with 1k Friends Transportation Policy Director, Carl Glasemeyer
By Miquéla V. Thornton
Note: This article was a collaboration between 1000 Friends of Wisconsin and the Feature Storytelling Workshop taught by Stacy Forster at UW Madison. Miquéla V. Thornton is an M.A. Candidate at the UW Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
In 1964, a little pink church was demolished to make room for Interstate 794, a freeway in Milwaukee County used to access I-94.
The little pink church was formally the Blessed Virgin of Pompeii. As journalist John Gurda described it in Milwaukee Magazine, it was a respite for Italian newcomers to Milwaukee’s working-class community, the Third Ward.
It became the city’s Little Italy and the humble Catholic church a “social and spiritual anchor of the Italian community and remained a touchstone even after many of its members moved to the Lower East Side,” Gurda writes.
In 2019, Milwaukee initiated plans to revitalize Pompeii Square, where the church once was, allocating $100,000 to improve the park at the off ramp of I-794. At the time, there wasn’t even a path from the sidewalk to the memorial.
However, 1,000 Friends of Wisconsin’s Rethink I-794 campaign asks how more could be done if the interstate didn’t exist at all.
As the infrastructure ages, WisDOT is working with the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County to determine the best transportation solution, whether that be improving the freeway, replacing it or removing it entirely. Additionally, the Rethink I-794 campaign sponsored an analysis by Larry Witzling, a renowned urban planner and Professor Emeritus of Architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Aside from lessening the planet-warming emissions of traveling across the interstate and the pollution blowing into Pompeii Square and other sites, 1K Friends believes the total removal could improve the success of downtown Milwaukee and reconnect the city with the Historic Third Ward. Additionally, WisDOT shows two concepts for removing the freeway, each showing where traffic would go instead.
The removal may not bring back the unique community that was demolished along with the little pink church, but it could spur another version connected to the commercializing downtown area.
1K Friend’s Transportation Policy Director Carl Glasemeyer explains how rethinking the interstate would benefit not only the planet and Milwaukee’s commercial success but also everyday people looking for community, like the Italian immigrants of the last century.
“If the state is not pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into this infrastructure every decade… then this money can go to better use and benefit people across the state,” Glasemeyer said.
According to Witzling’s study and Glasemeyer, here are 10 advantages to removing I-794 that will benefit both Wisconsin and the everyday Milwaukee resident:
- Increasing tax revenue for the city and county from new development on the land, which can fund more public services like libraries, parks and public transportation
According to Witzling’s estimates, removing I-794 downtown section could potentially generate $475 million in property taxes, $3 billion in downtown disposable income, $60 million in city sales tax over 30 years.
As Glasemeyer explains, this amount comes from not only the businesses that could thrive in the space taken up by the highway but also from avoiding the highway’s continuous and expensive maintenance the city and state must fund.
“That means they (the City of Milwaukee) can provide more services. They can have libraries open longer. They can provide more public transportation services — things that benefit everyone who lives in the city and county of Milwaukee,” they said, adding that the usefulness of these services increases because Milwaukee is a major tourist destination in Wisconsin.
According to a report by Tourism Economics, Milwaukee is the biggest benefactor of tourism in the state, seeing an impact of $3,922,000 in 2022 and $4,167,000 in 2023. Without the highway, Glasemeyer says, there will be more space for tourism development downtown, which has the potential to increase an already upward trend.
- Creating new homes in the decades following the removal, providing more housing options for residents
The study also showed that the removal could create 3,000 more housing units over 30 years, and generate $535 million in property and sales taxes. By removing the freeway between Hoan Bridge and North Sixth Street, development, like 10 blocks worth of housing, could spur in its place.
The study also showed that because the city uses the land to incentivize affordable housing goals, freeing up the space from the corridor could generate revenue for affordable housing to the tune of 20%, creating a healthy mix of market rate and affordable units.
- Making way for opportunities to develop a more inclusive and complete downtown neighborhood, with amenities like grocery stores and playgrounds that serve all ages
“If people never envision themselves living downtown, we can question, why is that?,” Glasemeyer said. “Part of that is because it’s geared towards people who work fancy office jobs or for someone visiting the area as a tourist.”
Instead, 1K Friends wants to imagine a livable downtown that connects communities.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, when Illinois-based Go Grocer opened in 2023, it became the only local grocery store, as the second nearest one was a Metro Market about a mile away. This meant, that before its opening, there was not a walkable grocer for the people living in Third Ward condos and apartments.
By removing the highway and making way for homes, local businesses and amenities like grocery stores, Glasemeyer said, the area could “have all the things that someone would need if they are raising kids there.”
- Fostering more spaces for local and minority-owned businesses to start up or expand, supporting entrepreneurship
According to the study, in the first 10 years, new buildings would be concentrated in strategic locations to anchor blocks and support existing businesses. In another 10 years, both regional and national businesses would be attracted to the growing downtown, which would also allow the city to attract more employers, foster job opportunities and retain a young workforce. Finally, in the 30-year outlook, an additional $1.1 billion would be added to property values, as well as $475 million in taxes.
This would benefit the everyday residents by creating new retail, restaurants, hospitality and entertainment to enjoy downtown.
- Better integrating the train station into the rest of downtown, making it a more central transportation hub
Wisconsin is currently looking to expand freight and passenger rail. Last Oct., the state received $73 million in federal funding for the effort. A central feature of the project is expanding passenger trains between Milwaukee and Chicago. WisDOT is also exploring the potential for Eau Claire-Twin Cities passenger rail, which would connect Milwaukee, Madison, Eau Claire and Minneapolis.
According to Glasemeyer, removing the highway would allow Milwaukee to be the centerpiece of the project. Additionally, by having a well-integrated downtown and more housing opportunities by the train station, the new “people can live really close to those important connections.”
- Reducing air and noise pollution from the highway, as well as transportation emissions, improving public health
As a 2023 study published in the peer-reviewed journal “Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health,” found, 57% of particulate matter in Milwaukee’s air near highway road segments was caused by traffic. Particulate matter refers to particles found in the air, like dust, dirt, soot and smoke. High levels of this particulate matter is associated with health problems like heart disease, asthma, lung disfunction and low birth weight, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as a variety of environmental impacts like damages to forests and farms.
The I-794 corridor was included in the four highways the researchers of the 2023 study analyzed. The study found that COVID-19 lockdowns in Milwaukee, caused significant decreases in traffic, which had a direct impact on air pollutants. With lower traffic volume in these areas, air pollution increases and thus public health improves. By removing the freeway completely, the traffic volume decreases significantly.
- Creating more green space and tree cover through parks and greenways, enhancing the environment
In addition to “removing all that nasty stuff,” as Glasemeyer put it, the city can replace it with trees that improve the air quality as well as parks that improve connection between downtown and the Milwaukee River and lakefront.
Aside from the health impacts of adding trees to the heavily paved downtown, it would enhance the natural beauty of the area in the place of the highway.
Moreover, as studies show, improves the mental health of residents, while reducing the urban heat island effect — which makes areas with tall buildings and low tree cover hotter in the summer — in the era of climate change, stifling heat-related casualties and health issues. Considering that Milwaukee used a $12 million grant for tree cover in 2023, it is clearly an effort the city champions.
- Improving connectivity between the Milwaukee River and the lakefront
The City of Milwaukee is undergoing a Milwaukee Lakefront Gateway Project, which aims to improve connections between the lakefront, downtown Milwaukee, and the Historic Third Ward. The project includes re-designing the ramps to 794, which shows that the city recognizes the highway barrier between the lakefront and the river. With a proposed Lakefront Gateway Plaza Design that the city has wanted to implement for now a decade, the area has the potential as both a community space for residents and green areas for tourists to spread out during Milwaukee’s outside spectacles like the annual music festival, Summerfest.
- Providing a more resilient street grid that can better handle traffic disruptions compared to a highway
In response to worry about increased traffic without the highway, Glasemeyer said, “Street grids are incredibly robust and resilient. They can handle a lot of traffic and very adaptable.”
They explained that the difference between traffic on a street and on a highway is that streets are connected to other roads, allowing alternative routes in the event of an emergency, for example; whereas on highways, there is only one way to go. By diverting traffic to the street, the already resilient grid can be taken advantage of, while increasing use of public transit like buses, that can also use the alternative routes.
“A downtown grid already can handle a lot,” they said. “Most people who are using 794 are just accessing the last little. It’s the last bit of their travel to access their destination. They’re not doing long trips.” Thus, they said, those people going through the city instead of around it is more than feasible and would allow funding to focus on public transportation and street maintenance downtown, further improving street grid infrastructure, as opposed to continuously maintaining the highway.
- Shifting the focus from long-distance travel to creating more places where people can live, work and access amenities, reducing the need for extensive transportation infrastructure, ultimately making way for more tight-knit and connected communities in the Third Ward and surrounding neighborhoods
As shown through reasons one through nine, this point speaks for itself. Connected neighborhoods create resilient communities, which is integral to succeeding as a community and organizing around other social justice issues.
If you want to get involved, join Rethink I-794’s mailing list to stay up-to-date, use your voice to contact our elected officials and provide input on WisDOT’s plans, expressing that your ideal alternative is to remove I-794 for the benefit of our downtown community.