We need your help and ideas for saving Milwaukee County's Parks. We'll pay, too. | Opinion
We tackled lighting the Hoan Bridge in 2020 and illuminated the best ideas from the public for reducing crime last year. Now the Daniel Hoan Foundation is turning its efforts to restoring the crown jewels in Milwaukee County's Park System. Why focus on county parks?
Historically, the system was one of the best in the nation. The Wisconsin Policy Forum points out in a recent report that it features landscapes designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed Central Park in New York. As recently as 2009, Milwaukee County Parks won the National Gold Medal for excellence from the National Recreation & Park Association.
Unfortunately, the Forum points out that thanks to declining property tax support and a shrinking workforce, the park system now has almost a half-a-billion dollar backlog of capital needs with no easy solution in sight. The parks suffer from deferred maintenance that continues to build. This is a tragedy, especially since so many of our fellow citizens use the parks extensively, especially, as they point out, those on the low end of the economic ladder. Parks serve as a source of beauty and a place of respite for citizens in need of it.
My grandfather, former Milwaukee Mayor Daniel Hoan, was a leader in adding more parks so the working folks of Milwaukee had a place to recreate. Charles Whitnall was part of his administration. In 1923, Whitnall released plans for a countywide system of parks and parkways to lay the groundwork for the current Milwaukee County Parks system. Lake Michigan beaches were also created during the Hoan administration.
An early memory with my grandfather on lakefront stands out
One of my earliest memories was when my grandfather took me at age 10 to Milwaukee's lakefront, and we stood on the bluff in Juneau Park. As a 10-year-old, I kept wondering, OK, granddad, what am I supposed to do about that?
He told me that the lakefront belongs to the people and that the art center should never have been built on our lakefront because it blocks their access and view. He also told me how nervous he was when he went door to door to the “capitalist’s homes” on Wahl Avenue to ask them to donate their land to the city so he could create Lincoln Memorial Drive to give the people access to the lakefront.
Ironically, fast forward to many years later when I got a call from the mayor asking me to head up the Port of Milwaukee. At that time, the lakefront had become a disaster. It comprised shabby parking lots, rundown Pieces of 8 restaurant, dilapidated port offices, and an island created with unused freeway landfill that was virtually unused.
Over the next 25 years, the Board of Directors that I chaired for Port of Milwaukee was the single most important reason we have a gorgeous lakefront today. We fought epic battles to make that happen. Some of the city's most prominent developers wanted to put high-rise condominiums right next to the Art Museum and on what is now the Summerfest grounds. We vetoed their plans.
Summerfest was then led by my good friend Bo Black, who proposed using what is now Lakeshore State Park for carnival-type events for Summerfest. Instead, we convinced the mayor to declare that landfill Harbor Island and make it off limits to Summerfest. That stayed in place until Gov. Tommy Thompson's administration intervened and transformed it into a state park.
Even the current Harbor House required some work to ensure that it respected pedestrian walkways around what had been the footprint for the Pieces of 8 Restaurant. I also signed the lease for the Calatrava Art Museum addition, a stunning piece of architecture that allowed citizens to access the lakefront.
Can we create innovative solutions for the crisis facing our parks system again? The answer, I believe, is yes.
There is a way forward for our parks. We'll pay for the best ideas.
The Wisconsin Policy Forum not only defined the current budget crisis for the parks but laid out multiple policy options that will require the best of our political and business leaders to implement. It could mean establishing new and expanded relationships with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, which currently manages many of the rivers and wetlands that flow through our park system. They also suggested enhanced cooperation with municipalities whose citizens use the parks.
I am also calling on my fellow citizens to submit their most creative ideas to reduce the cost of our park systems while increasing the quality of how they are maintained. Please go to www. https://innovatemkegov.org/ and submit your ideas; $30,000 in prizes will be awarded to the winners.
We are on the fiscal cliff, and the future of our great park system is in jeopardy. And without truly creative thinking and determination, it will not be saved. Even the new sales tax will not save it because there are too many other mandatory requirements for deploying that money elsewhere, such as paying off the county's pension obligations.
Can we succeed? The naysayers who never thought it was possible to raise enough private money to light the Daniel Hoan Bridge have been proven wrong. Thanks to the tenacious leadership of people like Michael Hostad and Ian Abston, it's been a world-class hit. This latest initiative will undoubtedly surface new leadership who want to see our parks saved and restored to their former glory.
Daniel Steininger is the grandson of Daniel Hoan and the former chairman of the Harbor Commission of the Port of Milwaukee.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Contest will pay for best ideas to improve Milwaukee County Parks