Downtown focus revitalizes Milwaukee

I know, I know, Milwaukee isn't in Waukesha County, but I thought many Waukesha communities could draw some lessons from Milwaukee's resurging downtown.

Read all about it here at the Urban Engagement Blog.

Lesson 1 seems to be: Don't separate the residents from downtown; make sure there's housing in your downtown area as that increases the streetscape vitality and help support the downtown businesses. There's a good number of new luxury housing such as the towers on the lakefront and the beerline condos, but there's also affordable housing in the form of tax-credit properties and subsidized housing nearby (redeveloped public housing authority properties into mixed-income housing).

Lesson 2: Redevelop! If something isn't serving its purpose well, don't be afraid to get rid of it & use that land for something else. Of course, the article doesn't mention that the majority of the land from the former Parkeast freeway is still empty.

Lesson 3: Embrace your assets. Milwaukee used the river, which it ignored in the past, as a tool to revitalize the downtown. Many communities in Waukesha County have rivers and lakes. Don't have a watery asset? Think Central Park (OK, parks are not in the article-my two cents).