Progress in the Corridor
If you missed the past few writings in this series, you may be interested to start from the beginning:
The community arts program that started it all
The major community project that kept it going
As for the 30th Street Corridor, I’ve shared the rather gloomy early history of the region in my writing thus far, and I’m doing a disservice to the region and its residents if I don’t tell you about the much deserved investment it has received in the past decade or so. I gathered from the community meetings I attended that the floods of 2008 and 2010 led the City to take some action on stormwater management. (I wish so much damage doesn’t need to occur to prompt municipal action).
The flood called for major efforts to repair infrastructure in the Corridor that couldn’t withstand those storms’ wrath and caused so much harm (financially and emotionally) to residents and businesses. Here’s a glimpse into a stormwater mitigation plan from 2015 that I came across in my research developing this program. It’s a good dose of education :)
Ms. Yvonne McCaskill (read on for her impact on the neighborhood) once said, “water is king” and I’ll never forget that…it’s important to remember – as global warming continues to send us increasingly severe storms – what kind of power we realistically (don’t) have against Mother Nature. Our daily choices impact everything.
Back to the neighborhood…
The City of Milwaukee acquired 84 acres of the former A.O. Smith industrial site in 2009, with plans – including stormwater management and environmental contamination cleanup – to renovate and redevelop millions of square feet of vacant brownfields. Part of this $40 million dollar initiative resulted in Century City Business Park on Capitol and 31st St in 2015, serving as a new economic and environmental hub in the neighborhood. As of 2021, the 53k square-foot building on the property is 100% leased by local businesses that employ about 500 people, including Good City Brewing, which expanded its operations to the business park in 2018.
Several of ArtWorks’ program partners – the people who taught me about the region and made ArtWorks feel like valued constituents – are leading major projects in the region near Capitol Drive. In my environmental arts program plan, these would be sites for placemaking art projects once they open to the public. I felt truly honored to be part of the community-engaged conceptual planning processes for these undertakings. (Also a really cool opportunity for me to see how extensive developments play out in a community). I’d like to share a little more about two projects in particular below. See also the plan for action in the Corridor that the City released in 2020.
Century City Triangle Neighborhood Association (CCTNA) is led by a 50+ year resident of the neighborhood, and a truly wonderful woman, Yvonne McCaskill, who lives just down the street from Century City Business Park. She’s working with The City, Clean Wisconsin, Reflo, and several other organizations to expand the nearby Melvina Park. Plans for the park include wildlife restoration, a pollinator habitat, community gardening, stormwater management, community gatherings, nature-based play, and recreational improvements to the existing park. I hope one day that all parks will be so stocked with this kind of opportunity! Click on the images below to see Melvina Park’s redevelopment renderings (images courtesy of The City of Milwaukee, MKE Parks, Ce Planning Studio, New Eden Landscape Architecture, and The Sigma Group).
Site of the future West Basin
The City and Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) are leading the West Basin construction on ten acres of the former A.O. Smith industrial site. This multi-year project on 35th and Congress Streets will include, most notably, a water basin planned to hold 31 million gallons of stormwater.
Northwest Side Community Development Corporation (NWSCDC) is supporting the community-engaged conceptual planning process, which began a full two years before the project even got underway. They are still in these design stages, so details are still coming, but they anticipate having at least 2 acres of new community space on site with access to trails and nature.
The West Basin is the third component of an integrated system of three basins in the 30th Street Corridor. You can read about the North and East Basins here; ArtWorks created murals for both sites in 2017/2018. Head to Milwaukee Riverkeeper to learn more about basins and watersheds.
