Everyone makes mistakes; he’s been living a clean life long enough to say he’s changed his life,” said Nancy Flores, who runs the New Sanctuary Movement at Voces De La Frontera.
Because Arenas had been living a law-abiding and trouble-free life for the prior 15 years, he and his family were blindsided when he was taken into custody.
ICE identified Arenas as a Level 2 criminal (convicted of a minor drug or property offense such as burglary, larceny or fraud) and a threat to society, according to classifications under the Secure Communities program.
Rodriguez said that Arenas does not pose a threat to society; in fact, he saved her life.
Rodriguez, originally from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, was previously married to an abuser who threw her and their three children, then ages 12, 11 and 3, out on the street eight years ago.
“I had nowhere to go and no family here,” said Rodriguez in Spanish.
Then she met Arenas, who she said gave her both a place to stay and hope for the future. Years later, their family grew to seven as the couple had two boys together.
Rodriguez describes Arenas as a well-dressed, handsome and hard-working family man. He had been working at the same job near the harbor in Milwaukee for 10 years, she said.
Though they never officially married, she considers him her husband and plans to marry him when she can.
She said that Arenas admitted to her that he’d had previous run-ins with the law, but that the troubles were long behind him.
Secure Communities program guidelines make no distinction between lifelong criminals and people who’ve been convicted as young adults but have since been law-abiding.
Gail Montenegro, spokeswoman for ICE, defended the program, saying that it has eliminated the ad hoc approach to deportation of the past.
“In fiscal year 2011, for the first time ever, 55 percent of all of ICE’s removals were convicted criminals and over 90 percent of all removals clearly fell into one of ICE’s
categories for priority enforcement,” Montenegro said. Priority targets include criminal offenders, national security threats and “egregious” immigration law violators.
Once a person has been classified as a criminal and identified for deportation, there’s no legal mechanism to appeal the expulsion.
Maria Rodriguez marches with her two sons, 3 and 4 years old. Their father, Hector Arenas, was deported in November. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
Flores believes that’s unfair.
Referring to Arenas, she noted, “He already paid for his crimes; he’s didn’t get deported for something he did years ago, he’s being deported because of his (immigration) status.”
Flores believes that ICE should be analyzing cases in the full context of a person’s life.
Montenegro contended that ICE is always looking to improve Secure Communities. As an example, she cited proposed policies to protect witnesses and victims of domestic violence or other violent crime.
The new policies won’t help Rodriguez or Arenas.
“Our life has changed 360 degrees in both an emotional and economical sense; I had never worked — I took care of the kids,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez described her life as “terrible” since the deportation.
She said that Arenas calls the family two or three times a week but sometimes can barely speak, becoming so upset that his voice breaks.
Their 4 year-old son Jesus cries too. The toddler asks why his dad is not there to buy him pizza and jumps into the car, saying he’s leaving to see his “papi.”
After originally explaining Arenas’s absence by telling the children that he was at work, Rodriguez had to tell them he was deported.
Rodriguez tried to prevent Arenas from being sent back to Mexico. She met with a lawyer who told her that she could go to Mexico to be with him, but that she risked not being allowed to come back.
The lawyer also told her that she could marry him in Mexico and then apply for a U Visa for both of them, but that this was an extremely risky option, because she could end up being forced to stay in Mexico too.
Flores said that though her organization was able to provide Rodriguez with emotional and other types of support, the group couldn’t help with her case.
Left with what she felt were no good options, Rodriguez has decided to just wait it out. Arenas can apply to come back to the United States legally after 10 years, according to Rodriguez.
Until then, she will have to go it alone. The couple’s children are all in school now and she recently found a job.
She’s begun taking Jesus to see a psychiatrist to help him deal with missing his father.
Rodriguez is in the process of applying for her own U Visa. The U Visa program provides lawful status to non-citizen crime victims who assist or are willing to assist authorities in investigating crimes such as domestic violence.
She constantly worries about Arenas, whose life, she said, is always in danger. He lives in an area of Mexico ravaged by cartel-related violence.
Still, she knows that she must carry on, for her children.
“Even though I’m depressed, I have to be well so that they can, too; their father is in Mexico and can’t do anything for them now.”


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Adam Carr
July 8, 2012


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Adam Carr
July 8, 2012


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Special Report: Despite rules, 34% of Milwaukee County deportees lack criminal record | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
July 9, 2012
Local residents hold signs protesting deportation during the annual May Day march for solidarity and immigrant rights. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
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The last time Hector Arenas had any contact with law enforcement officials was when he was 22. Fifteen years later, he was removed from his home by immigration officers and deported to Mexico, leaving behind five children and their mother. Read more
On the second Tuesday of each month, an overflow crowd of men, women and children fills the headquarters of Voces De La Frontera for the New Sanctuary Movement’s “Circulo De Apoyo,” or “Circle of Faith” meeting.
Nancy Flores leads the New Sanctuary Movement (NSM), part of a nationwide coalition of faith-based groups that support immigrant families affected by deportation since the inception of the Secure Communities program in Wisconsin.
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“The program focuses on helping families whose loved ones are in the middle of removal proceedings. We’re called by our faith to help people and children who are facing separation due to a system that’s broken,” Flores said.
They begin each meeting with a prayer. However, soon after it devolves into a series of heart-wrenching flashbacks to the day their loved ones were taken into custody or deported, the state of their legal battles or the struggles that their lives have become ever since. Usually it’s all three. Some cry as they speak, and most talk about feeling traumatized by the experience.
These are the families of some of the 119 undocumented immigrants from Milwaukee County and 466 from Wisconsin taken into immigration custody and deported under the federal Secure Communities program between Jan. 11, 2011, and April 30, 2012, when data were last made available.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Secure Communities program has resulted in 189,744 deportations nationwide.
In January 2011, Wisconsin joined 36 other states participating in a program that aims to protect communities by removing immigrants who pose a threat to the public. The program is expected to be nationwide by 2013, according to ICE.
Gail Montenegro, spokeswoman for ICE, said that agency’s highest priority is to remove individuals who pose a danger to national security or a risk to public safety.
“ICE prioritizes its enforcement in the following areas: Criminal offenders and national security threats and recent illegal border crossers, egregious immigration law violators, such as those who have been previously removed from the United States, and fugitives from immigration court,” wrote Montenegro in an email.
Members of the New Sanctuary Movement meet the second Tuesday of each month at Voces De La Frontera, 1027 S. 5th. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
However, critics of the program say that it repeatedly targets immigrants who pose no threat to society, have not been arrested or convicted, or who have been arrested only for minor violations such as traffic offenses.
Flores said if the program were implemented correctly, only high-priority criminals would be deported.
Many of the members of the New Sanctuary Movement claim their loved ones had never been in trouble with the law. In fact, government data show that 34 percent of individuals deported from Milwaukee County had no criminal record, lending credence to the claims.
In her email, Montenegro wrote that in 2011, 55 percent of all individuals removed by ICE were convicted criminals, leaving 45 percent who had no criminal record.
However, Montenegro defended the program, saying that immigrants who are not classified as convicted criminals still may be deported for other reasons. For example, they may be immigration fugitives with an outstanding deportation order, or have illegally re-entered the United States after a previous deportation.
“The majority of the non-criminal immigration violators (about 68 percent) are individuals who illegally re-entered the country after having been deported, which is a federal felony. They just have not been federally prosecuted for it,” Montenegro said.
Convicted criminals who can be deported as a result of the program are classified into three levels, according to a memorandum of agreement between the U.S Department of Homeland Security and ICE:
Of the 65 percent deported from Milwaukee who did have a criminal record, most had been convicted of Level 3 offenses. In Wisconsin, 46 percent were convicted of minor offenses; nationwide the figure was 40 percent.
Although Montenegro denied that detainees are being deported for minor crimes such as traffic stops, she acknowledged that ICE is adopting a new policy regarding minor traffic offenders.
Going forward, individuals arrested solely for minor traffic offenses, who have not been previously convicted of other crimes and don’t fall within any other ICE priority category for deportation, will only be detained after a conviction, according to Montenegro.
Flores says that the program leaves a lot of gray areas and many people are being deported who shouldn’t be. “A lot of people who come through have not been charged with crimes and do not pose a ‘threat to society’ in the definitions we are given,” she said.
Only 28 percent of convicted individuals deported from Milwaukee were classified as Level 1, compared to 36.7 percent nationwide.
Individuals are targeted for deportation using a complex combination of advanced technology and data-sharing tools intended to identify aliens in federal, state or local custody (or at-large), who have been convicted of serious criminal offenses or have immigration violations.
The system identifies people to take into custody. If a suspected undocumented immigrant already is in custody, enforcement officials check the database to see if the individual has been identified by ICE for deportation.
The Milwaukee County board recently passed legislation ending ICE detainers for non-criminal immigrants or those who’ve been accused or convicted of non-violent or minor crimes. Consequently, enforcement officials no longer will hold immigrants in custody to be processed by ICE unless they’ve been convicted of, or are wanted for, a serious crime, among a few other circumstances.
Flores said she is unsure about what impact the legislation will have. The key, she explained, is how it’s implemented.  If it’s done correctly, then only high-priority criminals should be deported, Flores noted.
Montenegro thinks that actions such as the one taken by the Milwaukee County Board could lead to an increased risk to the public. “Law enforcement agencies that honor ICE detainers ultimately help protect public safety; ICE anticipates that law enforcement agencies will comply with the detainer,” she said.
She added, however, that ICE has not yet sought to compel compliance through legal proceedings.
In Wisconsin, 203,000 names have been submitted to the database, with 3,628 matches (1.8 percent). About a quarter of the submissions to the database originated from Milwaukee County, with 3.4 percent resulting in matches.
Nancy Flores, leader of the New Sanctuary Movement at Voces, hands out roses during a monthly vigil for families of the deported, across the street from Milwaukee’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office (ICE), 310 E. Knapp St. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
So despite the high volume of submissions, very few people are actually identified as eligible for deportation. For those who are, ICE issues a detainer, and proceedings begin to determine whether the individual should be removed, according to Montenegro.
Critics of the program argue that it discourages undocumented immigrants from reporting crimes to the police, for fear of deportation for themselves or loved ones. Flores said that many in the community view the Secure Communities program as an unholy collaboration between police and immigration officials.
Montenegro said ICE has developed a new policy designed to protect witnesses and victims of domestic violence or other violent crimes. However, policy changes won’t help the members of the New Sanctuary Movement who meet every month. They’ll continue to talk about a son who was detained on his way to cash his first paycheck or a husband who was gone when his wife came home at 11 a.m.
They’ll talk about what brought them to America. They’ll say it was for their children. Some will speak openly about their pain, while others thumb nervously at pamphlets, minds seemingly thousands of miles away.
Said Flores, “They come here to not feel alone.”


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Adam Carr
July 8, 2012


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7521276188_e2bae4e48c_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
July 8, 2012


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Adam Carr
July 8, 2012


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Deportation | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
July 8, 2012


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DeportationREV | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
July 8, 2012


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Adam Carr
July 17, 2012


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nns_specialreportFEATURED | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
July 17, 2012


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2012 Most Improved Home Contest kicks off | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
July 11, 2012
LBWN is pleased to announce the 2012 Most Improved Home Contest with the backing of Tri City National Bank and The Home Depot. This years expanded competition will build off the success of last year’s Most Improved Porch Contest in which 15 neighborhood residents invested over $24,000 in exterior, curb appeal enhancements.
This year’s contest will focus on the whole front exterior of the house, not just the porch. Cash prizes up to $1,000 will be offered to contest winners and the first 20 residents to complete their projects will receive a $40 rebate. For more information or to apply for the Most Improved Home Contest contact Will Sebern at 414-385-5300 or will@lbwn.org.  The contest application can be found online by clicking here.


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New South Side fitness center helps families stay healthy | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
July 11, 2012
Residents celebrate the grand opening of Diverse City Fitness, 1838 S. 15th St. (photo by Edgar Mendez)
Priscilla Alva and Enrique Balderas, co-owners of Diverse City Fitness, 1838 S. 15 St., both love to work out and stay in shape. So they figured, why not spread their love of fitness to the neighborhood they both grew up in.
Six months after opening, they held a grand opening for the center.
“Our goal is to provide a wide range of creative fitness opportunities for the whole family,” said Balderas, during a celebration featuring free food, face painting and live music.
For adults, the center offers classes in Latin Cardio and High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), a speedy workout designed to make a person lose more fat than a simple cardio workout, according to Balderas.
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Children can participate in a class known as “Zumbatonics.” Zumbatonics is described as high-energy dance aerobics for kids. They can also take classes in Taekwon-Do.
The center also offers classes in Pre-Ballet and Ballet, advanced or beginner Break Dancing and Hip Hop.
“We got the business idea because we had so many talented friends capable of teaching varying skills,” Alva said.
A different instructor teaches each class, according to Alva.
Esmeralda Fuentes, who began classes at the center a month after it opened, said she’d tried and failed many diets in the past and never wanted to leave the house. But, since coming to the gym for Latin Cardio and eating healthier, she’s lost 65 pounds.
“I feel like a whole new person,” said a beaming Fuentes.
The center, which now serves about 200 clients, is open seven days a week. There’s also a small day care inside.
“It’s our time to give back to all of our friends and family in the neighborhood by helping them stay healthy,” Balderas said.


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Adam Carr
July 10, 2012


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Portion of old landfill to be ‘reclaimed’ for Milwaukee River trail | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Jennifer Reinke
July 12, 2012
Theresa Morgan, River Revitalization Foundation conservation specialist, Kimberly Gleffe, executive director, and Ann Brummitt, Milwaukee River Greenway Coalition director stand near the trail. (Photo by Jennifer Reinke)
A view of the Milwaukee River from the trail near the MATC solar voltaic farm. (Photo by Jennifer Reinke)
Years ago, land along the Milwaukee River’s west bank just north of Capitol Drive was used as a landfill. Now, with support from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation and a partnership with Milwaukee Area Technical College, the Milwaukee River Greenway Coalition and the River Revitalization Foundation are set to restore a one-mile riverside trail on the old landfill.
“We’re reclaiming and making this a desirable place,” said River Revitalization Foundation executive direction Kimberly Gleffe.
The trail will show people that “the river is a really nice asset to have in the city,” said River Revitalization Foundation Conservation Specialist Theresa Morgan. “It’s a gorgeous river and we’re two miles from downtown,” she said.
Other funders include the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration Recreational Trails Program, which granted $45,000 that the Greater Milwaukee Foundation then matched, and the Lux Foundation.
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“We want to try and maintain the visible connection to the river as much as we can,” said Morgan. In addition to improved visibility, she said that the project emphasizes sustainable access to the river.
“Right now [the trail is] just a ‘desire’ trail or a ‘volunteer’ trail,” said Milwaukee River Greenway Coalition director Ann Brummitt. The trail has been carved by hikers, bikers and anglers in ways that are not necessarily environmentally sound.
For example, one section of the trail runs very near to the river and is in an eroding flood plain. In another section, the trail is rutted and fills with water during rain. As a result, people have begun to form another trail running parallel to the first.
“If you can direct access, you can at least focus the impacts on fewer spots. It’s a way to provide information, too,” said Morgan. Some of the funding will be used for educational signs or kiosks.
“It’s all a big experiment because this is a highly disturbed site,” said Gleffe.
In addition to the old landfill, environmental challenges include erosion, invasive species and stormwater runoff from the nearby University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee UPARK lot.
River Revitalization Foundation conservation specialist Theresa Morgan discusses plans to restore a trail along the Milwaukee River. (Photo by Jennifer Reinke)
The Sigma Group is currently surveying the land and contractor Tim Malzahn, also director of field operations at the Ice Age Trail Alliance, is developing a design. In some places, the new trail will be closer to the river than the existing unofficial trail, and in others it will be farther away.
“Once we can show MATC exactly where the land is going to be, they can grant the easement,” said Brummitt. Right now, people who use the existing trail are technically trespassing.
Then, volunteers will begin “clearing and grubbing,” said Morgan. They’ll remove invasive species such as buckthorn and garlic mustard and create room for the new trail.
The Milwaukee River Greenway Coalition has a “volunteer hub,” said Brummitt, and volunteers have already pledged to help out from the Milwaukee Metro Mountain Bikers. This fall, an AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) team of volunteers and 40 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee service learners are expected to work on the project, said Gleffe.
The trail will likely be a compact dirt surface 3- to 4-feet wide, with 10-foot buffers of native plants on each side, said Brummitt. It will be “a primitive type of trail,” she said.
“The long-term goal is to have 13 miles of shared-use trail,” said Morgan.
The new trail will be adjacent to MATC’s solar voltaic farm and would connect bikers, hikers and anglers to the 13-mile “Loop and Link” riverside trail proposed by the Milwaukee River Greenway Coalition. It will be complementary to the Milwaukee County Parks’ 114-mile Oak Leaf Trail that meanders through major parkways and parks.
“If you can connect people to the river through access or recreation, you’re providing opportunity to … cultivate a sense of stewardship. Through stewardship you can improve the land and rivers,” said Morgan.


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Adam Carr
July 11, 2012


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Adam Carr
July 11, 2012


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Adam Carr
July 11, 2012


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Milwaukee County Hispanic population shows strong growth | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
July 13, 2012
Families such as these attending a Dia de Reyes celebration are part of Milwaukee County’s fast-growing Hispanic population. (Photo by Jennifer Janviere)
The Hispanic population in Milwaukee County continues to grow rapidly, according to a newly released analysis of census data by the Pew Hispanic Center’s Demographic Profile of Hispanics in Wisconsin, 2010.
The group’s population in the county increased to 126,039 in 2010, up 52.9 percent from 2000 and 182 percent from 1990, when they numbered 44,671. Hispanics represent 13 percent of Milwaukee County’s total population; more than one-third (37.6 percent) of the state’s Hispanics live in Milwaukee County.
Hispanics are 6 percent of the total Wisconsin population. Of these, 69 percent are native born and 31 percent born abroad, and the largest subgroup is Mexican (71 percent). The state’s Hispanics are relatively young, according to the data, with a median age of only 23.
The report, based on the 2010 American Community Survey, also showed that one-third of the Hispanic population age 17 and younger in Wisconsin lives in poverty, compared to 12 percent of whites and 52 percent of blacks in that age group. For those between the ages of 18-64, the poverty rate dips to 20 percent.
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Nearly half of Hispanic householders in the state—48 percent—own their home. Sixty-five percent speak a language other than English at home.


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6663018283_1bc6ce343f_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
July 12, 2012