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Amani residents will get to buy 4 affordable homes as part of community land trust program | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
PrincessSafiya Byers
August 10, 2023
VIA Community Development Corporation and the Milwaukee Community Land Trust have announced the completion of Milwaukee’s first North Side community land trust homes.
Lamont Davis, the executive director of the Milwaukee Community Land Trust, said the goal of the partnership with VIA CDC is to create affordable homes. The homes will be sold to lower-income buyers.
“This method sells the homes for under-market value and ensures the homes stay affordable in the years to come,” he said.
Four homes in the Amani neighborhood have been renovated with roof replacements, updated wiring and plumbing, a new HVAC system and new furnace and water heaters. Leaders, who announced the program last month, hope residents who live in the area will purchase the properties.
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“Studies show that homeownership improves the overall quality of life for families. It leads to increased graduation rates and reduces crime,” said JoAnna Bautch, VIA CDC’s executive director. “That is why at VIA we believe homeownership is the foundation of strengthening our neighborhoods.”
VIA started its turnkey program, which transforms vacant properties into fully renovated homes, in 2008 in response to the foreclosure crisis. By the end of 2023, it will have renovated 33 properties.
In December, the partners cut the ribbon on the first South Side home. The homes in Amani actually represent the second, third, fourth and fifth homes available through the community land trust model. Community land trusts offer programs that allow people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford property a way to buy and maintain homes.
The groups hope their efforts will become a model that will help fill the affordable housing gap for Black and Brown families in Milwaukee.
Through partnerships with the Dominican Center, Walnut Way, Take Root Milwaukee, United Methodist Children Services, Milwaukee Christian Center, JobsWorks, 30th Street Industrial Corridor and the Community Development Alliance, the Milwaukee Community Land Trust aims to develop and sell 40 homes by 2025. The Milwaukee Community Land Trust helps families become homeowners.
Additional subsidies for the projects were provided by the Zilber Family Foundation, Northwestern Mutual, Otto Bremer Trust, LISC Milwaukee, the City of Milwaukee’s Department of City Development, Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Catholic Campaign for Human Development and Associated Bank.
Davis said the homes are  being sold by the Milwaukee Community Land Trust. If they are not purchased in 90 days, they will be sold by VIA CDC, he said.


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

author: Ron Smith


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NNSpirit Week: We love you, Milwaukee. And we have proof. | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service staff
August 10, 2023
Milwaukee is filled with beautiful people.
We should know.
Over our 12 years, we’ve made sure you could see yourselves whenever you visited our site.
Here are 12 images that still make us smile.
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Happy NNSpirit Week!
Help us reach our goal of raising $12,000 in honor of our 12th anniversary!


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5 things to know and do the weekend of Aug. 11 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Chesnie Wardell
August 11, 2023
It’s Friday in Milwaukee, and here are some things we think you should know about. If you would like your event to be considered for this column, please submit your news by clicking here at least two weeks in advance.
With just a $5 entry fee, you can participate in a Sole Healing Arts open mic at Mobay Cafe, 1022 S. 1st St. Singers, poets and musicians will display their craft on Saturday, Aug. 12. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the show starts at 8 p.m. More information here.
A Northwest Side community block party will take place at Thoreau Elementary School, 7878 N. 60th St. on Saturday, Aug. 12 from noon to 5 p.m. This event is presented by the African American Roundtable, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the Black community. There will be entertainment, vendors, food and resources. More information here.
Every second Saturday of the month, a free neighborhood health outreach is held for guests where they receive services such as health screenings, walk-ins for a dental hygienist, breast exams and more. The next outreach is Saturday, Aug. 12 at City on a Hill, 2224 W. Kilbourn Ave., from noon to 2 p.m. More information here.
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Recovering after losing a child isn’t easy. A Mother’s Healing in Hope supports grieving mothers through a prayer brunch and conference that discusses resilience and provides  encouragement on their healing journey. This is free for mothers who have lost a child. The event will take place Saturday, Aug. 12 from 11 a.m. to  3 p.m. at 5112 N. 37th St. More information here.
LucasCares MKE is hosting a community book fair on Saturday, Aug. 12 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on 5501 W. Fond du Lac Ave. All books will be free for students in kindergarten to sixth grades. More information here.
It’s not too late to help ensure that Milwaukee residents continue to have access to trustworthy and meaningful news and information—news that truly serves our neighborhoods and is free to all. We have set a goal of raising $12,000 to celebrate our 12th anniversary. But we need you to get there. Help support our efforts to give Milwaukee the newsroom it deserves.

author: Chesnie Wardell


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NNSpirit Week: Your last day to give your neighbors the news they deserve by donating | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service staff
August 11, 2023
You came.
You ate.
And now it’s time to conquer.
The NNS team was thrilled to see how much support our newsroom has in the city at our “eat and greet” on Thursday as part of our first NNSpirit Week celebration.
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It’s not too late to help ensure that Milwaukee residents continue to have access to trustworthy and meaningful news and information—news that truly serves our neighborhoods and is free to all. We have set a goal of raising $12,000 to celebrate our 12th anniversary. But we need you to get there. Help support our efforts to give Milwaukee the newsroom it deserves.


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How would widening Milwaukee’s I-94 affect residents near the highway? | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Jonmaesha Beltran / Wisconsin Watch
August 12, 2023
After Esther Grams purchased her first business, she thought 2020 would be her year.
It wasn’t.
She navigated the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic like other business owners, and during that time, she realized she might have to relocate.
That year, Gov. Tony Evers revived a plan to widen a 3.5-mile segment of the Interstate 94 East-West Freeway corridor in Milwaukee between the Marquette and Zoo interchanges from six to eight lanes — calling it one of the state’s “most congested and dangerous roads.”
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The plan would demolish the current home of Central Bark Milwaukee Westside, her franchised doggy daycare center near the freeway.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has tried to expand the 60-year-old freeway stretch between 16th and 70th Streets for over a decade, and in a previous plan, Grams’ business was slated for demolition.
Grams is among six business owners in Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley who are in limbo — waiting for the state to finalize the $1.2 billion project and enter negotiations for real estate acquisitions. One home will also be demolished as well.
Evers and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation want to expand the interstate to decrease traffic congestion, high crash rates and repair aging infrastructure. But the highway cuts through the city, and opponents say the expansion will disproportionately disrupt Milwaukee’s West Side neighborhoods that the highway shaped six decades ago.
More than 20% of households near the corridor lack a car, and project critics say Wisconsin should invest more money in public transportation and less on expanding highways.
Through its News 414 collaboration, Wisconsin Watch spoke with five people who live and work in Milwaukee’s West Side neighborhoods about how the expansion would affect them, and reviewed more than 50 testimonials and 100 public comments submitted to the state transportation department. While some residents support the expansion, many said it could either worsen or fail to address quality-of-life issues, such as noise from extra vehicles rushing down the highway and pothole-ridden local streets.
Meanwhile, expansion opponents endorse an alternative plan to repair the freeway without adding additional lanes while also boosting public transit investment.
“It’s unfortunate that the Department of Transportation and Gov. Evers have sidestepped the impacts to neighborhoods in favor of a quicker commute from suburbs to downtown,” said Milwaukee County Supervisor Peter Burgelis, who represents the neighborhoods near the freeway corridor.
Since 2004, residents have dropped their dogs off at Central Bark Milwaukee Westside, which sits on the corner of West St. Paul Avenue and North 25th Street near I-94.
The dog daycare was among 11 businesses originally slated for demolition in the state’s previous expansion plan in 2016, which called for creating a “double decker” freeway and adding one additional lane to each side.
Republican Gov. Scott Walker halted the project in 2017, citing cost concerns before Evers revived his version. Construction is expected to begin in 2025.
Evers wants to modernize the 27th Street interchange near I-94 by adding left- and right-turn lanes to increase its capacity, according to the state Department of Transportation.
Grams managed the daycare and other Central Bark locations for 12 years before purchasing the franchise in 2019 from an owner looking to downsize. Grams said she likes her current location’s convenience for long-time customers who mostly live in the suburbs.
She knew about the possibility of the freeway project when purchasing the building but figured she had a few years to plan. She has been searching for new locations since late 2020.
“I’m like a super planner. I try to plan everything out like super far in advance,” the 30-year-old said, adding that planning is difficult because she lacks a timeframe of when she’ll have to move.
Moving might allow Grams to expand and grow her business, she said, but it could also displace loyal customers, and she wonders how the dogs will adjust to a new facility. She wants to keep existing customers by staying in the Menomonee Valley area, but her franchise agreement limits her relocation options.
Also facing demolition: Badger Ford Truck Center, a Ford dealership.
Badger Ford has operated near West St. Paul Avenue in Menomonee River Valley for 58 years. Its president told the Milwaukee Business Journal in 2021 that he would rather not move, and he had researched alternative sites years ago in response to the original plans to expand the highway.
The dealership declined Wisconsin Watch’s interview request.
Other businesses awaiting final decisions on the highway expansion to negotiate compensation for their properties include MKE Junk Junkies, a junkyard; Milwaukee Dog Training Club, which operates inside of Central Bark Milwaukee Westside; and a former Red Star Yeast warehouse and a private storage facility.
Menomonee Valley Partners, a nonprofit dedicated to redeveloping the Menomonee River Valley, has praised the state’s decision to proceed with the project and said it hoped the businesses could relocate in the area.
The nonprofit did not respond to Wisconsin Watch’s request for comment.
Burgelis said cutting off access during construction to 27th and 35th Streets, another interchange the state wants to modernize, will devastate small businesses in the area.
“The project is going to have real impacts to small businesses,” Burgelis said, adding that he hopes effects will not ripple to the surrounding neighborhoods.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation did not respond to questions for this story, but it shared a statement with Wisconsin Watch that said: “We remain committed to developing infrastructure solutions that benefit the public for decades to come.”
“We’ve listened to the community and stakeholders, and their feedback played an important role for modifications to the preferred alternative,” the statement said.
Asked for comment, Evers’s office referred Wisconsin Watch back to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, which said in an additional statement: “The Evers administration and Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) care deeply about the impact of our infrastructure projects,” adding that the state remains committed to minimizing community impacts.
“The I-94 East-West Corridor Study is still undergoing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, including active public involvement currently underway for the Supplemental EIS to help determine the final configuration of the project,” the statement said.
Freeways have a long history of plowing through Black- and brown-majority neighborhoods nationwide. That includes I-94, said Christine Donahoe, an ACLU of Wisconsin staff attorney.
The 3.5-mile freeway stretch at issue cuts through seven different neighborhoods: Avenues West, Merrill Park, Piggsville, Johnson’s Woods, Bluemound Heights, Story Hill and Menomonee Valley. Each was shaped by highways and some still feel the impact of “white flight” from decades past, according to a City of Milwaukee analysis.
The communities were cohesive and thriving before the state built the highways through them, Donahoe said.
The interstate cut a racial boundary through Milwaukee and prioritized the movement of people and goods from the city’s white suburbs to its downtown, said Amanda Merkwae, the advocacy director of the ACLU of Wisconsin, during a public hearing about the expansion in 2022.
One neighborhood the highway overlooks is Johnson’s Woods, a quiet area between South Hawley Road and South 70th Street. It was established in the late 1800s and transformed in the 1950s when Milwaukee County razed a strip of its northern blocks to build I-94.
Today, a metal gate separates the early-20th-century bungalows and two-story duplexes that sit near the freeway’s eastbound entrance ramp at 68th Street.
To upgrade the ramp, the state plans to demolish one residence, a 1960s ranch-style house that a mother of four and her husband rented for four years. The family did not respond to Wisconsin Watch’s requests to comment.
The state’s original 2016 plan would have demolished three residential homes on the northern edge of Johnson’s Woods and five others.
“I’m glad that it’s only one, wish it was zero,” Burgelis said.
One woman who has lived on the northern edge of Johnson’s Woods for 27 years shared concerns about noise pollution linked to the increasingly busy freeway corridor.
“I wish they put a wall up there if they’re not going to do nothing else — at least put a wall because it’s kind of noisy,” said the 72-year-old woman who declined to give her name.
Michelle Jacobi, a music instructor living nearby, agrees and wants a sound barrier for safety reasons, such as preventing dangerous action from the highway from spilling into her neighborhood. She recalled an incident in which a gunman shot a Milwaukee County sheriff’s deputy following a 2 a.m. traffic stop just south of I-94. A passenger and driver fled the car and ran into the neighborhood, where the passenger reportedly shot the deputy before fatally shooting himself.
“I think the sound barrier would have prevented that,” Jacobi said.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation plans to build six noise barriers on both sides of the freeway. But property owners and residents must first vote on a barrier plan at a public meeting during the project’s final design, according to the department.
Barriers could limit the noise from additional traffic, but they could also obstruct the views of neighborhood residents, “and it’s not it’s certainly not the same neighborhood that it was before that gets installed,” Burgelis said.
John Linn, a nearly 30-year Story Hill neighborhood resident, agrees.He likes being able to view the American Family Field parking lot from his house.
“I just like an unobstructed view, and I’ve seen some of the sound barrier walls, and I just don’t I don’t think that’s attractive,” Linn, 65, said. “I think it makes the neighborhood look walled in.”
Linn said if the project keeps the current roadbed elevation around the neighborhood, he doesn’t see a point for the barriers.
Numerous residents have complained about deteriorating local streets around the east-west corridor.
While Jacobi said she leans toward “being okay with” the expansion, she also wants a focus on filling the potholes lurking on neighborhood streets — including one in front of her house.
Other residents agree.
“The quality of the freeway roads is probably just acceptable,” said Carlos Vasquez, who uses I-94 daily and has parents who live in Johnson’s Woods. “But the (local) streets are terrible. It’s hard to find one street where the whole street is like where you’re not just bumping around.”
More than one-third of major roads in Wisconsin are in fair or belowroadway condition and likely to deteriorate over the next 10 years, according to a 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers report.
The I-94 expansion would not focus on local roads, which lie outside of the state transportation department’s jurisdiction. Cities are generally responsible for maintaining their own streets, although state and federal funding sometimes helps.
“Fix at Six” signs remain scattered throughout east-west corridor neighborhoods. That’s the name for an alternative plan — supported by a range of civil rights, environmental and health advocacy groups — to repair the existing six lanes of the highway stretch at issue while alleviating congestion by adding a rapid transit bus line and creating safer paths for cyclists.
Dan Adams supports that option. He has lived on the border of the Piggsville and Merrill Park neighborhoods for 12 years and has criticized the highway widening plan since its earliest days.
The state transportation department rejected keeping the highway at six lanes after a 2016 department-commissioned study said the option would not effectively accommodate future traffic volumes in 2040.
But years of  research shows that widening highways can increase traffic volume by encouraging more people to drive.
In a decade advocating for alternatives, Adams said he’s become “fairly jaded” and “just resigned” that the state would widen I-94 no matter what.
“What we as neighbors said, what people at their community meetings said — it was just a foregone conclusion that they were going to extend it regardless of any other findings or input from the community,” Adams said.
Residents widely agree that I-94 needs some reconstruction, but the neighborhoods surrounding it also need improvements, Adams said.
“We need some investments from the state to improve connections from our neighborhood, which is completely surrounded by the freeway, to surrounding neighborhoods and surrounding amenities,” Adams said, “and we also need investments in those amenities, whether it’s the parks or the bike trails or transit. And there’s just never any response. It’s just silence.”
The state transportation department plan includes additional bike lanes and a one-time $25 million funding for public transportation, but activists say more is needed at a time of deep fiscal challenges for the Milwaukee County Transit System that threaten service for thousands of bus riders.
“You can always find a billion dollars for highway expansion,” Gregg May, the transportation policy director at 1000 Friends Wisconsin, said during a 2022 public hearing. “But when the Milwaukee County Transit System is facing a fiscal cliff, we can’t seem to find the money for that.”
Jonah Chester contributed to this report. The nonprofit Wisconsin Watch (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, WPR, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.
This article first appeared on Wisconsin Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

author: Jonmaesha Beltran / Wisconsin Watch


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Milwaukee residents fear more flooding due to planned I-94 expansion | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Jonah Chester / Wisconsin Watch and WPR
August 12, 2023
Janet Haas two decades ago saw potential in a field of thistle, grass and bushes that Milwaukee County had neglected: Valley Park, nestled between the Menomonee River to the west and homes in one of Milwaukee’s most racially diverse neighborhoods to the east.
“The county doesn’t have any money, and they haven’t had any money for years,” said Haas, 65, who has lived most of her life in the Near West Side neighborhood, called The Valley or Piggsville. “One day I just decided that the thistles were as tall as I was, and I wasn’t going to take it anymore.”
That meant persuading her mom and a friend to join her in pulling weeds and planting bushes and flowers in the park. The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District built the park as part of a multi-million dollar project to protect the neighborhood from flooding – but, Haas said, it fell into disrepair after its completion in 2001.
Valley Park is now a meticulously maintained community gathering spot — complete with walking and biking trails, a play structure and shade trees. Residents take pride in the tidy park — evidenced by their weekly cleanup events, such as a June 22nd gathering of about a dozen neighbors.
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“We all know each other, we look out for each other,” said Moses Mcknight, a resident of 17 years, as children and adults moved mulch and watered flowers in the park. “We like to fix things up, and keep it that way.”
But neighbors at the Thursday evening cleanup worry that a $1.2 billion plan to widen the Interstate 94 East-West Freeway corridor will disrupt their gatherings and undo progress.
I-94’s six lanes stretch above the Menomonee River and run south of Valley Park — carrying commuters between downtown Milwaukee and the city’s western suburbs in Waukesha County. Backed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation plans to add two lanes to a 3.5-mile segment of the highway.
Valley Park sits in the middle of the planned expansion. Aside from increasing noise and air  pollution as more cars zip down a wider highway, residents worry the addition of about 29 acres of asphalt — the equivalent of more than twenty football fields — will increase flows of stormwater into The Valley and surrounding flood-vulnerable neighborhoods.
The state transportation department acknowledges the extra pavement will increase stormwater runoff, but it says it won’t analyze precise effects on runoff until the final design phases of a project expected to break ground in 2025.
“Who’s going to benefit? Because it’s not going to be us,” Haas said. “The soil is going to be crummier and more polluted. We worked on this park, why should we give it back?”
The transportation department declined to be interviewed for this story. In an unsigned statement emailed by a spokesperson, the department wrote, in part: “We work to avoid or minimize the impacts of infrastructure improvements to the natural and human environment while delivering projects efficiently.”
Evers and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation want to expand the interstate to decrease traffic congestion and high crash rates, and repair aging infrastructure in what Evers has called one of the state’s “most congested and dangerous roads.”
Menomonee Valley Partners, a nonprofit dedicated to redeveloping the Menomonee River Valley, has praised the state’s decision to proceed with the project.
But more than 20% of households near the corridor lack a car, and expansion opponents point to volumes of research showing that widening highways can actually increase traffic volume. They say the expansion will disproportionately disrupt Milwaukee’s Near West Side neighborhoods that the highway shaped six decades ago.
The expansion cuts through some of Milwaukee’s most flood-vulnerable areas.
The Valley, Merrill Park and other neighborhoods north of I-94 face “high” vulnerability to flooding, according to recent mapping by the environmental advocacy nonprofit Groundwork Milwaukee, The New School Urban Systems Lab and other partners. Neighborhoods just south of the highway — including parts of the Mitchell Park, National Park and Clarke Square neighborhoods — face “very high” flood vulnerabilities, the research shows.
The analysis indexes flood vulnerability according to impacts on health, such as how many people lack health insurance and face certain chronic diseases; socioeconomics, including age, income and racial demographics; and housing, including the age of housing stock and portion of households lacking a car.
According to the report, The Valley faces a “medium” flood exposure level, or how likely it is to flood during heavy rainfall. But many surrounding neighborhoods — including Merrill Park to the east and parts of neighborhoods along the Menomonee south of I-94 —  face a “high” risk. The analysis doesn’t consider how the I-94 expansion might affect flooding.
With roughly as many white residents as people of color — mainly Black, Latino and Asian Americans, The Valley is among Milwaukee’s most diverse neighborhoods. Residents of color make up larger majorities in other flood-vulnerable neighborhoods touched by the expansion. Those include Merrill Park (54% Black, 19% Hispanic or Latino) and National Park (7% Black, 73% Hispanic or Latino), according to an analysis of 2020 census data by Marquette Law School research fellow John Johnson.
Institute for Nonprofit News collaboration partners report that cities throughout the Great Lakes region are experiencing crises resulting from intense rainfall, archaic wastewater systems, crumbling infrastructure and segregated housing, creating a perfect storm of flooding vulnerability and environmental injustice. Rural areas, Indigenous communities and ecosystems in the Great Lakes also face great risk from flooding, endangering hard-fought gains in environmental restoration and community development.
Understanding precisely how much the I-94 expansion will affect those neighborhoods requires a detailed runoff analysis, said Lawrence Hoffman, senior manager of GIS and Data Services for Groundwork USA, who helped lead the vulnerability mapping project.
In its Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement published in 2022, the state transportation department acknowledged that adding acres of impermeable pavement will increase stormwater runoff, but said “the water that would be collected from I-94 would be treated better than it is today.”
The department said it won’t calculate the “quality and quantity” of the runoff — and finalize solutions to address it, such as retention basins or grass-lined ditches — until the project’s final design phase.
That’s too late to offer such critical information — and long after the project’s public comment period, which closed in January, said Cheryl Nenn, a riverkeeper for Milwaukee Riverkeeper, a self-described “science-based advocacy organization working for swimmable, fishable rivers” around Milwaukee. The state transportation department plans to include feedback from the public comment period in a final Environmental Impact Statement, expected to be released this year.
“It is frustrating, because they acknowledge there’s pollution, they acknowledge that there’s a litany of different things they can do to minimize that — or ameliorate those impacts, but they don’t commit to anything,” she said.
Milwaukee has strict local rules for minimizing runoff from new projects and redevelopments, but the I-94 expansion, as a state project, isn’t bound by them, Nenn added. That includes a rule that developments above a certain size can’t generate additional runoff.
“There’s been a lot of really serious work to deal with flood management in the watershed, and that work continues,” Nenn said. “This type of a project is going to make it harder for us to achieve our goals for clean rivers.”
The sewerage district has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into flood control along  watersheds, with a goal of reducing sewage overflows and basement backups to zero by 2035. That includes along the Menomonee River, which runs parallel to I-94 before turning south and crossing beneath the highway at Valley Park. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources lists the river as “impaired” due to its high levels of phosphorus, E. coli, polychlorinated biphenyls and other issues.
The district saw more than 2.1 billion gallons of wastewater discharged in 2020 alone, data show. And a single overflow in 2022 released 750 million gallons of untreated wastewater into local waters. But those volumes remain far below the billions of annual gallons discharged in past decades, including when residents of The Valley and surrounding neighborhoods faced disastrous flooding.
Peggy Falsetti, 75, has lived in The Valley for 48 years and recalls a time when children would play in standing water as the Menomonee River surged over its banks.
“I remember waking up one morning and the water was all the way up to 39th Street,” she said.
After flooding in 1997 and 1998 damaged about 130 homes around The Valley, the sewerage district spent $12 million to build Valley Park. The department constructed a levee and floodwall where the park meets the Menomonee to protect local homes — one of several projects to curb the Menomonee’s flooding.
Residents say the Valley Park project has worked to limit runoff. But they worry that widening the highway that looms overhead will reverse some of that progress. No one in the neighborhood will lose their home to the I-94 widening, but the roadway will grow closer to where residents live and play.
Neighborhood concerns about the project stretch beyond flooding.
While taking a break from guiding neighborhood children through their park upkeep duties, Valley Park’s volunteer master naturalist, Ann Bowe, worried about how the expansion will affect the health of local children. Living near highways — and pollution from cars — can worsen heart and lung disease in kids and teens, according to the American Lung Association.
“It’s bad enough that we have the freeways that we have here,” Bowe said, gesturing to the road. “But why are we going to spend, what, five years probably building more?”
This article first appeared on Wisconsin Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

author: Jonah Chester / Wisconsin Watch and WPR


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Ron Smith
August 11, 2023


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Ron Smith
August 11, 2023


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5 Milwaukee Public Library programs you should know about | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
PrincessSafiya Byers
August 14, 2023
In collaboration with the Office of Violence Prevention, the Milwaukee Public Library is doing its part to help keep Milwaukee safe and engaged by offering activities throughout its branches even as the summer draws to an end.
Neil Albrecht, the community relations and engagement director for Milwaukee Public Library, said the library’s programs and events are created with the hope of promoting literacy and creating safe havens for Milwaukeeans of all ages.
Here are five things you should know:
With a focus on improving literacy, the summer program offers reading guides and challenges for all ages.
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The Milwaukee Public Library hosts youth circles to provide safe spaces for teens and tweens to develop skills like communication, team building, sensory processing and active listening.
These are open daily at the Good Hope, Mitchell Street or Washington Park branches.  They are places where people can gather and work on projects while sharing ideas, equipment and knowledge.
The Milwaukee Public Library also is an AmeriCorp program participant. Applications are currently open to apply for the program and potentially build your resumé by working in the library.
To keep up with what’s happening, visit the library website..

author: PrincessSafiya Byers


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Ron Smith
August 13, 2023


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5 things to know and do the week of Aug. 14 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Chesnie Wardell
August 14, 2023
It’s Monday in Milwaukee, and here are some things we think you should know about. If you would like your event to be considered for this column, please submit your news by clicking here at least two weeks in advance.
Alverno College hosts free tours on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. for those interested in the school, which is located at 3400 S. 43rd St. Registration is required. More information here.
Having a hard time utilizing your technology? Milwaukee Public Library’s Zablocki Branch is offering a free session on Wednesday, Aug. 16 to help adults with any questions they have about their phones and tablets. The event will take place from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at 3501 W. Oklahoma Ave. More information here.
If you are 18 and older, you have the chance to walk up to four miles with the Mil”WALK”ee Club on Wednesday, Aug. 16 from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. This free event requires registration and will begin at Pete’s Pops, 3809 W. Vliet Ave. More information here.
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Get up early on Wednesday, Aug. 16 to experience yoga at the Milwaukee County Historical Society from 7 a.m. to 7:50 a.m. Elissa Albert will lead the all-level yoga classes at 910 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. There is a suggested donation of $5. Don’t forget to register, and bring your yoga mat. More information here.
414 Trust Kickball is a free annual tournament for youths ages 9 to 14, joined by law enforcement, to build a sense of community and engagement. This year’s tournament is Thursday, Aug. 17 at Baran Park, 2600 S. Chase Ave., beginning at 4 p.m.  Registration is required. More information here.


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Ron Smith
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Ron Smith
August 13, 2023


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‘The cornerstone of the community’: How Hephatha Lutheran Church gives its members opportunities to give and receive | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Devin Blake
August 14, 2023
To some, the 53206 ZIP code is synonymous with issues such as lead poisoning, poverty, violence and mass incarceration.
But to the congregants of Hephatha Lutheran Church, their neighborhood is much more.
They say many people miss the love and peace they regularly see.
“The church is the cornerstone of the community,” said Marquitta Smith.
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Smith, 38, had to speak over the chatter of dozens of kids enjoying a pizza party in the church’s dining hall on a  Tuesday evening.
Smith has been a member of Hephatha, which sits at the corner of North 18th and West Locust streets, since she was a child. Now her four kids are members as well.
Smith also is the goddaughter of the pastor, Mary Martha Kannass.
“She’s so awesome,” said Smith. “She’s literally an angel.”
The church leadership goes out of its way to welcome everyone, Kannass said.
“If you’re someone who’s been a member here for 40 years, you understand that you’re not more important than the person who just walked in the door,” Kannass said. “We’re all here with the same need.”
Kannass, who became pastor over 30 years ago, has seen the church grow in two important ways.
First, the church has grown in number.
Currently, the church has roughly 430 members, and, on any given Sunday morning, there are about 100 people worshipping, both in person and online.
The second way the church has grown is in its “capacity to serve,” Kannass said.
What people often call “social justice issues,” Kannass calls “the pulse of our ministry.”
An ongoing issue the church is involved in is advocating around the crisis of lead poisoning.
According to 2021 data from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, 6.25% of children in Milwaukee County under the age of 6 had elevated levels of lead in their blood, compared to 3.64% for Wisconsin as a whole. Children with elevated lead level rates close to or over 20% were found in several census tracts within the 53206 ZIP code.
Such elevated levels are associated with increased risks for cognitive and behavioral problems during development and later in life.
With this backdrop, Hephatha helped create the Coalition on Lead Emergency, or COLE.
COLE, now its own entity, provides education about lead poisoning and works to facilitate access to resources, such as lead filtering pitchers, lead safety kits and training for jobs in lead abatement, among other things.
“We are called to the work of justice – changing the forces, battling the forces that make lead poisoning such a prominent problem … and then additionally, we’re called to direct service,” Kannass said.
Failing to address the economic and political realities of the lives of the people in their neighborhood – both in systemic and everyday ways – would be failing to live up to their biblical mandate, as Kannass and the congregation interpret it.
“We have material poverty. We have the impacts of systemic racism. This is affecting people in their daily lives, 24 hours a day, and it’s contrary to the gospel,” Kannass said.
Other projects of the church include organizing worship opportunities for people who are incarcerated and serving as a Strong Baby Sanctuary.
The Strong Baby Sanctuary program is a collaboration between Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital and various church congregations. The goal is to help reduce infant mortality, which disproportionately affects communities of color.
The Hephatha sanctuary, like other sanctuaries, fosters “a network of resources for Black parents, especially for Black parents with children under the age of one,” said Elisha Branch, who facilitates the sanctuary at Hephatha.
Branch, too, has been going to Hephatha since she was a child and now has a child who attends as well.
Roughly eight years ago, Kannass, and others, worked to help build a congregation within the Felmers O. Chaney Correctional Center.
Additionally, the Rev. Joseph Ellwanger, assistant minister at Hephatha, helps bring several individuals from the center to the church every Sunday for service.
Not only does it “let the (prison) system and the staff at the Chaney Center know that the community really cares about these people,” it also helps the people who are incarcerated “develop relationships in the community that will help them when they get out,” Ellwanger said.
Relationships like these are crucial for people to successfully rebuild their lives after being incarcerated.
“We ought to at least resemble the ministry of Jesus. And see what his interactions were, as far as teaching, preaching, healing, bringing justice, and so we want to be at least resembling the ministry of Jesus in our time and in our place,” Kannass said.
Those interested can call the church at 414-264-0234 or visit its website.

author: Devin Blake


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Ron Smith
August 13, 2023


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UWM program trains nurses to care for victims of sexual violence | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Devin Blake
August 15, 2023
Victims of sexual violence are being connected to culturally competent care through a program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee that trains and certifies sexual assault nurse examiners, or SANEs.
The program, which began in April, seeks to increase the number of SANEs – for the sake all victims of sexual violence but particularly people of color who have historically had issues with accessing appropriate health care.
Students of the program are at least already registered nurses upon entering and will receive certification to care for victims of sexual violence.
The needs of victims are varied, but one thing SANEs often stress is that care should be patient-centered and patient-led.
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“Often, the loss of power and control can be the most difficult for the patients we see,” said Alison Lopez, a SANE working in the Milwaukee area. “For this reason, the foundation of SANE care is to assist in giving control back to the patients we care for.”
Within this framework, a SANE offers screening and prophylaxis, or preventative treatment, for sexually transmitted infections, HIV prophylaxis and emergency contraception.
Some initial physical needs, including pain management and acute traumatic injuries, are often treated in the emergency room before patients work with a SANE, Lopez said.
SANEs also are trained to address a patient’s emotional needs and to provide referrals to organizations and resources for ongoing support.
Graduates of the UWM program can work throughout Wisconsin as a SANE, but the program is focused on the most marginalized populations – Black, Brown and Indigenous people – said Peninnah Kako, associate professor at the UWM School of Nursing and program director of the SANE program.
These are the groups that “suffer the most sexual assault, and they tend to not access services,” said Kako.
For example, according to data analyzed by The National Center on Violence Against Women in the Black Community, only about 6% of Black women who are raped report the incident. This rate is far lower than the rate for the country as a whole, where roughly 36% of rapes were reported from 1992 to 2000, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
“Routinely, if people experience sexual assault and they are from a community that is disadvantaged,” said Kako, “they may not have had access or been treated well within the realm of the health care system. … They might just decide not to go.”
This historical and structural reticence is why UWM went out of its way to create a curriculum designed with cultural competence in mind. In fact, the program requires a greater number of course hours than the minimum certification requirements, in part, in order to give its students this training.
Although there are “fabulous SANE programs” in Milwaukee, “the problem is allowing survivors to feel safe in environments where they want to come,” said
Jacqueline Callari Robinson, a research assistant at UWM and a SANE.
For instance, she added, someone in a majority-Black community may want to access services at The Asha Project because that’s the community-based service with which they are comfortable. If rape victims are near the Gerald L. Ignace Indian Health Center, those patients might want to use the services there.
“So, we need trained forensic nurses at every one of these areas,” Callari Robinson said.
And the nurses need to gain the trust of the victims they serve. “You can be the best forensic provider in the world. If survivors don’t trust you, they’re not coming to you,” Callari Robinson said.
Check out of the program’s website
Those in Milwaukee who would like to get care from a SANE can contact the Aurora Healing and Advocacy Services hotline by calling 414-219-5555 or texting 414-219-1551.
People also can contact: Aurora Sinai Medical Center; Froedtert Hospital Emergency Department in Milwaukee; and one of Ascension Wisconsin’s emergency departments in the metro Milwaukee area.


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Ron Smith
August 14, 2023


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Milwaukee high school students make short film debut with ‘Soulmate’ | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Sam Woods
August 16, 2023
Milwaukee’s young people are demonstrating what happens when artistic talent is nurtured from a young age.
“Soulmate,” a short film about a young woman’s journey through poetry and art before meeting her soulmate at his wedding, was made almost entirely by local high school students.
The film is based on a poem of the same name by Brit Nicole, a Milwaukee-based creative, spoken-word artist and “Renaissance woman.” Nicole wrote the poem 11 years ago, and it earned a spot on her spoken-word album “Nocturnal Butterfly” and book “Moods, Melanin and Magic: A Manifesto” before serving as the basis for the film.
But, for Nicole, what makes the film special is that while it was based on her poem, almost all of the creative choices – from scriptwriting to cinematography to the color scheme of the actors’ outfits – were made by student interns at Arts @ Large with guidance from Milwaukee creatives.
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Arts @ Large provides opportunities for artists to engage with schools and the community.
Nicole said providing an opportunity for the next generation is the perfect use for her art, because it can act as a catalyst for future Milwaukee-based artists.
“We are where we are because of the people who influence us,” she said.
The film is about 10 minutes long and opens with aerial shots of Milwaukee before featuring the film’s main characters as they slowly converge toward their destiny at a wedding.
As Nicole’s poem begins with the line, “I met my soulmate at his wedding today,” the film presents a similar situation where love between two people is seemingly found at a wedding, but with only one of the parties expecting to be married that day.
When Nicole was getting started as a poet, she only wanted to perform poetry live. No books. No albums. No films.
“I said:  ‘You’re not getting a book; you’re not getting an album. If you didn’t hear me live in living color, I guess you didn’t hear me,’ ” Nicole said.
After the release of her book in 2021 and album in 2022, Nicole and her friend Dasmond McMillan were discussing what to do next.
McMillan, co-founder of On What Studios and a mentor to students studying graphic design at Arts @ Large, remembers a conversation they had where they had the idea to make a short film.
“We were on a couch talking about how to promote Brit. At first, we were going to make ‘Soulmate’ into a music video,” he said.
But when the two took the idea to Symphony Swan-Zawadi, an interdisciplinary artist and the senior director of programs at Arts @ Large, they left with a plan to turn the poem into a film made by Arts @ Large interns.
“I was like ‘whoa, now we’re talking,’ ” McMillan remembered thinking at the end of this conversation.
Swan-Zawadi then set to work building an internship program for high school students around the creation of the film. The program included five artistic tracks for students to choose from: scriptwriting, filmmaking, digital arts, fashion design and the business of art.
From there, interns met every Tuesday from the beginning of the internship in October to the film’s premiere in April.
From the beginning, it was important to Nicole, McMillan and Swan-Zawadi to bring in Milwaukee-based creatives to mentor interns throughout the project and to provide professional advice along the way.
Community partners included Nicole and McMillan, who mentored the writers and graphic designers; On What Studios’ other co-founder, Marquise Wright, who mentored videographers; Iris Acevedo from Mount Mary University and Sew House Sewing and Apparel, who mentored the fashion design students; and Lilo Allen from Bronzeville Collective MKE, who mentored students about the business of art.
“Collaboration, for me, is huge,” Swan-Zawadi said. “This didn’t just happen because of Arts @ Large. It’s a true testament to what collaboration looks like.”
Nicole said too often, adults go out of their way to discourage young artists. Through projects like “Soulmate,” she’s correcting that trend and giving young artists the guidance they deserve.
“I flourish because I sow seeds,” she said. “What we’re doing here, they will never forget.”
Alana O’Quin, a high school senior during the production of the film, received a scholarship from Arts @ Large to pursue art in college. She was part of the writing team who worked on the film’s script.
O’Quin said her favorite parts of the project occurred after she worked with the other groups to bring the script to life.
“I liked the collaboration part the most,” she said. “I just like meeting new people, seeing different people’s perspectives and making it all work.”
Alexandria “Alex” Wanyee, also a senior in high school during production, was in the digital arts track at Arts @ Large and involved in graphic design for “Soulmate.”
Wanyee said she loved the process of turning words from the script into visually palpable emotions. She said the project helped her get out of an artistic funk she had been in since returning to in-person learning at school in 2021.
“I had very bad artist block after going back to school and couldn’t really express myself through art like I used to,” she said. “This (film) inspired me to get into more art-related opportunities.”
You can watch the film in its entirety here.
In addition to watching the movie, Nicole and McMillan encouraged those interested in supporting work like this to donate to programs like Arts @ Large.

author: Sam Woods


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Ron Smith
August 15, 2023


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Music camp teaches Milwaukee students new ways to play | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
PrincessSafiya Byers
August 16, 2023
Ten-year-old Nicolas Muñoz spent part of his summer learning drumming, piano and ukulele.
He was one of more than 60 second through sixth graders who learned how to play musical instruments for the first time at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music’s Music Exploration Camp.
“I like getting to play all of the different instruments,” he said. “My favorite is the drum because I like the sound.”
Muñoz said this is his second summer with the program because he enjoyed his experience last year.
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“I like getting to play all of the different instruments,” he said. “My favorite is the drum because I like the sound.”
The Music Exploration Camp is a part of the conservatory’s efforts to increase access to music education.
“Inspiring individuals and communities through exceptional music education accessible to all is part of our mission,” said John Bragle, the director of community programs at the conservatory. “Our work in schools is one way to hit on that accessibility piece.”
This camp took place at Milwaukee Public Schools’ Anna F. Doerfler School, in the Clarke Square neighborhood. The school is one of the conservatory’s community partnership sites.
The camp provides low-stakes opportunities for young students to experience, explore and get excited about music.
Students received instruction from the conservatory’s faculty in world drumming, ukulele, piano and singing. The camp seeks to encourage and inspire the next generation of musicians.
Bragle said not only do these camps allow students to learn, experience and explore various types of music, they also allow the conservatory to connect with parents and guardians so they can be given resources for their children to participate in musical activities year-round.
Besides the music camp, the conservatory works to increase accessibility by offering tuition assistance and conducting instrument drives to provide instruments to students who may not be able to otherwise afford them.
“Music is magical,” Bragle said. “And I think a lot of times because of that, it feels very inaccessible to people, and we are trying to change that.”
Check out the conservatory’s website.
Here’s how you can donate to the conservatory
“Even if it’s not with us, people should still get involved,” Bragle said. “Join your church choir or support musicians by attending festivals and events.”
From the archives: This homework is music to MPS students’ ears


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Ron Smith
August 15, 2023


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How one man is fighting law that lets landlords reject tenants with drug distribution records | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
PrincessSafiya Byers
August 17, 2023
Yusuf Dahl was convicted of dealing drugs when he was 18 years old. Twenty-five years later that conviction is still blocking Dahl from housing opportunities.
That is because of the Thurmond Amendment, which Dahl is working to get overturned.
Introduced in the 1988 Fair Housing Amendments Act, the Thurmond Amendment creates a lifetime exemption from federal fair housing protections for individuals convicted of any drug distribution crime — no matter when the crime occurred or what the underlying conduct entailed.
As a former president of the Apartment Association of Southeastern Wisconsin, Dahl was well aware of the possibility that his rental application would be denied but still “shocked and heartbroken” to see it happen.
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“My prospective landlord exercised their legal right to discriminate against me for my prior conviction,” he said. “Had this been anyone else, they could have reached out to a fair housing council for help. But because my conviction was drug related, there was nothing anyone could do.”
Sharing his own story was his first step in trying to get the amendment overturned.
“When you think about the impact of the amendment, it begs the question: Why have folks not taken this on?”
Dahl said the answer is because the legislation affects “the more vulnerable people in our society.”
Since his conviction as a teen, Dahl has become a property owner, founder of the Real Estate Lab in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and board chair of the Petey Greene Program, a national prison education nonprofit.
Dahl said, at its core, overturning the Thurmond Amendment is an equity issue.
Born and raised in Milwaukee, Dahl spent time in juvenile detention as a child before turning his life around after being released from prison.
He attended UW-Milwaukee, founded Milwaukee Metro Management and served as the president of the Apartment Association of Southeastern Wisconsin before completing his degree in public policy through Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
“This is a piece of legislation that impacts over 9 million people in the country and has been limiting opportunity, geographically, as well as the social and economic opportunities,”  he said. “Look at who proposed it.”
Dahl was referring to the late South Carolina GOP Sen. Strom Thurmond, a one-time segregationist who voted against the original Fair Housing Act, the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, 18,563 people were arrested for drug crimes in 2021, with 2,529 of them in Milwaukee.
A 2016 report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum shows that Black people bear the brunt of unequal drug enforcement laws.
The researchers found that although Black people comprise about 39% of the City of Milwaukee’s population, from 2012 to 2015, they were the subject of 72% of the 3,903 arrests for possession of small amounts of marijuana when that was the sole charge
Hispanic people, who make up about 18% of the city’s population, accounted for 15% of the arrests, the report said.
“It’s a form of neo-redlining,” Dahl said, adding Thurmond has “achieved virtually the same end as racist practices before: Keeping minorities out of certain neighborhoods.”
Milwaukee housing advocates have expressed support of Dahl’s efforts.
“We know that particular demographics are incarcerated more for these types of offenses,” said Robert Penner, an organizer of the Milwaukee Autonomous Tenants Union.  “So, it’s exceptionally unfair to deprive these groups of housing.”
The Apartment Association of Southeastern Wisconsin is the first trade group to publicly support the cause.
“We’re supporting it because it makes no sense that the same amount of marijuana that is legal in a state over (Illinois) can get someone denied housing for the rest of their lives in Wisconsin,” said Tim Ballering, a board member of the group. “There are protections that allow people to work after a conviction but none that allows them somewhere to live.”
Ballering said his organization believes good tenants deserve good homes.
“None of us are the same person we were 25 years ago,” he said. “If a tenant qualifies for an apartment based on income, rental and credit history, they should not be denied housing simply because of a conviction from decades ago.”
Dahl is trying to rally legislators to overturn the amendment.
“I have not met one person yet, Democrat or Republican, that says that this makes sense,” he said. “It does nothing to make communities safer.”
Dahl has a documentary on the topic coming out soon and said people interested in the documentary or keeping up with the process of getting the amendment overturned can follow him on  LinkedIn or on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.


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Ron Smith
August 16, 2023


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5 things to know and do the weekend of Aug. 18 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Chesnie Wardell
August 18, 2023
It’s Friday in Milwaukee, and here are some things we think you should know about. If you would like your event to be considered for this column, please submit your news by clicking here at least two weeks in advance.
Everyone needs love! Get free cupcakes and a hug on Saturday, Aug. 19 at noon from Tamesha Patrice, the owner and chef of Baked Dreams. This will take place in the area of Sherman Park, 3526 W. Fond Du Lac Ave.
Sculpting Sistas Fitness is a group that promotes fitness and wellness. On Saturday, Aug. 19, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., the group will host a brunch at Nō Studios, 1037 W. McKinley Ave. The event is designed for people to explore healthy options, socialize and support the new offerings being launched for the community. More information here.
Start Sunday morning with free yoga organized by 8 Branches of Chinese Medicine at Morgan Triangle, 3404 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., on Sunday, Aug. 20 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. More information here.
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The Red Magic Art Festival takes place at Jackson Park, 3500 W. Forest Home Ave., on Sunday, Aug. 20 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The event celebrates the arts and culture of Native Americans by hosting vendors, art activities and other festivities. More information here.
Walker’s Point Market Crawl is an event by Mercadera Market from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 20, partnering with MobCraft Beer Brewery Taproom and Pizza, Great Lakes Distillery and Tasting Room, and Lost Valley Cider Company. Shoppers will be able to buy from Latina vendors. More information here.
Community Huddle’s annual back-to-school giveaway is Saturday, Aug. 19 at 2 p.m. at 2745 N. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. School and safety necessities will be provided along with face painting. It will be located on the lower level. More information here.


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Ron Smith
August 17, 2023


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Ron Smith
August 17, 2023


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Ron Smith
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Ron Smith
August 17, 2023


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Inside Waupun Correctional Institution’s ‘nightmare’ lockdown | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Mario Koran /The New York Times and Wisconsin Watch
August 20, 2023
Prisoners locked in their cells for days on end report walls speckled with feces and blood. Birds have moved in, leaving droppings on the food trays and ice bags handed out to keep prisoners  cool. Blocked from visiting the law library, prisoners say they have missed court deadlines and jeopardized appeals. Unable to access toilet paper, one prisoner tore his clothing into patches to use for tissue.
One thousand people incarcerated at Waupun Correctional Institution, a maximum-security prison in southeast Wisconsin, have been confined mostly to their cells for more than four months, ever since prison officials locked down the facility and halted many programs and services.
More than two dozen prisoners at Waupun, the state’s oldest prison, have revealed to The New York Times that since late March they have been forced to eat all meals in their cells, received no visits from friends or family, seen complaints of pain ignored and been allowed limited, if any, fresh air or recreation time.
The Wisconsin Department of Corrections has offered little explanation about the lockdown or why it has lasted so long.
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“There were multiple threats of disruption and assaultive behavior toward staff or other persons in our care, but there was not one specific incident that prompted the facility to go into modified movement,” said Kevin Hoffman, the department’s deputy director of communications. According to state data, nearly 100 assaults have occurred there in the past fiscal year.
Others familiar with the sprawling penitentiary suggest another reason for the restrictions: dire staffing shortages.
More than half of the prison’s 284 full-time positions for correctional officers and sergeants remain unfilled, state data shows. The shortages have severely hobbled the facility’s ability to operate safely, according to former wardens, correctional officers and members of Waupun prison’s community board.
“If I was the warden right now, I’d have that institution on lockdown, too,” said Mike Thurmer, who once ran the prison and now sits on its community relations board. “You can’t have a 40 or 50% vacancy rate and not have at the very minimum a modified lockdown.”
What is happening in Waupun illustrates a reality at prisons across the country: Lockdowns, once a rare action taken in a crisis, are becoming a common way to deal with chronic staffing and budget shortages.
Critics say these shutdowns became easier to justify during the pandemic, when prison officials could cite the need to control the spread of COVID-19. But even as most COVID-related restrictions have been lifted, lockdowns continue to be applied.
“They are using it at the drop of a hat because it makes day to day operations easier,” said Tammie Gregg, deputy director for the ACLU’s National Prison Project.
Waupun is not the state’s only prison under lockdown. Eighty miles northeast, those at the maximum-security prison in Green Bay have been effectively locked down since June. Prisoner advocates have shared reports of prisoners protesting conditions inside the institution, but the Department of Corrections would confirm only that there were unspecified security threats.
Green Bay’s prison has a vacancy rate for correctional officers and sergeants of 40%.
State prisons across the country have been denying prisoners showers, exercise and timely medical care. In Mississippi, North Carolina and Texas, thousands of people have been kept in their cells as officials scrambled to hire more officers.
Last year, a former lawmaker and director of an association that represents prison workers in Oklahoma said staffing shortages had led to increased violence and repeated lockdowns.
And in the federal prison system, which is also suffering severe labor shortages, officials in recent years have turned to nurses, teachers and cooks to guard prisoners as nearly one-third of correctional officer jobs sat vacant. Staffing shortages led one prison in Texas to lock prisoners in their cells on the weekends.
The practice extends to jails, where offenders typically await trial or serve sentences shorter than a year. In 2022, one Pennsylvania jail was locked down after officials called a state of emergency because of low staffing levels. More recently, officers at Prince County jail in Maryland said a shortage of guards resulted in frequent lockdowns and forced overtime for officers.
Given the staffing shortages, some prison officials in Wisconsin and elsewhere said their facilities would be impossible to manage without lockdowns.
But studies show there may be more at stake. A survey across 19 prisons in the United Kingdom found that 84% of prisoners who responded from higher-security prisons said their mental health had deteriorated over the course of lockdowns during COVID outbreaks because of boredom, anxiety and limited social interactions.
Lockdowns often also restrict family visits, as they have in Waupun, which research has long shown can negatively affect the likelihood of successful reintegration after a prisoner is released.
Gregg said parallels can be drawn between lockdowns and solitary confinement, which can lead to long-term psychological damage. Limited access to libraries, a loss of educational opportunities and a denial of substance abuse treatment — all of which frequently result from lockdowns — can mean the punishment prisoners already experience is compounded.
With its 53% staff vacancy rate, Waupun is the most short-staffed facility in a chronically understaffed state prison system. Supplemental correctional officers come in on a rotating, two-week basis to provide relief for full-time staff, but the help may not go far enough.
The lockdown at Waupun has led to delays in medical care and psychological services. Multiple prisoners reported those who were cutting themselves or threatening self-harm simply to get medical attention. And even then, they said, assistance was slow to arrive — if it came at all.
Prisoners at the maximum-security prison have been convicted of felonies ranging from drug possession to burglary to murder. The Times interviewed prisoners by phone and email.
“People are threatening suicide every day, and there’s no treatment here,” said a Waupun prisoner, Jayvon Flemming, referring to mental health care. “You have to harm yourself or threaten suicide just to get staff’s attention. I’m in a nightmare.”
“I’ve attempted suicide four times in the past months just because of this lockdown and not being able to go outside to get sunlight,” said another prisoner, Ashton Dreiling.
“We’ve received no indication that this is the case,” Hoffman, the Department of Corrections spokesman, said when told of allegations that prisoners were threatening suicide or self-harm more often since the lockdown began.
Wisconsin prisons also face a shortage of staff for health care (24%) and psychological services (27%), according to data from the Department of Corrections. One Waupun prisoner, Kevin Burkes, has been living with pain and blurry vision — a possible complication, medical records indicate, of an autoimmune disorder. In June, he submitted a request to see a doctor but received a reply that read, “No optical during lockdown.”
Hoffman acknowledged that early on, appointments were limited to those deemed necessary by medical professionals. Routine appointments are now allowed more frequently, he said.
Lonnie Story, a civil rights attorney based in Florida, agreed in August to represent Waupun prisoners in a class-action lawsuit against the state.
Story said their complaints have been notably consistent. “What’s setting off legal alerts and red flags in my mind are the medical aspects — complaints about the ventilation system, the denial of medical treatment and the denial of psychological evaluations or treatment,” he said.
The exact number of lockdowns that occur in federal and state prisons is not clear, because there is no national tracking system. There are no standards for how lockdowns are implemented or how long they can last, Gregg said, and there is little oversight for the practice.
The Wisconsin Department of Corrections cannot say whether the lockdown at Waupun is the state’s longest, because it does not formally record the numbers. But those familiar with the state’s prison system said lockdowns typically last just days or weeks, not months.
In April, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia, introduced a bipartisan bill in Congress, the Federal Prison Oversight Act, which would require the Department of Justice’s inspector general to review the 122 correctional facilities within the Bureau of Prisons and assess the frequency and duration of lockdowns.
The office of Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, whose administration oversees Wisconsin’s Department of Corrections, told The Times that ensuring prison safety is a top priority and that his office will continue to rely on the DOC’s judgment. The governor’s office did not respond to questions about the cause of the restrictions or steps it might take if the lockdown continued.
Sean Daley, a representative for AFSCME, the union that serves as an advocate for Wisconsin prison guards, said he would not be shocked if staff shortages were at least partly to blame for the lockdown at Waupun.
“The system is breaking, if it’s not broken yet,” Daley said. “And Waupun can be a glaring example of that under its current state.”
Lawmakers hope an increase in pay will improve recruitment and retention, although hiring enough new staffers to provide relief may take months. The state Legislature agreed to raise starting pay for correctional officers to $33 an hour from $20.29 an hour and made additional money available for those working at maximum-security prisons and facilities with vacancy rates above 40%.
But Mike Thomas, a former correctional officer who worked at Waupun’s prison for seven years before he retired as a captain, said the pay increase was only one piece of the puzzle.
Dangerous conditions, forced overtime and lack of time off contributes to high burnout rates among correctional officers. Thomas recalls working 75 days straight, many of them double shifts. It was so difficult to plan for days off, he said, that many resorted to calling in sick when they needed a personal day.
Since mid-2012, Waupun has seen 440 assaults on staff. At least 95 occurred this fiscal year — more than any other Wisconsin prison and nearly double the number of the next closest facility, according to DOC data. When adjusted for the prison population, Waupun’s incident rate in fiscal year 2023 is the third highest and seven times the state average.
In testimony sent to state lawmakers in January, Brian Wackett, a correctional officer, described an urgent need for pay raises to attract and retain more officers.
Waupun prison had a night last year, he said, when they only had eight staff members working inside the prison. “They have 900 inmates there, and no one can adequately supervise them all at a given time,” he said.
Many prisoner jobs inside the prison have been put on hold. In-person college classes for prisoners, offered by Trinity International University, were paused at the end of March, according to a representative from the college.
Policies that say prison staff must offer prisoners showers at least twice a week, as well as four hours of recreation outside of their cells, have been suspended during the lockdown.
The DOC said recreation is still offered but that the frequency and duration were dependent on staffing levels. Some inmates claimed they received one hour a week of exercise. Others said recreation was offered inconsistently, and often canceled if prisoners broke minor rules, like not standing up for morning head count.
In addition to the loss of educational opportunities, prisoners like Chase Burns said they were denied visits to the law library, a right guaranteed by the U.S. Supreme Court. The DOC said prisoners can still request materials from the library. But multiple prisoners report that those requests are delayed until a librarian can fulfill the search, making it difficult to file documents by court deadlines.
Days after responding to questions from The Times, the prison began allowing library visitation for those with a court date within 45 days.
Flemming, the Waupun prisoner who described how prisoners were threatening suicide to get medical attention, said his biggest fear was not being able to summon help in a medical crisis.
He said he recently had trouble breathing and requested immediate assistance, but it took four days for a nurse to see him. When she came, he said, she charged him $7.50 for a medical co-pay, took his vital signs and told him he was on a list to be seen by a doctor. His breathing problems continued.
“There’s no ventilation in these cells,” he said, adding that there was no way to call out to staff in a medical emergency. “We shouldn’t have to live like this.”
Jamie Kelter Davis and Justin Mayo contributed reporting.
Mario Koran is examining the Wisconsin Department of Corrections as part of The New York Times’s Local Investigations Fellowship. He reported this article in partnership with Wisconsin Watch and with support from the Data-Driven Reporting Project, which is funded by the Google News Initiative in partnership with Northwestern University | Medill.
This article first appeared on Wisconsin Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.


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Ron Smith
August 20, 2023


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5 things to know and do the week of Aug. 21 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Chesnie Wardell
August 21, 2023
It’s Monday in Milwaukee, and here are some things we think you should know about. If you would like your event to be considered for this column, please submit your news by clicking here at least two weeks in advance.
If you are a mom facing postpartum stresses, go to Mind, Yoni & Soul on 9211 W. Capitol Drive for peace and relaxation during a free yoga session on Monday, Aug. 21 from noon to 12:45 p.m. Participants will also get to share their experiences since having a baby. The event is being offered by Blue Lotus Life in partnership with Mind, Yoni and Soul. More information here.
Become a donor by attending the Uihlein Soccer Park August Blood Drive on Tuesday, Aug. 22 at the park, 7101 W. Good Hope Road., from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Book your appointment and help save a life! More information here.
Members of MilWALKee Walks will assist pedestrians in crossing the street safely at West Roosevelt Drive and West Fond Du Lac Avenue on Wednesday, Aug. 23 from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.  Feel free to join them to help raise awareness of pedestrian safety. More information here.
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Radio Milwaukee dedicates a weekly session for artists to showcase their music talents. On Thursday, Aug. 24, it will feature Moonglow, an indie-pop group that had a single released in July. The artists will perform at 5:30 p.m., but doors open at 5 p.m. at  220 E. Pittsburgh Ave. If you can’t be there in person, you can listen to the event. More information here.
Put your vocals and rap skills to the test at “Hot Girl Karaoke” on Friday, Aug. 25 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. to commemorate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. It will take place at Revel Bar, 2246 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. The event will be hosted by Social X MKE. More information here.


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OPINION: We can stop conflict by remembering to be humane | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Joseph Cook
August 21, 2023
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service invites community members to submit opinion pieces of 500-800 words on topics of interest to central city Milwaukee. To send a submission for consideration, please email info@milwaukeenns.org. The views expressed are solely those of the authors.
A boy once fell into a hole in the ground. As he started to cry for help,
people gathered around the hole to help and to see what the commotion was about.
EMTs attempted to rescue the boy but weren’t successful.
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The preacher, the imam and the rabbi came, but none of them were successful.
The boy’s friends showed up, jumped inside the hole and got stuck too.
The boy’s parents came, father and mother side by side. The mother knew her husband. She knew his private and public battles, and she knew without a doubt that the father could rescue her son.
The father rolled up his sleeves, turned down help from others and went into the hole. Moments later, he came out of the hole with his son and his son’s friends.
Asked how he succeeded when all the others failed, the father simply said, “I been in the hole before. I been in the hole plenty of times, so I know the way out.”
Before I left New Lisbon Correctional Institution for another institution, one of my friends told me that the officer didn’t allow him to eat because he was only a few seconds late.
My friend took up the issue with the sergeant, who agreed with his officer.
My friend who worked in the main kitchen and prepared the meal that he was denied was very angry. He asked me how to write a complaint.
I did three things: I listened; I gave him some things for the night from my canteen; and later that evening, I spoke with the officer with whom he had a conflict.
I politely pulled the officer aside and told her that she should speak with my friend about the incident. I told her he was angry about what happened.
She initially got defensive but was still open to the conversation.
She said if she allowed him to come late, she would have to bend the rules for everybody.
After she finished, I told her that my friend was a good guy who usually is on time and that his anger was a secondary emotion.
Initially, he was hurt and somewhat humiliated by not being able to eat the food that he helped prepare.
I told her that I understand officers are just trying to do stressful jobs and go home. But prisoners are also just trying to make it through another day.
I told her that some conflicts can be resolved if we just communicated more instead of automatically punishing and verbally bashing one another.
She listened to me and afterward she told me to tell him to come and talk with her.
Keep in mind that he was in battle mode now. When I told him that she wanted to talk with him about the incident, he said he was good and that the damage was done.
He looked at me as if were crazy – like I betrayed his trust by talking to her about the issue without his permission. I saw him holler at one of his guys who was in the same street organization as his. He was running it past him.
After I told the officer that he was good, she persisted. “Cook, please tell him to come and talk with me,” she said.
He told me he appreciated what I was trying to do, but that he was cool. She persisted.
I told him to go and holler at her and that she wasn’t taking no for an answer. I told him to go in there not as a prisoner, but as a human. I told him to humanize himself. And that it was easy for her to deny him due if she dehumanized him.
He went to speak with her. When he came out of the kitchen, he shook my hand and told me she was so apologetic that he couldn’t get a word out. She restored the damage that was done.
He left that conversation feeling better.
He told me the only thing he wanted to tell her was that everybody’s situation is different and that his budget didn’t allow him to have a personal canteen, a commissary where inmates can buy authorized items.
But even without him saying that, the officer approached him with dignity and respect, which was a healing moment.
She neutralized his anger by treating him like a human being, which didn’t cost her a thing.
I recently heard that the definition of humility is always being teachable.
On a spiritual level, I didn’t like what she did to him and what she was doing to herself. She was denying her own humanity by denying his.  She probably went home and fed her pets not based on whether her pets were being good or bad, yet it was too easy for her to deny a person food.
And his response fueled the issue.
I know my friend as a man who doesn’t cuss or casually disrespect people. So, seeing him step out of these characteristics was unsettling.
Back in the day, this was one of the types of holes I had to learn how to escape. I used a lot of energy and effort in climbing out of these holes. I wasted a lot of energy and effort, but it wasn’t a waste being able to help others climb out.
Whatever we go through can serve us if we allow it to teach us.
In so doing, we will be able to help others who might be going through the same or a similar struggle.
Joseph Cook, a former Milwaukee resident, is incarcerated in the Oakhill Correctional Institution.

author: Joseph Cook


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Ron Smith
August 20, 2023


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Here’s how the sales tax increase in Milwaukee will affect your wallet | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
August 22, 2023
This summer, both the Milwaukee Common Council and the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors approved sales tax increases.
The city’s increase was 2%, while the county approved an additional 0.4% tax on top of the existing 0.5% county sales tax.
Combined with the longstanding 5% Wisconsin sales tax, the new sales tax that City of Milwaukee residents will pay will be 7.9%.
Here’s what that means for you:
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The increased sales taxes will go into effect in January.
Instead of paying a 5.5%, or 5.5 cent tax for every dollar spent on most goods or services, Milwaukee residents will pay nearly 8 cents (7.9) on the dollar.
People who live and/or spend money in Milwaukee County, but not the City of Milwaukee, will pay a 5.9% sales tax.
The new rates might not dent your wallet on most purchases, but you could feel the difference on big-ticket items.
Say, for example, you purchase a used car off the lot in the City of Milwaukee for $5,000. Currently, you’d pay $275 in sales taxes. Beginning in January, you’ll pay $395.
If the car you’re buying costs $25,000, then your sales tax bill would increase from $1,375 to $1,975.
If you make that same purchase outside of Milwaukee, but within the Milwaukee County limits, your sales tax for a $5,000 car would be $295 and for a $25,000 car, the sales tax would be $1,475.
Obviously, most purchases are not that grand. Say, for example, you spend $50 on clothes in the city. Your sales tax today would be $2.75. In January, that will increase to $3.95.
For a $500 flat screen TV,  you’re looking at a $12 increase from $27.50 to $39.50. Outside of Milwaukee but within Milwaukee County, the taxes on your TV would be $29.50.
Those amounts might not seem significant. But if you factor in purchases of fast food, clothes, entertainment and other goods during the year, the new sales tax could easily cost you hundreds.
Not every item or service you purchase is subject to a sales tax. Here are some common things that you don’t pay a sales tax on.
Exempt items include prescription drugs; durable medical equipment such as wheelchairs, prosthetics and other mobility enhancing equipment; and unprepared food and groceries (except soft drinks, candy and dietary supplements). There is an exemption for prepared food that is sold frozen and without utensils.
Fuel oil, propane, coal and steam made from wood used for fuel or produced from solid waste for residential use are exempt as is electricity and natural gas for residential use from November to April.
A few other items that are exempt include medical records, printed newspapers and Wisconsin and U.S. flags. Gamers will be happy to know that amusement devices, video or electronic games are also exempt.
These are items you’ve already been paying a sales tax on. They include clothes; computers; repairs; fast food; liquor and cigarettes; cable and satellite television; tickets for the Brewers, Bucks and other athletic events; and lodging.
A historic shared revenue bill passed by the Wisconsin Legislature earlier this summer allowed municipalities in the state, including Milwaukee, to implement a city sales tax to supplement the state tax.
The tax, leaders say, will help the city avoid bankruptcy, maintain jobs and fund crucial services for residents. The bill also included provisions that gave the state more power over local decisions.
A major provision of the shared revenue bill and subsequent sales tax requires the city to maintain its current level of staffing for the police and fire departments.
The city must use 90% of the revenue generated from the new sales tax to help cover its annual pension contribution and other pension-related costs, and 10% to maintain police and fire staffing levels.
In future years, the revenue generated must also be used to hire more police and fire department personnel. The county will also use funds from the increased tax to support its troubled pension system, and other funds to support services such as transportation and public parks.
The new county tax will generate an estimated additional $82 million in the first year alone. The city sales tax increase is expected to raise more than $190 million in the first year.
You can email us, and we will try to get you answers.

author: Edgar Mendez


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Ron Smith
August 21, 2023


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It could reach 100 degrees Wednesday. Here’s how you can stay safe and beat the heat. | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
PrincessSafiya Byers
August 22, 2023
The City of Milwaukee Health Department and Milwaukee County’s Office of Emergency Management have issued a heat health warning – in effect from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 23.
The forecast high for Milwaukee on Wednesday is 100 degrees, according to our news partner TMJ4 News. That would break the daily high-temperature record of 98 degrees that was last set in 1947, the station reports.
Here are some ways to stay safe and cool.
Milwaukee County Parks has pools open during regular business hours throughout the summer. Look for one of the eight free splash pads close to your neighborhood, or call the pools hotline at 414-257-8098 for more information.
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1. Use your phone
Call Impact 2-1-1, which can connect you to the overnight shelters and centers closest to you. You can also text your ZIP code to TXT-211.
2. Go online
You can also look at the city health department’s list of designated cooling centers.
All Milwaukee Public Librarylocations allow individuals to cool down in the air-conditioning during regular business hours. Call 414-286-3000 to speak with a librarian regarding a specific branch and its hours.
Many local organizations and governmental buildings welcome visitors to air-conditioned common areas and community spaces to stay cool.
Wisconsin law prevents a utility from disconnecting electrical service when a heat advisory, heat warning, or heat emergency issued by the National Weather Service is in effect, according to a news release issued by the Public Service Commission.
The utility also is required to make reasonable attempts to reconnect service that has been disconnected for nonpayment if a resident says there is a potential threat to health or life because of the heat and loss of service.
After the heat advisory, heat warning or heat emergency, expires, the utility can once again disconnect service without notice if payment arrangements have not been made, according to the Public Service Commission.
If you have questions about disconnections, contact the Public Service Commission Consumer Affairs Bureau at 1-800-225-7729.
1. Slow down and limit physical activity, especially if you are working outside or in hot settings.
2. Never leave children, persons with a disability or pets in a parked car – as temperatures can become life threatening within minutes.
3. Use fans to increase ventilation, unless temperatures exceed 90 degrees at which point fans become ineffective in reducing heat-related illness.
4. Stay Hydrated.Drink plenty of water throughout the day regardless of thirst to avoid dehydration.
5. Check in with neighbors and family to make sure they are staying cool.
Check with the City of Milwaukee Health Department for more cooling locations and to monitor when it is safe to be outside.


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20747140685_2f53d91d21_k-1 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Ron Smith
August 22, 2023