OMC: Is there progress in that area? With the mall situation?

TB: There has been some. The mall situation is one that still we are paying a lot of attention to, and not just the mall, but West Wisconsin Avenue, West Michigan, East Wisconsin Avenue. But the Third Ward is picking up. It's not technically Downtown, but it's pretty darn close, so I think that that's been a public positive.

TB: I would say, right now, I haven't heard any conversation in over a year about it.

OMC: Do you think that there's this inferiority complex that you hear people talk about so much, that we want people to say how great we are?

TB: I don't know that I would call it an inferiority complex. I think it's that we're not a megalopolis. We're not -- we simply are not. And so to say we have to be like Los Angeles or Chicago or New York ... we're not. And what I've always said is that we've got the amenities that the "more glamorous" cities have when it comes to sports, the arts, festivals, music festivals, things like that, natural environment. What we lack is the hour commute, and we don't have hurricanes or earthquakes. And that's OK with me.

So, I think that in some ways we can still be considered cozy, and I don't think that's such a bad thing.

OMC: Does that work against us to outsiders; to people who still think of it as sort of a provincial town?

TB: It probably does to some extent, but also, we're probably the champion of the back-handed compliment. What I mean by that is that people come here and I hear it all the time, "Wow, I didn't realize you had all of this going on. This is a great city as it is." And then you have people who move here and don't want to move away, because it's a great place to raise a family, and more and more a great place for young people to be. I think the energy in young adults is very strong here.

OMC: Should we just ignore what these other people say?

TB: I just say "come, and you'll see. See for yourself. Let it speak for itself."

OMC: I have a list of issues facing Milwaukee right now and I'm just going to name them, and you can tell me what you think: Miller moving its headquarters to Chicago and the problems with Midwest Airlines?

TB: Well, I think the Miller situation, obviously, I would've preferred for Miller to have retained its corporate headquarters here. The decision was made not to choose either home city. I'm also quick to point out that it's not a Pabst or Schlitz situation, where they just started closing the doors and leaving. The jobs in the brewery are actually going to increase. We're going to produce more beer here than we've produced since the 1970s, so that portion's actually a win for us. And I will harbor desires to get our girlfriend back, if I can say that without getting in trouble ... that they may go down to Chicago and think it's not all it's cracked up to be.

OMC: They might not find a place to park.

TB: Yeah, and they might decide that 10 percent sales tax is too much and think, "Let's go back to Milwaukee." Stranger things have happened.

OMC: And the Midwest situation. Does that keep you up at night?

TB: I love Midwest -- I want it to thrive. I want it to survive. I understand, as everybody does, that that industry is just getting hammered right now. Just getting hammered, but they, historically, have been a survivor and they're going back to their basic business model, which is these routes that have been profitable for them, and hopefully, once they've re-established themselves they can take off on other parts as well.

OMC: The Emerald Ash Borer, which is something I've been blogging about for the last couple of years because the three trees in front of my house are ash trees, and if they go I'm terrified. I saw this morning that they found it in Mequon.

TB: I did, too. Not good news. It's interesting that we're fortunate that we're later than some other states. We're the 10th state, I think. We've got it located here, but I think the DNR and others are going to address it quite aggressively.

OMC: And probably we'll be able to learn from other places that have already had it.

TB: I think so, and I think that ... there are techniques now that you may not have to cut down every tree in a half-mile. But I think it's something that we all have to be concerned about. I grew up on the West side of Milwaukee when we lost our trees with Dutch Elm. We had this beautiful, beautiful canopy over Hi-Mount Boulevard where I grew up, and all of a sudden, they were gone.

OMC: Mass transit / light rail.

TB: I remain committed to rail. I remain committed to buses. I think it is -- it's amazing to me, and when I lived around this country, I cannot name a major American metropolitan area that's growing that does not have mass transit in terms of a rail component and busses. And I think that the county executive and conservative talk radio believe that rail is the end of Western civilization as we know it, and I feel the opposite.

I believe that if we get rail as part of our mass transportation structure here, it would create more economic growth for the area, it is environmentally a much better deal, and economically it's a much better deal. I just think that it's a shame that they can't change their tune.

OMC: There are so many people who are vehemently opposed to rail and mass transit ... maybe they're just the vocal ones.

TB: Well, what you have to do is you have to create a system. This is what I've said. I've proposed this Downtown streetcar system and I'm going to be honest. There are several things I want to do. One of them is I want to get something in the ground, and I believe that once you have something in the ground, the debate changes dramatically.

It's no longer the end of Western Civilization as we know it. It then becomes, "How do I get this connected to my next neighborhood? How do I move this to the next neighborhood?" So to me that's one component to it, and the other is, you have to look at the other mass transit systems around the country. You see ridership going up, and here you see ridership going down. Well of course it's going down, if you're raising fares and cutting routes.

<< Back

Next >>

1 comment about this article. Post a comment / write a review.

Recent Talkbacks ...

Posted by nfholton on Sept. 3, 2008 at 2:02 p.m. (report)

Blaming Walker for transit is a bit of a copout. If Barrett was willing, he could be far more aggressive on transit than he is. Instead, he proposed a completely risk-free idea that he knew wouldn't go anywhere and pretends that he has no blame. Blaming talk radio is worse. If our leaders cower in the face of these silly entertainers, we're really in trouble. Bold transit ideas in this city win the war on the merits by a landslide. It's an issue that a good mayor should be willing to risk some short-term popularity to pursue.