Five months before the fall election, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers is highlighting recent government investments in Milwaukee.
Gov. Tony Evers joined community leaders for a walk Wednesday in the Garden Homes neighborhood on the city's north side. Evers met some people trying to help the historic, but challenged, area.
Garden Homes is the site of the first municipally-supported housing project in the U.S., about a century ago. An area with some of the houses built at the time is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Like some other neighborhoods, it has some unemployment, poverty, crime, litter, boarded-up homes, absentee property owners and reckless driving, but also many residents who are not part of the problems and want to improve the area.
Evers began his walk at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church at 24th and Roosevelt. Within a couple blocks, one of his guides, Stephen Hopkins of the violence interruption team 414Life told Evers about some of the neighborhood residents.
"All lacking resources economically, [some cases of] mental illness. Things like that, that plague the neighborhood. Over the years, we've had potluck cookouts and things of that nature to promote peace, and you actually get people in the neighborhood to come out and support these things and tell you they're tired of dealing with this matter too," Hopkins said.
Another guide, Desilynn Smith of the community organization Uniting Garden Homes, Inc., told Evers about her group's efforts to provide sustainable housing.
"So, we're collaborating with as many people as we can, in hopes of renovating some of these houses and get them sold to Milwaukee homeowners, low-income homeowners, and not these out-of-state homeowners who have a lot of these places and properties around here," Smith said.
Evers said the neighborhood's concerns need to be considered in their entirety. "We need to understand how important it is to deal with all those issues."
Then, it was time to stroll over to 27th Street and meet another community leader, 83-year-old Martha Freeman, known in the neighborhood as Mother Freeman. She runs Alpha Omega Ministries, which includes a food pantry. Freeman told Evers about her efforts to talk with some of the people causing crime in the area.
"You can look at the wrong they are doing, but you know that there is something inside of them that can be worked with. It happened with me, and I think it can happen with others. It's the only thing that pushes me, drives me, you know," Freeman said, as several people responded, "Amen."
"We need a lot more like you," Evers told Freeman.
And, though Republicans have been criticizing the state's Pardon Advisory Board, and the governor's use of pardons, Evers agreed with Freeman that finding good in people is important.
"I started doing pardons when I took the office of governor. We've pardoned over 500 people who have left the correctional institutions, and it is about redemption. It's about second chances. There's good in everybody," Evers said.
A pardon is an official act of forgiveness and restores many rights. But it does not expunge court records.
Evers staff is also highlighting $100 million, mostly in federal funds, that the state has sent to Milwaukee for community safety and violence prevention initiatives. The amount includes money for Milwaukee's Office of Violence Prevention and funds for reducing court backlogs. Also, smaller amounts for the Milwaukee Police Department and summer youth initiatives.
Still, earlier this week, Milwaukee reached 100 homicides this year when a 14-year-old girl was killed. The city may be on the way to another new murder record. Most of the deaths occur from gunfire.
At a later news conference, Evers said he hopes Congress passes more restrictions soon on gun sales.
"You know, will it change all lives? No, but I'm looking forward to seeing what comes out of there," Evers said.
The Republican National Committee was not impressed with the governor's latest visit to Milwaukee. A spokesperson says that "under Evers' failed leadership, Milwaukee has rampant crime."
The GOP says, "voters are ready for solutions that move the city forward." Republican voters will nominate a candidate to run against Evers during the Aug. 9 gubernatorial primary.
