Milwaukee City Hall. Building photo by Jeramey Jannene, background photo by Jericho.

The Milwaukee Common Council voted Tuesday to redo an elected-official pay policy it adopted two years ago after the current City Attorney’s Office concluded the legal advice the council relied on at the time was wrong.

On a 10-5 vote, the council approved a new salary schedule for whoever is elected mayor and to the Common Council in 2028. The policy provides an 8% increase at the beginning of the 2028-32 term, followed by 2% increases in each of the following three years. No member of the current council, nor Mayor Cavalier Johnson, will receive a raise during the current term.

The ordinance replaces a system the council adopted in January 2024 with the approval of the City Attorney’s Office, then led by Tearman Spencer. That policy automatically tied elected-official raises to uniform increases provided to general city employees, capped at 3% annually, and granted a one-time catch-up raise of 15% after wages were frozen since 2008.

Current City Attorney Evan Goyke, who defeated Spencer in the April 2024 election, now says that system violates state law because current officeholders effectively participate in determining their own salaries when they vote on raises for city employees. Goyke’s office has advised that any increase instead needs to be established in advance for a future term.

At last week’s Finance & Personnel Committee meeting, Goyke described his office as having “reviewed and revised and frankly reversed” the advice the city previously provided. Except for the 15% increase, no mayor or council member received the raises the old policy would have produced.

For several council members Tuesday, that history was central to the vote.

“I think what’s being lost in the sauce is why we got here,” said Ald. Mark Chambers Jr. “We received bad information from our previous city attorney.”

The council’s 2024 action was intended to prevent another lengthy elected-official pay freeze. Before a 15% increase took effect at the beginning of the current term, council members had gone without a raise since 2008.

The new ordinance attempts to recreate what council members expected would happen under the 2024 policy, but does so using fixed numbers. Salaries will increase 8% at the beginning of the next term, to catch up to a 9% raise general city workers received since 2025, and then 2% in 2029, 2030 and 2031. The ordinance formally removes the provision tying future raises directly to general city employee wage increases.

If current salaries remain unchanged through the end of the term, the mayor’s annual salary would rise from $169,436 to approximately $182,991 in 2028. A council member’s salary would rise from $84,206 to approximately $90,942, while the council president’s salary would increase from $94,311 to approximately $101,855.

After the three subsequent 2% increases, those salaries would reach approximately $194,192 for the mayor, $96,509 for council members and $108,090 for the council president.

Ald. Alex Brower, who voted for the ordinance, suggested the increases would not necessarily put Milwaukee elected officials ahead of their peers elsewhere.

“I think this might not even bring us in line with other common councils,” he said, citing Portland.

Ald. Sharlen P. Moore said she opposed taking the raises while people were struggling.

Ald. Scott Spiker said the council was doing more than simply correcting the consequences of the earlier legal advice.

Spiker, who called the Spencer-era advice “inaccurate,” noted that the 8% increase is designed as a catch-up mechanism for raises officeholders expected to receive under the prior policy. But the three subsequent 2% increases create a different policy for years that have not yet arrived.

“There is new policy being established here,” said Spiker. “It’s not just addressing the city attorney’s mistake.”

Goyke gave similar advice at the committee hearing about how the council should proceed. He said the “cleanest and clearest” approach under state law is for the current council to set specific salaries and specific dates for the next term, eliminating any need for the 2028-2032 council to take action that would increase its own compensation. A future council could still cancel or reduce a scheduled increase, he said.

Dimitrijevic and Chambers, in conversations with Urban Milwaukee, both confirmed the council intends to cancel the raises if general city employees don’t also receive raises. The council did that in the years following 2008, when the city’s fiscal condition rapidly deteriorated amid the Great Recession.

The Finance & Personnel Committee endorsed the proposal 3-2 on Sept. 16, with Spiker and Ald. Peter Burgelis opposed.

The full council’s opposition Tuesday expanded to five members.

Voting in favor were council members Andrea Pratt, Chambers, Brower, Robert Bauman, Lamont Westmoreland, Milele A. Coggs, Larresa Taylor, Dimitrijevic, Russell W. Stamper II and Council President José G. Pérez.

Voting against it were council members DiAndre Jackson, JoCasta Zamarripa, Moore, Burgelis and Spiker.

The mayor endorsed the general approach a day before the vote.

“The goal here is just to make sure that the elected officials are just keeping pace with pay increases as they happen with the general city employees, not to exceed what general city employees get,” the mayor said Monday.

Johnson also emphasized that the raises belong to the offices, not necessarily the people currently occupying them.

“It could happen that some of those folks are challenged and defeated,” Johnson said. “Whoever takes on that position then would be in line to receive that raise.”

As part of procedural motions, the elected comptroller, municipal judges and city treasurer were also approved to receive the raises, including the 2024 raise schedule and last year’s 3% raise. The positions, according to the City Attorney’s Office, do not directly control the budget and should not have been frozen alongside the mayor and council salaries. Goyke’s salary, $169,436, also could legally be raised because his office does not vote on the budget, but it is frozen because it would exceed the mayor’s, which would violate a different city policy. Only about two dozen employees make more than the mayor.

The treasurer and comptroller are each currently paid $144,449. A 3% adjustment would increase those salaries to approximately $148,783. Municipal judges are paid $143,007, and a 3% increase would raise that amount to approximately $147,297, subject to separate state restrictions governing when judicial pay changes may take effect.

The 2024 vote, which occurred after the city’s 2% sales tax was approved by the state, happened alongside an executive pay increase that boosted salaries for many city administrators. After years of high vacancies and effectively frozen wages, the council has also approved pay increases and reclassifications for most city jobs.

People watch a movie at the Oriental Theatre on Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

After nearly a century of showing movies, Milwaukee’s Oriental Theatre is getting its chance to be the star of the show.

The much-loved movie palace will be featured on the Turner Classic Movies program showcasing historic theatres — “Still Now Showing.”

A TCM crew will be in the city on Wednesday and Thursday, according to Susan Kerns, executive director of Milwaukee Film, which operates the theatre. Kerns said she’s “over the moon” about the opportunity.

“I am a TCM super fan, so I might be reaching the pinnacle of my life,” Kerns said.

“Still Now Showing” plays on TCM and on the TCM YouTube page, according to a statement from Milwaukee Film. The series has highlighted the Strand Theatre in Rockland, Maine, as well the United Palace in New York.

“They’re like love letters to these historic cinemas and neighborhood cinemas, and the communities that people are building around these different neighborhood cinemas throughout the country,” Kerns said.

TCM representatives weren’t available for an interview Monday.

Milwaukee Film runs events like the Milwaukee Film Festival and the Dialogues Documentary Festival at the theatre. The film crew will be in the city on the first day of the documentary festival later this week.

Kerns is hopeful movie fans from across the nation will be encouraged to travel to the city to check out the cinema once the program airs.

“I think everybody’s so excited about it,” Kerns said. “Classic film lovers cannot say enough nice things about TCM. It feels like the highest of honors in many ways.”

“My hope is that it just puts the Oriental Theatre in Milwaukee a little bit more in the minds of people who love movies,” she added.

Oriental Theatre is on National Register of Historic Places

The Oriental Theatre opened in 1927. The silent film “Naughty but Nice” was shown on opening night, according to Milwaukee Film.

Julia Griffith, the program director at Historic Milwaukee, said the architecture includes Byzantine features as well as features of North African, Middle Eastern and Indian architectural elements.

“It sort of has this kind of mashup, which isn’t actually how buildings in all those places look, but it’s sort of what, in the 1920s, people imagined was fanciful and mystical and would kind of draw you to the movies, which was the ultimate goal,” Griffith said.

Kerns said “movie palaces,” like Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, were opening up across the country at the time the Oriental Theatre opened.

The ornate architectural features of the theaters were an important part of the show at the time.

“It was all advertising to get you to go to the movies and then to have kind of this magical experience of moving pictures when you got there,” she said.

People gather at the Oriental Theatre to watch a premiere of “Song Sung Blue” on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

The Oriental features ornate chandeliers, painted murals of the Taj Mahal, porcelain lions along the staircase, mythological creatures in the plasterwork and elephants atop columns. Enormous statutes of the Buddha glow against the walls of the main theater.

“Every time you go in there, you can see something new, because there’s just so much detail and so much to look at,” Kerns said.

The Oriental Theatre is seen here on Sept. 21, 2026. Evan Casey/WPR

The Pritchetts brothers bought the cinema in 1972. They added two screens to the building, one on each side of the main auditorium.

“During the 1970s, they revitalized the building, replaced the roof, and added new entertainment offerings, such as concerts and live performances,” the Milwaukee Film website says.

Kerns said musical acts like Bob Dylan and Devo performed at the theatre, while it was also the site of an early show for Milwaukee’s own Violent Femmes.

Milwaukee Film acquired the cinema in 2018. The nonprofit undertook a renovation and restoration project which included new seating, updated concessions and rennovations to the projection booth.

“It was really modernizing the experience in a way that stays very true to the original experience as well,” Kerns said, adding that they didn’t add recliner seats.

The main auditorium, which has a balcony level, can seat around 1,000 people, while the two smaller screens seat around 230 people. The theatre also houses a 1925 Wurlitzer pipe organ, which is used before some screenings.

The Oriental Theatre was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2023.

Griffith said it’s encouraging that the theatre is still alive and well, nearly 100 years later.

“It’s a lovely thing that it was built as a movie theater, and it’s still functioning as a movie theatre,” Griffith said.

A concession stand is open as the Oriental Theatre opens for shows Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

This Milwaukee movie theatre will be showcased on Turner Classic Movies was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Tomah VA Medical Center. Photo by Maureen McCollum/WPR.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin is calling for an investigation into care at the Tomah VA Medical Center after a former hospice nurse was arrested last week on charges of patient abuse.

Baldwin sent a letter on Friday to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, asking the department to immediately review staffing levels and the quality of care at the facility. Baldwin also requested the VA Office of Inspector General investigate the allegations.

Baldwin said in the letter that employees at the Tomah VA contacted her office to report “severe lapses in patient care” as a result of “poor management and inadequate staffing.”

These issues contributed to inadequate patient checks, food choking incidents and patient falls, according to the letter.

Baldwin said the employee reports “raise particularly troubling concerns” about the care of hospice patients, including allegations of delays in veterans receiving medications and inadequate provider coverage.

“Veterans receiving hospice care are among the most vulnerable patients in the VA system, and they and their families should be able to trust that they will receive safe and compassionate care and be treated with dignity during the final days of their lives,” Baldwin wrote.

The letter comes the same week former VA nurse Beth Holtz was arrested on felony patient abuse charges for withholding oxygen from a hospice patient while working at the facility in August 2025.

According to the criminal complaint from the Monroe County district attorney, the 75-year-old patient had pulmonary fibrosis and required a continuous supply of oxygen.

Holtz told VA police at the time of the incident that she removed the patient’s oxygen because he was agitated by the mask, and she thought he was close to dying, according to the complaint.

But investigators reported that another staff member claimed Holtz said she hoped the patient would pass during her shift because recording his death in medical records would be easier than recording a fall he had earlier that day.

The complaint states that the patient was without oxygen for approximately an hour and a half on Aug. 17, 2025 and died six days later. The district attorney has accused Holtz of trying to hasten the patient’s death.

Baldwin said in the letter that the charges “raise serious questions” about the care of hospice patients and the VA’s response to the incident last year. The senator called for the VA to provide “a full accounting” of the department’s actions, including immediate steps taken to protect other patients and any reviews conducted after the incident.

Baldwin pointed out that inadequate care leading to patient harm has previously been discovered at the Tomah VA Medical Center.

Marine Corps veteran Jason Simcakoski died in 2014 after being overprescribed medications while receiving psychiatric treatment at the Tomah VA. His death revealed a culture of VA providers prescribing high levels of opioids and creating a culture of fear among facility staff.

“The Tomah VA and the veterans it serves have spent years working to rectify and recover from the serious failures uncovered at the facility more than a decade ago,” Baldwin wrote. “VA employees, veterans and the surrounding community worked hard to improve care, strengthen accountability and rebuild trust. We cannot allow serious patient safety or management problems to take root again or allow that hard earned trust to erode.”

The Tomah VA Medical Center did not immediately respond to WPR’s request for comment.

In early 2025, the Trump administration announced it was on track to reduce VA staff by 30,000 positions nationally. In a May visit to Wisconsin, Collins said facilities were not under a hiring freeze for needed positions.

Baldwin calls for investigation into Tomah VA after hospice nurse faces patient abuse charges was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Diverse Dining Market closure notice. Photo taken by Lauren Hafeman on Sept. 21, 2026.

A notice posted on the front doors of Diverse Dining Market, a multi-vendor food market that occupies a street-level commercial space in the Two-Fifty building at 250 E. Wisconsin Ave., indicates that it is closed.

“Our storefront market is closed. Thank you for supporting our journey,” reads the notice.

Emerald Mills opened the market in 2024 to give food entrepreneurs from underserved communities space to build their businesses as vendors first, lowering their chances of incurring the high costs and risks of opening a traditional restaurant. Before closing, the market hosted Mister Bar-B-Que and My Keto Corner. It also offered an in-house menu of breakfast and lunch paninis, smoothies and sandwiches.

“We concluded our regular market operations on August 28,” wrote Mills in an email to Urban Milwaukee. “While maintaining a daily multi-vendor marketplace became challenging to sustain, our catering, private events, and experiential offerings have continued to grow.”

“We are still operating out of our current space for private experiences, catering and curated programming for the time being, though we may relocate to a smaller space in the near future,” Mills wrote.

The closure notice invites viewers to scan a QR code directing them to Smokin’ Steep, Mills’ new business that offers “immersive smoked tea experiences.”

“Growing Smokin’ Steep alongside our catering operations is a major focus for our next chapter,” Mills said in her email. She clarified that a Smokin’ Steep experience planned for Sept. 27 at Diverse Dining Market has been postponed “due to our upcoming fall product launch and pop-up events with local tea and coffee venues.”

The latest evolution comes after Mills moved from Turning Tables Tavern and Eatery in Turner Hall in 2024 and rebranded the business as Diverse Dining Market later that year.

Risser Justice Center in Madison, home of the main offices of the Wisconsin Department of Justice. Photo: Wisconsin Department of Administration

Wisconsin consumers and the state will receive more than $11 million as part of a multi-state settlement with one of the nation’s largest auto finance companies, the Wisconsin Department of Justice announced Monday.

Under the settlement, Credit Acceptance Corporation, or CAC, will provide $694 million in cash and debt relief to consumers connected to their car loans, the state Department of Justice says. But the deal does not require the company to admit fault or wrongdoing.

Wisconsin consumers will receive an estimated more than $10 million in debt relief and $959,988 in restitution, while the state will receive $218,319, according to the state Department of Justice.

The state DOJ says the settlement resolves allegations that CAC gave loans to people that the company knew they could not afford, resulting in defaults and vehicle repossessions.

A multi-state investigation into the company launched in 2020. The New York Attorney General filed a federal suit against the company in 2023.

Beyond providing relief to consumers, the deal requires CAC to disclose loan risks to customers, provide consumer protection and guard against dealers “packing” the company’s contracts with other unwanted vehicle service or asset protection products, the Wisconsin DOJ said.

“People deserve to be aware of and not misled about the terms of a large purchase like a vehicle,” Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul said in a statement. “This settlement will put stronger protections in place going forward for loans from Credit Acceptance Corporation.”

In a statement, Credit Acceptance CEO Vinayak Hegde said the deal gives the company and its customers “certainty.”

“We believe the provisions we agreed to are constructive, customer-focused and consistent with the direction of regulatory expectations in our industry,” he stated. “Importantly, the resolution allows us to keep our full attention on helping consumers.”

Wisconsin consumers, state to receive more than $11M from auto finance settlement was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Wisconsin State Capitol (Wisconsin Examiner photo)

Two Waukesha County Republicans are asking voters to reelect them to the state Legislature in November while simultaneously campaigning to become the county’s next executive in a December special election.

Paul Farrow, who had served as the Waukesha County executive since 2015, was a former state lawmaker and previous chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, died in July after a two year battle with a rare and aggressive abdominal cancer. Tom Farley, who previously worked as the county’s lead attorney, was sworn in to serve as the interim county executive on July 30 after being nominated by the county board.

The race to serve the last few months of Farrow’s four-year term has so far attracted the attention of two longtime GOP lawmakers who are also currently running for reelection to their respective seats: Rep. Adam Neylon (R-Pewaukee) and Sen. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield).

But the lawmakers concurrently running for two offices sets up a tangle of filing deadlines and election dates. The deadline to file nominating signatures to get on the special election ballot is Oct. 20 and if they both gain access, a primary election will be held Nov. 17 — just over two weeks after they’ll both be on the ballot in the midterm elections on Nov. 3.

Kapenga announced his candidacy on July 13 in an interview with conservative radio host Dan O’Donnell.

Sen. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield)

“Usually, you get excited about announcing, but this is just unfortunate,” Kapenga said, adding that he was praying for Farrow’s family.

Neylon announced his campaign in early September. Neylon, who said Farrow was a mentor of his, said he spent time grieving and then mulling the decision.

“I believe our families deserve leaders who put community first and show up, listen, work well with others, and deliver results to protect the values that built this place, and I think that, given my experience, my background, that I’m the right person for the job,” Neylon told the Wisconsin Examiner.

After the special election, a regular election for a full term as the county executive will happen in April 2027.

Both will appear on ballots in November in races for their respective legislative seat. Within 60 days following the certification of the election as county executive, a lawmaker would need to resign from their position. State law prevents legislators from serving in the Legislature and as a county executive.

Kapenga and Neylon’s decision to seek the job outside the Legislature follows a wave of Republicans opting to not run for reelection this year, including Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester). Though state lawmakers regularly run for open county executive seats.

Kapenga or Neylon’s departure from the Legislature would be one fewer Republican with legislative experience and would trigger the need for a special election to fill the seat.

Farrow was a state senator when he ran in 2015 and his election created a vacancy that Kapenga filled by winning a special election for the Senate seat that July. Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Crowley, then a state Assembly member, was elected to be Milwaukee County executive in May 2020, and former Senate Minority Leader Melissa Agard ran to be Dane County executive after deciding not to run for reelection.

With control of the Senate and Assembly at stake in November, the possibility of a legislative vacancy adds another variable for the next legislative session.

Kapenga did not respond to requests for an interview from the Examiner, but during his interview with O’Donnell, he said he expects another Republican to be elected to his seat if he wins the special election and resigns.

“It’s almost statistically impossible unless somebody really makes a major mistake in this seat to lose it to a Dem so that risk is very low,” Kapenga, who won his last reelection effort unopposed, said.

Kapenga is facing a challenge for the state Senate seat from Mike Van Someren, a Democrat and attorney from the Town of Delafield, in the race for state Senate.

Van Someren has knocked Kapenga for campaigning for county executive while running for the state Senate, saying in a video posted to TikTok that “it’s clear we’re both out there working for the job we really want.”

“So in this instance, I just want to wish both luck,” he said.

The Examiner spoke with Neylon about his campaigns. He said he is focused on winning reelection to the Assembly and then will turn his focus to the county executive race.

“It’s going to be a sprint,” Neylon said of the turn around time between elections. “There’s not a lot of people paying attention to the county executive race right now when you have the general election on the horizon. People are talking about the governor’s race. People are talking about the majorities, and I’m part of that.”

Rep. Adam Neylon official legislative portrait.

In the race for the Assembly, Neylon faces a challenge from Democrat Stephen Tryon, an author. He won his 2024 election in a 59.1% to 40.9% vote against his Democratic opponent.

Neylon said wants to help Republicans keep their majority as Assembly Democrats are seeking to flip five seats and put Republicans out of power for the first time in 16 years, but that he also has unfinished business in the Assembly that he’d like to work on.

“When I left Madison at the end of last session, I didn’t leave thinking it was over,” Neylon said. “I think it’s actually a positive thing, not something that I’m going to apologize for.”

With Vos and other GOP leadership retirements, Neylon said he wants to be involved in choosing a new leader for Assembly Republicans. He said there is also some legislation that he would want the opportunity to propose, including on AI and regulating Flock license plate readers.

Neylon said it was a difficult decision, but there wasn’t much strategic thought put into running for both seats. He said he sees an opportunity in the county executive role and thinks he is best suited for the job due to his ability to listen to people and work collaboratively.

“At the end of the day, the ultimate consideration was, do I want to do this? And I do,” Neylon said. “I think that when you look at the opportunity that Waukesha County Executive presents to be able to be an advocate and a leader in a community that I love, that I care about, that I want to protect for my kids to make sure that they have the same opportunities that we do. It just felt like I had to raise my hand and step up, and I felt a sense of commitment and responsibility to do so.”

Kapenga is known for being a staunch conservative and fiscal hawk, who wants to cut taxes and reduce government services. He has at times been the lone “No” vote on bipartisan legislation, including a law to provide additional coverage for breast cancer screenings. He’s also been part of hardline Republican obstinance that led to legislation failing or Republican leaders turning to Democrats for help getting bills across the finish line.

One issue that has defined the race so far is taxes. Waukesha County is one of two counties in the state that do not impose a local county tax on top of the state sales tax of 5%. During his tenure, Farrow had proposed a plan to implement a sales tax to avoid steep cuts in services. It was withdrawn in January 2025.

Neylon and Kapenga have said they are opposed to implementing a sales tax.

“Things cost more. Based on the last budget projected deficits into the future at the current levels of spending, so there’s been an interest in looking at different ways to increase government revenues,” Neylon said. “I think we need to be more innovative about the solutions we’re offering to people instead of always just going back to we need to raise tax.”

Neylon said he wouldn’t look to shared revenue from the state to help with the county’s fiscal issues, however, he said he would lobby state lawmakers to allow the county to keep more revenue from fees that currently go to the state.

Neylon has said he would also bring his focus on regulatory reform to county government, including to rising housing costs by looking to ease zoning and permitting rules that he says slow construction. He has spent much of his legislative career focused on rulemaking, including as the the lead author of the REINS Act, the Walker-era law that requires state agencies to halt the rulemaking process for any proposed administrative rule estimated to cost $10 million or more. He also served as the chair of the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rulemaking.

Kapenga, who has worked as a certified public accountant, told O’Donnell that his experience would help provide a different perspective to county government.

“I think it really works well with the challenges that we’re facing as we go forward,” Kapenga said.

Two GOP legislators running concurrently for reelection and for Waukesha County executive role was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson speaks at an August 2025 press conference. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson will present a $2.26 billion budget Tuesday that increases police and fire staffing, puts a record amount of local money into Milwaukee’s streets and avoids layoffs.

But doing so will require the city to reach deeply into its reserves.

Johnson’s proposed 2027 budget started with a $96.8 million structural gap, the difference between what city departments said it would cost to maintain services and the revenue the city expected to collect. The gap is slightly smaller than the $100.9 million hole the administration faced a year ago, but remains far larger than the deficits Milwaukee routinely confronted before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The administration proposes closing the $96.8 million gap with about $42.8 million in reserve withdrawals, $20.5 million in revenue increases and $33.5 million in reductions from departments’ requested spending.

“I want to protect people’s pocketbooks but also want to make sure they get the services that they need,” said Johnson in a budget briefing with Urban Milwaukee.

And while Johnson’s budget holds steady for 2027 with minimal cuts and tax and fee increases, the city still faces a substantial fiscal straightjacket, where its ability to raise revenue is far outpaced by the growing cost of providing services.

“This stability is a mirage,” Budget and Management Director Nik Kovac said while explaining the city’s recent budget picture. The city has repeatedly reduced its cost-to-continue spending, raised revenue and tapped reserves, creating a new baseline each year but not eliminating the underlying imbalance.

Johnson and Kovac see it as a structural issue the city will need to solve with the help of the state. They point to the state’s decision to effectively freeze shared revenue in 1996. If it were indexed to inflation, the city would receive an extra $207 million in 2027 and $3.6 billion since 1995.

“That’s money that I could be investing into roads without having to jack up some other fee on our citizens here,” said Johnson.

In addition to holding down shared revenue, the state has also blocked the city from raising other revenue. A 2% sales tax was only approved in 2023 with the addition of requirements on police and fire spending and a host of unrelated policy provisions.

“Our ability to raise revenue to take care of our services is put in a box by Madison,” said Johnson. “I would like more shared revenue. I would like the state to allow us to diversify our revenues as well.” He cited legalized marijuana as one example.

Taxes Up, Tax Rate Down

The total city property tax levy would rise approximately 2%, from $336.8 million to $343.6 million.

Because assessed values are also growing, the city’s projected tax rate would fall from $7.61 to $7.29 per $1,000 of assessed value.

That does not mean the typical homeowner’s city tax bill will fall. Kovac said the Budget Office currently estimates an approximately 3.1% increase for the average homeowner, though the figure can change as assessments are finalized. The gap between the tax levy and the homeowner increase is in large part due to the change in value of residential properties versus commercial properties.

User fees, on average, would increase about 3%.

The average Milwaukee homeowner, with an assessment of $207,400, would see the city share of their property tax bill climb to $1,512, a $45.50 increase, and their fees climb by $16.54 to $622.62.

Unlike last year, there would be no increase in the city’s vehicle registration fee. The wheel tax would remain $41.

There is one conspicuous exception to the relatively modest fee increases: parking.

As Urban Milwaukee previously reported, the annual overnight parking permit would double from $55 to $110, parking citations would increase by $10 and downtown meter rates would rise from a minimum of $2.25 an hour to $3.

The administration expects the changes to generate $6 million that would be transferred from the Transportation Fund into the capital budget for street work.

The resulting $19.2 million local-road program is the largest in city history and includes $12 million for high-impact paving and $7.2 million for local street reconstruction. It would be added to existing state and federal aid. The budget also includes another pothole patching vehicle and an additional asphalt hot box.

More Police And Firefighters

State law makes it difficult to cut the city’s largest departments to balance the budget.

Act 12, the 2023 sales tax legislation, established minimum police and fire staffing requirements. Police and fire are also the city’s two largest levy-supported departments. The Department of Public Works, the third largest, receives much of its funding from user charges, meaning cutting services can simultaneously eliminate revenue.

Johnson’s proposal funds three Milwaukee Police Department recruit classes of up to 65 people each, the maximum possible.

But funding academy classes and actually adding officers have increasingly become two different things.

The administration expects MPD’s average sworn strength to increase by only 14 officers, from 1,565 in 2026 to 1,579 in 2027, after accounting for retirements and other attrition.

Despite funding the recruiting classes at their max capacity for multiple years in a row, the city has struggled to find qualified applicants to fill the roles. According to data presented last week by MPD to the Public Safety & Health Committee, the next recruiting class graduation will include a max of 29 members, less than 50% of its capacity.

The Milwaukee Fire Department would fare somewhat better in translating additional positions into daily staffing.

Johnson proposes adding 15 firefighter positions, enough to increase MFD’s daily minimum staffing level from 207 to 211 and put one additional heavy apparatus in service each day.

MFD had requested enough staffing for two additional apparatus groups. Funding one rather than two saves more than $1 million compared with the department’s request, Kovac said.

Exactly where the additional apparatus would operate would be a decision for Fire Chief Aaron Lipski.

Reserves Do Heavy Lifting

The largest single tool for balancing the 2027 budget is money the city has already saved.

The Tax Stabilization Fund finished 2025 with $79.6 million. Johnson proposes withdrawing half, $39.8 million, to maintain services.

The city would also withdraw $6 million from its Public Debt Amortization Fund, twice the $3 million assumed when departments submitted their budget requests. Because that initial $3 million was already factored into the starting projections, the two reserve moves together close $42.8 million of the original $96.8 million gap.

“I don’t want to have to tap into our reserves that deeply in order to balance our budget,” said Johnson.

The city has been able to repeatedly use substantial reserves without exhausting them because its financial results have recently beaten budgeted assumptions. Sales tax collections came in above initial estimates and high vacancy rates produced savings on wages and health insurance.

Kovac does not expect those benefits to continue at the same scale.

“We took out $32.3 [million] the last two years, and the fund has grown while doing that,” he said. But the city now has enough sales-tax history to make more accurate projections, while vacancy rates have fallen. “Eventually the pessimists will be right.”

Kovac warned the Common Council in August that reserve withdrawals would likely again be the biggest budget-balancing mechanism in 2027, but said there were “many reasons to believe” that would not be sustainable in 2028 and beyond.

Violence Prevention Gets More City Money

The budget would also use property tax dollars to maintain violence-prevention work that had previously benefited from the city’s $394 million American Rescue Plan Act allocation, which expires at the end of 20226.

The special-purpose account supporting contractors working with the Department of Community Wellness and Safety would increase from $750,000 to $1.75 million.

Kovac said the $1 million increase is intended to preserve the current level of violence-interruption work now that ARPA funding is gone.

No Layoffs, But Vacancies And Library Hours Cut

The $33.5 million in expenditure reductions would not produce layoffs, according to the administration.

Instead, departments across city government will see positions that were funded but vacant in 2026 become unfunded in 2027. DPW, because of its size, accounts for a substantial share, but Kovac said the approach was used throughout city government.

The administration says it does not anticipate major service reductions as a result.

One visible exception involves libraries.

The Common Council expanded Sunday service this year from Central Library and two branches to Central and four branches. Johnson’s budget would not fully continue the expansion, returning to Central plus two branches and saving approximately $500,000 compared with the requested budget. The Milwaukee Public Library board would determine which libraries to operate.

“I’m just saying we should have Central plus two [more],” said Johnson.

The proposal would also eliminate staffed drive-up service at Central Library, though patrons would retain a way to return materials when the building is closed.

General city workers would receive a 2% pay increase beginning during the second quarter. Kovac said the delayed implementation is tied in part to the city’s transition to its new enterprise resource planning and payroll system at the start of the year. It also reduces the cost.

State Aid Gap

Johnson and Kovac continue to argue that Milwaukee’s structural problem cannot ultimately be resolved at City Hall alone.

The administration’s budget documents show Milwaukee receiving $260 million in state shared revenue in 2027. Had the $224.4 million it received in 1995 simply grown with inflation, the city calculates it would receive $467.4 million.

Johnson said he would prefer additional state aid to raising local taxes and fees.

“If shared revenue just kept pace with inflation from ’96 when they froze it,” he said, the city would have substantially more money available for roads and other services.

Act 12 partially reversed that trend. The sales tax produced more than $200 million in its first year and the law increased shared revenue, but it also imposed public safety spending requirements and coincided with the transition of new employees into the Wisconsin Retirement System.

The result, according to Kovac, is that recent budgets appear more stable than the crisis budgets of 2023 and 2024, but the remaining gap is difficult to eliminate.

Big Capital Projects Continue

Johnson would maintain $116 million in new general-purpose borrowing, the third and final year of what his administration has described as a temporary capital spending surge.

The Common Council increased that figure to approximately $120 million in each of the past two budgets.

The city has used the additional borrowing capacity for several major projects, including new public-safety radios, replacement financial and human-resources software and city contributions to the Port Milwaukee cruise ship terminal.

For 2027, the capital budget begins funding a new Midtown library branch and continues funding for a new DPW municipal services facility in the 30th Street corridor.

The latter project would ultimately allow the city to leave its aging riverfront facility in the Menomonee Valley, which costs up to $2 million annually to maintain. Johnson said moving those operations would also free valuable riverfront property for private development.

The proposal comes before the Common Council Tuesday morning. The council’s Finance & Personnel Committee will spend October reviewing individual departmental budgets and proposed amendments. It is scheduled to review amendments on Oct. 30, with the council adopting its budget on Nov. 6. Johnson could then veto any provisions, sending them back to the council for a potential override.

A $2.26 Billion Budget

On paper, total city spending rises substantially.

Budget authority would increase approximately $185.4 million, or 8.9%, from $2.076 billion in 2026 to $2.261 billion in 2027.

Much of that increase, however, is not additional day-to-day departmental spending.

Capital improvement authority rises by approximately $79.9 million, city debt spending increases $54.4 million and employee retirement spending increases $12.2 million. Spending categorized as general city purposes rises by approximately $31.1 million.

The city’s pension and retirement costs have become a major piece of its long-term financial challenge. The proposed employee retirement budget totals approximately $273.4 million.

UPDATE: An earlier version of the article had the wrong amount for the parking citation increase.

Anthony Kazee (center) holding scissors, with County Executive David Crowley to his left and Frank Cumberbatch to his right. Photo taken Sept. 21, 2026 by Graham Kilmer.

A first-of-its-kind crisis housing facility for the Milwaukee area has opened in the city’s Uptown neighborhood.

KG Development Group recently finished redeveloping a former Jewish home at 2436 N. 50th St. into Phoenix Residential Apartments, a 31-unit affordable housing development with units set aside for individuals experiencing a crisis, whether that’s homelessness or domestic violence.

Developers Anthony Kazee and Jamie Gray, who lead KG Development, partnered with Milwaukee County to develop the project. The county provided approximately $1.3 million in funding to support the approximately $9 million redevelopment.

The county’s Housing Division is attaching housing vouchers to eight of the units, partially subsidizing the affordable rent. The division will also lease 10 crisis units to provide stabilization housing for individuals before they are moved to permanent housing.

KG Development had to stitch together 13 different sources of financing to make the project work, Kazee said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday. The final piece, which allowed the project to be completed, came from Bader Philanthropies.

“It takes you know a village to make new deals happen,” Kazee said. “I’m just grateful that we’re able to get all these finance partners together in order to make this game happen.”

Jen Schomburg, president of St. Luke’s Medical Center and Aurora Southeast Wisconsin Area, said the new development will close a gap in the local system of care. Health care systems often have patients who are medically ready to be discharged, but do not have a stable place to go once they leave a hospital. “Without stable housing support, the risks of setbacks, complications, and repeat hospitalizations increase,” she said.

Bader, which provided critical gap financing for the project, has not often gotten involved in developing housing. Frank Cumberbatch, vice president of engagement, said the nonprofit realized this was a blind spot for the organization when it moved to King Drive in 2018. The organization, Cumberbatch said, understands that stable housing is the foundation needed to tackle the other social issues it is concerned with.

That idea is one that has driven the county’s response to housing insecurity and homelessness for more than a decade. The housing-first model uses housing to stabilize an individual experiencing homelessness and then connect them to other resources they may need for the long term, like mental health care or employment services. Housing is the primary social determinant of health for the county’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), said James Mathy, housing division administrator.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley‘s administration has driven millions in county, state and federal funds into affordable housing, including developments in nine suburbs, breaking down long-standing resistance to these affordable housing in these communities.

“We’re extremely proud — not just this project, but the many projects Milwaukee County has been able to invest in, in helping us buck the trend when it comes down to homelessness,” Crowley said at the event Monday, noting that the county continues to have one of the lowest unsheltered homeless populations per capita in the country. “Because without a roof over your head, it’s hard to focus on your mental health. Hard to focus on addiction, on education, or finding a better job. This is why this is so important.”

The Jewish Home building was originally constructed in 1929.

Construction Photos

Ribbon Cutting

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Mayor Cavalier Johnson introduces MKE GO. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Milwaukee officials aren’t asking residents to give up their cars. They are asking them to consider leaving them parked once or twice a week.

Ahead of World Car Free Day on Tuesday, the City of Milwaukee launched MKE GO, a new program intended to make it easier for residents and workers to try taking the bus, biking, walking or carpooling instead of driving alone.

“You don’t have to change every single trip. That’s not what we’re asking you,” said Mayor Cavalier Johnson during a press conference Monday morning. “Let’s take some alternative mode of transportation once or twice a week.”

The mayor announced the program at a new Bublr Bikes station outside Potawatomi Casino Hotel, 1721 W. Canal St., in the Menomonee Valley.

Johnson said driving will remain the best transportation option for many trips and people, but said replacing even a small number of car trips could lower transportation costs, reduce congestion and air pollution and add physical activity to someone’s day.

“MKE GO isn’t about telling people to get rid of their cars,” Johnson said. “Instead, it’s about giving people more options; it’s about giving people more choices.”

World Car Free Day is held annually on Sept. 22 and is intended to encourage people to try walking, bicycling, public transportation and other alternatives to driving.

The city’s initial MKE GO effort is focused on the Menomonee Valley and nearby neighborhoods, an area where transportation has long been both a workforce issue and a geographic challenge.

It is an especially complicated place to get around right now.

The 27th Street viaduct is closed while the Wisconsin Department of Transportation reconstructs the bridge over Interstate 94, part of the massive I-94 East-West Freeway project. The closure is expected to last through late 2026.

The James E. Groppi Unity Bridge, also known as the 16th Street Viaduct, is only partially open while the city rehabilitates the structure. The southern portion reopened this summer, but the bridge remains closed between W. Clybourn Street and S. Emmber Lane.

At the same time, the city is reconstructing W. National Avenue. This year’s phase covers S. 39th Street to S. 27th Street, adding another major construction project along a key route into and around the Valley.

“Honestly, the timing couldn’t be better,” said Department of Public Works transportation planning manager Mike Amsden when asked about the overlapping construction projects Monday. “We need to provide better options for more people to get to and through the Valley.”

MKE GO is being funded through a federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grant. The total project budget is $656,000, including $524,800 in federal funding and a $131,200 city match.

The pilot is scheduled to run from 2026 through 2028. The initial project area stretches approximately from N. 6th Street to N. 35th Street and from W. Highland Avenue to W. Mitchell Street. It includes the Menomonee Valley as well as portions of Marquette, Merrill Park, Concordia, Avenues West, Clarke Square, Silver City, Burnham Park and Layton Park.

The program isn’t creating a new transportation service. Instead, it is intended to make existing options easier to understand and try.

Residents and employees can get help planning trips, understanding bus routes, using Bublr Bikes or finding a carpool through CommuteWISE. Participants will also be eligible for incentives, including free MCTS bus passes and Bublr passes, to try a different commute. Employers can receive commute surveys, individualized assistance for employees, carpool matching and an analysis of workplace transportation and parking needs.

“We want to make it easy for people to check out these options for themselves,” Amsden said. Participants, he said, will be able to answer several questions about their transportation needs and receive a free bus or Bublr pass to test another way of traveling.

The Valley was selected in part because of the concentration of jobs and nearby residents — and the difficulty connecting the two.

Menomonee Valley Partners executive director Corey Zetts said her organization regularly hears from employers that transportation is a workforce challenge. More than 60% identify transportation as one of the major factors affecting their workforce, she said.

The Valley can appear well served on a transportation map, Zetts said, but major bus routes often run only on the elevated viaducts. Reaching employers can require navigating highway entrances, railroad tracks, the Menomonee River and other barriers.

“How do we get people that last mile from those neighborhoods down into the Valley jobs and to the employers that are really looking to hire?” Zetts said.

Palermo’s Pizza, headquartered farther west on Canal Street, is one of the employers participating in the initiative.

Rebecca Schimke, Palermo’s director of communications and events, said an estimated 25% of the company’s workforce relies on transportation other than driving alone. The challenge can be particularly significant for employees working second and third shifts, when fewer transportation options are available.

City officials hope the Valley pilot will also show what works — and what doesn’t — before MKE GO potentially expands elsewhere in Milwaukee.

The immediate goal, however, is substantially smaller: convince someone who usually drives five days a week to try something different for one of them.

“Is there just one trip that I can make different?” Johnson said residents should ask themselves as World Car Free Day approaches. “It all starts with one trip.”

More information and enrollment details are available through the city’s MKE GO webpage.

Hospital waiting area. (Public Domain)

There are many important health care issues candidates for governor, attorney general and the Legislature should be debating before the Nov. 3 elections. Consider just four of them.

Immunizations

The Department of Health Services reported 166 cases of measles in Wisconsin last week and said 99% of those with the disease had not been vaccinated. Fewer Wisconsin parents, especially in counties like Vernon, are having their children vaccinated.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a 95% community vaccination rate to prevent measles outbreaks. Guidelines call for children to be vaccinated after their first birthday, and again around age 5.

The CDC estimates that 84.8% of Wisconsin’s kindergartners had both doses in the 2023-24 school year. Only Alaska ranked lower.

In 2023, the most recent year with available data, 81.6% of Wisconsin’s 2-year-olds had at least one dose of the measles vaccine, according to DHS. That’s down from 88.2% in 2013.

Question for candidates: Are current immunization laws enough, or do they need reform?

Health care worker shortage

Gov. Tony Evers’ task force on the shortage of health care workers, especially in rural areas, recommended many changes in 2024. One of them, allowing advanced practice nurses, became law Sept. 1.

In February, Ann Zenk, the Wisconsin Hospital Association vice president of workforce and clinic practice, called the shortage “a race against time.” The organization warned of a looming silver tsunami as older physicians retire.

“Health care demand is projected to rise 10% by 2040 while our working-age population continues to shrink. We’re growing the workforce, but not fast enough to meet the needs of an aging population,” Zenk said. “Residents 65 and older, who use health care at more than twice the rate of working-age adults and five times the rate of those younger than 16, represent the fastest-growing segment of the population. 93% of adults 65 and older have at least one chronic condition, and 79% have two or more…An increase in health care demand is unavoidable.”

Question for candidates: Do you support the recommendations of the WHA and governor’s task force?

High hospital rates

Three studies have found that Wisconsin hospital rates are among the highest in the nation.

An April 6 report by the Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy found that “Wisconsin hospitals now charge the fourth-highest prices in the nation — and the highest in the Midwest — at 321% of Medicare rates.” Also, ”69% of Wisconsin employers say rising health care costs have already forced them to cut hiring, slash investment, reduce compensation, or raise prices,” and “the same procedure can cost vastly different amounts across Wisconsin hospitals. Median negotiated rates for a diagnostic colonoscopy, for example, range from around $1,469 at Marshfield/Sanford to more than $4,600 at Froedtert Milwaukee.”

An August report by the Center concluded that Wisconsin hospital prices are about 26% higher than in Illinois. “Advocate Health operates hospitals on both sides of the Illinois-Wisconsin border. Within this single system…Wisconsin hospitals are paid about 23% more for inpatient services than the system’s Illinois hospitals.”

A 2024 RAND report ranked Wisconsin “fifth among states with the highest hospital prices.”

Studies have linked higher costs to hospital mergers, which have occurred as Wisconsin hospitals have been bought by out-of-state systems. State officials have not challenged those mergers.

Question to candidates: Other states have limited hospital charges to 200% of Medicare rates. Should Wisconsin join them?

Racial disparity in infant mortality

Although the America’s Health Report ranked Wisconsin 21st in health outcomes nationally, the Capi Times found that Wisconsin is “worst in the nation when it comes to the rate at which Black babies die before reaching age 1.”

“In 2024, the most recent year for which the Wisconsin Department of Health Services has publicized data, the state had an infant mortality rate of 12.5 deaths for every 1,000 live births among Black babies. For white babies, that rate was 4.8,” the Cap Times reported. “Between 2015 and 2024, nearly 850 Black babies died in Wisconsin before turning 1, according to state data. Over the first half of that decade, nearly 25% of the deaths of Black infants were caused by being born…too early and too small to survive.”

Question to candidates: How can that disparity be closed?

And, candidates for Wisconsin’s eight U.S. House seats, where do you stand on cuts coming in January in Wisconsin’s Medicaid program?

Steven Walters started covering the Capitol in 1988. Contact him at stevenscotwalters@gmail.com.

Vice President JD Vance in Milwaukee on July 8. Mayor Cavalier Johnson conferring with election administrator Paulina Gutierrez in November 2024. Photos by Jeramey Jannene.

When Mayor Cavalier Johnson goes to Washington, D.C., Wednesday, he is still hoping Vice President JD Vance will be there to meet him.

After all, Vance invited him in July.

“He’s welcome to come to Washington, D.C. I’ll sit down with him. I don’t have time to meet with him today because we have to get back to Washington. I’m happy to meet with him,” Vance said during an appearance at the 128th Air Refueling Wing in Milwaukee on July 8. The White House confirmed Vance’s July 8 Milwaukee appearance.

Now, as promised in July, Johnson is headed to Washington.

Given the Trump administration’s continued focus on alleged election fraud, Johnson invited the vice president to tour Milwaukee’s election operations and meet with staff after Vance’s July trip to Milwaukee was announced. Vance declined Johnson’s invitation that day and accused the mayor of “protesting too much,” but U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin later accepted Johnson’s offer and toured the city’s central count facility.

Johnson, meanwhile, hasn’t forgotten about Vance’s counteroffer.

The mayor sent a second letter to the vice president on Sept. 11, this time giving Vance a specific date.

“I write to you as a follow-up on your offer to meet in Washington, D.C., to discuss Milwaukee’s elections,” Johnson wrote. “I look forward to sharing specific information that verifies the integrity and accuracy of balloting in my city.”

Johnson told Vance he would be in Washington on Sept. 23 and could make himself available at any point that day.

But two days before the trip, Johnson still didn’t have a meeting to announce.

“I sent letters to the vice president — two, as a matter of fact — hopeful that he takes up the opportunity to meet with me,” Johnson told reporters Monday morning. “He said that he would when I’m in Washington, and so I’ll make the effort. So let’s see if he shows up.”

Johnson’s trip isn’t being made solely in pursuit of Vance.

The mayor is traveling to Washington for the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce‘s 36th annual Milwaukee Night in Washington, D.C. The event is scheduled for Wednesday evening at Union Station.

Johnson said he also plans to meet with members of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation about city priorities.

“And then, yeah, I’m hoping that the vice president takes up the opportunity to meet with me,” Johnson said Monday. “Like he said that he would since he didn’t come in to see our election operations when he was in Milwaukee.”

The back-and-forth began before Vance’s July 8 visit, when Johnson sent the vice president an open letter inviting him to meet with Milwaukee election officials.

Johnson has been sharply critical of the Trump administration’s renewed scrutiny of Milwaukee’s handling of the 2020 election, including FBI interviews with Milwaukee Police Department officers connected to election operations. He has said the city has repeatedly demonstrated that its elections are properly administered and has challenged administration officials to produce evidence supporting allegations of fraud.

Vance, speaking in Milwaukee in July, said he was willing to meet with Johnson in Washington but questioned why the mayor was raising the issue so forcefully.

Johnson responded by asking what evidence the administration had of voter fraud in Milwaukee and why federal investigators were interviewing current and former election officials.

The mayor subsequently used Baldwin’s July 31 tour of the Milwaukee Election Commission‘s central count facility to renew his invitation to Vance and other officials. Baldwin toured the storage and preparation areas, discussed the city’s ballot-handling procedures with election officials and praised the operation’s organization and oversight.

Milwaukee’s election operations found themselves in a media spotlight on Aug. 11 during the partisan primary when results were delayed because the wrong files were downloaded. Election Commission Director Paulina Gutiérrez said the delay, while unfortunate, was an example of the system’s safeguards working.

Dating back to May, Congressman Tom Tiffany, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, has also ignored an open letter from the mayor offering a tour of the city’s election operations.

Glass of milk.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says industry-funded research and promotion programs cannot fund initiatives focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving environmental sustainability.

The announcement comes after three Wisconsin dairy farmers filed a lawsuit in June challenging the federal dairy checkoff for using farmers’ money to fund so-called “Environmental, Social and Governance” initiatives. The farmers were represented by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, or WILL.

The dairy checkoff requires American farmers to pay a fee on the milk they produce to fund industry marketing and research efforts, including popular ads like the “Got Milk?” campaign.

Similar checkoff programs exist through USDA for other agricultural industries including beef, pork, eggs and potatoes.

In a letter to the National Dairy Research and Promotion Board, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said Thursday that the Trump administration is “aligning checkoff programs with its policy positions.”

“Effective immediately, all projects funded by the dairy checkoff program must focus on long-term value creation for future generations and not activities advancing Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) frameworks, net-zero or climate neutrality initiatives,” Rollins wrote.

Rollins issued the same directive in a memo to all federal checkoff programs.

USDA’s announcement comes at the same time they were due to respond to the WILL lawsuit, according to the group’s deputy counsel Rebecca Furdek.

The lawsuit alleged that the checkoff was forcing producers to fund sustainability initiatives they don’t support and that ultimately created a larger regulatory burden on their farms.

Furdek said Congress directed USDA to create the checkoff to fund “advertising and promotion of milk sales and consumption.”

“It seems like USDA wants to get back to that original purpose,” she said.

Since the agency’s announcement, Furdek said WILL has agreed to pause the lawsuit while USDA implements the new restrictions for checkoff spending.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Dairy Management Inc., the nonprofit managing the dairy checkoff program, said the organization will “fully support” USDA’s directive and ensure “all activities remain aligned with statutory authorities and administration policy.”

“We will work closely with USDA to review our projects and to take necessary steps to modify or terminate contracts and activities as needed while maintaining our commitment to our authorized promotion, research and consumer information functions,” the statement said.

George Crave, founder of Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese in Waterloo, is one of the Wisconsin representatives on the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board. He declined to comment on USDA’s announcement. But Crave said the checkoff program plays an important role not only in highlighting the nutritional benefits of dairy products, but also by explaining how farmers care for their cows and their crops to the non-farming public.

“Making sure the public understands what we’re doing, and we feel that that’s part of our promotion,” Crave said.

USDA restricts spending on dairy marketing after lawsuit from Wisconsin producers was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Jean Darnell, photo provided, in front of Central Library (photo by Laura Thompson).

Mayor Cavalier Johnson is going with an outside choice for the city’s next head librarian.

Johnson has nominated Jean Darnell, a longtime educator and school librarian who most recently led library services for the School District of Philadelphia, to serve as director of the Milwaukee Public Library.

If confirmed by the Common Council, Darnell would oversee Central Library, 12 branch libraries and hundreds of employees.

“I am enthusiastic about Jean Darnell leading the Milwaukee Public Library. She is a standout educator and an imaginative leader,” Johnson said in a statement announcing the nomination. “Her expertise includes bringing technology into library programming and literacy efforts. She is also an advocate for connecting people with libraries in equitable and inclusive ways.”

This selection differs notably from how Milwaukee found its last two library directors.

Darnell has never worked for MPL and her publicly available employment history does not identify any experience working for a large municipal public library.

Her predecessor, Joan Johnson, spent 14 years with MPL before becoming director in 2020, including more than a decade as deputy director. Johnson succeeded Paula Kiely, who had spent 25 years with the library system by the time she retired.

Darnell instead comes primarily from the education world.

She briefly served as the School District of Philadelphia’s director of library services in 2024 and 2025.

Before moving to Philadelphia, she spent three years as a middle school librarian for Pflugerville Independent School District in Texas.

From 2018 to 2020, she was the teaching and learning librarian and head librarian at St. Pius X High School, a private school in Houston. She earlier worked as a librarian for the Houston and Fort Bend school districts after beginning her career as an English teacher in the Houston area.

Darnell’s Philadelphia position represented a substantial jump in scale. The school district recruited her as its first library director in years and tasked her with attempting to rebuild school libraries across a system that had largely eliminated certified librarian positions over several decades. When she arrived in September 2024, Philadelphia had 216 schools but the equivalent of only two full-time certified school librarians, according to reporting by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Darnell was outspoken about the need for the district to reverse that decline.

“Don’t tell me what a library can’t do,” she told the Inquirer in 2024. “I’ll show you what a library can do.”

But her tenure was relatively short. The Inquirer reported in April 2025 that Darnell was on medical leave from her position and that she had previously said she had never been given a budget to carry out the library rebuilding effort. She was still publicly identified as Philadelphia’s director of library sciences as late as October 2025 and her LinkedIn profile lists the job as ending that month. But she gives a February 2026 end date in her online resume.

Darnell’s current LinkedIn profile also lists her as chief executive officer of Awaken Libraries, a business she founded in 2024, and as a freelance instructional designer.

Heavy Focus On Artificial Intelligence

One aspect of Darnell’s background appears particularly relevant to Johnson’s emphasis on technology: artificial intelligence has become a major part of her professional work.

An AI-focused resume posted on Darnell’s website describes her as a certified “Artificial Intelligence Policy and Prompt Engineer” with four years of experience developing and implementing generative AI policy and governance.

That resume largely omits her traditional library employment. It instead highlights work as an artificial intelligence policy consultant for the Texas Library Association, a Pulitzer Center teacher fellow focused on AI policy, an AI conference speaker and a panelist at SXSW EDU.

Darnell lists AI policy development, governance, architecture, ethics and legal policy among her skills. She also lists a 2024 Google AI certification and a 2023 course titled “Ethics in the Age of Generative AI.”

Her interest predates the current generative-AI boom’s arrival in many workplaces. In a 2023 essay for PBS NewsHour Classroom, Darnell tested ChatGPT’s handling of Black history and criticized omissions and biases in its response, arguing that educators needed to scrutinize AI-generated information rather than accept it at face value.

Darnell has also served on the advisory board for the FLARE AI project, where her work is described as focusing on responsible technology use and ethical decision-making involving artificial intelligence in school libraries.

Her own Awaken Librarian blog mixes library advocacy with technology issues. After taking the Philadelphia job in 2024, Darnell wrote that she planned to return to what she called her “AI adventures” while continuing to speak at education conferences.

Darnell earned a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University in 2001 and a master’s degree in information science from the University of Houston-Clear Lake in 2014. She became a certified school librarian after beginning her career as an English teacher.

Johnson’s announcement did not identify any of Darnell’s previous employers, saying only that her career “has taken her to positions in the southern and eastern parts of the country.”

Darnell would succeed Joan Johnson, who retired this summer after 19 years with MPL and more than five years as its director.

She would inherit a library system with an uncertain future. The city has received accolades for its mixed-use redevelopment program that puts libraries on the first floor of apartment buildings and recently added more Sunday hours, over the mayor’s veto, but the council and mayor must now find a way to fund the system given the city’s larger fiscal constraints.

Darnell’s appointment is subject to council approval.

MPL has a $33.7 million budget in 2026. Joan Johnson was budgeted to be paid $156,765.

Twisted Fisherman’s docks. Photo by Cari Taylor-Carlson.

We are out of tickets to these events

Urban Milwaukee has a limited number of free tickets for members to Menomonee Valley Partners’ Happy Hour Boat Cruises on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026.

Enjoy a relaxing and casual 45-minute happy hour float along the Menomonee River and Menomonee Canal and hear about some of the Menomonee Valley’s history and upcoming developments. The boat departs from the Twisted Fisherman Crab Shack, 1200 W. Canal St. Cruises leave the dock at 4 p.m., 5 p.m., and 6 p.m. sharp. Please arrive at least 15 minutes before your cruise sets sail. You will need time to check in and grab your drink at the Twisted Fisherman bar before boarding. The boat ticket includes one drink ticket for a tap beer or rail mixer from Twisted Fisherman (redeem before your tour and take your drink on board or redeem afterwards).

A very limited number of free tickets are also available for the 2026 Valley Week – History Walk with Adam Carr on Thursday, Sept. 24 at 7:30 a.m. Participants will meet at the Menomonee Valley Urban Ecology Center, then head out for an approximately 1.5-mile guided walk through Three Bridges Park’s trails and hills. The walk will conclude over breakfast at Orenda Cafe, a neighborhood gem in Silver City. Ticket price includes coffee and your choice of a delicious entree from their menu.

• Members need to visit the product page to reserve a discount code, which you will use with Menomonee Valley Partners to reserve your free ticket(s) to the Happy Hour Boat Cruise, while supplies last.
• Members need to visit the product page to reserve a discount code, which you will use with Menomonee Valley Partners to reserve your free ticket(s) to the 2026 Valley Week – History Walk with Adam Carr, while supplies last. We are out of tickets to the History Walk.

Members must be logged in to claim the discount code. Once you reserve your discount code, you will receive an email within 24 hours with instructions on how to redeem the code for free ticket(s) to select the happy hour cruise time you want to attend.

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Grassroots Salad Company N. Water St. entrance. Photo taken by Lauren Hafeman on Sept. 21, 2026.

Grassroots Salad Company, a fast-casual salad and wrap shop in Chase Tower, 607 N. Water St., has shuttered.

Notices posted on both the restaurant’s N. Water Street entrance and Chase Tower lobby entrance doors read, “After consultation with legal counsel, your lease is currently in default. You have 30 days to reclaim your property,” and are signed by “Management.”

“Closed” signs are posted near the notices.

Grassroots Salad Company previously listed owners Peter and Lou Liapis, as well as the building’s listed property manager, did not respond to outreach for comment.

An auction listing for the restaurant’s dining room and kitchen equipment lists over 50 items for bidding, including tables, chairs, refrigerators, freezers and “Grassroots Salad Company Signage.” Potential bidders are invited to inspect items at the restaurant on Sept. 24 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Grassroots Salad Company expanded to Chase Tower in 2018, taking over the former Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop space.

Chase Tower was acquired in 2021 for $34.25 million by an affiliate of Group RMC. A substantial renovation of the tower was completed in 2024.

Dan Wroblewski, Matt Fahey, and Jenna Maguire of Colliers serve as the leasing agents for the property.

Court records show no eviction filing. City records do not show an active license for the business.

Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Republican candidate for governor, speaks to reporters about his “Taxpayer Accountability Plan” on Sept. 18, 2026 in Eau Claire, Wis. Rich Kremer/WPR

Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany said Friday that if he’s elected governor, he’ll initiate fraud investigations similar to those launched by the federal government.

Those investigations have been top priorities of President Donald Trump’s administration, though during a press conference at the Eau Claire County Republican Party headquarters Friday, Tiffany didn’t mention Trump by name.

He promised to create a “Taxpayer Accountability Plan,” which he said would include hiring more auditors for state government.

“We’re going to find the waste. We’re going to eliminate the duplication. And we’re going to demand results for every tax dollar that goes to Madison,” Tiffany said.

Tiffany cited this year’s financial collapse of northeast Wisconsin anti-poverty nonprofit Newcap as an example of why the state needs stronger oversight. The Republican-controlled state Legislative Audit Committee ordered an audit of Newcap and related entities.

The nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau is charged with auditing state government annually. Tiffany noted that the agency would have received an additional four auditor positions in the most recent state budget, but they were vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Evers’ veto message said he objected because the bureau has sufficient funding and positions to continue statutorily required audits and discretionary audits directed by the Wisconsin Legislature.

Republicans in Wisconsin have been following Trump’s lead in calling for rooting out potential government waste or abuse. After Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, began slashing federal agency budgets and initiating mass layoffs, GOP legislators in Wisconsin launched the Committee on Government Operations, Accountability and Transparency, or GOAT. Its first hearing in March 2025 focused on state employees working from home since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tiffany accused his Democratic challenger, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, of overseeing property tax increases in all but one year of his tenure, doubling the county’s sales tax and needing a “massive bailout” from state taxpayers. He was referring to a 2023 deal between Republicans and Democrats to boost state shared revenue payments going to all local governments in Wisconsin, which allowed the City of Milwaukee to enact a 2 percent sales tax and the county to raise its sales tax by 0.4 percent.

A statement from a Crowley campaign spokesperson said he will cut taxes “by closing loopholes for billionaires and corporations,” and “clean up corruption” to restore trust in government.

“MAGA Congressman Tom Tiffany will be Wisconsin’s Donald Trump, which means selling out Wisconsinites to the highest bidder, raising gas and grocery costs, and handing out massive tax breaks to billionaires like he’s done his entire career,” the statement said.

Crowley’s campaign also promised Crowley would end Wisconsin’s minimum markup law on products like gasoline, which Tiffany also called for on Friday.

Tiffany promises more state agency audits if elected governor was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

UWM. Photo by Dave Reid.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has its highest enrollment in 17 years, with first year student enrollment up nearly 1 percent and transfer enrollment up 4.5 percent.

As of Sept. 8, overall enrollment at UWM is at 22,662 students.

Chancellor Thomas Gibson credits the increase to the university’s student body to partnerships with Milwaukee Area Technical College and Milwaukee Public Schools and dual enrollment, a program that allows high school students to get college credits.

Gibson says UWM is also unique in that it offers students a chance to attend an affordable university that is an R1 research campus.

“We’re seeing more and more students that are coming to UWM because of this opportunity and the experiential learning opportunities we afford,” Gibson said.

This enrollment increase at UWM has occurred despite the university losing 20 percent of its international student body, who were mostly graduate students, Gibson said.

According to the university’s website, UWM has 1,020 international students from 83 countries.

“We are continuing to work to sustain and grow that population,” Gibson said. “We’re not giving up on the hope that the university continues to be a global university.”

Overall enrollment across the Universities of Wisconsin declined for the first time in five years this fall, largely because of the loss of international students.

The UW system reported 163,260 students this fall, a decline of 1,732 students from fall 2025.

This fall, the state is seeing 1,100 fewer students from other countries.

System interim president Renee Wachter said that R1 universities like UWM and UW-Madison are seeing the greatest challenges from the decline in international enrollment.

UW-Madison’s current enrollment is 50,500, which is 981 students fewer than last year.

UW-Madison would not release many how many international students they have this year.

Wachter confirmed graduate programs are seeing the largest decrease in enrollment.

“We’re certainly seeing it in the graduate space, so students that would be seeking that extra degree, that PhD or graduate level degree,” Wacheter said. “Although there’s been some decline in the undergraduate population as well.”

UW-Milwaukee sees highest enrollment in nearly 2 decades despite 20 percent drop in international students was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

School classroom. (Pixabay License).

The Universities of Wisconsin may permanently eliminate college entrance exams scores as a required part of the first year student admission processes.

Since 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began, the UW system has waived a requirement that students submit either SAT and ACT scores at all 13 UW campuses. Before the waiver, the scores had been a requirement for college applications since 1989 .

On Thursday, the UW Board of Regents Education Committee discussed a plan to make the test-optional approach permanent. The policy change will be taken up for a final vote at a future Regents meeting.

“This proposed change in policy empowers students who pursue the traditional admission pathway to a UW institution to make the best decision for themselves based on their own unique experiences, educational journeys and academic goals,” said Julie Amon, associate vice president for enrollment and student success.

In April, the UW Board of Regents approved an extension of the test score waiver for the high school class of 2027.

UW Madison’s Student Success Through Applied Research lab did research comparing UW student success in relation to ACT and SAT test scores.

SSTAR lab research from 2024 found that first-year students’ GPAs remained consistent from 2018. This included periods before and after test scores were required.

They also found test scores were a worse predictor of college completion than high school grade point averages. Course rigor, leadership and extracurriculars all seemed to be better indicators of future academic success in college, the research found.

Since 2024, the research has expanded to see how test scores impacted first-year GPAs, first to second year retention, and four-year completion rates. They found academic performances remained steady or improved since 2020. The research found there wasn’t a correlation between test scores and retention.

The state’s Direct Admit Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Guarantee programs also don’t include standardized testing scores in their admission criteria, Amon said. The programs give early admission to some UW schools for qualified high school juniors. She said about 90 percent of Wisconsin high school juniors attend a high school that participates in the Direct Admit Wisconsin.

Amon said over 2,000 institutions nationally remain test optional or test blind. She said making the waiver permanent will help UW schools compete against other universities regionally and nationally for enrollment.

But some highly selective schools have started requiring students to submit their SAT and ACT scores once again.

“We are living in a context where pretty much everything is test optional,” she said. “The ones that you have seen swing back swing back in the news recently are largely the Ivy League.”

UW Education Committee proposes to permanently waive SAT and ACT test score requirements was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Donald Trump. Photo from the White House.

President Donald Trump, despite cratering poll numbers that have Republicans fearing a looming November disaster, wants to make the midterms all about himself.

“I’m asking you to pretend that I’m on the ballot,” he said to a fired-up crowd of adoring MAGA loyalists at the recent GOP midterm convention in Dallas.

In Wisconsin, Trump and his policies really are on the ballot in the person of Tom Tiffany, the Republican candidate for governor. Tiffany is a true-blue Trumper, a Congressman who has voted with Trump 100% of the time. He has never seen a Trump policy or program he wouldn’t support, no matter how unpopular or how damaging to Wisconsin.

“Pretend Trump is on the ballot” should be Wisconsin Democrats’ campaign theme.

Affordability is the top issue, and Tiffany has voted for the entire Trump agenda, raising the cost of everything from gasoline and groceries to utilities and healthcare.

Tariffs? Tiffany’s on board. He voted to protect Trump’s illegal tariffs seven times.

Gasoline prices?  Tiffany cast the deciding vote to defeat a House resolution to end the Iran war.  Since the war began, Wisconsin drivers have paid more than $1 billion in additional costs for gasoline.

Health care? Tiffany’s vote to gut the Affordable Care Act and end subsidies raised premiums and forced 22,000 Wisconsinites to drop their coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.  Food aid? Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which Tiffany supported, removed tens of thousands of Wisconsin people from the SNAP program.

The list goes on and on and on. Tiffany voted against the release of the Epstein files, which are loaded with Trump references. He is an election denier who supported overturning the 2020 presidential election and still won’t admit that Joe Biden won. He introduced a bill to ban abortions nationwide after six weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions.

Trump, of course, has endorsed him, but has not campaigned for him yet. Tiffany did join him at a Chippewa Falls farm roundtable in June but has been coy about whether the president will actively campaign for him. Reading between the lines, it sounds like he hopes Trump will be “too busy.” He seems to be trying to get at least a sliver of daylight between himself and Trump, such as saying he doesn’t agree with changing the name of Lake Ontario.

Tiffany is not a Trump clone in terms of personality, only on policy.  He doesn’t spout racist, sexist, profane or demeaning insults. He leaves that to another MAGA Congressman from Wisconsin, Derrick Van Orden.

Van Orden, an ex-Navy SEAL, swears like a sailor. He cursed out a group of young Senate pages who were trying to take photos of the Capitol Rotunda ceiling, heckled Biden during his State of the Union speech, yelled at farmers who were meeting with him in his DC office, got into an altercation with a protestor at the GOP national convention in Milwaukee, and more.  All in a day’s work.

In a tight race with Democrat Rebecca Cooke in his western Wisconsin district, he is running multiple deepfake social media posts putting false, inflammatory statements in Cooke’s mouth, including one where she is helping a man wearing an Illegal Alien T-shirt to shred documents, while they speak in Spanish. Van Orden thumbs his nose at a state law requiring such ads to make it clear they are generated by artificial intelligence.

While others try to get some distance, Van Orden is embracing Trump. He spoke at Trump’s mid-term convention and says those who are shying away from Trump are disloyal.

Van Orden is a 100% Trump voter in the House of Representatives. So were all the other Wisconsin Republicans in the House last year. But the rest are in mostly safe seats, while his district is up for grabs.

And Tiffany, a 100% Trump loyalist, is running statewide, where 60% of voters have an unfavorable opinion of Trump according to the latest Marquette poll. He would have no trouble keeping his House seat in his heavily GOP district, but selling Trumpism statewide should be a real challenge.

If Wisconsin voters realize Trump really is on the ballot, that could be fatal for his alter ago, Tom Tiffany.

Bill Christofferson, a recovered journalist, is a former longtime Wisconsin political consultant and strategist, now retired. He lives in Milwaukee.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Public Domain).

Wisconsin residents could find themselves on a new federal law enforcement list simply for registering to vote.

Under President Donald Trump, the federal government has attempted to assemble a centralized database of voter information. Since he lost the 2020 presidential election, the president has repeatedly claimed the election was stolen from him. In the wake of the election, his campaign filed legal challenges against election results across the country, including in Wisconsin, which he lost.

After he retook office in 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) launched an effort to collect complete, unredacted copies of states’ voter registration records. In Wisconsin, state law prohibited the release of the full dataset the DOJ requested, and when the Wisconsin Election Commission (WEC) refused the request, the DOJ sued. A federal judge dismissed the suit in May.

Now, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is trying a different tack, but there is reason to believe the new strategy would violate state and federal privacy laws.

DHS recently published procurement documents outlining a project capable of capturing all publicly available voter registrations in all 50 states. The federal agency is looking for a contractor who can collect the registrations on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and more specifically, the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit.

FedScoop, a publication covering government tech, reported the federal procurement documents earlier this month, which state the voter data would be used for “fraud detection” efforts. The program is connected to DHS efforts.

The president has repeatedly claimed the 2020 election was stolen from him, and that one of the reasons he lost was because of illegal voting by non-citizens. He has previously made these claims without evidence. Now DHS is “laser focused” on finding and prosecuting people who have illegally voted, according to a spokesperson for the agency.

“While ICE Homeland Security Investigations is not able to comment on any active investigations, HSI is actively rooting out and investigating election fraud wherever it can be found,” the DHS spokesperson said. “We have repeatedly demonstrated that illegal aliens can and do vote in our elections. Under President Trump, HSI is committed to restoring integrity to our election systems and ensuring that American citizens and only American citizens are electing American leaders.”

In April 2025, DHS “overhauled” a program that allows states and localities to verify the immigration status and U.S. citizenship of an individual. Out of the 60 million voter verification queries since then, only 24,000 cases, equivalent to 0.04% of the registrations searched, have been identified as “potential non-U.S. citizens on voter rolls,” according to DHS.

With the new voter registration project, ICE is seeking a contractor who can acquire and deliver publicly available voter registrations and voting histories from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. ICE is telling prospective contractors they should not automatically provide the agency with party affiliations unless the contracting officer formally requests them in writing.

Based on the contracting documents, ICE is seeking voter registrations that are publicly available in Wisconsin through the Wisconsin Election Commission (WEC), according to Emilee Miklas, WEC communications director. A complete voter roll can be purchased from WEC for $12,500. The commission also processes custom requests through the Badger Voters portal.

But even if the records themselves are publicly accessible, that doesn’t mean what the federal government has in mind is legal per se.

Rachel Snyder, an attorney with Law Forward, told Urban Milwaukee the procurement documents describe a project that would appear to violate Wisconsin’s data privacy laws. Earlier this year, Law Forward joined the lawsuit the DOJ brought against WEC, arguing on the said of the election commission and on behalf of Wisconsin voters. Snyder pointed pointed to the state’s laws cover “matching programs,” or how individual, personally identifiable information collected by the government can be used.

State law requires the government give notice to citizens when personally identifiable information is going to be used to match their identity to information in another database. “And to my knowledge, there’s no agreements here among the various government agencies that would comply with Wisconsin’s requirements,” Snyder said.

There’s also the federal Privacy Act of 1974, governing how agencies collect and use personal information from the public. Again, federal agencies are required to publish an official notice explaining what personal information they are collecting and how they are using it.

The ICE voter registration project is just one angle the federal government is taking to create a nationwide database of voter information. Common Cause, a nonpartisan, pro-democracy advocacy organization, is suing the DOJ over attempts to create a national voter database.

“These repeated efforts to obtain and consolidate voter information do appear to be an attempt to interfere with elections, especially as we approach the midterm elections this fall, and that is something clearly barred by the Constitution, and something that no American should be willing to let happen,” Snyder said.

Under the Trump administration, the U.S. Census Bureau analyzed non-citizen voting in the 2020 election the president lost. More than 160 million voters cast ballots in the election. The census bureau analyzed 128 million voter records and only found 24,000 cases where it could report “with high confidence” that a voter record was linked to a person who did not have citizenship. In Wisconsin, the bureau found 500 instances of a voter record tied to a non-citizen voter. Trump lost Wisconsin in 2020 by more than 20,000 votes.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson fills a pothole in the Johnson’s Woods neighborhood. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Everyone wants to talk to Mayor Cavalier Johnson about roads.

Heavy April rains and a challenging freeze-thaw cycle created a record number of potholes, straining the city’s aging street network.

As Johnson made the rounds at community events, knocked on doors or marched in parades, residents let him know.

“That’s one of the consistent things I heard, no matter where I went in Milwaukee: roads, roads, roads, roads, roads,” Johnson said in previewing his 2027 budget with Urban Milwaukee.

And he’s listening.

“We’re going to make a pretty significant investment in roads,” said Johnson.

Johnson’s proposed budget, which he will unveil Sept. 22, includes a record amount of local funding to address the issue.

The capital budget will include $19.2 million for local road construction, plus additional funding to buy more equipment to improve the city’s pothole-filling operation. The total eclipses the 2025 high of $18 million, when the council overrode two mayoral vetoes to add $6 million primarily via borrowing. The city also receives millions annually from the state and federal government to repave arterial streets and highways, like National Avenue.

A total of $12 million would be allocated to the Department of Public Works high-impact paving program, which replaces the top layer of asphalt to extend the life of a street by a decade or more. At a cost of $175,000 per lane mile, and with four lane miles in a standard street (two parking lanes and two driving lanes), DPW could repave 17 miles of side streets using the asphalt overlay technique in 2027.

The 2027 budget would also include $7.2 million for local street reconstruction. That’s down from $8.7 million in 2026, but still above the decade average. Full reconstruction of local streets costs about $1 million a lane mile.

According to DPW’s 2026 budget presentation, the city is responsible for 4,642 lane miles of streets. More than 75% are local streets, not generally eligible for state or federal reconstruction funding.

A 2022 analysis found that a quarter of all roads were in “poor” condition. The city has struggled for years to find a sustainable way to address the issue.

The latest funding surge would be sustainable, but it would come at a cost for residents and visitors who park on the city’s streets.

The cost of overnight parking permits, required to leave a vehicle on a city street overnight, would double from $55 a year to $110.

The cost of all parking citations would also increase by $10.

Downtown parking meters would increase from a minimum of $2.25 per hour to $3.

A budget office analysis estimates that the three changes would yield $6 million a year for the high-impact paving program, enough to rebuild 34 lane miles.

It would also, said budget director Nik Kovac, allow the city to continue to borrow for other capital needs.

Pothole process improvements

“We’ll also make investments in some equipment to maintain roads,” said Johnson.

Urban Milwaukee broke the news in February that the Milwaukee Brewers would partner with the city to purchase an asphalt hot box for $27,500. The equipment allows the city to store and reclaim otherwise wasted hot asphalt, which lasts longer when it is used to patch potholes.

The city, said Johnson, would purchase an additional box, bringing its total to three.

The city would also purchase another pothole patching vehicle, which requires only a single operator.

“Those can fill, it’s my understanding, 1,800 potholes a year,” said Johnson. The city is on track, by the end of August, to have filled more than 16,000 potholes.

After the purchase, the city would have five of the vehicles in its fleet. Each machine costs about $300,000.

“This is a big concern that folks have,” said Johnson of the thousands of outstanding pothole reports. “I want to listen to where the electorate is on this and where the voters are, where the citizens are and make that investment.”

After Johnson presents his budget on Sept. 22, the Common Council will spend the next month reviewing it and potential amendments. The full council will adopt the budget in November.

Look for coverage on the full proposal on Tuesday.

UPDATE: An earlier version of the article had the wrong amount for the parking citation increase.

1. Award-Winning Legend Larry’s Comes to Milwaukee

From Sheboygan corner bar to nationally recognized chicken wings.

Sep 17th, 2026 by Michael Horne

2. New Owner Gives Uncle Buck’s Bar A Fresh Start

From revamped menus to late-night hours, Michelle Le is reshaping the downtown bar and restaurant.

Sep 13th, 2026 by Lauren Hafeman

3. Tom Tiffany Swims From Sinking Plane

U.S. Rep. was in private plane that lost power near Wausau.

Sep 13th, 2026 by Jeramey Jannene

4. Brostoff Reverses Tavern Suspension for Axel’s

East Side bar’s 20-day suspension reversed, bar gets fourth warning letter in five years.

Feb 6th, 2024 by Sophie Bolich

5. Transportation: See The Drastic MCTS Redesign Concepts

Maps highlight tradeoff between geographic coverage or ridership.

Sep 16th, 2026 by Graham Kilmer

6. New Pro Football Team Planned for Milwaukee

Unnamed team will join Continental Football League, play summer schedule.

Sep 16th, 2026 by Lauren Hafeman

7. Five Must-See Buildings In Doors Open Milwaukee

Annual event offers a dizzying array of 180 options.

Sep 17th, 2026 by Jeramey Jannene

8. New Store Will Replace Family Dollar on 27th Street

Growing national chain will replace store subject to legal battle.

Sep 17th, 2026 by Jeramey Jannene

9. Credit Card Payments at Milwaukee Parking Meters to Stop Oct. 1

The company that supports the meters’ software is closing. Drivers can still pay with coins or through smartphone app.

Sep 18th, 2026 by Jeramey Jannene

10. Milwaukee May Start Paying Drivers For Pothole Damage

Council sending an expensive message about its frustration with potholes.

Sep 15th, 2026 by Jeramey Jannene

Press Releases

Most popular press releases in the past week.

1. Packers Announce Roster Moves

 

Sep 14th, 2026 by Green Bay Packers

2. Milwaukee Metro Fire Rescue Announces Appointment of Tim Sendelbach as Fire Chief

Appointment supports merger implementation and regional emergency response efforts

Sep 14th, 2026 by City of West Allis

3. Wisconsin’s Richest Person Maxes Out to Maga Billionaire Trained Jim Croft

 

Aug 19th, 2026 by A Better Wisconsin Together

4. David Crowley Statement on Congressman Tiffany’s Emergency Landing

 

Sep 13th, 2026 by David Crowley

5. Joanna Fraczek Announces Candidacy for Milwaukee County Circuit Court Branch 1 in 2027 Judicial Race

 

Sep 7th, 2026 by Joanna Fraczek

6. Tiffany Campaign: Milwaukee County Resident of 46 Years Slams David Crowley’s Record as Milwaukee County Executive: “David Crowley’s Got to Go”

 

Sep 15th, 2026 by Tom Tiffany

7. Tiffany Recounts Emergency Plane Landing in Lake Wausau, Thanks First Responders

 

Sep 13th, 2026 by Tom Tiffany

8. Rep. Fitzgerald Votes to Sanction Russia and Iran and to Lower Costs Imposed by Left-Wing Climate Mandates

 

Sep 17th, 2026 by U.S. Rep. Scott Fitzgerald

9. Tiffany Campaign Provides Update Following Emergency Plane Landing

 

Sep 13th, 2026 by Tom Tiffany

10. Landmark Healthcare Facilities Announces New President and COO

Ryan Marks Completes Formation of New Leadership Team

Sep 15th, 2026 by Landmark Healthcare Facilities

The Couture and US Bank Center. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

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‘Shorewood Spitter’ Sees Law License Suspended [Reporting Update]

Attorney Stephanie Rapkin, who became widely known after spitting in the face of a Black teenager during a 2020 racial justice protest in Shorewood, has had her law license suspended for one year.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court imposed the suspension Thursday, finding Rapkin committed six counts of professional misconduct stemming from both her handling of an estate and the protest incident. The suspension took effect Sept. 17.

Rapkin, who was admitted to practice law in Wisconsin in 1982 and previously worked in estate planning and probate, did not answer the Office of Lawyer Regulation‘s disciplinary complaint or appear at a hearing on a motion for default judgment. She instead told OLR attorneys that she was retired, had stopped paying bar dues and believed the agency no longer had jurisdiction over her. The Supreme Court said that assertion was incorrect.

Four of the misconduct counts involved Rapkin’s handling of an estate and trust. The court found she charged thousands of dollars without a valid written fee agreement, billed attorney rates for non-legal work, failed to keep the trustee informed and allowed the estate to remain open for two years before a probate judge removed her as personal representative. She was later ordered to repay nearly $19,000 in improper fees.

The remaining two counts stemmed from Rapkin’s 2023 disorderly conduct conviction for spitting in the face of then-17-year-old Eric Lucas during a June 6, 2020 racial justice march in Shorewood.

The encounter spawned years of additional criminal and civil litigation.

The following day, protesters gathered outside Rapkin’s Shorewood home, where Rapkin was accused of pushing a protester. Shorewood and Whitefish Bay police officers subsequently entered her home without a warrant and arrested her. Rapkin was charged with felony battery to a law enforcement officer after authorities said she kneed an officer in the groin during the arrest. That charge was dismissed in November 2023.

Rapkin separately sued the villages of Shorewood and Whitefish Bay and several officers in federal court, alleging the warrantless entry violated her Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. Her lawsuit alleged officers used a purported welfare check as a pretext to enter the house and arrest her.

The case was settled in 2024 for $760,000. Shorewood officials said the settlement, paid by the village’s insurer, was not an admission of wrongdoing and was intended to avoid the cost and risk of taking the federal case to trial.

Lucas also sued Rapkin over the spitting incident. A civil jury in 2024 found in Lucas’ favor on claims of assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The parties subsequently reached a confidential settlement.

In Thursday’s disciplinary ruling, the Supreme Court said Rapkin’s criminal conduct “seriously adversely reflects on her fitness to practice law” and called the spitting incident “an embarrassment to the bar.”

The court said aggravating factors included Rapkin’s improper billing, pattern of neglect, multiple offenses, failure to acknowledge wrongdoing and decades of experience practicing law. The court identified her lack of any prior disciplinary record as the only mitigating factor.

Rapkin must also pay $3,164.77 in costs associated with the disciplinary case.

– Jeramey Jannene, September 17 5:04 pm

Free Tattoo Pop-up to Celebrate a New Milwaukee ‘Mayor’ [Short Take]

Free tattoos are generally not recommended, but these are legitimate.

On Saturday, Sept. 19, Walker’s Point Tattoo is teaming up with Saz’s State House for a free tattoo pop-up to celebrate Miller High Life’s new “mayor” of Milwaukee’s “Champagne of Beers” region.

The pop-up starts at 2 p.m. at Saz’s State House, 5539 W. State St.. There are limited spots, and registration is required.

The pop-up offers four tattoo choices. All are drawn in a noncolored, sketch style, and three pay homage to Miller High Life iconography.

One option depicts the famous Miller High Life “Girl in the Moon” in her whimsical, Edwardian showgirl costume and wide-brimmed hat, sitting on a crescent moon with her hand outstretched holding a beer.

A second option features a combination of two of Miller’s most recognizable brand images: its sweeping, calligraphic logomark “M” placed within High Life’s vintage bow-tie-shaped banner.

A third option is a simple rendering of a High Life bottle, and the fourth is a retro, anthropomorphic beer can complete with a cheesy grin, snapping fingers and oversized boots.

In June 2021, the Milwaukee Common Council unanimously passed a resolution designating a portion of W. State St. located within the Miller Brewing campus as Milwaukee’s “Champagne of Beers” region.

Since July, Miller High Life has been searching for an honorary mayor of the region.

After receiving more than 300 applications, Miller High Life will reveal and “inaugurate” the winner on Saturday, Sept. 19, at the Miller Visitor Center at 2 p.m.

It is unclear why the “inauguration” and celebratory tattoo-pop up are scheduled for the same date and time.

– Lauren Hafeman, September 16 3:41 pm

New MMSD Camera Lets Public Watch McCarty Park Trash Rack in Real Time [Short Take]

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District has added a new online camera giving the public a look at conditions at a trash rack in McCarty Park.

The camera monitors the trash rack on Honey Creek and is paired with data showing water depth in the culvert. Images and water-level readings are collected by the U.S. Geological Survey.

MMSD says the information is updated hourly during low-flow conditions and more frequently when water is flowing rapidly through the culvert.

The agency also added a tool allowing users to report maintenance concerns directly to MMSD’s maintenance team.

The trash rack is designed to catch debris before it enters the culvert, which carries the creek underground for 2.5 miles. The new online page allows residents to view the most recent image and water-depth reading, while the USGS website provides a timeline of past images and measurements.

During the August 2025 1,000-year storm a substantial amount of debris accumulated on the racks, blocking water from flowing into the culvert and contributing to nearby flooding.

MMSD said the feature was added in response to public requests for greater access to information about the site.

The rack is located just south of W. Arthur Avenue between S. 81st and S. 82nd streets.

– Jeramey Jannene, September 15 4:19 pm

Smithsonian Chief Lonnie Bunch Postpones Milwaukee Appearance [Short Take]

Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch has canceled his scheduled Wednesday appearance in Milwaukee after being called back to Washington, D.C.

Bunch, who announced Sept. 8 that he will step down as head of the Smithsonian at the end of the year, was scheduled to speak Sept. 16 at the Milwaukee Art Museum as part of the Bronzeville Center for the Arts speaker series, From the Ground Up.

“Due to an emergency request for the Secretary to be present in Washington DC on September 16, regrettably, Secretary Bunch will not be able to attend the special events planned for tomorrow night in Milwaukee,” BCA said Tuesday.

The organization said there will be no program Wednesday at the art museum and that it is already working with Bunch’s office to reschedule the visit.

Bunch was slated to appear in conversation with BCA Executive Director Ra Joy about building sustainable cultural institutions and the role museums play in shaping the nation’s cultural narrative.

Bunch was the founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in 2016.

BCA had selected Bunch as the inaugural speaker in its series as it works toward creating its own Black arts and culture museum.

A new date has not yet been announced.

– Jeramey Jannene, September 15 4:09 pm

Sidestepping HACM Nomination A Sliding Doors Moment For Ramos [Short Take]

Ramona Ramos was supposed to be a key voice in righting the ship at the Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee and offer a resident’s perspective.

She never started, but less than two years later she’s the deputy director of an entirely different city department.

Ramos was nominated by Mayor Cavalier Johnson to serve on the unpaid board. She resided in a scattered-site HACM property on the south side.

But she withdrew shortly after her nomination was made public in February 2025 and cited news reports that cited her home, concerns about the role’s impact on her new job at Alverno College and the politics around the position. Common Ground Southeastern Wisconsin opposed her nomination on the basis that the coalition wanted a resident of one of the troubled high-rise buildings.

By March 2025, Ramos was working for the city as an equal rights complaints liaison. By February 2026, she was working as compliance manager for the Department of Compliance and Community Engagement (DCE), the former Office of Equity and Inclusion.

A new council file confirms she is now the deputy director of DCE.

Not a bad turn of events for giving up an unpaid gig.

– Jeramey Jannene, September 14 1:42 pm

More: See our February 2025 reporting

Evers Endorses Communities Dropping Flock [Reporting Update]

During an appearance at UW-Milwaukee Monday morning, Governor Tony Evers endorsed the rash of more than 30 Wisconsin communities that have moved to drop Flock Safety‘s camera system.

“I think what they’re doing is the right thing,” said the governor. “It’s either using the process differently or getting rid of it, and getting rid of it is a rational assumption that they should make.”

UW-Milwaukee announced it would eliminate its Flock cameras last week.

Evers said Flock was a “shiny” technology that drew people in, but iwasn’t proving to be what was expected.

– Jeramey Jannene, September 14 11:50 am

More: See our coverage from Friday

Cocina Filipina Fare. Photo taken Aug. 27, 2026 by Cari Taylor-Carlson.

I like to be surprised when I visit a newly opened restaurant. But Cocina Filipina Fare went beyond even that. The restaurant hit it out of the park with their Filipino-inspired dishes.

The restaurant had a modest beginning when three years ago when the owners began with a food truck. In 2026, they took their plates and bowls and moved into a building on W. Vliet Street that most-recently housed Lisa Kaye Bistro. The restaurant has that corner bar charm familiar to Milwaukeans and that includes brick walls, hardwood floors, high ceilings, and plant-filled windows. There is a back room, formerly an apartment, that adds a few more tables to the small front bar area. Because the owners, Lupe Moreno and Edu Aragon Guzman are Mexican, they named their restaurant Cocina, kitchen in Spanish, to represent their heritage, and Filipina to honor their cuisine.

My companions and I began our meal with an ube horchata, a mildly sweet and very purple drink made with purple sweet potatoes. It was lighter than the familiar Mexican horchata and proved to be a good match to our spicy dishes, the hot piggy, the vegan sweet chili tofu, and the sweet chili chicky.

The hot piggy, a combination of slow-cooked marinated pork along with garlic rice, was topped with pickled red onions and scallions. At my companion’s request, the hot part of the piggy, a sriracha aioli, was served on the side. Its spicy heat did not overwhelm the juicy pork, but instead highlighted the flavors of the meat and, together with the rice, created a delicious bouquet of Filipino flavors. Like everything we ordered, there were edible flowers on the plate, a lovely and classy addition to the presentation of the meal.

Both the tofu and the chicken had a generous amount of spicy sweet chili sauce that animated every bite, while the purple ube horchata cooled things down. The chef sautéed small pieces of dark meat for the chicken dish, which is always a plus, to add lots of good chicken flavor. Our server brought a special sauce to the table that was simply labeled banana sauce. We ate it on everything as it surprisingly added another layer of flavor that played well with the pork, the chicken, and the tofu.

At our server’s suggestion, we started with a five-pack of lumpia, a Filipino egg roll filled with minced pork, served with a spicy red sauce. They were golden, deep-fried, and had a crunchy, crepe-like skin. We ended our meal with two desserts: churros coated with cinnamon sugar that were deep-fried and addictive, and turon, deep-fried spring rolls filled with plantain and chocolate chips.

When I came back for another meal, my companions split a mixy mix, and I ordered the teriyaki chicken, two more meals filled with more subtle flavors that spoke to the best of Filipino cuisine. The chicken, a mix of dark and white meat, was grilled and lightly coated with a mild sauce that adhered to every bite. The mix was half chicken and half pork, served with the spicy sriracha aioli on the side. There was enough meat in the bowl for two lunches and a doggie bag for a snack later.

You could also order a cucumber salad or a corn dog, but for now, the aforementioned menu choices that my companions and I enjoyed are the main dishes on the currently limited menu. More is promised soon. It is a wise choice to start slowly with what you do well before expanding the menu, and that is precisely what the owners of Cocina Filipina are doing.

My companions and I appreciated the subtle flavors, the spicy heat that didn’t overpower, and the vitality from the spices in each of our meals, tastefully presented with fresh flowers on every plate.

On the Menu

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Photo Gallery

The Rundown

• Location: 3801 W. Vliet St.
• Phone: 414-581-6840
• Hours: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mon-Sun
• Website: https://www.cocinafilipinamke.com

L to R: John Kowalczyk. Drew York. Sarah Bott. Photo Credit: Eric Halvie.

A cat and a crate of cocoa. A horse and hauls of harvest. These images have emerged at street level on the north-facing wall of the Commission House building, 400 N. Broadway, as elements of a new Historic Third Ward mural, “Portal to the Past.”

But mural designer and artist John Kowalczyk and his team, artists Sara Bott and Drew York, have more planned. In the coming months, they will continue painting upward, reaching the top of the 10-story building to complete the 15,000-square-foot piece.

“Portal to the Past” pays tribute to Broadway’s history as Commission Row, a bustling produce market where fruit and vegetable wholesalers offered their goods to old Milwaukee’s grocers and restaurants.

The mural also captures the history of the Commission House building itself. The crate of cocoa nods to the building’s original owner, E.R. Godfrey & Sons, who roasted its Silver Buckle Brand coffee on the eighth floor in the early 1900s. “A Short History of Milwaukee” by William George Bruce pays homage to Bruce Publishing Company, which occupied the building in the mid-1900s. Tom and Guy Lo Duca’s smiling faces honor Lo Duca Bros.’ time in the building in the late 1900s.

Towering banana trees, swirling grape vines and a massive accordion — planned for the upper reaches of the building and visible above neighboring Interstate 794 — will also honor Lo Duca Bros., who imported Milwaukee’s first banana, manufactured accordions and imported wine.  The La Duca Bros. ghost sign in the upper right corner of the building will stay, giving the modern mural a feature of historical brush strokes.

In a conversation with Urban Milwaukee, Kowalczyk and York discussed elements they’ve finished, details to come above and what public art offers Milwaukee.

Now that you can see the mural coming together, what has surprised you most about how it looks compared with what you originally envisioned? 

Kowalczyk: One of the biggest surprises for me is the proportion of the building. When you stand at street level and look up, you might think the building is taller than it is wide. But it’s actually the opposite — it’s wider than it is tall.

Because you can’t get a straight-on image of the building from the street, we used a drone to scan the building and get a squared-up image to lay the design on. Now that it’s time to start working up and we understand the proportions better, I’ve relaid some of the design between the windows.

An accordion is planned around those windows. What is your plan of attack?

Kowalczyk: There are little green dots up there in a 5-by-5-foot grid. I break down the design like that so I can tile together each square.

I’ll start at the bottom and work upwards with it. The lift goes up 60 feet, so we plan to switch it out in a week or two with one that goes up to 120 feet.

Are you afraid of heights?

Kowalczyk: Haha, no. But it does feel like you are surfing up there. The wind really sways, but you get used to it.

Is there a particular part of the mural that you’ve become especially attached to during this process?

Kowalczyk: I love the cat we painted yesterday. It’s a cat that lives in the Commission House building now. Also, when we were researching the mural and looking at old photos of Broadway, we found this cool old photo of a cat sitting on the crates of produce.

I also went to school at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, and the school’s mascot is a river rat — which is kind of hilarious. So I joke that this cat is meant to keep all the river rats away from the produce.

What do you hope someone notices when they walk past this mural for the first time, and what do you hope they notice after seeing it 20 times?

Kowalczyk: For the first time, I just want people to be delighted to see such a large piece of art that’s accessible and available to our city all the time.

After 20 times, I’d like people to dig into the history and find the hidden Easter eggs that tell the history of the building and the neighborhood.

Tell me about your team.

Kowalczyk: Drew and I have painted together for the past six years on various mural projects. Sarah, I’ve been working with for the past 20 years or so.

I enjoy collaborating with other artists on these big projects because when it’s just me, it can get lonely. It’s fun to work with other people. We motivate each other.

Also, while driving a giant lift, it’s important to have a second set of eyes for safety.

What do you think happens when art leaves the gallery and becomes part of somebody’s everyday experience?

Kowalczyk: That’s my favorite part of art. Art can be in a gallery or a museum, and that’s wonderful, but it’s also for a certain type of person, somebody who is comfortable approaching that situation or has access to that situation. I think art is for everybody to experience, and that’s what public art offers.

To have art in a public space shows that people care about the community. It shows that the neighborhood is looked after. I think it can make people feel safer and make their days better. I think it can make a neighborhood more vibrant and exciting to visit.

York: The accessibility of open art is my favorite thing. I love the fact that it is a surprise to a lot of people. You could have no thought in your mind that today, while you’re walking through Milwaukee or visiting Milwaukee, you are going to encounter art.

You may be on your way to do this or that, but in between those things, you’re going to run into amazing large pieces of art that hide out on these massive buildings in the city.

Do you have a completion date?

Kowalczyk: I’m shooting for the end of October and then planning for a ribbon-cutting ceremony after that.

York: Just yesterday I was saying to John how I can’t believe we have knocked out this whole bottom part of the wall already.

It’s been incredible to be down here in the city and see people coming by and getting excited about the mural, and they don’t even know that we’re going all the way up to the top. I think it’s going to be one of those things that stops people in their tracks, not just when they see it from the street, but also when looking at Milwaukee’s skyline.

—

Follow “Portal to the Past” updates on Instagram. More information about the mural can be found on the Commission House Mural website.

After completing “Portal to the Past,” Kowalczyk will start work on his next project: a mural on the BBC Lighting building, 2015 W. St. Paul Ave., in the Menomonee Valley in partnership with Menomonee Valley Partners.

Photos

Donald Trump. Photo from the White House.

“When I win the election, we will immediately begin a brand-new Trump economic boom,” Donald Trump said at an August 2024 rally in North Carolina during his campaign for reelection. How successful has the Trump economy been?

The next graph shows Wisconsin nonfarm job growth during the terms of the five most recent presidents. Percentage growth has been annualized to remove the effect of term-length differences. Red columns represent Republican presidents; blue columns represent Democrats.

The graph suggests that the increase in jobs was weak when Trump was president. In his first term, the number of jobs shrank, most likely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In his current term so far, nonfarm job growth in Wisconsin has been very weak.

Annualized Wisconsin Nonfarm Job Growth by President

The next graph shows U.S. job growth for the whole nation since the Truman administration. Again, job growth was weak during both Trump terms. And again, job growth was quite strong during Biden’s term in office.

There is a striking pattern in this and other graphs. As a group, blue columns are taller than red columns. This pattern is not new. It was first identified at least 20 years ago. While correlation does not prove causality, I would suggest a number of possible reasons behind the phenomenon:

Annualized US Nonfarm Job Growth by President

The next graph shows the month-to-month change in employment during the Biden and Trump administrations. This suggests another possible explanation: Early in the Biden administration, the economy came back to life as masks and vaccines became widely available. By the time Trump became president, in this view, the demand for workers was largely satisfied.

The August jobs report caused a good amount of excitement among Trump and his allies. As shown on the graph, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that 162,000 nonfarm jobs were added to the U.S. labor market, following a revised July estimate of only 21,000 jobs.

Monthly Change in Employment

Data on the labor force tell much the same story, both in Wisconsin and in the nation. The next graph shows the annualized change in Wisconsin’s civilian labor force.

Annual Change in Wisconsin Civilian Labor Force

The next graph shows the annualized change in the civilian labor force in the United States.

Annual Change in American Civilian Labor Force

During his reelection campaign, Trump promised to bring back manufacturing: “Together, we’re going to … bring thousands of factories back to the USA, right where they belong — and that will be done through tariffs and smart policy. We will build American, we will buy American, and we will hire American” (Jan. 19, 2024).

The next graph shows the percentage change in Wisconsin manufacturing jobs since the first Bush presidency. The last time Wisconsin saw strong growth in manufacturing came during the Clinton administration. Contrary to his promise, manufacturing has declined under both Trump terms.

Change in Wisconsin Manufacturing Jobs

The next graph shows the change in US manufacturing since the Truman administration. The overall trend line is downward. The closest to a turnaround came during the Biden administration.

Change in US Manufacturing Jobs

Time and again we see a yawning gap between what Trump claims and the facts.

A sign is displayed on the UW-Milwaukee campus Monday, July 7, 2025, in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is considering offering a three-year education degree to save their students money, while getting teachers into classrooms faster.

Chancellor Thomas Gibson said discussions are currently underway with the School of Education to move the reduced-credit degree forward, but there is not a definite timeline.

“We know there’s a great need not only here in the city, but across the state, to produce  more teachers,” Gibson said during an interview with WPR on Friday, “I feel very optimistic that this is a program that we would be able to deliver and receive significant support for.”

In March, the Board of Regents approved revising a policy to allow Universities of Wisconsin campuses to offer 90-credit degrees, down from the traditional 120-credit four-year degree.

An in-state credit hour costs $366 at UWM, so cutting one year off of a degree program would save a student $10,980.

Gibson says preliminary plans have the students spending their fourth year working at Milwaukee Public Schools.

“We think it’s pretty novel,” he said. “We understand some of the pressures that MPS is feeling to recruit and attract teachers. So we see this as one way that we can be responsive to their needs.”

This fall, MPS started the school year with 60 teacher vacancies.

The number would be less, but the 2026-27 budget added more than 159 teaching positions and paraprofessionals to reduce class sizes.

Still, during a press conference before the school year started, Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said there is still a lot of work to do and 60 openings is not where the district wants to be.

“Our goal is straightforward,” Cassellius said. “Every classroom should have a certified, qualified teacher, caring and competent, who is ready to help students learn and succeed.”

MPS spokesperson Tony Tagliavia said the district is grateful to Gibson for “thinking outside of the box and considering us as a partner for this fourth year teaching residency.

“The nationwide teacher shortage will require us to continue to embrace innovation and explore options,” Tagliavia wrote in a statement to WPR. “We welcome the opportunity to look at growing our strong partnership with UWM — and supporting Milwaukee students who deserve and need a licensed, caring teacher.”

If the reduced credit program does go forward, UWM will join UW-Green Bay in offering a three-year degree.

In the fall, UW-Green Bay was the first UW System campus to announce a reduced-credit bachelor’s degree in computer science.

Around 60 colleges nationwide have launched reduced-credit three-year bachelor programs, according to College-in-3-Exchange.  

UW-Milwaukee could offer teachers a 3-year degree to help MPS teacher shortage was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Matty Ring (CC-BY)

Greenfield’s mayor is seeking the removal of the city’s police chief, who is facing criminal charges.

Greenfield Police Chief Jay Johnson has been charged with four felonies and a misdemeanor after he allegedly used his department’s surveillance camera to watch his own home during his divorce. Johnson has been on paid administrative leave since April 2025.

A Wednesday statement from City of Greenfield Mayor Michael Neitzke said he had filed a “statement of charges” against Johnson to the city’s Police and Fire Commission. Neitzke’s statement said the city investigation into Johnson, “revealed significant, highly concerning actions and patterns of behavior that we believe warranted this filing.”

Neitzke, who wasn’t available for an interview, wrote that his statement of charges “presents only a handful of those findings, as other charges are under criminal investigation outside of the City process.”

Greenfield’s Police and Fire Commission met in closed session for nearly two hours Thursday night to review the charges. After the commission came out of closed session, they approved a motion to reach out to the parties involved to set a date for a scheduling conference.

In a statement after the meeting, Neitzke said the commission had accepted the charges he filed.

“This is a critical step in determining whether the City’s investigation findings are sufficient to justify discipline and, if so, what discipline is appropriate,” Neitzke wrote.

Johnson’s criminal case is ongoing

Johnson was charged last year with felony misconduct. A criminal complaint said he allegedly directed a captain in his police department to put a department-owned surveillance camera outside of his home in Wind Lake despite being told by city officials that he should not. The complaint alleges he did so because he was “in fear for his safety” during a divorce.

Prosecutors say the camera was placed across the street from Johnson’s driveway on Dec. 26, 2024. The complaint says Johnson violated the department’s standards of conduct by using the camera for his personal gain to “advance his divorce.”

Prosecutors later added three felonies to his original felony charge, as well as a misdemeanor — obstructing an officer. He was charged with felony bail jumping, as well as two other felonies for allegedly destroying data and evidence, which prosecutors said impaired the investigation.

A second amended criminal complaint said Johnson had “directed a third party to contact individuals in violation of his bail conditions.” That complaint said that he had destroyed personal file records and remotely ‘wiped’ his city phone and did a factory reset on a second phone that was seized pursuant to a warrant.

Johnson’s criminal case is ongoing. An evidentiary hearing is set for Nov. 9, according to online court records.

Johnson, 59, has been with the department since 1992, serving as an officer, lieutenant and captain. He was appointed police chief by the Police and Fire Commission in 2019.

Eric Lindstrom is currently the city’s acting police chief. He was appointed to that position when Johnson was placed on administrative leave last year.

Common Council authorized Neitzke to file statement of charges

On Aug. 18, the city’s common council authorized Neitzke to file a statement of charges against Johnson, according to Neitzke’s statement.

The statement was shared with Johnson’s legal counsel before being filed with the Police and Fire Commission on Aug. 28.

Neitzke said the process to terminate Johnson is, “fully under the jurisdiction of the City’s Police and Fire Commission.”

“Outside law enforcement authorities must prove the criminal allegations against Chief Johnson beyond a reasonable doubt, whereas the Mayor has a much lower evidentiary burden,” the statement said.

Under state law, a local police and fire commission board appoints the chief of police.

“Chief Johnson is entitled to due process by rebutting the City’s investigation findings at his Police and Fire Commission hearing,” Neitzke’s statement said. “As required by Wisconsin law, the Commission will render the final decision whether the City’s investigation findings are sufficient to justify discipline and, if so, what penalty is appropriate to protect our community, our Police Department, and our employees.”

An attorney for Johnson was unable to be reached before this story was published Friday.

Wisconsin mayor seeks removal of police chief after city investigation found ‘highly concerning actions’ was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Restoration Hardware, 224 E. Chicago St. Photo taken by Jeramey Jannene on May 13th, 2016. All Rights Reserved.

NCG Hospitality has taken another major step toward developing a hotel in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward.

An affiliate of the Middleton-based hotel developer acquired the building at 224 E. Chicago St. for $7 million, according to a sale recorded Sept. 16 in Wisconsin real estate transfer records.

The three-story building is slated for conversion into a 134-room upscale boutique hotel.

NCG purchased the property from an affiliate of the ownership group behind Rubin’s Furniture, which operated a store in the building for more than two decades.

The transaction comes approximately 14 months after NCG first unveiled its redevelopment plans and shortly after the company started construction on another Milwaukee hotel.

NCG held a ceremonial groundbreaking in August for a $50 million, 156-room AC Hotel by Marriott at 430 W. State St. in Deer District. That hotel, being developed on a portion of the former Bradley Center site, is expected to open in late 2027.

At the groundbreaking, NCG chief development officer Andy Inman told Urban Milwaukee that the Third Ward project did not yet have a firm construction date, but would follow the Deer District development.

“We’ll get this one out of the ground, and then that will be our next construction start,” he said in August.

The Third Ward project was originally proposed in July 2025 as an AC Hotel by Marriott, but NCG shuffled the brands for its two pending Milwaukee hotels earlier this year.

The company upgraded the Deer District proposal, previously planned as a Moxy hotel, to the AC brand in March. With that change, NCG said the Third Ward property would instead become an “upscale boutique hotel.”

NCG operates a similar independently flagged property in Madison, The Saddlery, a 46-room boutique hotel focused on extended stays. That project also involved the redevelopment of a former Rubin’s Furniture property and was NCG’s first completed adaptive reuse project.

Robert Rubin, part of the Rubin’s ownership group, brought the Third Ward project to NCG after the companies worked together on the Madison development.

The company secured approval for the hotel design from the Historic Third Ward Architectural Review Board in September 2025.

A significant portion of the planned redevelopment involves working around the unusual dimensions of the former factory.

The deep building has a large floor plate with limited access to natural light. NCG plans to remove portions of the building’s interior floors to create a large atrium, allowing natural light into guest rooms positioned around the center of the structure. Existing rooftop skylights would be incorporated into the atrium.

Another significant change is planned along E. Chicago Street.

The building’s first floor sits approximately six feet above the sidewalk. NCG plans to remove an existing ramp leading into the basement and create a new street-level hotel entrance. Guests would then use stairs or a ramp to reach the existing first floor.

Plans approved by the Third Ward review board also call for a recessed porch along Chicago Street. First-floor windows would be designed to swing open, creating an indoor-outdoor space for the hotel’s restaurant and bar.

The basement is expected to accommodate approximately 40 vehicles for valet parking, with additional public parking available across Chicago Street.

NCG intends to use state and federal historic preservation tax credits for the redevelopment, requiring the project to comply with historic preservation standards.

Built for Monarch Manufacturing Co. in 1915, the approximately 86,700-square-foot building was once used to produce leather jackets for the U.S. Air Force.

Rubin’s Furniture operated there from 1993 until 2015. RH, formerly Restoration Hardware, subsequently opened a 27,000-square-foot store on the first floor. The upscale retailer closed its only Wisconsin location in March, but is planning a new store in Brookfield.

The building’s upper floors have been used as office space, though much of the property has been vacant in recent years. Cramer-Krasselt, the largest office tenant, is moving to 117 N. Jefferson St.

The hotel would be NCG’s third major Milwaukee hotel investment.

In 2023, the company opened The Trade, a 207-room Marriott Autograph Collection hotel at 420 W. Juneau Ave., immediately north of Fiserv Forum. Its Deer District AC Hotel is now under construction one block south of the arena.

The Third Ward project would be only the neighborhood’s second hotel, joining the 158-room Kimpton Journeyman Hotel.

The Washington, D.C., studio of architecture firm Cooper Carry is leading the design.

September 2025 Renderings

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July 2025 Renderings

2872 S. 8th St. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

A vacant southside building would see new life as a barbershop, T-shirt printing hub and residence under a plan from father-son team Enrique Murguia and Enrique H. Murguia.

The younger Murguia would relocate Boomin’ Barbershop and Milwaukee OATS Screen Printing to the building. He would also move himself to the building and take up residence on the second floor.

It’s part of a larger wealth-building and expansion strategy. Murguia’s businesses would move out of leased space in Bay View and relocate to their new home about 1.5 miles west at 2872 S. 8th St. in the Polonia neighborhood.

“Purchasing this property would give us the opportunity to finally have a permanent home, to continue expanding our services and to invest the money back into the neighborhood and into Milwaukee,”said the younger Murguia to the Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee Tuesday.

Murguia has leased space at 2633 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. for several years.

“We’ve been doing high-quality screen printing since 2014,” he said.

The city would sell the property for $75,000. The family anticipates investing $190,000 total in the project.

The first floor would include space for the screen printing business and eight barber chairs. Murguia said the barbers have already committed to the move.

The city acquired the 2,576-square-foot building through property tax foreclosure in 2024. It was originally constructed in 1890.

Historic newspaper records indicate the building was long used as a tavern with a three-bedroom apartment above.

The committee unanimously recommended approval of the property sale, with Ald. Milele A. Coggs praising OATS for its work printing shirts for Bronzeville Week. The full council is slated to consider the sale on Sept. 22.

Bikers and runners on the Oak Leaf Trail. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The Milwaukee County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) is promoting the national “Week Without Driving,” a challenge that asks people to try a week without the aid of an automobile and consider how their neighbors who don’t have cars are forced to get around.

The streets, freeways and parking lots that most people take for granted are, in fact, the result of policy decisions about what transportation infrastructure will be built and maintained for the benefit of the people who live near it. For everyone who has a car, or who can drive, the dominance of automobile infrastructure at the expense of mass transit or multi-modal options may go unquestioned. But for those who don’t, or can’t, it is a policy decision that can make their life more difficult, even more dangerous.

Anna Zivarts, a Seattle-based transit and disability rights activist, created the challenge in 2021 to help policymakers and politicians understand how the built environment creates barriers to movement for people who cannot drive. It takes place this year the week of Oct. 1-8.

In Milwaukee County, 40% of residents do not or cannot drive, according to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT). In the metro Milwaukee region, one in five working-age people does not drive, according to MCTS.

“For thousands of people in our community, getting to work, school, or other important activities isn’t as easy as simply getting in a car,” said Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. “Participating in Week Without Driving is an opportunity for policymakers and community members to strengthen their understanding of the options that exist for nondrivers so we can continue to work toward a transportation network that serves everyone.”t

MCDOT is promoting the campaign this year alongside the Transit is Milwaukee Coalition and MobiliSE, a transportation advocacy organization that also operates FlexRide, an on-demand taxi service designed to serve specific workforce needs. The department is encouraging residents to sign up for CommuteWise, a digital platform created by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) for tracking or planning trips that don’t use a car. Several events are also scheduled throughout the week. MobiliSE has them listed on its website.

The week without driving will arrive this year as Milwaukee County transit officials and policymakers consider major changes to the county’s bus network. MCTS is working with a consultant to redesign the system as it faces major budget shortfalls in the coming years, leading transit officials to contemplate a 25% service cut to stabilize the system’s budget in the short term. The cut would be devastating for the system’s existing network, and the impact would land hardest on county residents who do not drive.

“Our ability to fully participate in our community – to get to work, school, the doctor, church, or simply enjoy our lives – shouldn’t depend on having a car,” said County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson-Bovell in a statement. “Week Without Driving reminds us that a strong transportation network creates freedom and connection, while giving all of us opportunities to save money, improve air quality, and reduce our environmental impact. I hope residents will join us, experience Milwaukee County differently, and help us imagine what even better transportation can look like.”

New Park-o-Meters in Milwaukee. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Drivers will temporarily lose the ability to pay by credit card directly at Milwaukee parking meters beginning Oct. 1 after the company supporting the meters’ software announced it will cease operations.

The Department of Public Works said Friday that Park-O-Meter gave the city limited advance notice of its closure. The meters will continue to accept coins, and drivers can still pay by credit card through the ParkMobile app or online. Instructions for those options are displayed on each meter.

The city said it is immediately beginning the process of selecting a new parking meter technology vendor and hopes to make the transition as soon as possible. It did not provide a date when credit card payments at the meters might resume.

DPW said it had already been exploring a move to a new parking platform before learning Park-O-Meter would close. The company has customers locally, nationally and internationally, according to the department.

Milwaukee selected Park-O-Meter through a competitive bidding process for a citywide meter replacement project announced in 2018. At the time, the city planned to spend approximately $3.5 million from its parking fund to replace meters serving roughly 7,000 spaces over three years.

The new meters were designed to accept coins, credit cards and app payments. Most serve two adjoining parking spaces, replacing a mix of older meters and LUKE kiosks that required drivers to walk to a central payment machine. The city also touted the new meters’ internet connection, which allowed staff to identify meters that had gone offline.

For now, drivers who usually insert a credit card at a meter will need to use ParkMobile or carry coins beginning Oct. 1.

Use of the ParkMobile app requires an additional $0.30 charge, which is collected by the third-party vendor.

Milwaukee has extended meter hours in recent years and implemented limited market-based pricing.

Rep. Jenna Jacobson ran a campaign ad claiming Sen. Howard Marklein “invested thousands of dollars in Chinese corporations.” (Photo of Jacobson courtesy of campaign. Photo of Marklein by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Both the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Wisconsin Senate have said that, in their efforts to win control of the chamber, their candidates are staying focused on issues close to home. However, this week the focus of the race for the 17th Senate District turned to a country 6,000 miles away: China.

The race in Wisconsin’s 17th Senate District, a key district that will help determine control of the body, pits Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green), the incumbent in the race, against Rep. Jenna Jacobson (D-Oregon), a two-term state representative. Marklein was first elected to the seat in 2014 after serving two terms in the Assembly and has served for the last two sessions as the co-chair of the powerful Joint Finance Committee, which drafts the state budget.

The subject of China entered the race when the Jacobson campaign began running an ad last week that claimed Marklein had “invested thousands of dollars in Chinese corporations” while voting against a “measure that would have made Wisconsin buy more American-made products.” The ad displays an image of Marklein’s face beside the Chinese flag.

“While Marklein was making money off of his Chinese investments, he was stealing money from American workers like me,” a man dressed as a construction worker says in the ad. “Someone who sold us out like that should never be in the state Senate.”

The ad led to Sen. Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point), head of the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate, to call a press conference to defend Marklein Tuesday. Testin called the ad “deceptive” and a “sick smear campaign.”

Barry Burden, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Elections Research Center, told the Wisconsin Examiner in an email that it’s “quite unusual for China or another other foreign country to be much of an issue in a campaign for a state legislative seat.”

Burden said the “focus on China in the 17th district is a kind of proxy for other issues,” including concerns about politicians “enriching themselves unethically because of investments” as well as worries about the construction of new data centers that some Wisconsinites see as drain on resources and harmful to the environment in addition to being related to U.S. AI developers’ competition with China.

The ad, however, is seeking to tie some of Marklein’s prior reported investments to his lack of support for a Democratic bill in 2013 that would have required state and local contracts to give preference to materials manufactured in the United States.

Wisconsin public officials and candidates are required to file a Statement of Economic Interests under state law to disclose financial relationships and prevent conflicts of interest.

According to his 2022 statement of economic interest, Marklein had over $50,000 in a WisdomTree Emerging Markets Fund as well as between $5,000 and $50,000 in investments in the JPMorgan Emerging Markets Fund. According to Sofi, investing in emerging market funds means owning shares in companies from India, Brazil, South Africa and China with the latter representing a large portion of many emerging market index funds.

Marklein’s most recent statement of economic interest included no emerging market funds.

In his press conference defending Marklein, Testin appeared to think the ad was related to investments made through the Wisconsin Retirement System, saying Jacobson, and every state employee, has similar investments. (The Wisconsin Retirement System is not prohibited from making investments in businesses in China, though Republicans have proposed barring the State of Wisconsin Investment Board from doing so in the past.)

Testin said Jacobson was “trying to be tough on foreign adversaries now that it might be politically beneficial for her.”

“The truth is that Jacobson could have spent months standing up to our nation’s adversaries like China, but when she had the opportunity to support meaningful legislation that would protect Wisconsin from foreign influence, she voted no,” Testin said, referring to bills that would have restricted business with China.

Testin proposed and Marklein co-authored a bill that would have barred Wisconsin agencies from contracting with certain foreign businesses, including China. Two other bills would have prohibited China from buying Wisconsin land and prohibited the University of Wisconsin system from providing study abroad and research there.

“Jacobson has no backbone, only a slick eye for political gain. She’s quick to point a finger at people like Sen. Marklein when it benefits her, but when she has the chance to help Wisconsin, she’s only interested when there could be gains for her,” Testin said.

Jacobson voted against the two bills that passed the Assembly. Both were vetoed by Gov. Tony Evers. The issue has also come up in the race for governor, with Republican candidate Tom Tiffany saying he would have signed at least one of those bills as governor.

Burden said connecting politicians to China could “tarnish” their reputations. According to a Nov. 2025 Marquette Law School Poll, 65% of Americans held an unfavorable view of China and its leader, President Xi Jinping, while 19% said they had a favorable view of China.

Burden said of Jacobson’s ad that “a connection to Marklein’s potential support for Chinese businesses and government is a way for her to point out to voters without a strong partisan preference why he should be defeated.”

Will Karcz, a spokesperson for the state Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, said in a statement to the Examiner that the ad was meant to provide voters in the 17th with “the truth of Howard Marklein’s personal foreign investment history.”

“Howard has repeatedly voted against protecting Wisconsin manufacturing while cashing in on tens of thousands of dollars he invested in Chinese-owned corporations,” Karcz said. “He got rich on the backs of Wisconsin workers. Jenna Jacobson is running to make Wisconsin stronger while Howard has spent the last 10 years putting his bottom line ahead of his constituents.”

Whether the message resonates with voters is unclear.

Todd Allbaugh, a former Republican who grew up in Richland Center and formerly worked for Sen. Dale Schulz, told the Examiner in an interview that he was confused when he saw the ad about a week ago. He lives in Madison, but still has family in the district.

“I’ve seen this ad now probably somewhere around 20-ish times. It was baffling,” Allbaugh said. He said he didn’t understand what it was trying to get at until he looked it up using Claude, the AI assistant developed by Anthropic. “If you have to go to Claude to figure it out, it probably isn’t a really effective ad.”

Allbaugh acknowledged that Marklein has some advantages in the race given his status as an incumbent. Marklein won his 2022 race with 60% of the vote, though the district has changed considerably under the new maps. It now represents Iowa, Lafayette, Green, Crawford and Grant counties as well as parts of Dane County.

“I know the 17th Senate District pretty much like the back of my hand because it’s home,” Allbaugh said. “With the newly drawn maps it’s certainly become more competitive for Democrats, probably the most competitive in a very long time.”

Allbaugh said that he thinks Marklein is “scared for his political life,” as he is suddenly running in a competitive district and that can be seen in his campaign. One of Marklein’s recent ads positioned him as a bipartisan “bridge builder” and as “your man in the middle” and highlighted tax cuts that have been made while he’s been in office as well as some investments that have been made into local EMS and into the Lone Rock Bridge, which opened this year after two years of construction.

In Allbaugh’s opinion, Jacobson’s campaign should focus on local issues that Marklein has had some say over. He noted the closure of the UW-Platteville Richland Center campus and the UW-Platteville Baraboo Sauk County campus that have happened while Marklein has chaired the Joint Finance Committee as well as the struggle that public schools in the district have had.

“I think she’s a super strong candidate. She’s affable. She is enormously more likable and connects to people better than Howard Marklein, and I would if I were advising them, which I’m not, I would lean into that,” Allbaugh said. “Be authentic instead of listening to consultants with boilerplate things that they’re using in the other races. It doesn’t seem like a smart use of money when there are so many more easily understood issues that are particular to the 17th Senate District.”

Jacobson’s economic statement of interest from 2022 and 2024 does not list any emerging market funds.

Her 2024 statement lists an investment in the American Funds The New Economy Fund. According to the Capital Group website, it is mainly invested in the U.S. though it has a mix of investments abroad. About 15% of the fund is in Asia, including China.

How did China get wrapped up in the competitive race for Wisconsin’s 17th state Senate District?  was originally published by Wisconsin Examiner.

DNS Commissioner Jezamil Arroyo-Vega announces inspection program. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Milwaukee is moving closer to reviving proactive inspections of rental housing, starting with approximately 200 properties in the Uptown neighborhood.

The Common Council’s Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee unanimously endorsed a five-year pilot program Tuesday that would allow Department of Neighborhood Services inspectors to inspect rental properties without first receiving a complaint.

“Uptown was selected because the data shows this kind of investment can make a real difference,” said DNS Commissioner Jezamil Arroyo-Vega.

The targeted area includes about 200 eligible rental properties and 399 housing units. DNS intends to start slowly, conducting approximately 20 initial inspections per month.

“This is the right place to begin, because the data clearly demonstrates that this is an area that wants focused attention,” said Stamper.

City data shows 58% of eligible properties in the district have received at least one complaint since 2023. In 2025 alone, DNS recorded 214 unique enforcement complaints in the area, about 90 complaints per 100 eligible parcels.

Approximately 62% of the units are owned by property owners who live outside Milwaukee.

“This is a carefully structured five-year pilot,” said area Alderman Russell W. Stamper, II said. “Habitable properties will not be burdened with unnecessary inspections.”

The legally designated district is generally bounded by W. Center Street, N. Sherman Boulevard, W. North Avenue and N. 50th Street, with the boundary jogging along N. 46th Street and W. Meinecke Avenue.

It is substantially smaller than the broader Uptown area Mayor Cavalier Johnson targeted this summer for his 12-week Adopt-A-Neighborhood initiative, which extends from W. Capitol Drive to W. North Avenue and N. Sherman Boulevard to N. 60th Street.

The inspection district was one of the most significant pieces of that initiative when Johnson announced it in July.

“The pilot program is an opportunity to build relationships, connect people with resources, and work toward a shared goal of stronger and healthier neighborhoods,” Arroyo-Vega told the committee Tuesday. “We hope this can be a template for other neighborhoods in Milwaukee.”

How The Inspections Would Work

Deputy Commissioner Michael Mazmanian said the department would begin by notifying affected property owners before attempting to schedule proactive inspections.

Owner-occupied single-family homes would not be inspected under the program.

The program also would not give inspectors unrestricted access to homes.

“If access is denied, that’s the end of that inspection process,” Mazmanian said.

State law generally requires the occupant to consent to an inspection, though it also allows municipalities to obtain a special inspection warrant.

Properties that pass their initial inspection would be removed from the proactive inspection cycle for five years.

If a violation is found, the ordinance gives owners at least 30 days to make repairs, except when a condition creates an imminent danger to a tenant.

If violations are not corrected in time, the property could become subject to annual inspections and reinspection fees. Two consecutive annual inspections without a habitability violation would again remove the property from the program for five years.

The program is focused specifically on “habitability violations,” a category defined by state law that includes a lack of running water, unsafe heating or electrical systems, serious structural hazards, malfunctioning plumbing or sewage systems, missing smoke or carbon monoxide detectors, rodent or insect infestations and excessive mold.

Inspection fees are also constrained by state law.

Mazmanian said an owner could face a $90 fee for an initial inspection that results in an unresolved violation and a $150 fee for a subsequent program inspection.

“Until that violation is corrected, we would continue to charge reinspection fees,” he said.

Property owners would not be charged when no habitability violation is found.

Moving Away From A Complaint-Driven System

The city’s current enforcement system largely relies on tenants or neighbors contacting DNS when there is a problem.

City Attorney Evan Goyke said one goal of the proactive model is to identify unsafe conditions without requiring tenants to file a complaint against their landlord.

“One of the goals of a proactive program like this is it does not rely on a tenant’s complaints,” said Goyke.

About a decade ago, the city previously operated broader proactive housing inspection programs, but changes to state law curtailed those efforts. Wisconsin law now allows municipalities to establish targeted rental inspection districts only when they can demonstrate conditions such as blight, high rates of building code complaints or violations, deteriorating property values or increased conversions of single-family homes to rentals.

“This is not a program that can just be dropped on a map,” said Goyke.

The Uptown complaint data is being used to establish the findings necessary to meet that state standard.

Stamper said the city’s earlier proactive inspection effort was effective before the change in state law and praised Johnson for advancing a new version in his district.

Committee chair Ald. Robert Bauman also backed the proposal.

“This is certainly a good program and I applaud Ald. Stamper for moving it forward,” Bauman said.

The proposal also drew support from neighborhood residents and groups that have pushed the city to take a more proactive approach to housing conditions.

Mabel Lamb, executive director of the Sherman Park Community Association, said her organization would assist the city with outreach.

The association is part of the Reclaiming Our Neighborhoods coalition, which helped champion the inspection proposal and has conducted its own surveys of neighborhood housing conditions.

Ana Branderhorst, an area resident who works with the Sherman Park Community Association, said improving the condition of rental properties is part of a larger effort to create stability and encourage residents to remain in the neighborhood.

“The problem right now is that maintenance is not required and it only happens if an individual landlord chooses to do it,” she said.

The ordinance would expire five years after taking effect unless the Common Council reauthorizes it.

The legislation specifically prohibits the city from adding additional inspection districts during the five-year pilot, meaning any expansion to other neighborhoods would come only after the city has evaluated the Uptown experiment.

The full council is to consider the proposal on Sept. 22.

Vaccine. (Public Domain).

As the number of measles cases continues to grow, Wisconsin health officials say they’re seeing some success with efforts to encourage vaccination.

The outbreak in Iowa, Lafayette and Grant counties has grown to 161 confirmed and probable cases over the past two months.

On Wednesday, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services announced two new measles cases in Vernon County, including one in a person visiting the county from out of state. Health officials are investigating whether the new cases are related to the ongoing outbreak.

Vernon County has the lowest measles, mumps and rubella vaccination rate among children and adolescents in the entire state.

Only 42 percent of two-year-olds in the county had received at least one dose of the shot last year. That’s 38 percentage points below the statewide average.

Lafayette County tied for second-lowest MMR rate among two-year-olds last year at 60 percent. Grant County’s rate was at 64 percent and Iowa County’s rate was at 81 percent.

Dr. Ryan Westergaard, Chief Medical Officer for Communicable Diseases at DHS, said on a call with reporters that given low vaccination rates in Wisconsin, it’s not surprising that the highly-contagious virus has spread.

But he said individuals’ choices, like isolating and getting the MMR vaccine after an exposure, can make a difference.

“Those are the things that, at any level of vaccine coverage, we can still do to minimize the risk,” Westergaard said. “So we’re not treating it as inevitable that we’re going to have a much larger outbreak than we currently have.”

DHS Immunization Program Manager Stephanie Schauer told reporters that local health departments are reporting new interest in the vaccine from people who were previously unvaccinated.

“They are not only providing doses in the community, but some of them are working to provide them or have plans to provide them in schools,” Schauer said. “So that is a key strategy to bringing some of those pockets up in terms of their levels of protection.”

Schauer said local school nurses are also checking students’ immunization records and reaching out to families about getting their kids up-to-date.

The MMR vaccine is required for public school attendance in Wisconsin. But unvaccinated children can still attend school if their parents claim either a religious or personal conviction waiver.

Southwestern Wisconsin is also home to several large Amish and Mennonite communities, who tend to have lower use of preventative health care due to their religious beliefs.

Westergaard said public health departments in the affected counties are “proactively doing outreach” to Amish and Mennonite households, offering access to the vaccine and encouraging them to take steps to minimize their risk of exposure.

But the new cases in Vernon County this week have made it difficult for public health leaders to predict how much longer the disease will be circulating in the state, according to Westergaard.

He pointed out that county and state public health teams had federal help investigating measles exposures in August through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Epi-Aid program. But those added resources have ended.

“We are now in a position where we have a case in a new county, where we need to start the process over,” Westergaard said. “Hopefully, we can contain it to a single, travel-associated case. But we may learn that there’s been person-to-person spread and more exposures as we go.”

One case of measles related to out-of-state travel was reported in Marathon County on Tuesday.

In total, there have been 164 cases in Wisconsin this year, with all but one occurring in people who are unvaccinated. More than half of cases have been in children and adolescents, and a total of five people have been hospitalized due to the disease.

Wisconsin health officials hopeful encouraging measles vaccination can stop growing outbreak was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Christina Lopez-Prado of Casita Prado. Photo Credits: OH Snap! By Shell Photography.

Christina Lopez-Prado was announced as the first-place winner of Near West Side Partners‘ annual Rev-Up MKE small business competition on Wednesday night, in front of an audience of supporters, community members and other finalists.

Lopez-Prado is the founder of Casita Prado, an apparel company that produces small-batch children’s streetwear with reclaimed deadstock fabrics. With fashion designed in Milwaukee and manufactured in the Midwest, the company’s modus operandi is upcycling, recirculation and environmental sustainability.

As the first-place winner, Casita Prado will receive $5,000 in cash; business coaching and consulting services; and a three- to six-month complimentary lease in a retail space at Concordia 27, 809 N. 27th St.

“This is such a big opportunity for us … we can now build our headquarters and have our inventory, operations and retail all under one roof,” Lopez-Prado told Urban Milwaukee. “But ultimately, this is an opportunity for us to give back to the community.”

Casita Prado hosts fashion education workshops for youths to connect and learn about sewing, fashion and art. “We reduce waste while showing the next generation that creativity and sustainability can go hand in hand,” reads the business’ website.

Lopez-Prado said she will use the support from Rev-Up MKE to expand youth programming, build organizational capacity and further champion local artists. She hopes to launch a workshop centered on Día de los Muertos and host a fashion show in the near future.

Casita means “little house” in English, and the name Prado comes from Lopez-Prado’s grandmother, who immigrated to the United States from Ecuador. Lopez-Prado said winning the competition as a Latino-owned brand during Hispanic Heritage Month is especially rewarding.

Lopez-Prado told the Rev-Up MKE audience that she worked as a fashion designer in corporate fashion for several years before being laid off shortly after returning from maternity leave. She said she has seen firsthand how corporate fashion systems produce massive amounts of waste. For her, Casita Prado is a way to produce and engage with intentional, sustainable fashion.

Each year, Rev-Up MKE offers the competition’s finalists an opportunity to present their businesses to the community expo-style before the winners are announced. The event allows them to interact with potential customers, make business connections and form relationships with their fellow entrepreneurs.

Arts as an Outlet Wisconsin was named the runner-up and will receive $1,500 in cash and a six-month Fruition MKE co-working membership.

Brilliantaires Inc. was named the “Audience Choice” winner and will receive $500 in cash and a three- to six-month Fruition MKE co-working membership.

Jivana Wellness received the Jones Family Foundation Emerging Venture Award and $1,000.

“Nine years in, Rev-Up MKE keeps showing what’s possible when a community puts real resources behind real entrepreneurs,” said Lindsey St. Arnold Bell, executive director of the Near West Side Partners.

The Powerline Trail corridor. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

After regulators told them to go back to the drawing board last month, American Transmission Co. has reapplied to build a more than $2 billion transmission project that will serve the data center being built in Port Washington.

The utility filed a new application this week with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, or PSC, to build the Ozaukee County Distribution Interconnection Project. It would include new and rebuilt high-voltage power lines, upgrades to existing facilities and construction of up to five new substations.

The project would extend across Fond du Lac, Calumet, Manitowoc, Ozaukee, Sheboygan and Washington counties. It would serve Oracle’s data center campus in Port Washington.

American Transmission Co., or ATC, had to file the new application after the PSC last month unanimously voted to revoke a “completeness” determination for the company’s previous application to build the project. Regulators felt the application had seen such extensive revisions that it became difficult for officials and the public to adequately review.

It was a rare move for the utility regulator. Both ATC and a ratepayer watchdog said it was the first time they’d seen the commission revoke a completeness determination in recent decades, if ever.

ATC declined to provide an interview about the new application.

In a statement, Jared Winters, executive vice president and chief assets officer for ATC, said the company “substantially improved” its application since its last filing and made changes based on feedback from the commission and public.

He said that resulted in an updated project design and power line routes.

“The revised route configuration reflects additional feedback, analysis and routing and siting work, and we believe it represents the most responsible, buildable and electrically sound option for serving this significant new electric demand,” Winters stated. “We appreciate the input we’ve received and will continue that engagement as the PSCW review process moves forward.”

According to the application, the project would cost between $2.48 billion and $2.72 billion.

Tom Content, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin, said the project could be the most expensive single transmission project that he’s seen in Wisconsin.

He said the large price tag underscores the massive energy needs of Oracle’s data center campus, which is expected to need 1,300 megawatts in its first phase and up to 3,500 megawatts in the future.

“Frankly, We Energies’ largest customer today is less than 100 megawatts, and, at the max, this could be 3,500 — it’s like putting 35 steel mills onto the farm fields just north of Port Washington,” Content said. “It takes eye-popping numbers like this to make people go, ‘Wow, this is really massive, and our energy world is changing dramatically.’”

Of the more than $2 billion price tag, the application says roughly $1.1 billion is associated with a system built at a substation in Decker to help stabilize the grid and manage large and shifting electricity demand from Oracle’s data center.

The application says Oracle will fund that system and “no costs” related to it “will be paid by other customers.”

Content said energy demand from data centers can vary at different times of day, and fluctuating power flows from data centers have caused reliability concerns in states like Virginia and Texas.

The system the regulatory filing says Oracle will pay for is meant to address that issue, Content said.

But whether the tech company ends up covering the more than $1 billion cost, he says, will be up to federal energy regulators who set transmission rates.

“Our overarching concern for Wisconsin customers is whether data centers will actually be billed correctly and accurately and completely for costs linked to data centers,” Content said. “It’s up to the feds, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, to do that.”

ATC reapplies to build a more than $2B transmission project serving Port Washington data center was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Photo from the United States Department of Agriculture.

State agriculture officials are urging farms to tighten protective measures after the highly contagious avian flu virus has once again been found in the state.

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection confirmed the virus was found on a commercial poultry farm in Barron County.

State Veterinarian Dr. Darlene Konkle said they were notified right away when the farm began seeing increased mortality among its roughly 79,000 birds.

“We have been seeing detections in other areas of the country, in the upper Midwest over the past two to three weeks,” she said. “A little bit of an increase in detections in the Dakotas and Minnesota, so we were watching really closely.”

Konkle said the affected flock has already been culled and the farm is working with state officials to dispose of the birds.

The virus was last detected in the state in late February and early March, when four poultry farms were affected. Wisconsin has only found the virus on one dairy farm last December.

The H5N1 flu virus devastated U.S. poultry farms when it was first detected in 2022 and has continued to affect the industry ever since. Cases are often found during the spring and fall, when wild birds carrying the virus are actively migrating.

Konkle said that’s because the virus continues to circulate among birds in North America and has yet to mutate enough to be less contagious.

“I think a lot of cases are prevented, though, that otherwise we would be seeing,” she said. “People are really doing a good job of training employees and working on their own to increase biosecurity for their flocks, especially in these months where we see higher risk.”

But the threat of avian flu is not just isolated to poultry and dairy farms. Utah recently reported the first instances of the virus in captive mink, with seven cases confirmed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

A spokesperson for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food told WPR all of the cases are related to each other, but declined to say whether they were all located on the same farm. Utah animal health officials and USDA officials are working closely with any affected producer, the spokesperson said.

Utah is the second-largest producer of mink pelts in the country behind Wisconsin. But federal data shows Wisconsin produced more than four times Utah’s annual pelt production in 2024, making up more than half of U.S. production for the year.

Keith Poulsen, head of Wisconsin’s State Veterinary Diagnostics Laboratory, said it’s not a real surprise to find avian flu on an American mink farm. The H5N1 virus strain was found on mink farms in Spain and Finland in 2023.

Along with exposure to wild birds, Poulsen said the cases in mink may be related to outbreaks on other types of farms. Utah reported cases of avian flu on both poultry and dairy farms as recently as late July.

“Mink are obligate carnivores, so they could be eating rendered meat product from the poultry industry,” Poulsen said, pointing to previous cases of dogs and cats becoming infected after consuming contaminated raw pet food.

Neither USDA or Utah officials have released much information about the affected mink farm in Utah.

Poulsen worries that could be because the agency is primarily focused on preventing the spread of New World screwworm in livestock along the southern U.S. border, or it is simply understaffed due to the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce.

In Wisconsin, mink are not considered livestock and the state’s estimate 32 mink farms are not regulated by DATCP.

But Konkle said her agency developed a “good working relationship” with the industry’s veterinarians during the COVID-19 pandemic, which also affected captive mink.

If the virus were to be found on a Wisconsin mink farm, Konkle said state and federal officials would work with the farm and their veterinarian to monitor the situation.

Threat of avian flu returns to Wisconsin with new species at risk was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

High Stakes’ Peacock Lounge bar. Photo credit: Melissa Miller.

High Stakes by Bartolotta, a highly anticipated European-inspired steakhouse led by chef Paul Bartolotta, opened its ruby-red and brass-embellished door to guests Thursday at 5 p.m.

“With High Stakes, we found that next level, that higher level of attention to detail, and when you go inside, you will see it, you will hear it, you will smell it,” Bartolotta told Urban Milwaukee.

The menu centers on an internationally sourced steak program, highlighting Australian, Japanese and American Wagyu alongside American Black Angus filet mignon, ribeye and New York strip. Mediterranean seafood — including sea bass, langoustine and blue lobster — and an elevated Paris-based caviar program also appear on the menu. Other standouts include a vegetarian risotto and crispy roasted guinea hen.

“It’s a sum total of life experiences,” said Bartolotta, citing his culinary experiences across Europe, Las Vegas, New York and Chicago.

Filtered through a 1930s Art Deco lens, designer Jay Franke described the space as “layered, glittering and theatrical.” The moody dining room features sophisticated, polished brass accents and rich, dramatic lighting, set against the backdrop of a “jewel-toned gold metallics and striking Grenache red” color palette.

The dining room’s walls are home to several pieces of art by Lucia Stern, a visual artist born in Milwaukee in 1895 who gained popularity in the 1940s and ’50s. Franke said some of Stern’s pieces that left Milwaukee in the ’50s “are now returning home where they belong.”

The Peacock Lounge, which Franke described as “a destination within the destination,” is an intimate London-inspired lounge within High Stakes serving classic and signature cocktails alongside lounge-exclusive small plates. Selections include Potato Coins & Caviar, Crab & Shrimp Toasts and Langoustines “en Papillote.”

Franke distinguished the lounge by anchoring it with a striking blue lacquer bar, fringe-accented seating and a life-size, hyper-realistic peacock perched with its shimmering multicolored tail feathers cascading down the edge of the bar. Franke concealed the floor-to-ceiling windows that previously opened the interior to Water Street, lending the space a romantic, secluded feel.

The Milwaukee Players Room, the restaurant’s private dining room, features more than 270 framed caricatures of people High Stakes recognizes as those “who have helped shape the city across business, community, culinary, environmental and social spheres.” Large playing cards adorned with the caricatures are served alongside drinks at the bar to use as coasters.

“The result is a collaboration with a very clear vision: worldly, chic and still completely home here [in Milwaukee],” said Franke.

Jae Evangelista, the restaurant’s general manager, told Urban Milwaukee that the High Stakes team of servers, bartenders and other staff members are “as approachable as they are knowledgeable.”

“When we talk about elevating the fabric of our social community, it’s not just about sheer skill set [of a team]; it’s about passion, and that’s where we really hit the lottery,” she said.

Evangelista noted that chef Bartolotta has been “boots-on-the-ground” in the training process and “the passion that he has passed down” to the team is going to be “very apparent” on opening night.

High Stakes by Bartolotta is located at 1030 N. Water St. The restaurant is open for dinner Tuesday through Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m. Peacock Lounge opens at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, with extended hours until midnight Tuesday through Thursday and 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

Photos

A Generac manufacturing plant Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in Beaver Dam, Wis. Angela Major/WPR

Waukesha-based Generac has entered into a long-term agreement with Amazon to provide up to $8 billion worth of backup generators for the tech giant’s data centers.

Generac disclosed the deal in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. Under the agreement, Generac is expected to deliver $2.4 billion worth of generators to Amazon in 2027 and 2028.

Generac CEO Aaron Jagdfeld said the agreement establishes Generac as a “long-term partner for the supply of industrial backup generators to Amazon” and demonstrates the industry’s growth.

“It provides visibility to our multi-year growth expectations and our ongoing investments in vertically integrated large megawatt generator manufacturing capacity,” Jagdfeld said in a statement. “This is a significant milestone for Generac and positions us to capture this generational growth opportunity.”

The deal allows Amazon to acquire up to nearly 1.7 million shares of Generac stock for roughly $200 per share, the SEC filing states. Amazon immediately received the right to buy more than 300,000 shares. The remaining shares will vest over time as Generac receives payments and supplies backup power generators under the agreement.

Spokespeople for Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Amazon Web Services has 287 operational data centers and 200 planned data centers across 22 countries, according to Data Center Map, an industry research tool.

News of the deal sent Generac’s stock price surging Wednesday from roughly $175 per share to nearly $250 per share. It was down to roughly $208 per share as of noon Thursday.

Data centers have been an important sales driver for Generac in recent years, helping drive the growth of the company’s commercial and industrial business.

The company has said a new manufacturing plant in Beaver Dam, expanded production operations in Oshkosh and plans for another new plant in Sussex have been part of a strategy to meet demand in that segment.

The commercial and industrial segment’s net sales increased by 29 percent in the second quarter of this year, hitting $556 million compared to $431 million last year.

“Sales growth for the segment was primarily driven by ramping revenue from products sold to the global data center market,” said Generac Chief Financial Officer York Ragen during the company’s second quarter earnings call in July.

On the call, Jagdfeld told investors the company expected to see nearly $450 million in data center-related revenue this year, up from previous projections.

He said the company had a backlog of $1.6 billion worth of products sold to the data center market, not including a new agreement with a large data center customer the company signed in June.

“The significant growth in our data center backlog with both hyperscale and non-hyperscale customers provides further confidence in our ability to serve this massive and still rapidly growing market,” he said.

To address growing demand for industrial scale generators, Jagdfeld said the company ramped up production at its existing manufacturing plants and sped up efforts to build a new plant in Sussex.

He said the Sussex plant is on track to begin production this year, ahead of the company’s initial target.

Generac employs more than 4,800 people across 11 locations in Wisconsin, including seven manufacturing facilities, a company spokesperson said via email.

Generac enters into $8B deal with Amazon to supply generators for data centers was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.

Bender Park Trail. Photo taken September 10, 2026 by Graham Kilmer.

Milwaukee County Parks recently finished the latest addition to the Oak Leaf Trail network: a 1.3-mile trail running through Bender Park at the far south end of the county.

The new trail is the latest contribution to the revitalization of the 303-acre park at the far southern end of the county. Cyclists, runners or pedestrians heading south along the South Shore Line will find the new northern trailhead near the intersection of E. Ryan Road and Lake Vista Parkway. A gravel trail running between Bender Park and E. Drexel Avenue connects the new trail to the nearest paved section of the South Shore Line running along the eponymous Oak Creek.

The Bender Park trail extends the Oak Leaf Trail network farther south, providing a spur that brings cyclists closer to the Milwaukee-Racine-Kenosha Trail in northern Racine County. Winding through Bender Park along the top of a bluff, the trail passes through expanses of prairie grasses and offers dramatic views of the lake.

“By connecting Milwaukee and Racine counties and expanding access to our natural areas, we’re creating more opportunities for people to be active, connect with nature and experience the physical and mental health benefits our parks provide,” Milwaukee County Parks Director Guy Smith said in a statement. “We’re grateful to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and all of our project partners for helping us make this important connection a reality.”

The southern end of the trail is E. Oakwood Road, about four miles north of the Racine County trail.

The project was conceived decades ago and Parks has been working to realize it since 2021, when it applied for a $1.3 million Congestion, Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) grant to fund the project.

Parks officials and the local county supervisor, Steve Taylor, celebrated the new trail with an opening ceremony Thursday morning. It’s one of three major projects that are significantly improving the Oak Creek park. The boat launch was recently dredged and reopened, the trail was built and now Parks is preparing to rebuild the potholed and disintegrating parkway that winds through the park down the lakefront.

“$4.5 million and three projects. It’s a lot of coordination to get it done,” said Taylor, who advocated for funding the projects at the board level. “It’s going to be a great improvement.”

On the other end of the county, Parks is finishing up another section of trail through Kohl Park. The segment will bring Parks closer to bridging the gap between the northeastern runs of the Oak Leaf Trail and the Menomonee Line in the west.

The trails are amenities for recreation, but they also further Parks’ larger strategic goals to reduce pavement in the parks system and create transportation infrastructure that is easier to maintain long term, Smith said. The department has also in recent years converted redundant parkways into trails.

Photos

Trail Map

Bender Park trail project maps. Milwaukee County Parks.