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Milwaukee's mayor-elect asks business and civic leaders to pay workers at least $15 an hour

Cavalier Johnson
screengrab of GMC webcast
Milwaukee's Mayor-elect Cavalier Johnson speaks to the Greater Milwaukee Committee on Monday.

Milwaukee's Mayor-elect Cavalier Johnson is following through on preelection promises to push for higher minimum wages in the city and improved public safety.

Johnson will officially be sworn in as mayor on Wednesday. On Monday, he spoke to civic and business leaders of the Greater Milwaukee Committee and urged the creation of jobs that pay at least $15 an hour.

Johnson said that would help create economic stability: "If we're able to do that and get to a critical mass of stability in our neighborhoods, and our neighborhoods are no longer porous, and the people who live there transient, right, then you start to development relationships, you start to care about each other. You get to a critical mass of that happening that's how you get to true public safety."

Johnson said last weekend, he also received citizen reminders about safety — via the issue of reckless driving. He said that came when he visited his neighborhood Pick 'n Save on the north side of Capitol Dr. in the Midtown Shopping Center.

"The folks who live on the south side of Capitol, they would tell me that they don't go to that Pick 'n Save. They choose a different grocery store farther away from where they live, and why? It's because we have this issue of reckless driving and they don't want to be in a position where they are crossing that street and end up losing their lives," Johnson explained.

Johnson said he has initiatives underway to reduce reckless driving, and also ones to reduce Milwaukee homicides. But latest figures show the city with 54 homicides so far this year, 23 more than last year at this time.

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