You can help plan the future of the Menomonee Valley

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Milwaukee has much to celebrate. Milwaukee has chronic problems that must be addressed if we are to become a truly great city. These twin themes seem to dominate public discourse in our community and for good reason. They are both true.

3 Bridges Park in spring

Likewise, the City of Milwaukee, Menomonee Valley businesses and other stakeholders are celebrating the successful completion of the 1998 Menomonee Valley Land Use Plan by initiating a new plan, which is called Menomonee Valley 2.0. The new plan is intended to address on-going redevelopment challenges.

You can help draw new maps and create the new plan. First a very brief overview.

6th St. Bridge from Harley-Davidson Museum

The city, Valley stakeholders and the general public can all take genuine pride in the success of earlier efforts. These include the creation of Menomonee Valley Partners to spearhead redevelopment, replacing the 6th St viaduct with dramatic and inviting new bridges that lead into the Valley, extending Canal St. through the Valley, the redevelopment of the former Milwaukee Road Shops into the Menomonee Valley Industrial Center, rehabilitation of the Menomonee River, and the creation of new parklands. Among the many positive consequences of these successes have been increases in employment and recreational opportunities in the Valley. The Urban Ecology Center, Harley-Davidson Museum, and Global Water Center, among others, have all located in the Valley. Potawatomi Bingo & Casino and The Hank Aaron State Trail both have experienced major expansions.

Topping off the new hotel, July 1, 2014

Menomonee Valley 2.0 is intended to build on this momentum and provide a new vision for the future of the Menomonee Valley. To date the process has involved compiling information from stakeholders, focus groups, and neighborhood groups, as well as a public workshop that allowed participants to pore over maps and make specific suggestions.

Here’s how you can help:

Menomonee Valley Partners has created an interactive mapping page on its website. You can go online (click here) and add your ideas to the Valley map. It’s easy! I did one. It looks like this:

You can see my map in its online version by clicking here.

However, before you go ahead and join in the fun of mapping, you may want to read on so that you will have a better grasp of some of the specific issues the planners want to address.

Five key Valley redevelopment areas have been identified. These areas are either vacant or likely to change in the next 10 to 15 years. They are also areas where it is hoped that solutions and ideas can be extrapolated to other areas of the Valley. Here is a map of the five sites:

Below are descriptions of the five sites. There also are links to my photo albums of each site so that you can see the issues more clearly. (Of course I have photographs! Too many to post with this story.)

1) I-94 Reconstruction area:  Yes, I-94 is going to be reconstructed. It is planned for 2019. Challenges and opportunities involve making connections from the freeway to the Valley and across the freeway between the neighborhoods to the north and south. Can these connections be made more pedestrian and bicycle friendly? Link to photo album.

2) St. Paul Avenue:  St. Paul serves as a gateway to the Valley from both I-94 and the Third Ward. The avenue currently includes light industrial and retail outlets as well as some vacant properties. St. Paul Avenue between the Milwaukee Intermodal Station and 25th Street is being re-envisioned to build on these assets. Link to photo album.

3) Mount Vernon Waterfront Sites:  More than 10 acres of waterfront property is tucked between Mount Vernon Ave. and the Menomonee River. This site is challenged by lack of access and infrastructure. The Marquette Interchange also separates it into two parcels. Link to photo album.

4) East Gateway:  Canal Street immediately east of the 6th Street bridge is a major gateway to the Menomonee Valley. There are two large, vacant properties on either side of Canal St. in the shadow of the High Rise Bridge. (Currently they accommodate hundreds of nesting herring gulls!) Link to photo album.

5) Pierce and Bruce district:  This district, defined by Pierce and Bruce Streets between the I-43 High Rise Bridge and 16th Street, has challenges involving land use conflicts and inadequate access between the Valley and surrounding neighborhood. It also includes the Burnham Canal, which is slated for rehabilitation as a wetland. Link to photo album.

To create your own Valley map click here.

This post is one in a series that relates to my Menomonee Valley Artist in Residency. For more information about the residency and links to previous posts and photographs, go to MV AiR.

Meter Hero wants to help you conserve water & energy

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The first thing I notice upon entering the Meter Hero office is the bulletin board next to the door. Pinned to it are T-shirts, photos, newspaper clippings and a large poster of Milwaukee’s North Point water tower with the text, “Conserve Differently.” At a glance it looks like a display of memorabilia and success stories typical of a business or environmental organization proud of its accomplishments. McGee Young, the founder of Meter Hero, quickly corrects my false impression.

“We call this our ‘learning wall’ because it documents our failures.” He says this with as much pride as I would expect if it had in fact commemorated successes.

Meter Hero is Young’s latest attempt to create a tool that will enable people to better understand their own water and energy consumption. An online application allows users to track their own water, electric and gas usage and also to compare it with similar users. The goal is to stimulate conservation.

As the “learning wall” testifies, that goal can be elusive.

Overlooking the Menomonee Valley

In the fall of 2013 Young became one of the first entrepreneurs to be given a Global Freshwater Seed Accelerator Grant from Milwaukee’s Water Council. He moved into the newly renovated Global Water Center building and created H2Oscore, his first effort to motivate water conservation. A precursor to Meter Hero, H2Oscore used a water utility’s own data, which was translated into an accessible format so that homeowners, businesses and schools could track water usage.

Grafton Middle School T-shirt

H2Oscore was deployed successfully in four cities around Wisconsin and experienced good community engagement and encouraging conservation progress. Young discovered a weak link, however, in the water utility. With a wry smile he recalls the realization that utility companies don’t share his conservation values. “The more water we use the more money they make,” he maintains. Waste, not conservation, benefits their bottom line.

This energized Young to go back to his team of entrepreneurs and challenge them to design “a product that puts H2Oscore out of business.” The result, launched in beta form in January 2014, was Meter Hero. The new application not only bypasses the utility but also adds energy usage to the water data.

Global Water Center office

Young, who teaches environmental policy at Marquette University, sees these as moral as well as economic issues. “We will face no bigger challenge in our lifetimes than how to manage our water and energy,” he asserts. To illustrate the moral dimension, he returns to the ‘learning wall’ and points out one of the news clippings. “The highest water use in the city of Milwaukee is in the poorest neighborhoods,” he observes. “From a social justice perspective we must do better.”

I inquire about the value of being in the Global Water Center. Initially he was skeptical, he tells me. However, over time he has come to appreciate and value the opportunities it affords him to connect with people “who share an interest in water issues but who are not exactly your type.” As an academic he is not used to rubbing shoulders with engineers. He explains, “We tend to surround ourselves with those who are most like us. When we get out of that comfort zone we find our creativity improves and the ways that we look at the world expand.”

When I ask if it matters that the Global Water Center is located where it is, next to the canal in the Menomonee Valley, he pauses in reflection. Then he says, “Not yet.” But, he goes on, the impending development of the adjacent Reed Street Yards, which is intended to attract additional water related business and industry, will help. Furthermore, what really matters about the Menomonee Valley is the ongoing revitalization. “There is energy in the neighborhood that is palpable. Something important is clearly happening here and people gravitate to places like this.”

Promotion event at Outpost Natural Foods

He then suggests a challenge that faces Menomonee Valley planners is the perception that the Valley currently exists as two different and disconnected segments. “The great thing about the Valley is the fact that you have such a rich history juxtaposed with modern, ecologically sensitive new construction. On top of this there is an effort to bring natural elements into the management of the lived infrastructure—bio-swales and other stormwater retention efforts.” While similar systems are being installed in the Reed Street Yards most of the attention is focused to the west of Falk Corporation, with the new parks, industries and Urban Ecology Center.

He acknowledges that Canal Street and the Hank Aaron State Trail offer a degree of connection but he envisions some kind of transit or a trolley perhaps that will bind the two halves more deliberately.

He muses further, suggesting, “The story of the redevelopment of the Valley is such a compelling one.” Instead of bringing in big warehouses to fill vacant lots the policy has been to attract industries that will employ real people, create decent jobs, while at the same time keeping an eye on environmental sustainability. “We are investing in the community, recognizing the history but also projecting the Valley as one of the most forward-looking parts of Milwaukee,” he says. “It’s a one-of-a-kind place.”

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I've just recorded my first meter reading on Meter Hero. You can try it, too: click here.

This post is one in a series that relates to my Menomonee Valley Artist in Residency. For more information about the residency and links to previous posts and photographs, go to MV AiR.

Nature and Community: Reviving the Spirit

A Menomonee Valley essay

On a trip through the high Sierras John Muir came upon a particularly lovely glen with a river running through it. He climbed a large boulder in the river, which he likened to an altar. After musing upon the power of spring floods to move boulders he rhapsodized about moss, the clear pool, blossoming lilies and light coming through overarching leaves. “The place seemed Holy,” he concluded, “where one might hope to see God.”¹

Muir was hardly the first to equate nature with holiness. His descriptions of wilderness experiences often bordered on spiritual ecstasy and yet they were paired with keen phenomenological observations and precise taxonomic identification of plants and animals he encountered. Muir clearly was comfortable blending empirical science with personal theology. His rigorously analytical mind was open to mysticism.

I recently picked up a volume of Muir’s writing, thinking it was time for me to revisit his perspective on nature. I’d been asked to talk about the spiritual component of my urban wilderness escapades. It was not the first such request I’d received and, like Muir, I recognize and welcome the spiritual dimension of my own examinations of nature, urban and otherwise.

When I first began to explore the Menomonee River for my book, Urban Wilderness, my impulse was analytical and documentary. My episodic travels would take me nowhere that hadn’t been thoroughly mapped as well as completely altered by hundreds of years of human activity. Nevertheless, in a very real sense it was a journey of discovery. Among the many surprises of that endeavor was the spiritual presence I felt in undeniably compromised remnants of nature.

Please go to Urban Wilderness for the rest of this story and additional photos.


This post is one in a series that relates to my Menomonee Valley Artist in Residency. For more information about the residency and links to previous posts and photographs, go to MV AiR.

Cross-country in the Menomonee Valley

The idea of skiing in the park hit me like sunshine breaking through an overcast, wintry sky. You see it wasn’t my idea.

Skiing wasn’t on my mind when I walked into the Menomonee Valley Branch of the Urban Ecology Center. In fact I hadn’t thought about skiing in years. My intention had been to revisit Three Bridges Park—on foot, with my camera. The stop at the UEC was to see if there might be kids heading out to the park to sled on its hills. It had snowed earlier in the day and I was hoping to shoot some action.

As I enter, Omar, the UEC’s Visitors Services Assistant, greets me in the reception area. No, he says, the last group for the day had just left. When I tell him I am heading out to the park he asks, “Would you like to take skis?”

The rest of this story and additional photos are posted on my other blog: Urban Wilderness.

This post is one in a series that relates to my Menomonee Valley Artist in Residency. For more information about the residency and links to previous posts and photographs, go to MV AiR.

At midwinter: The rebirth of the Menomonee Valley

I went for a nice long walk in 3 Bridges Park on Sunday afternoon, Groundhog Day. There was no sign of a groundhog, but also no doubt about seeing shadows. The sun was bright and the temperature surprisingly comfortable. It felt like a respite from our winter of alternating polar vortices and snowstorms. I had expected to find other people out enjoying the pleasant conditions but my ramble up and down the length of the park was surprisingly solitary.

Judging from the numerous tracks, Saturday had seen heavy use of the park, after yet another snowfall. Ski tracks along the sloping terrain, sled runs down the steeper hills, foot traffic along the Hank Aaron State Trail. Today, though, the park was empty—and beautiful, with a minimalist kind of simplicity. It appeared pristine, as if a freshly laundered sheet had been stretched over the rolling hills. How symbolic, I thought, of its newness and potential.

The rest of this story and additional photos are posted on my other blog: Urban Wilderness.

This post is one in a series that relates to my Menomonee Valley Artist in Residency. For more information about the residency and links to previous posts and photographs, go to MV AiR.

Considering Thoreau in Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley

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The news for the past few days has been dominated by dire predictions of breaking records for cold. Today’s Journal Sentinel calls the predicted temperatures “life-threatening.” I’m certainly not going to go out photographing in the Menomonee Valley until things improve a bit. It’s a good day to stay indoors, with a fire preferably, and to reflect on warmer times and places.

In 2008 my book, Urban Wilderness: Exploring a Metropolitan Watershed, was published. The watershed it examines is my own, the Menomonee River. One of its chapters is about the Menomonee Valley. The book is a series of experiential short stories, accompanied by photographs, about my exploration of the watershed. One of my favorite stories in the whole book is from the chapter on the Industrial Valley. The photograph that relates best to this story, which was featured on the title page, is also one of my favorites. Perhaps that's not a coincidence!

Faint-Hearted Crusader

At the bottom of the bluff, near the river's edge, it is possible to imagine being in a distant wilderness rather than in a narrow corridor between landfills and brownfields in the industrial core of a major city. It is especially invigorating to touch the wild spirit of the river that lies at its heart, feeling the vitality of it, tried but unbroken.

In warm weather, the wear on this trail indicates regular traffic. But snow cover makes clear how rarely used it is in winter. Two, maybe three, people and one dog have preceded me this week. The infrequency of human visitation likely explains the enormous number of ducks and geese taking advantage of this refuge between the stadium and the 27th Street viaduct. Away from the edge of the bluff, out of sight of the waterfowl below, their constant murmur can be heard like a softly chanted litany. When my form appears at the rim it is as if a shot had been fired. Pandemonium ensues and the entire congregation rises. Within a minute, they are gone. All is silent but for the trickling of the current and the low rumble of a single truck high and far away on the viaduct.

In his essay Walking, Thoreau claims to "speak a word for Nature, for absolute Freedom and Wildness." I wish to speak for relative freedom and wildness. They are virtues that can coexist within society and culture while providing a contrast made poignant by the intimacy of their juxtaposition. Thoreau wants to "regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of nature, rather than a member of society," but it need not be an either-or proposition. Rather we must reconcile our social and natural selves as intertwining facets of a single whole. Indeed, until we can see them as one and the same, society ignores nature at its peril.

Thoreau chastises all who are "faint-hearted crusaders" unwilling to commit to true walking. This would require, he says, leaving family and friends, settling all one's affairs, and setting out without thought of returning. That is a journey Thoreau himself made only briefly and symbolically. I, too, am content to retrace my footprints in the snow, back to my parked car, my family, and the life I've made in a city graced by a measure of wildness.

From Urban Wilderness: Exploring a Metropolitan Watershed, 2008, Center for American Places at Columbia College Chicago.

To read additional excerpts, click here.

Menomonee Valley design wins award

"Making a Wild Place in Milwaukee’s Urban Menomonee Valley" won an honor award from the American Society of Landscape Architects. The award recognizes the importance of this design to the restoration of the Valley, a place that "has been mistreated for a hundred and sixty years." 

The winning design firm is Landscapes of Place, LLC. The team of Nancy Aten and Dan Collins are the principles of the firm. Congratulations!

A project description can be seen on the ASLA website. 

Project site is on the right side of the river in this view from 2008

Beaver "art" along the Menomonee River Parkway?

It looks like art, but what do you call it if it was chewed by a beaver?

Read the story behind my discovery of this natural artist and see more pictures at Urban Wilderness.