text:
Layton Boulevard West neighborhoods ‘on the rise’ | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
November 21, 2012
Dan Adams, neighborhood plan coordinator for LBWN, chats with Alderman Robert G. Donovan and Marina Dimitrijevic, chairwoman of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
The pocket park on the corner of South 29 Street and West Burnham was a neglected and vacant lot in 2011. It now draws neighbors who congregate among new benches and raised garden beds. During the summer Artists Working in Education, a non-profit that sponsors artists to work with children, brought its satellite studio to the park, helping children decorate the space.
The park is an example of how one project can accomplish multiple objectives set forth in the community’s Quality of Life Plan, unveiled a year ago by Layton Boulevard West Neighbors (LBWN). The  non-profit serves the Silver City, Layton Park and Burnham Park neighborhoods.
The project meets four of the plan’s seven objectives: social engagement, healthy living, community safety and neighborhood appearance, according to Dan Adams, neighborhood plan coordinator for LBWN. Next year, another pocket park in a lot on South 32Street and West Madison will be developed. The other objectives are economic development, community identity, and youth education and leadership.
Community residents and officials recently came together to celebrate LBWN’s 17th anniversary and hear about progress toward implementing the Quality of Life Plan.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
Alderman Bob Donovan, who represents the neighborhood, called it one of the best in Milwaukee, citing the level of cooperation among elected officials, LBWN and the residents.
Charlotte John-Gomez, executive director of LBWN, speaks with Ivan Gamboa, vice president of Tri-City National Bank, about LBWN’s Quality of Life Plan. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
“We’re all on the same page and that bodes well for the future of this community,” Donovan said.
Another positive is the increased business and private investment in the community. Over the past year LBWN has purchased eight vacant foreclosed homes that were rehabbed and sold to owner occupants. Two more homes are under construction, bringing the organization’s property investment to more than $1.2 million. Two commercial storefronts on South 35Street and West National Avenue also have been purchased and will be rehabbed for new businesses looking to move into the area, according to Will Sebern, LBWN community outreach manager.
A mobile kiosk is scheduled to be built next year. The kiosk would direct people to the many amenities the neighborhood offers, including the new Urban Ecology Center and an ethnic food district along West National Avenue.
Private homeowners, spurred by LBWN, also have done their share of investing. Fifty-five private homes in the neighborhood have been improved in 2012, according to Sebern. Many of those homeowners participated in LBWN’s “Most Improved Home Contest,“ while also taking advantage of city programs such as Milwaukee Energy Efficiency (Me2) to upgrade their properties.
Martha Castaneda, who was a contest winner, said she painted her home and redid her porch during the contest.
“It was my way of improving the way the neighborhood looks,” Castaneda said.
The idea prompted identical contests in the Havenwoods and Thurston Woods neighborhoods on the north side of Milwaukee. All three neighborhoods are part of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative.
Steve Antosiewicz, who has lived in the area since the ’70s, said he’s seen his share of ups and downs during that time, but currently the neighborhood is on the rise.
“There’s a ‘coming together’ spirit here; before people would stick to themselves in quiet desperation,” Antosiewicz said.
He thinks the reason for the change is that people have taken increased ownership of the neighborhood during the past few years.
Planning for the Quality of Life Plan began in October 2010, when the Zilber Family Foundation selected Silver City, Layton Park and Burnham Park to be revitalized as part of the Zilber Neighborhood Initiative (ZNI). The first two ZNI neighborhoods were Lindsay Heights and Clarke Square.
LBWN received a grant of $875,000 over four years from Zilber to create and implement a comprehensive community development plan with neighbors and other local partners.
Susan Lloyd, executive director of the Zilber Family Foundation, was on hand to celebrate LBWN’s accomplishments during the past year. LBWN is one of the best community organizations in the country, according to Lloyd.
“We’re lucky to have them; they’re extremely effective in getting the community involved in projects that improve their quality of life and neighborhood.”

created: November 21, 2012


text:
8203246623_cc508ba83b_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
November 21, 2012

source: news-milwaukeenns

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

author: Adam Carr


text:
8204431110_26ea076da6_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
November 21, 2012


text:
Grassroots activist moms ‘feed the ‘hood’ | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Andrea Waxman
November 27, 2012
imported stylesheet
Sidebar article image (automatically sized to fit
Sidebar article Header and Link
Seven North Side mothers who make up Team Dun Did Dat are looking beyond their own personal challenges to assist area families. With help from hip-hop recording company Dun Did Dat, they organize activities to feed families and encourage kids to stay in school.
Read More
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
The back room at Club 30 Lounge, 2575 N. Teutonia Ave., was decorated with black and white balloons on a recent Sunday afternoon, as if for a children’s birthday party. Tables in the front, near the stage, were covered with coloring books, jars of soap for blowing bubbles and arts and crafts kits. At the far end of the room, tables formed a long buffet covered with aluminum trays of hot home-cooked food.
“There are four of us who put money in and bought and cooked food: barbecue chicken, dressing, cornbread, macaroni, spaghetti, greens, potato salad, cabbage, and baked beans, to ‘Feed the ’Hood,’ ” said Jessica Wilson, founder of Team Dun Did Dat.
This grassroots group of North Side moms named themselves after the Milwaukee-based hip-hop music recording company Dun Did Dat. Wilson’s friends and fellow moms Lakima Moore, Emma Hamler, Latrice Dean and LaQuita Ross joined her in forming the core group.
The group’s original purpose was to promote the company in the community. But as members spread the word about the artists and events, they decided to help address community members’ needs for food, safety, positive relationships and constructive activities for children.
As mothers, their major concern is for children, their own and others. So they began organizing events to raise money, clean neighborhoods, feed children and adults, and provide school supplies and fun activities. Their primary goals are to keep the children safe, connected to the community and focused on staying in school, the organizers said.
The core group is small, fewer than 10, but the next tier of members, which is more fluid, participates in events and projects. Team Dun Did Dat relies mainly on social media to get the word out about its events. Since fall 2011, the group has sponsored two back-to-school events, a fundraiser to buy food for Hunger Task Force, neighborhood clean ups and several “Feed the ’Hood” events.
“I just like giving back,” said Emma Hamler, who has five children and two grandchildren. “It’s a passion. I’ve been giving back since I was able to. It’s hard for us too, but it’s a little bit harder for some others.”
Despite a last-minute change of venue, about 80 people showed up for dinner at Team Dun Did Dat’s latest “Feed the ’Hood” event.

created: November 27, 2012

author: Andrea Waxman


text:
8198762378_5f47766267_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
November 26, 2012

created: November 26, 2012


text:
Special Report: Supporters of North Side pool sing Moody blues | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
December 3, 2012
Moody Pool, 2200 W. Burleigh St., has been boarded up since 2002. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
Boarded up since 2002, Moody Pool has since sat neglected, a barefaced example of urban decay. But the hulking, 54,000 square-foot, red brick building at 2200 W. Burleigh St. will be demolished soon.
The Milwaukee County Board voted in early November to uphold County Executive Chris Abele’s veto of a measure to allocate $2 million to begin renovating the indoor pool facility. As a result the structure and adjacent wading pool will be torn down and replaced by an outdoor splash pad, 3,000 square-foot community building, small playground, lit parkways, basketball courts, community gardens and other amenities. Abele cited the high cost of the renovation project as the reason for his veto.
“We have a serious fiscal situation here that doesn’t give us the luxury to overspend for any of the many departments or divisions we have,” Abele said. He added that his main goal is to eliminate a county deficit created by what he called bad fiscal decisions.
“What matters to me most isn’t just the people who talked to the supervisor about one pool at one park; it’s the million across the county that I promised to balance the budget,” Abele said.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
County Supervisor David Bowen, who represents the area where the pool is located, is dismayed with the decision.
“I think the neighborhood has been neglected for a long time by the county; it would’ve been a great gesture to bring the pool back,” Bowen said.
When the Moody Pool is demolished, only three swimming pools will be left on the North Side of the city: near the border of Whitefish Bay, in Washington Park and on the far northwest side. There are five swimming pools on the city’s South Side.
The saga of Moody Pool, a Milwaukee County facility, includes years of delays and unfulfilled promises.
Between 2002 and 2010, no plans were made for the pool and building, as they steadily deteriorated. In 2010, the County Board issued about $5 million in bonds to fully restore Moody Pool, overriding a veto by then-County Executive Scott Walker. When the plan came back to the table in October 2012, county supervisors, in a 10-8 vote, once again approved the pool’s restoration, with a price tag of more than $8 million.
Abele vetoed the measure along with 22 other County Board allocations in late October. The board overrode all but five vetoes. Abele’s veto of the Moody Pool restoration plan stood. The new plan to build a community center, splash pool, basketball courts and parkways will cost slightly more than $2 million to complete. The remaining $3 million in bond proceeds will be used to improve Lindberg, Johnsons, and other north side parks.
“The new plan serves more people and allows more investments,” Abele said.
Supporters of the current plan said a restored Moody Pool probably would have met the same fate as the original pool. Despite being newer than most county pools, Moody was one of seven recommended for closure as part of the 2001 Milwaukee County Department of Parks’ aquatics master plan. The goal was to save money by eliminating low usage, high maintenance pools.
Five of the seven pools were eventually closed. One, the Lincoln Park Pool, was replaced by the $8.4 million David F. Schulz Aquatic Center, 1301 W. Hampton Ave., in 2009. After Moody closed, parts from the pool were cannibalized for use in some of the county’s remaining pools.
Inaction reaction
The wading pool adjacent to the building is full of brown murky water and shows various other signs of neglect. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
When the County Board approved the plan to rebuild the pool in 2010, then-County Supervisor Willie Johnson Jr. was thrilled. He’d worked for years pushing the county to do something with the site, which by then had become rife with trash, drug activity and violence.
Neighborhood residents who had gathered several times before the vote preferred a complete restoration of the pool, though some supported the current plan, according to Johnson. Restoration work was to begin in 2011, but the year passed and nothing happened.
According to Johnson the inaction was harmful to the neighborhood.
“(The county) could have torn the building down five years ago or started working to restore it rather than just letting it sit,” Johnson said.
According to James Keegan, interim parks director for Milwaukee County, nothing happened after the 2010 allocation because the original estimate of $5 million to renovate the structure was flawed. In addition, consultants found that yearly maintenance fees would run more than $300,000, though Keegan acknowledged that yearly maintenance at other county pools is about the same amount.
Bowen said it’s unfair to provide resources to certain parts of the county and not the rest. “Maybe no pool should be supported,” he said.
Abele said the decision isn’t about neighborhoods.
“It has nothing to do with whether it’s in the inner city or Hales Corners; pools are an expensive proposition for the county and you want them to net … as close to positive income as possible,” Abele said. He pointed out that the degree of use was another factor that doomed Moody Pool.
Keegan noted that the county asked local entities years ago whether they were interested in taking over some of the outdoor aquatics facilities and they all said no. The county pays for all of the upkeep of aquatics facilities in Milwaukee County, he explained.
Johnson said it’s unfair to expect low-income neighborhoods to generate money they don’t have.
Members of COA Goldin Center’s 50 and up group are glad something’s finally being done with Moody Pool. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
“Pools continue to exist in areas where there’s a more solid middle-class population but our residents are not as affluent as the people in these other neighborhoods,” Johnson said.
Keegan surmised that a new pool would have run into the same problem of low attendance that plagued Moody before. “A year before it closed, the community was asked to come out and support the pool or it would be closed, and it didn’t happen,” Keegan said.
He added that the current plan is much better for the community because it offers more than just a pool. “It offers a wide array of outdoor activities that residents can congregate around,” Keegan said.
Tom Schneider, executive director of COA Goldin Center, 2320 W. Burleigh St., located just west of the pool, also favors the current plan. “The other plan was to renovate the pool and do nothing to the rest of the park,” Schneider said. COA Goldin Center offers a wide variety of programming for youth, adults and seniors, including sports in the three full-sized gyms on the premises.
In a letter to Abele and the County Board, Schneider wrote about the “good old days,” when Moody Pool was a great place to swim, but added that times had changed and the pool’s time had passed.
He also wrote, ”Those who would like a pool are promoting this with the best of intentions, but good intentions and wonderful promises are not the same as delivering something tangible for the community.”
Johnson said that a new pool would have been something tangible for the community — especially for older people who had looked forward to soothing sore muscles and staying in shape at the pool.
Georgiana Peterson, who’s lived in the neighborhood for more than 40 years and is part of the Goldin Center’s 50 and Up group, is fine with the decision to tear down the pool.  “We’re just glad to see something finally happen; the area was being wasted,” she said.
Peterson and another member of the senior group said their boys used to swim at the pool but stopped years before it closed due to safety concerns.
Eddie McCallum, who’s lived in the area since 1968, is also glad something is being done in the park but feels that tearing down a building that once held so much potential is counter productive and seems like a waste.
“It’s real bad that they let it go to what it is now when it could have been so much more,” McCallum said.
Correction, Dec. 4, 2012: The original version of this article misstated the number of county swimming pools on the South Side of the city. There are five, not six.

created: December 3, 2012

author: Edgar Mendez


text:
8228737638_26a10e6e1e_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 2, 2012

created: December 2, 2012


text:
8228754364_1e4a3b75d2_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 2, 2012


text:
8228760162_1c978d8c06_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 2, 2012


text:
nns_specialreport_embed | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 2, 2012


text:
nns_specialreportFEATURED | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 10, 2012

created: December 10, 2012


text:
Pools-revised | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 5, 2012

created: December 5, 2012


text:
Pools | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 2, 2012


text:
Mural project creates safe place to bridge differences | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Andrea Waxman
December 5, 2012
(From left Calvin Moua, Ken Moua and Lue Vue paint in the mountains bordering the Mekong River on a mural depicting a legendary sea serpent. (Photo by Sue Vliet)
A legendary serpent said to live in Southeast Asia’s Mekong River seems to writhe across one wall in the Hmong American Friendship Association as a group of young people fill in the pencil sketch with brilliant shades of green paint.
Aaron Moua, a seventh-grader at Audubon Middle School, isn’t sure whether the mythical creature symbolizes good or evil but guesses that whatever else, it represents power.
On a recent Saturday morning, about a dozen Hmong youth from HAFA and an equal number of African American youth from Neighborhood House of Milwaukee worked together to decorate HAFA’s community hall with murals depicting Hmong history and folklore.
“The purpose of the exercise is to initiate conversation about cultural differences and create cultural competence,” said Safe & Sound community organizer Phoua Vang.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
Isaiah Rembert, youth program manager at Safe & Sound, watches his colleague, Claire Woodall, drug free communities manager, work on the mural. (Photo by Sue Vliet)
“These youth share the same neighborhoods and the same resources but they have misunderstandings about each other,” Vang said. By working together to understand their own and each other’s cultures, Vang hopes to break down negative stereotypes and build tolerance and understanding among the youth.
She wants them to see that “as individuals, they can have a huge impact on the neighborhood by keeping open minds about the different cultures that they share the neighborhood with,” Vang said. Projects like this also give the young people, who live in a high-poverty area, something to do to keep them safe, off the streets and involved in positive social and learning activities, Vang added.
Moua would like people to understand that “some Hmong people are shamanists (who believe in powerful spirits that can be influenced only by shamans or intermediaries) and they don’t believe in God. And they have their own musical instruments that most people don’t know about,” he said. His cousin Calvin Moua, a freshman at the Hmong American Peace Academy, said he was very interested in the project “because we’re expressing our religion to the people outside.”
Vang designed the mural project to continue the conversation the youth began while working on a “PhotoVoice” project last summer. In that project, the youth assessed and photographed some of their neighborhoods’ assets and liabilities. Then, they walked Mayor Tom Barrett through one neighborhood to show him what they had identified as valuable and what they thought needed to be changed to improve safety.
HAFA, 3824 W. Vliet St., and Neighborhood House, 2819 Richardson Place, are designated by Safe & Sound as “Safe Places.” The Safe Places program aims to minimize youth involvement in gang and other criminal activity.
Two other organizations contributed to the mural project. Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity donated the paint and representatives taught the young people how to restore furniture. Washington Park Partners provided lunch.


text:
8239328789_c8da3ea0a7_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 4, 2012

created: December 4, 2012


text:
8240389632_c44e236c8d_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 4, 2012


text:
Finalists announced for 14th annual MANDIs | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Sharon McGowan
December 6, 2012
Charlotte Brown-Gomez, executive director of Layton Boulevard West Neighbors, is a finalist for the Northern Trust Navigator Award MANDI award, along with Welford Sanders and James Godsil. She is shown with Ivan Gamboa, vice president of Tri-City National Bank. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
A schoolyard transformed into a lush green space, an organization that provides access to high quality health care, and a rent-to-own loft development with a farmers market are among the 16 finalists for the Milwaukee Awards for Neighborhood Development Innovation (MANDI).
The MANDIs recognize individuals, organizations, and corporations who are strengthening Milwaukee’s central city neighborhoods. Finalists were announced at O’Brien’s Irish Pub, 4928 W. Vliet St.
“You will not find more entrepreneurial people than the people who are leading the efforts to rebuild our central city neighborhoods,” said Leo Ries, executive director of LISC Milwaukee. “The Milwaukee Awards for Neighborhood Development Innovation provide an opportunity for us to celebrate and learn from our city’s greatest talent.” The awards are sponsored by U.S. Bank, in partnership with LISC.
Three finalists in each of five categories were selected by an independent volunteer committee of 28 people. Winners will be announced at a dinner on Thursday, March 14, at the Pfister Hotel, 424 E. Wisconsin Ave.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
Categories and finalists are:
Brewers Community Foundation Public Space Award honors the use of public space that contributes to the overall well being of the community.
BMO Harris Cornerstone Award honors an organization or program with a long-standing commitment to a neighborhood and demonstrated effectiveness over time.
Northern Trust Navigator Award honors an individual demonstrating leadership and collaboration for change.
PNC Bank Trail Blazer honors an innovative approach to a problem that is producing demonstrative results.
State Farm Building Blocks Award honors a real estate project that contributes significantly to the enhancement of the community.

created: December 6, 2012

author: Sharon McGowan


text:
Finalists announced for 14th annual MANDIs | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Dwayne Burtin
December 6, 2012

author: Dwayne Burtin


text:
Sights, sounds, smells of home enliven Hmong new year fest | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Andrea Waxman
December 11, 2012
Inside the Wisconsin Exposition Center last weekend thousands of people circulated amid a whirl of colors, textures, fragrances and melodies from a faraway land.
A marketplace featuring tropical fruits and vegetables, racks of brightly colored silk clothing, hanging displays of ornate headdresses and steaming tables of food made up one part of the lively scene.
This annual two-day celebration of the Hmong New Year, hosted by the Milwaukee Hmong community and the Hmong Consortium, took place at Wisconsin State Fair Park. According to the hosts, every year “this culturally significant event draws between 8,000 and 10,000 Hmong and non-Hmong, young and mature participants from across Wisconsin and the U.S.”
The celebration also includes a beauty pageant, selection of a Man and Woman of the Year, Hmong dance and singing competitions, a fashion show, and Hmong entertainers from around the world. Cash prizes are awarded to contest winners. The Milwaukee Hmong Consortium awards merit scholarships to Hmong high school graduates in the Milwaukee area. The top contestants in the Miss Hmong Wisconsin competition also receive scholarships.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
The Hmong people have lived for thousands of years in China, some gradually migrating south to Laos and Vietnam. They have long made their living as self-sufficient farmers and gatherers.
In the late 1970s, after the U.S. lost the Vietnam War, the Hmong in Laos were forced to flee because they had helped the Americans. “Many fled to neighboring countries, and a significant number sought asylum in the United States,” according to Rashaan Meneses, a cultural anthropologist at UCLA.
The Hmong population of the U.S. numbers 260,076, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. Wisconsin is home to America’s third largest Hmong community, after California and Minnesota, with 49,240 Hmong residents.

created: December 11, 2012


text:
h-ny-1 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 10, 2012


text:
Art show delves into twelves | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 13, 2012
With the next triple-repeating date 32,161 days away (01/01/2101), a dozen Milwaukee artists have seized the opportunity, crafting a show around an impressive number of twelves. From 12 p.m. to 12 a.m. on 12/12/12, 12 art pieces were presented in 12 different spaces at RedLine Milwaukee, 1422 N. 4 St.
The show included a piece entitled “The Last Haircut,” a 12-hour interpersonal crisis by Pegi Christiansen and Renee Bebeau, which involved hair sculptures, an intervening counselor and 12 different cranberry recipes. Artist Wes Tank compressed 12 years into 12 hours, presenting poetry, video, sound and performance across a variety of screens, projections and speakers. Additionally, artist Sarah Gail Luther documented the event, creating drawings and descriptions of the performances to be printed as a small booklet.
Participating performance and installation artists also included, Sara Caron, Ashley Janke, Michael Kautzer, John Kowalczyk, Kim Miller, Jennifer Morales, and Nomadic Art Center (Brad Fiore, James Pederson, and Jessi Schleis).
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!

created: December 13, 2012


text:
8266979141_502cf3b0b4_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 12, 2012

created: December 12, 2012


text:
Greater Milwaukee Foundation grant supports new center for domestic violence victims | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Greater Milwaukee Foundation
December 14, 2012
Victims of domestic and family violence will be able to more easily access support and services needed to help them heal from abuse, thanks to a new building under development by the Sojourner Family Peace Center.
The Greater Milwaukee Foundation provided a $50,000 grant during its fourth quarter competitive grantmaking cycle to support preconstruction work on the nonprofit’s Family Justice Center. Located on 6th and Walnut streets in Milwaukee, the 78,000-square-foot will be the nation’s first colocation of domestic violence services, shelter and a child advocacy center .
“This development is critically important to improving the lives of thousands of individuals in Milwaukee who are impacted by domestic violence,” said Janel Hines, the Foundation’s director of grant programs. “This new center will provide a more effective approach that will enable them to begin the healing process that much faster.”
The grant was a part of a total of $1,084,000 awarded through the Foundation’s fourth quarter competitive grant cycle. Additional grants of $30,000 and above include:
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
Strengthening neighborhoods Local Initiatives Support Corp: $75,000 to support the agency’s efforts to increase capacity building among nonprofits, leadership development among residents and nonprofit staff in Milwaukee neighborhoods and support cross neighborhood collaboration.
Layton Boulevard West Neighbors: $60,000 to partially support the organization’s implementation of Healthy Neighborhood Initiative strategies in Milwaukee’s Silver City, Burnham Park and Layton Park neighborhoods.
Agape Community Center: $55,000 to support the organization’s implementation of strategies in the Thurston Woods, Fairfield and Old North Milwaukee neighborhoods.
Sherman Park Community Association: $52,000 to support the organization’s implementation of Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative strategies.
Urban Anthropology: $44,000 to support implementation of Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative strategies in the Lincoln Village and Baran Park neighborhoods.
Havenwoods Economic Development Corporation: $40,000 to support implementation of Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative strategies in Milwaukee’s Havenwoods neighborhood.
Strengthening education Cardinal Stritch University: $85,000 to replicate the university’s Literacy Center reading intervention staff training model.
College Possible: $75,000 to support the organization’s academic readiness programming, which will focus on ACT preparation and serve more than 300 students at 10 Milwaukee high schools.
Teach for America: $50,000 to support teacher leadership development.
Milwaukee Repertory Theater: $30,000 for its Reading Residencies program, which aims to improve literacy through theater. In the spring, the residency will focus on The Rep’s production of A Raisin in the Sun.
Increasing income and building assets Wisconsin Community Services: $50,000 to continue the work of the Center for Drivers License Recovery and Employability. Since it launched in 2007, the center has served 10,796 Milwaukee County residents and helped 2,233 recover their licenses.
Riverworks Development Corporation: $30,000 to support staff who will work on the agency’s Riverworks Workforce Partnership Initiative, which will help identify local employers’ needs and work with local residents who can meet the job requirements or receive training to fill available positions.
Community responsive grantmaking Center for Veterans Issues: $50,000 for Boudicca House, a transitional housing program for single homeless female veterans and homeless female veterans and their children.
Express Yourself Milwaukee: $35,000 to support continuation of the agency’s efforts to help provide more intensive case management to youth involved in its programming.

created: December 14, 2012

author: Greater Milwaukee Foundation


text:
UNCOM receives large Zilber grant | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Zilber Family Foundation
December 16, 2012
The Zilber Family Foundation announced today that it had awarded a three-year grant in the amount of $600,000 to United Neighborhood Centers of Milwaukee (UNCOM) to continue its work in support of the Zilber Neighborhood Initiative. The initiative was established by the late real estate developer and philanthropist, Joseph J. Zilber, to, in his words, “…improve Milwaukee’s challenged neighborhoods and provide opportunities to those who live, work and play in the neighborhoods who seek to fulfill their potential.”
In making the announcement, Foundation president Marcy Zilber Jackson credited UNCOM with developing strong health and human services programs that are being carried out in the Lindsay Heights, Clarke Square, and Layton Boulevard West communities served by the Zilber Neighborhood Initiative. “Through its member agencies, UNCOM has played a significant role in supporting the delivery of basic human needs and social services to thousands of Milwaukeeans. With additional funding from the Foundation, UNCOM will have the opportunity to expand and enhance that role,” stated Jackson.
Created in 1996, UNCOM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works with community centers throughout Milwaukee to create model programs, build organizational capacity, and share expertise and best practices across agencies. UNCOM members are: Agape Community Center, COA Youth & Family Centers, Journey House, Milwaukee Christian Center, Neighborhood House of Milwaukee, Next Door Foundation, Northcott Neighborhood House, Silver Spring Neighborhood Center, Latino Community Center, and Neu-Life Resource Center. Together these UNCOM organizations assist more than 63,000 Milwaukee area residents each year.
“The Zilber Family Foundation board of directors has been very impressed with the results of its initial grant to UNCOM, and is pleased to extend its support of the organization for an additional three years,” said Susan Lloyd, executive director. The Foundation also awarded grants to other nonprofits, including:
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!

created: December 16, 2012

author: Zilber Family Foundation


text:
Construction begins on bridge connecting valley to The Domes | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
December 17, 2012
Mitchell Park and Menomonee Valley will be connected by more than just proximity soon.  A bridge linking the Clarke Square neighborhood and the Mitchell Park Domes to the Hank Aaron State Trail in the valley is under construction.
The first section of the 270-foot pedestrian bridge was lifted into place recently. It will be accessible to the public by the summer of 2013, according to Laura Bray, executive director of Menomonee Valley Partners, Inc.
The new bridge is the latest project in an extensive effort to reconnect the surrounding neighborhoods to economic and environmental resources in the valley.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
The  $26 million, “From the Ground Up” initiative includes building the Urban Ecology Center Valley Branch, 3700 W. Pierce St.; the Valley Passage walkway, a pedestrian bridge connecting the Silver City neighborhood to the valley; and the creation of a 24-acre park along the Hank Aaron State Trail. In 2013, the 33 Court Bridge will connect the area behind Palermo’s Pizza, 3301 W. Canal St., to the new park. The initiative is coordinated by Menomonee Valley Partners and Urban Ecology Center, in partnership with the State of Wisconsin.
Bray says that with all the revitalization work going on in Clarke Square and in the valley, it’s important to make a connection between the two.
“We want residents in Clarke Square to have better access to jobs in the valley, where they’ll be able to walk to work each day.”
Because Milwaukee was built using a traditional street grid system, the Menomonee Valley, which sits lower than the surrounding neighborhoods, has been hard to reach, according to Bray.
“We needed to create ways for people to easily get in and out of the neighborhood,” Bray said.
The bike and pedestrian bridge will sit to the east of the 27 Street viaduct. It will run over a succession of train tracks and connect to an area of Mitchell Park just north of The Domes.
Designing the bridge in an area that is both industrial and natural presented unique challenges, according to Bill Zippell, project manager at Alfred Benesch & Company, which designed the bridge.
“We couldn’t disturb the seven train tracks running underneath the bridge and also had to create the least impact on the natural environment at the park,” Zippell said.
Zippell, who grew up in Mequon and brings his kids to The Domes each year, can’t wait to see the finished product.
Jessica Binder witnessed the first section of the bridge lifted into place with her husband and son Everett.
Binder is the project director for the Milwaukee office of the Bike Federation of Wisconsin, 3618 W. Pierce St. The federation, which opened the office in Silver City recently, works to promote bicycling.
Binder said she rides the Hank Aaron State Trail through the valley by bike each day, but she’s more excited about the possibilities for children in the surrounding neighborhoods.
“This bridge will make it that much easier for kids to get here and explore the trail by bike,” Binder said.
Once the bridge connects the Hank Aaron State Trail to the domes, 15 of the top 25 southeastern Wisconsin tourist attractions will be linked to each other, according to Bray.
“You can go from the lake, to Discovery World, to the Third Ward, to Potawatomi, to the Domes and to Miller Park.”

created: December 17, 2012


text:
b1 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 16, 2012


text:
Jewish volunteers bring Christmas joy to homeless shelter | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Andrea Waxman
December 18, 2012
(From left) Ari Halaska, Kate Griswold and Zoe Styler, together with other Congregation Sinai families, wrap toys for children spending Christmas in homeless shelters. (Photo by Ari Friedman)
This Christmas Eve, Tikkun Ha-Ir of Milwaukee volunteer Mark Shapiro will tape a pillow to his middle and dress up in “a full-blown Santa suit: beard, mustache, hat, glasses, big belly, boots, the whole shebang.” He and his helpers, wife Sharon and daughters Sophie, 12, and Carli, 14, will visit the Cathedral Center, a downtown emergency shelter for women and families.
After hiding until the right moment, Santa will appear in the shelter’s dining areas and “I’m telling you, [the children] think I’m Santa Claus. They don’t think I’m a guy dressed up as Santa Claus,” Shapiro said. He and his helpers will present gifts of toys, blankets, socks, hand-made scarves, mittens, hats and toiletries to the residents.
“It’s a very emotional experience for all of [my family]. The first year that we went, almost the entire car ride home, we just didn’t speak. We were seeing this sadness. We were sad even though we had brought all this joy,” added Shapiro, executive director of Milwaukee’s Jewish Community Center.
Tikkun Ha-Ir Executive Director Judy Baruch unloads bags of gifts for congregants at Congregation Sinai to wrap and distribute on Christmas Eve. (Photo by Andrea Waxman)
This is Shapiro’s fourth year playing Santa, and the ninth year that Tikkun Ha-Ir volunteers will bring gifts and a deli buffet dinner to the capacity crowd of about 60 women and families spending the holiday in temporary shelter at the center.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
Donna Rongholt-Migan, the center’s executive director, remembers getting a phone call a decade ago from Tikkun Ha-Ir Executive Director Judy Baruch. “You know, we don’t celebrate Christmas. Is there something that we can do to support your organization over the Christmas holiday?” Baruch had said. Both organizations were new at the time and since then they have worked together to bring joy to people in crisis on Christmas Eve.
“Tikkun Ha-Ir brings all kinds of great presents and merriment. They have a Santa who puts on the red suit and says hello to the kids and takes their wishes and hands out gifts. It’s really a lot of fun,” Rongholt-Migan said.
Tikkun Ha-Ir, pronounced “Teekune hah-ear,” a Hebrew phrase that means “Repair the City,” is a nonprofit that gives Jewish individuals and organizations opportunities to volunteer, participate in social action and study Jewish teachings about social justice.
Among Tikkun Ha-Ir’s projects, one of the largest is the “Glean Machine.” The group collects gently used clothing, toys, books, games, household items, toiletries, bed linens and towels to replenish the stock of community organizations, shelters and agencies.
In addition, Tikkun Ha-Ir volunteers buy, prepare and serve a light dinner each month at the center. “It’s a lot of work,” said Danielle Costello, the center’s volunteer coordinator. Because the kitchen doesn’t have stoves or much other equipment, volunteers must prepare the food elsewhere and bring it ready to serve. Nevertheless, 45 to 50 volunteer groups provide dinners 365 days a year, Costello said. The center provides a simple breakfast and volunteers pack bag lunches for the residents, who are required to leave the center during the day.
The shelter, located at 845 N. Van Buren St., has the capacity to serve 32 women and eight families, according to Rongholt-Migan. “We have been full every night for forever. I anticipate having a full house on Christmas Eve,” she said.
A volunteer from another organization once told Baruch that the residents she met there on Christmas Day were stunned that somebody had made something for them by hand.
“They just couldn’t get over that somebody thought they were important enough and valuable enough to spend time knitting something for them. These gifts are so much more than just unwrapping something. It really validates that people —strangers, even, care about them,” Baruch said.

created: December 18, 2012


text:
8272597659_a654f711df_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 17, 2012


text:
8280263938_9e28d61211_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 17, 2012


text:
4-H holiday sale at Walnut Way raises funds, hones skills | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Andrea Waxman
December 19, 2012
Customer Sharon Adams discusses a purchase with TeiKani Richardson as Arieuna Reed looks at the inventory. (Photo by Sue Vliet)
Esther, Liam and Aidian and their father, Mike McClone, look for Christmas ornaments as Darius Wade looks on. (Photo by Sue Vliet)
Walnut Way Conservation Corp. 4-H Club members raised funds and polished business skills during their second annual Christmas ornament and bake sale.
“Developing and practicing communication and customer service skills, helping buyers make selections, wrapping purchases and handling money,” are among the goals of the project, said Genyne Edwards, communications and development consultant at Walnut Way. “It’s also a time for the teens to celebrate [the season] together,” she added.
The ornaments were donated and club members made and sold bakery goods. In addition, they won prizes in a raffle, which they entered with tickets earned for attendance, good behavior and completing projects, Edwards said.
Held at Walnut Way, 2240 N. 17th St., the sale raised $90 for the club, according to JoAnne Sabir, associate director, Lindsay Heights Neighborhood Initiative.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
4-H is the nation’s largest youth development organization, with more than 6 million members “in urban neighborhoods, suburban schoolyards and rural farming communities,” according to the organization’s Web site. Its mission, to give members opportunities “to learn real-world skills that will prepare them for the challenges of today and tomorrow,” align with the youth program goals of Walnut Way, Sabir said.

created: December 19, 2012


text:
8270616459_f003e3f294_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 18, 2012


text:
8271683118_bd39320d19_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 18, 2012


text:
Washington Park Partners offers ‘doorbuster’ on foreclosed homes | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Andrea Waxman
December 24, 2012
ACTS housing specialist Blia Cha calls out numbers as rehab specialist Fatima Benhaddou assists. (Photo by Andrea Waxman)
imported stylesheet
Sidebar article image (automatically sized to fit
Sidebar article Header and Link
For 20 years, ACTS Housing has helped low-income families become homeowners. In 2012 alone, 150 families have purchased homes with ACTS’ help, with 100 families moving into vacant or foreclosed homes.
Read More
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
As ACTS Housing Specialist Blia Cha drew a red ticket and called out the number, a small group of potential homeowners standing in front of her display table leaned forward expectantly and studied their tickets. At stake was their ranking on a list of hopeful buyers vying for the chance to purchase a $3,500 home in the Washington Park neighborhood.
To be eligible to buy one of the three foreclosed homes for sale at this low price, a buyer must agree to rehabilitate the house and live in it for more than five years after closing.
“There is significant rehab work needed and that’s part of the reason the sale price is so low,” said Michael Gosman, assistant director of Allied Churches Teaching Self-Empowerment (ACTS). ”Even taking into account the work that the family would need to do… it’s well worth the effort.”
ACTS’ partners, Sweet Water Foundation, Milwaukee Bicycle Works and Urban Ecology Center, will also contribute services to families who purchase homes through the Washington Park Renewal Project. Sweet Water will help new homeowners install indoor and outdoor vegetable gardens, enhancing the families’ ability to grow their own food. Milwaukee Bicycle Works will provide fully outfitted bikes, bike gear, tool kits, tire pumps, and instruction on bike maintenance and urban bike-riding skills to two members of each family. The Urban Ecology Center will provide family memberships and enrollment in the Young Scientists Club for children ages 7 to 12.
The drawing took place at the end of the Washington Park Partners annual meeting and celebration held recently at Our Next Generation, 3421 W. Lisbon Ave. After a buffet dinner to celebrate the season, the partnership’s seven committees reported on this year’s progress toward the goals of the WPP Sustainable Community Plan.
The housing sale was introduced by the housing committee and its member organization, Allied Churches Teaching Self-Empowerment (ACTS), which administers the housing portion of the Washington Park Neighborhood Renewal Project. ACTS is a nonprofit that promotes affordable homeownership. According to the group, owner-occupied homes also foster self-empowerment and reduce blight, neighborhood deterioration and poverty.
About 15 people signed up for each home, most of whom indicated an interest in all three opportunities, according to ACTS Housing’s Executive Director Carl Quindel. His staff started calling the first “ranked” family for each home right after the meeting, setting up one-on-one housing counseling sessions. “It generally takes 30 to 60 days to find the “highest-ranked” qualified family, finalize a rehab plan, and close,” Quindel said.
“Because these $3,500 houses are not move-in ready,” Gosman said, “we have our two rehab managers, who graduated from the UW-Milwaukee School of Architecture & Urban Planning, put together a detailed scope of work before the home is purchased. That gives the homeowner a really good idea of what it’s going to take to get the home to be a safe, code-compliant place to raise their families.” ACTS also helps homeowners with financial counseling and access to loans.
Members of the Washington Park community listen to committee updates at the Washington Park Partners annual meeting and celebration at Our Next Generation. (Photo by Andrea Waxman)
The next homes that will be offered for sale as part of the Washington Park Neighborhood Renewal Project will be at Winter Fest, Saturday, Jan. 26, noon to 4 p.m. at the Washington Park Urban Ecology Center, 1859 N. 40th St.
ACTS maintains a relationship with owners well beyond the sale. “When families are having problems with a rehab and they need advice on how to do something, it’s very frequent that they call us in to provide help,” Gosman said. He added that homeowners even have called ACTS five or 10 years down the line.
Also at the annual meeting, committee chairs announced creation of the Washington Park Neighborhood Improvement District — the first for an existing neighborhood in Wisconsin; donation of new computers to Our Next Generation and United Methodist Children’s Services, 3939 W Lisbon Ave.; a grant for new community dental services; and production of a documentary about Washington Park.

created: December 24, 2012


text:
8290228016_dcd1eb456e_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 23, 2012

created: December 23, 2012


text:
8302451836_dddc63f89d_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 23, 2012


text:
Merry Christmas! | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
December 25, 2012
Residents Andre Lee Ellis, Darius Williams and a group of neighbors put up Christmas decorations in this community garden on the corner of 9th and Ring streets in Borchert Field. (Photo by Sue Vliet)
Sherilyn, Gabriella and Brad Lyons. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
Borchert Field resident Auriea Mosley helped distribute gifts to neighbors before Christmas at 9th and Ring streets. (Photo by Sue Vliet)
Demetrius Brown, Jr., Makayla Novicki and Joshua Williams pose in front of the family Christmas tree in the Sherman Park neighborhood. (Photo by Kenya Evans)

created: December 25, 2012

author: Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service


text:
Lyons-family | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 24, 2012


text:
Three-kids-by-tree | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 24, 2012


text:
Tree-and-stocking1 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 24, 2012


text:
Tree and stocking | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 24, 2012


text:
Woman-with-gifts1 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 24, 2012


text:
Special Report: Residents’ concerns over river contamination prompt changes in KK project | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
December 26, 2012
On a morning in late November, Sylvia Ortiz, principal of Casablanca Realtors LLC, awoke to the sound of shattering glass. Hurrying outside, she watched construction workers drop slate sliding to the ground. Upon impact it crumbled, a cloud of dust forming over the pile of debris. Ortiz knew through her experience as a real estate agent that the clouds she saw forming and then blowing into the nearby river and the surrounding area contained asbestos.
The home Ortiz witnessed being deconstructed is part of the $58.95 million Kinnickinnic (KK) River Rehabilitation and Flood Control Project. The project includes the demolition of 82 homes, 44 of which have already been torn down. All are along the stretch of river running from South 6 to South 16 street along West Cleveland and West Harrison streets. The homes are being demolished as part of the process to widen the base of the river, which will reduce flood risk and improve safety by decreasing the velocity of water flow in the channel from heavy rain runoff.
Compared to tearing down buildings with a wrecking ball, deconstruction is a slower, more expensive process in which older buildings are torn apart section by section to salvage reusable materials.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
Ortiz, who grew up in the area, and other members of the community, including Alderman Jose Perez, protested during a recent meeting of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) commissioners. Ortiz witnessed similar practices at other deconstruction sites, including a home two blocks east on the 1200 block of West Harrison street, where slate sliding and other debris still sits in the backyard, a few hundred feet from the river. She and other residents are concerned that children, fishermen and even ducks that swim in the river are being put at risk for asbestos and lead contamination.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lead poisoning causes irreversible health effects. In children, very low levels of exposure to lead causes reduced IQ, reading and learning disabilities, and a range of other health and behavioral problems. The most common source of lead exposure for children is lead paint in older housing and the contaminated dust and soil it generates. Asbestos has been classified as a known human carcinogen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
MMSD officials reacted swiftly to the residents’ complaints, fining two companies, Jaramillo Contractors, Inc. and Cream City Wrecking and Dismantling, LLC, for failing to monitor subcontractors to ensure proper asbestos removal. One subcontractor, the Professional Asbestos Removal and Services Corp., was terminated and banned from working on future district projects.  Kevin Shafer, executive director of MMSD, said the agency relies on contractors to make sure their subcontractors follow the rules.
“The contractor is responsible for the cleanup job being done to local and state specifications,” Shafer said.
Moving forward, MMSD will contract with an additional asbestos monitor to remain on site during all deconstructions. The policy is being extended to all future waterway projects, according to Shafer.
Although pleased with the actions taken by MMSD, Ortiz wants testing done in the area to ensure that children and animals don’t have elevated lead levels.
“There’s already been over 40 houses torn down; how many other houses were (demolished) improperly?” Ortiz asked.
MMSD officials said they were pressured to move the project along quickly as local residents complained about boarded-up houses in their neighborhood.
“The neighbors want the homes to come down even faster,” said Steve Jacquart, intergovernmental coordinator at MMSD.
County Supervisor Peggy Romo West has requested a report on all demolitions from MMSD.
As for lead concerns, no effort is currently under way to test exposure levels in the area along the river. In a letter to Ortiz, MMSD officials stated that they were doing everything they could to ensure the lead-painted building material is disposed of safely and properly.
When asked why testing was not being done, MMSD Commissioner Ben Gramling said the housing stock in Milwaukee is old. That, along with remnants of now-banned leaded gasoline in the area, means people likely have lead in their system. Gramling is director of environmental health programs at the Sixteenth Street Community Health Center, 1032 S. Cesar E. Chavez Drive.
“Without a doubt there’s lead in the environment,” Gramling said, but added that it’s difficult to isolate what’s causing it. Gramling acknowledged that there is no acceptable level of lead in the bloodstream.
Sixteenth Street Community Health Center tests children in the area for lead exposure. MMSD officials said they would look into a strategy for testing lead levels. In addition, they plan to send out information on the dangers of lead, including where residents can take their children for a free lead exam.
The MMSD board promised to address additional concerns and answer all Ortiz’s questions in the coming weeks. Perez requested regular updates on the status of deconstructions.
Until then, Ortiz and others will be keeping a watchful eye.
Pointing at a beer sign on the ground next to a pile of slate siding at a half-completed deconstruction site on West Harrison, she said, “They told me that this debris could have come from anywhere; but this building used to be a bar.”

created: December 26, 2012


text:
kk1 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 25, 2012


text:
nns_specialreport_embed | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 25, 2012


text:
Twelve days of Christmas gifts cheer Borchert Field neighbors | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Andrea Waxman
December 27, 2012
It was right around Halloween that Borchert Field resident Darius Williams, 21, first hit on the idea of distributing Christmas gifts to neighborhood children and adults. Williams had been talking with his neighbor and mentor Andre Lee Ellis about building community and engaging neighborhood youth in positive activities.
After deciding to hand out Halloween candy to the children on 9 and 10 streets, Williams began to think about how to continue promoting community spirit during the coming Christmas season. With Ellis’ help, he developed a plan for the “12 Days of Christmas.”
The project took off when a local television station got wind of it and came to interview Ellis and Williams early in December. After that gift donations poured in.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
Beginning 12 days before Christmas, Ellis’s front porch became the center of the project as Ellis, Williams and friends distributed toys and warm clothing wrapped in Christmas paper to all who stopped by between 4 and 6 p.m. each evening.
In addition to the gifts, Williams and Ellis created a festive space in the community garden next to Ellis’ house. They decorated an evergreen tree and pulled wooden benches, which are normally scattered throughout the lot, into a circle around a fire pit. Ellis put out a thermos of hot chocolate and the makings of s’mores for neighbors congregating around the fire.
“I was hoping it would be something that would bring people together and make a stronger community,” Williams said.

created: December 27, 2012


text:
bx1 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
December 25, 2012


text:
| Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
August 20, 2015


text:
| Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
August 21, 2013


text:
Development efforts top agenda for Clarke Square neighborhood | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
January 4, 2013
Ramon Candelaria speaks during a panel discussion. (Photo courtesy of WUWM Radio)
Ramon Candelaria, born and raised in Milwaukee, ran the streets on the South Side in the ’80s and early ’90s. One of his old stomping grounds was Clarke Square, bounded by West Pierce Street, West Greenfield Avenue, Cesar Chavez Drive and South Layton Boulevard.
“I used to run around this neighborhood breaking windows, and now I’m coming back to fix it,” Candelaria said.
Now director of the Clarke Square Neighborhood Initiative (CSNI), Candelaria is beginning by identifying foreclosed and boarded-up properties for redevelopment and seeking to bring new businesses to West Greenfield and West National avenues. He also is talking with Safe and Sound and Layton Boulevard West Neighbors to create a public safety partnership that encompasses Clarke Square and the surrounding neighborhoods.
Candelaria replaced Manni Marquez, the initiative’s first director. CSNI is now operating independently of Journey House, the original lead agency for Clarke Square. CSNI continues to be funded by the Zilber Neighborhood Initiative, a $50 million commitment by the Zilber Family Foundation to improve the quality of life in low-income city neighborhoods. Journey House CEO Michele Bria is a member of the newly formed CSNI council.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
Candelaria has been working in the community more than 20 years, after Kathi Boyce gave him his first job at 14 as a youth worker at the Milwaukee Christian Center.
“She saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself,” Candelaria said.
Since then, he’s worked with youth at the Social Development Commission, as the community director at the Medical College of Wisconsin and the executive director of the Latino Community Center, among other positions.
He was selected by the new CSNI council to oversee and implement the nine-part Quality of Life plan for the neighborhood. Council president Tyna Rule said he was chosen to lead the initiative because of his intelligence (and) energy and because he realizes that the key to the initiative’s success is to make sure it is resident driven.
“Since he’s been on board the excitement throughout the community and residents has grown,” Rule said, adding that more people are interested in learning about the Quality of Life plan and how they can be involved in it.
Candelaria said the council is currently focused on outreach to the community and revisiting the plan, parts of which have been addressed. He is working with the council to tap into existing networks of people, while bringing in new opportunities to a neighborhood that people sometimes misperceive.
“I don’t want people to have the impression that this is a gang-infested poor neighborhood; this neighborhood has been challenged in areas but it’s also been blessed with people who’ve decided to live here who are educated, have great jobs and beautiful homes,” Candelaria said.
He said though there are many challenges, if everyone works together they can overcome them.
Minerva Santiago-Gomez, vice president of the council, said Candelaria is the right person to lead the effort. “I expect him to work with commitment (and) passion, and that he will help us showcase all the incredible things Clarke Square has to offer.”

created: January 4, 2013


text:
2556022653_1858240fea_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
January 4, 2013


text:
Safe & Sound employment opportunity | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Safe & Sound
January 8, 2013
Safe & Sound currently has an exciting opportunity for a dynamic individual in the role of Community Partner Organizer. We are seeking to fill two positions, one bi-lingual.
Safe & Sound is a community-based, anti-crime strategy designed to reduce crime and violence. It utilizes the interdependent strategies of positive youth development at Safe Places, neighborhood organizing through the Community Partners, and tough law enforcement through the Milwaukee High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). It is a unique, collaborative approach to fighting crime, violence, illegal drug and alcohol sales, and other neighborhood problems. Safe & Sound’s collaborating partners empower youth and adults to work together, creating a better, safer community for all.
Community Partner Organizers are neighborhood mobilizers who conduct outreach and organize residents door-to-door year round, listening to, and addressing, the individual concerns of residents. They recruit youth to attend Safe Places and work with youth leaders to implement community anti-crime initiatives. The Community Partners Program works with residents to organize block watches, building relationships and communication between residents, law enforcement and city services. Organizers develop neighborhood-based initiatives, enhancing safety and reducing crime, positively impacting the community and improving the overall quality of life for residents.
The job description with information about the application process for this exciting opportunity can be found on the Safe & Sound web site at: http://www.safesound.org/about-us/employment/
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!

created: January 8, 2013

author: Safe & Sound


text:
Washington Park awarded $600,000 crime-fighting grant | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Brendan O’Brien
January 10, 2013
Lloyd Street, across from Washington Park (Photo by Andrea Waxman)
Two Milwaukee nonprofit organizations and the Milwaukee Police Department have been awarded a federal grant to address high crime rates in Washington Park and to continue their revitalization efforts in the west side neighborhood.
Washington Park Partners, Safe & Sound and the Milwaukee Police Department will divvy up a three-year $600,000 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, which they will use to bolster Washington Park’s efforts to improve the neighborhood and get residents more involved.
“The thrust of it is resident engagement,” said Matt Melendes, the safety coordinator for the Byrne Grant and the sustainable communities director for Washington Park Partners. “We want to build as many relationships with residents (as possible) and have them take ownership of this.”
Melendes said the grant may be used to bolster Washington Park’s sustainable communities plan, a broad five-year initiative that addresses housing, arts and culture, education, employment, health and wellness and safety needs in the neighborhood. It could also be used to implement a neighborhood safety plan and help residents develop block clubs, community events and activities.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
Barbara Notestein (courtesy of Safe & Sound)
“With those increased relationships, it will help our neighborhood efforts as well as law enforcement efforts,” he added.
The Milwaukee Police Department, the grantee, will use a portion of the grant to develop law enforcement strategies in Washington Park. LISC Milwaukee will serve as the fiscal agent for Washington Park Partners and will provide technical assistance for the grant initiative.
A portion of the Byrne Grant will go to Safe & Sound and its team of community organizers who work to reduce violent crime, and a community prosecution unit that works with the Department of Neighborhood Services in addressing nuisance properties in the neighborhood.
“This is a significant grant. It creates an opportunity for entities that have been doing some work in the area to bring their strategies and tools together in a much more collaborative and thoughtful way,” said Barbara Notestein, executive director of Safe & Sound.
Melendes noted that while Washington Park ranks high in crime, drug use and poverty, it has a lot to offer in terms of community involvement, which made the neighborhood prime for this type of grant, which depends on engagement from residents and community organizers.
“Washington Park is a good neighborhood with a lot of good people who live here,” he said. “This gives us an opportunity and capacity to reach and talk to residents.”
The Byrne Grant is research-based and grounded in qualitative and quantitative analysis. Kimberly Hassell, a criminologist at the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is currently examining crime data in Washington Park as part of the grant.
She also has gone door to door throughout the neighborhood to get a sense of residents’ perceptions of crime.
“The idea is that the crime data that we have now will form the base line of data against which we will measure our success in the future in whatever strategies and efforts we undertake,” Notestein said.
Hassell also will survey residents annually to determine whether the initiative is affecting the perception of crime in the area and whether it is strengthening relationships throughout the community.
Milwaukee is one of 14 cities to receive the federal grant through the U.S. Bureau of Justice.
“Money is a resource that is very critical and very helpful,” Notestein said. “To get us all working together and planning together and utilizing all of our skills and best practices is a complicated task.”

created: January 10, 2013

author: Brendan O’Brien


text:
6570802323_ee8727ebe5_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
January 10, 2013


text:
Screen-shot-2013-01-10-at-12.32.20-AM1 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
January 10, 2013


text:
Screen shot 2013-01-10 at 12.32.20 AM | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
January 10, 2013


text:
Organizers push back Quest charter school opening | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Brendan O’Brien
January 17, 2013
(Photo by Tessa Fox)
Howard Fuller (Photo courtesy of Marquette University)
A plan to open a network of charter schools has been delayed at least a year until funding can be secured by organizers, who continue to say their educational model will ultimately help close the city’s achievement gap.
The first of three schools in the Quest-Milwaukee Charter School network was to open at the beginning of the 2013-14 school year, but organizers are not comfortable with the level of upfront funding, and have pushed the opening to the 2014-15 school year.
“We want to have more time to see if we could raise the level of the money that we need because we don’t want to open up a school and not have it meet the needs of the kids who we would be trying to educate,” said Dr. Howard Fuller, a Quest charter school board member and the director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University, which is developing the network.
“My experience has taught me that if you don’t have a certain level of resources to begin with, it’s not going to get better over time,” said Fuller, who was Milwaukee Public School District superintendent from 1991 to 1995 and is considered a leading school choice advocate.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
Fuller said about $500,000 is needed to open Quest. He added that the school’s best funding source is expected to be the Charter School Growth Fund, an organization that provides capital to high-performing charter school operators.
“It gets to be a chicken or an egg thing. They put their bets on the school leader and, in order to get a school leader, you have to have funding,” he added, referring to the growth fund.
The state approved a $250,000 grant for the charter school. But, as Fuller explained, the grant is a reimbursement, requiring the grantee to spend $250,000 before receiving state funds.
The network of charter schools will consist of three schools that ultimately will serve 6th through 12th grades. When each school opens, it will consist of 180 6 and 7 graders, who will matriculate into higher grades. Each school will eventually serve 470 students.
The Common Council approved the charter school plan in July. Additional approvals from the Charter School Review Committee and the Common Council will be needed to open the second and third schools.
Instruction at the school will be delivered through “blended” and project-based instruction. In a blended model, students rotate through a series of online and teacher-led periods throughout the school day. Special software would be used to guide students through online instruction and allow teachers to tap in to view their progress.
“Every student has his or her own workstation … and the students would spend a significant amount of time online,” Fuller said. “Teachers would pull kids out who need additional help.”
Phyllis Wofford, a member of the African American Education Council, wrote a letter last spring to City Clerk Jim Owczarski voicing her opposition to the plan.
Wofford said in her letter that she was concerned that the curriculum lacks opportunities for students to communicate and socialize, even when “the world stage demands this.”
“Where is foreign language, biology, sports, clubs?” she asked in her letter.
“How much longer will the children of the black community continue to be the objects of ‘experimentation’ and monies from the city, via the state, be used to fund all these ‘unproven’ charter schools,” Wofford wrote.
Fuller explained that not every student can succeed in a blended environment. But the blended model allows teachers to provide individualized instruction to students who are lagging behind or even those students who are excelling, Fuller said.
“So you don’t hold those kids back that really need to progress and you are able to put a design in for the kids that are behind to try to accelerate their development,” he said. “We are trying to develop a design to help the educational situation in the City of Milwaukee. Our city is in deep trouble because we are not educating enough of our kids.”

created: January 17, 2013


text:
8048750917_7f18cda12f_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
January 16, 2013

created: January 16, 2013


text:
Fuller | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
January 16, 2013


text:
Students swing for the fences in baseball essay contest | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Andrea Waxman
January 18, 2013
Sharon Robinson (right), daughter of Jackie Robinson, poses with the 2012 grand prize winner. (Photo courtesy of Scholastic, Inc.)
On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball. Winners of an essay contest about students’ own experiences breaking barriers can score a trip to a 2013 World Series game or the All-Star game, among other prizes. Grand-prize and first-place winners also will receive a class visit from Sharon Robinson, daughter of the baseball hero.
The contest is part of a character education program developed by Major League Baseball and publishing company Scholastic, Inc. that uses baseball as a metaphor for life. Honoring the legacy of the first African-American major leaguer, the curriculum teaches fourth- through ninth-graders strategies for meeting challenges and barriers.
“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives,” is a quote widely attributed to Robinson. Breaking Barriers seeks to improve the lives of young people through a curriculum based on values Robinson demonstrated in his career. Those values are determination, commitment, persistence, integrity, justice, courage, teamwork, citizenship and excellence.
This year marks the program’s 17th year. Approximately 10,000 essays are submitted each year, according to MLB.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
Students are invited to submit personal stories about how they use one or more of Robinson’s values to deal with the barriers they encounter. The essay contest deadline is March 14.
One grand-prize winner will be selected from the ninth-grade contestants and another from fourth- through eighth-grade entries. In addition, first- and second-place winners will be chosen from the fourth- through eighth-grade entries. For more information see teacher resources and official contest rules and Breaking Barriers

created: January 18, 2013


text:
8384996987_34bf5b0949 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
January 17, 2013


text:
robinson | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Dwayne Burtin
January 18, 2013


text:
Sharon_Robinson | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Dwayne Burtin
January 18, 2013


text:
Alex Runner serves up fresh eggs, friendship in Sherman Park | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Andrea Waxman
January 25, 2013
Alex Runner and son Ben, 6, show off a fresh egg from their backyard chicken coop at their Sherman Park home. (Photo by Andrea Waxman)
Alex Runner’s family is one of just 14 households to take out a permit to raise egg-laying chickens since a city chicken-keeping ordinance was passed in May 2011. For Runner, at least part of the appeal of raising chickens relates to his interest in people.
“Alex is an extrovert who draws people to himself. He asks questions, promotes thoughtful discussion, is involved in social media, and likes to engage more than anyone I’ve ever met,” said Runner’s friend and fellow chicken-raiser Rob Stensberg.
Runner, 36, and his wife, Jessie, jumped on the chicken-raising bandwagon early. As Milwaukee Common Council President Willie Hines Jr.’s top aide at the time, Runner had a front-row seat as the ordinance unfolded and won approval.
“We’ve always been a big gardening family,” said Alex, who grew up in Whitefish Bay. After earning a college degree in journalism, he spent two years teaching English in Japan and it was there that he learned to appreciate eating the freshest food, he said. Jessie, now a nurse, was raised with a goat, chickens and cows in rural Genesee.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
Neighborhood kids join Ben at the chicken coop. (Photo courtesy of Alex Runner)
After the chicken ordinance passed, the Runners took a one-day class from the grassroots group Cream City Hens to learn how to choose and care for chickens. The class, which will be offered again in April, taught them the finer points of coop building, breed selection, chicken nutrition, composting waste — there are special requirements when chickens are involved — and a lot about the safety and sanitation of fresh chicken eggs. .
That October, the Runner and Stensberg families bought 10 chicks together. Now their small children have beloved pets and fresh eggs every morning. An added bonus is increased interaction with neighbors, especially children, who are attracted by the novelty of live chickens.
Whether Runner’s interest in and respect for all people was a cause or effect of his Japan experience, there is no doubt it’s a quality that defines him.
“He’s choosing to raise his family in the city and he’s passionate about that. I have seen him on his block interacting with kids who look different from him. That’s a strength of his, to connect with people across cultural and ethnic lines,” said neighbor Dr. Corey Thompson, professor and chair of urban education at Cardinal Stritch University.
Hines was drawn to Runner’s “sincere love for Milwaukee and the community he lives in, his [writing] skills and his energy,” he said. After he hired and worked with Runner, Hines grew to admire him as a loving father with a desire to roll his sleeves up and make Milwaukee stronger, he added.
And Runner loved the job. His four years as Hines’ chief of staff “was like getting a master’s degree in municipal government,” Runner said.
Following in the footsteps of about 20 families from their church who had moved to Sherman Park from Shorewood, Glendale and River Hills, the Runners bought their house at 48th and Meinecke streets in 2005. They were attracted by the neighborhood’s rich history, beautiful architecture and 100-year-old homes, and they wanted to live in a diverse and affordable neighborhood, Runner said.
The Runners’ chickens are affectionately known as “the girls.” (Photo courtesy of Alex Runner)
“I think we had a little bit of arrogance when we first moved here,” he said. “We thought we were going to uplift the neighborhood and bring all these resources. But what we really learned was there were all these wonderful families, primarily African-American, who had been here for generations. We came to teach, but we ended up learning a lot more than we teach.”
When his first son Ben, now 6, was born, Runner’s commitment to the city grew in intensity, he said. The family grew with the arrival of second son, Judah, now 2, and the children’s education became a primary focus. With the help of neighbors, the Runners did extensive research and selected MPS’ French Immersion School for Ben. A supporter of MPS, Runner is satisfied that MFIS is as good or better than the suburban school he attended. He believes good schools are the most essential component of a vibrant neighborhood.
Runner regularly brings neighbors together to talk about issues and also connects with them socially. With his gifts for communicating and remembering details about neighbors, Runner builds the fabric of community, Stensberg observed.
Reflecting on the community, Runner noted that it’s no different than any other neighborhood: solutions to individual and community problems are complex. “Diversity is such a buzzword, but there are so many layers to diversity, to a marketplace of ideas. There are a lot of attractive things about living here along with the difficult things.”

created: January 25, 2013


text:
8397828606_e6676c32f7_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
January 25, 2013


text:
8397883764_5eb1c72224_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
January 25, 2013


text:
8397883844_b776bc9b7f_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
January 25, 2013


text:
Consultant wanted | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
January 26, 2013
NNS is seeking a consultant to develop a sustainability and revenue-generating plan for Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, a two-year-old online news organization covering Milwaukee’s central city neighborhoods.
The ideal candidate would have experience:
For more information, please email info@milwaukeenns.org.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!

created: January 26, 2013


text:
H2Oscore aims to conserve water, save homeowners money | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Edgar Mendez
January 29, 2013
McGee Young and Nathan Conroy of Marquette discuss expansion strategies. (Photo by Edgar Mendez)
Water has always played an integral role in Nathan Conroy’s life. A major flood in California wiped out his grandparents’ farm, where his mother grew up. From that family history, he learned the destructive power of too much water. During a study abroad in Honduras he experienced firsthand how a lack of clean water affects people, having spent nearly the whole time there sick from the water.
Conroy, who graduated with his master’s degree in political science with a specialty in water policy in 2012, along with more than 70 other Marquette University and UWM students, has turned his passion for H2O into a tangible product. Under the guidance of McGee Young, environmental politics professor at Marquette, Conroy has spent the past few years developing  H2Oscore, an online tool designed to promote water conservation.
H2Oscore, a collaborative project with Milwaukee Water Works, is an analytics program that helps home and business owners track and manage their water usage while learning tips to conserve water and also earn incentives and save money by using less water.
According to Young, after only two months, users of the program saved 83,471 gallons of water. The average household earned $35 in conservation rewards.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
The map illustrates where H2Oscore users reside. (Photo provided by Nathan Conroy)
“The average family can save $100-200 a year in rewards if they’re thoughtful about their water usage,” said Conroy pointing out that their bill would also remain low.
Once home or business owners register on H2Oscore’s website, they’re able to track water usage quarterly and also compare their consumption to that of their neighbors, neighborhoods and others in the system. The site also features water conservation strategies and tips, including how to identify and replace common energy wasters such as old toilets and leaky faucets often found in older city neighborhoods.
“That’s why were trying to encourage people from all Milwaukee communities to get involved and learn how to reduce their energy footprint,” said Conroy, adding that water use is directly tied to energy use.
The company’s goal is to expand beyond Wisconsin to other areas of the country, focusing first on communities in Texas and Oklahoma that were hit hard by droughts last summer. Though water conservation is more of an immediate concern in dry regions such as the southwest, it is a national issue that reaches across all communities, and the model can be used anywhere, according to Young.
The first full city rollout was in Milwaukee in November and Madison will come next.
“Our emphasis is on empowerment of individual homeowners by providing information that’s accessible and community focused,” Young said.
Several business owners have begun using the H2Oscore system and offering incentives for their customers who also utilize the tool.
“I think we all need to do our part to conserve water and encourage sustainability,” said Nell Benton, owner of The National Café and Takeaway, 839 W. National Ave.
Along with The National Café, the charter class of H2Oscore businesses includes Helios Solar Works and Olive Fine Organic Living.
Benton said that once homeowners reach a set goal of water conservation, they’re eligible for a discount at her café.
Though no one’s redeemed a coupon yet, Benton thinks that incentivizing water conservation will encourage more people to become more conscious of the impact of their energy usage and change their habits.
“It’s a lot easier than most people think to reduce your energy footprint,” she said.

created: January 29, 2013


text:
8389497873_2ccb0e86de_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
January 28, 2013

created: January 28, 2013


text:
8402148247_e8b6a72577 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
January 30, 2013

created: January 30, 2013


text:
8402148247_e8b6a72577 | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
January 28, 2013


text:
Layton Boulevard West gears up for mobile ‘bike hub’ | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Brendan O’Brien
January 30, 2013
A design rendering of the Layton Boulevard West Neighbors mobile bike hub. (Image by Nicholas Allen and Ethan Skeels)
Jezamil Vega-Skeels turns heads as she rings her bicycle bell and pedals her vintage royal blue Robin Hood three-speeder through the Layton Boulevard West neighborhood.
Vega-Skeels is part of the vibrant neighborhood, where ice cream, corn and fruit cart vendors honk horns and ring bells to signal that treats and snacks are approaching.
A neighborhood planner at Layton Boulevard West Neighbors, Vega-Skeels hopes to capitalize on the diverse neighborhood’s energy and get more community members riding bicycles with a “mobile bike hub.” The bike hub is an adult tricycle fitted with bins full of tools and supplies.
“That’s the beauty of this project in that it’s a reflection of this neighborhood,” said Vega-Skeels, an architect by trade. “We are not reinventing the wheel at all … and that vibe will make this project so successful.”
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
For those with an old or broken bike that has been gathering dust in a garage or basement, the hub will offer a chance to get back on the saddle for free. A part-time bike hub coordinator will ride around the neighborhood during the spring, summer and fall, fixing bikes and promoting bike safety.
Jezamil Vega-Skeels (Photo courtesy of Layton Boulevard West Neighbors)
“You are going to have a chance to go to this mobile hub and repair it right there with someone and learn those skills yourself,” Vega-Skeels said.
A band of volunteers, including two architects — one of which is Vega-Skeels’ husband — has helped design the hub while Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin staff has lent its biking expertise to the project.
The pilot project will consist of one mobile bike hub, which is expected to get rolling this spring or early summer. The federation, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) of Milwaukee and the Charles D. Jacobus Family Foundation are helping fund the hub, which is expected to cost about $5,000 to $6,000.
If the pilot bike hub project is successful in the Layton Boulevard West neighborhood, it could eventually go into other areas of the city.
In addition to building skills and interest in biking, the mobile bike hub may curb boredom that besets neighborhood kids.
“They don’t have a lot of things to do,” said Jake Newborn, the youth education program manager at the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin, who works with the Milwaukee Public Schools and its Safe Routes to School program.
Early last year, Newborn and Vega-Skeels began discussing ways to develop bicycle repair and riding skills throughout Layton Boulevard West.
Rather than a bike repair shop, Vega-Skeels said she wanted to “bring service to the community in a unique way and that relates to them.” The idea of a bike repair trailer hauled by a truck or car also died early on because of its environmental impact.
Newborn envisions kids riding their bikes around their neighborhoods and utilizing the nearby Hank Aaron State Trail as a result of the hub.
“(Biking) is healthy, positive and fun and can keep them from getting into trouble,” Newborn said.
Vega-Skeels noted the hub might also spur bicycle sales as community members become more acquainted with biking.
Last week, during a meeting with those involved in the project, Vega-Skeels got weird looks when she kept insisting on finding a place on the tricycle for a bell, she said.
“The paleteros (ice cream vendors) have their own sound, the corn vendors have their own sound, the hub is going to have its own sound so the kids know it’s around.”


text:
8426632583_6a2739c5ce_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
January 29, 2013


text:
Jezamil-Vega-Skeels | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
January 29, 2013


text:
2013 Earn & Learn Summer Youth Internship Program (SYIP) | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
City of Milwaukee
February 2, 2013
Teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 as of June 1, 2013 are eligible to apply for Mayor Tom Barrett’s Summer Youth Internship Program (SYIP) program between now and April 5, 2013.
The program provides youth with employment and life skills and helps them meet educational, job readiness and career exploration goals. The SYIP intern is placed in a City department such as Fire, Library, Neighborhood Services, Office of the Mayor, Administration, Common Council, Public Works, Assessor, Health, Port, or City Development for 8 weeks.
SYIP 2013 programs runs from June 17 through August 9. Participants must commit to work the entire 8 week program. Applicants with plans for summer school, summer camps, family reunions, or unable to work the entire 8-week internship are asked not to apply.
Interns earn $7.25 an hour for 20 hours per week with a maximum of 160 hours for the duration of the internship. Priority is given to place high school juniors and seniors that have not previously participated in the program.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
All applicants must live in the designated Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) area. The Block Grant area is roughly North Florist Avenue, east-Milwaukee River, south- Harrison Avenue, and west- North 59 Street. Also, the area in northwestern Milwaukee around 107 and Brown Deer Road.   Click here to see if you live in the area.
How Do You Apply?
The  complete application (#1 and #2 above) must be submitted to the SYIP Office no later than 4:00 p.m. on Friday, April 5, 2013 .
What if you don’t live in the Block Grant Area or meet the age requirement for SYIP?
Earn & Learn has 2 other programs that may be able to place you: the Community Work Experience Program or the Private Sector Job Connection Program. The links are as follows:
http://city.milwaukee.gov/PrivateSectorJobConnection.htm
and
http://city.milwaukee.gov/CommunityWorkExperienceProgram.htm

created: February 2, 2013

author: City of Milwaukee


text:
Volunteers dispatched to count Milwaukee’s homeless | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Brendan O’Brien
February 5, 2013
A sign greets individuals to the “You Count” event at the Hillside Family Resource Center. (Photo by Brendan O’Brien)
David Marble held a cardboard sign, pleading for money from motorists whizzing by him as he stood on the median dividing a busy street, a few blocks west of Potawatomi Bingo Casino.
“It’s so humiliating, you have no idea,” said Marble, who has been homeless since three back surgeries and a neck surgery left him unable to work.
“The same people get off of work and they see you night after night and it’s so disheartening when they give you nothin’,” he said. “You can’t blame these people. Are you going to give every night? You ain’t going to do that. I wouldn’t do that.”
Marble, 56, is one of the individuals surveyed during Milwaukee’s “You Count” effort, intended to get a statistical snapshot of all of the sheltered and unsheltered homeless people in the city.
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
The effort involved dispatching volunteers throughout the city throughout a 24-hour period to find and survey people who live in parks, under viaducts, along the river and in alleyways.
Volunteers also visited meal sites and the Milwaukee Public Library, where homeless people tend to gather, especially when it is cold.
“We are trying; we do our best and that is why we have such an expansive effort, but we are never going to be able to find everybody,” said Evan O’Brien of the Hope House of Milwaukee, who helped oversee the count.
“It’s never going to be a flawless system. The difficult thing is the unsheltered population, just pinpointing where they are,” O’Brien said.
In addition to asking the homeless person his or her name and date of birth, the survey consisted of questions regarding living situation, employment and reasons for homelessness. The survey also asked whether the respondent is a victim of domestic violence or disabled.
Homeless people were also invited to Hillside Family Resource Center, 1452 N. 7th St., where they were surveyed. At the center, they were able to connect with services and receive much-needed items such as coats, sleeping bags and hygiene products.
“This is a big helping hand … a little here and a little there helps out,” said Dwayne, who has lived on the street for about two years, as he enjoyed a hot cup of coffee.
The final tally of unsheltered homeless individuals will be added to a head count of homeless people who checked into any of the shelters in Milwaukee on Jan. 30.
David Marble, a homeless man, holds a sign asking for help from motorists. (Photo by Brendan O’Brien)
The count of sheltered homeless is kept in the Homeless Management Information System, a database run by the Milwaukee Continuum of Care and coordinated by O’Brien.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development mandates an annual count by organizations that serve the homeless and receive funding from the agency.
In Milwaukee, the count is done twice a year. About 1,400 homeless people were counted in January 2012. In July 2012, about 1,500 were counted.
“We have no idea what we will get tonight. Winter is a tough time because it’s so hard to get a good unsheltered count,” O’Brien said.
According to volunteer Nicki Wooters, a social worker at St. Catherine Residence for Women, “It’s a whole other culture that I wasn’t even aware of. They (homeless people) have their own hierarchy.”
Trust and loyalty are currency within the homeless hierarchy. Many people are part of small bands that claim spots under viaducts, trade clothing such as coats and gloves, and watch one another’s backs.
To protect themselves, many sleep with makeshift weapons nearby, while other just don’t sleep, Wooters said.
The Milwaukee Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team also was part of “You Count.” Their job during the night was to help find the city’s chronically homeless people, who sleep in abandoned warehouses and under viaducts throughout the dark, cold city.
After searching for about an hour with no luck, a pair of MPD team members cautiously walked down an icy concrete staircase and under a viaduct near the Mitchell Park Conservatory domes.
A ray from one of the officer’s flashlights pierced through the darkness, and the pile of blankets on the concrete slab began to move. Jimmy, a homeless veteran dressed in a Packers sweatshirt with several layers of clothing beneath, rose up and politely greeted the officers.
“It’s not safe. Got to carry something like that,” said Jimmy, 59, pointing to his left shoe near his transistor radio.
In the shoe was a silver box cutter.
One of the officers quickly took it away while they chatted with Jimmy, making sure he was not sick, injured or too cold.
Jimmy said he has been homeless on and off for about six months after losing his job and getting kicked out of his home.
He also said he earns a small bit of cash by helping out at a homeless shelter and has family that he can stay with when it gets bitter cold. But for now, pride gets in the way.
“I don’t ask nobody for a damn thing,” he said, his eyes overflowing with tears as he laid back down.

created: February 5, 2013


text:
8446984452_e857531bbc_z | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
February 4, 2013

created: February 4, 2013


text:
You_Count | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Adam Carr
February 4, 2013