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Soul Roll MKE is underway, with bike ride to support proposed trail through north side of Milwaukee

Soul Roll MKE riders on June 3 pose for a group photo after the ride.
Chuck Quirmbach
Soul Roll MKE riders on June 3 pose for a group photo after the ride.

A series of bike rides known as Soul Roll MKE is underway.

Over the weekend, about 100 riders participated in the first of three Soul Roll rides highlighting the 30th Street Industrial Corridor and the hope for recreational and economic equity.

Milwaukee County has the Oak Leaf Trail, and the state of Wisconsin has the Hank Aaron Trail. But neither one runs through a huge section of Milwaukee's north side. Just ask James Cocroft, who lives in the Garden Homes neighborhood at about 2600 N. Atkinson but likes to ride on the Oak Leaf and pedals on city streets for several miles to get to and from the trail.

"It's dangerous, but learning all the rules of the road, and being very attentive helps me to kind of navigate with the reckless drivers," Cocroft says.

Cocroft also put those safety skills to use Saturday as he joined the annual Promise Zone Bike Ride that is now part of Soul Roll MKE. The weekend ride began at Garden Homes Park, and with police protection, meandered for about six miles as far south as Capitol Drive, then to the west and north, before returning to the park. The ride showed off investments the city of Milwaukee, the MPS Recreation Department, the Sewerage District, and the Northwest Side Community Development Corporation have made in what is largely a lower-income area.

But to get to those sites, riders had to go on some streets full of potholes. The bicyclists called out warnings to each other as to what was ahead.

"Pothole!" rider Courtney Good yells.

Courtney Good prepares to head out for the June 3 Promise Zone ride, which was part of Soul Roll MKE.
Chuck Quirmbach
Courtney Good prepares to head out for the June 3 Promise Zone ride, which was part of Soul Roll MKE.

To give bike riders and walkers on the north side a better option, and to give riders from elsewhere, a way to explore more of Milwaukee, there is a stepped-up effort to build what has been discussed for years. Namely, a multi-million dollar recreational trail running north from the Hank Aaron Trail near American Family Field, along a railroad track in the 30th Street Industrial Corridor and going all the way up to Havenwoods State Forest, where it could connect with the Oak Leaf Trail.

Milwaukee Ald. Andrea Pratt (right) was among the Promise Zone riders June 3.
Chuck Quirmbach
Milwaukee Ald. Andrea Pratt (right) was among the Promise Zone riders June 3.

The Corridor Business Improvement District is helping organize the effort. Executive Director Cheryl Blue told other riders that the recreational trail would be accessible to tens of thousands of people.

"It will cross North Avenue. It will cross Locust. It will cross Capitol, Sherman Park, Washington Park, Amani, Metcalfe Park. So this will be an amazing amenity to all the people in the neighborhoods on the north side that really do not have access to bike trails," Blue says.

Blue tells WUWM that the BID district has formed a committee of state legislators, lawyers, architects, business leaders and others to accelerate the effort.

"Of course, some of them worked on the Hank Aaron. Some of them worked on Menomonee Valley and Canal Street (which include part of the Aaron.) So, these are people that know how to get it done. So, step by step. Hoping to get some momentum. Get all the money together. We're not going to stop. So it's going to happen," Blue says.

Bicycling advocates say there's room for a recreational trail along this railroad track in the 30th Street Industrial Corridor.
Chuck Quirmbach
Bicycling advocates say there's room for a recreational trail along this railroad track in the 30th Street Industrial Corridor.

A national group, Rails to Trails Conservancy, also endorses the corridor trail, hoping it will be part of the Route of the Badger trail network being developed in Southeast Wisconsin. The Conservancy's Willie Karidis says he's been working with the state on getting an engineering study for the corridor trail, and steer some federal infrastructure dollars this way.

"That is part of the hope, the dream, the prayer. It's to get that money. The state— the DOT — is working with accessing some of that money as well," Karidis says.

Wyman Winston (left) of the 30th Street Industrial Corridor Corp and BID #37 Board of Directors, speaks to the Promise Zone riders.
Chuck Quirmbach
Wyman Winston (left) of the 30th Street Industrial Corridor Corp and BID #37 Board of Directors, speaks to the Promise Zone riders.

And investing in trails could go along with another idea. Wyman Winston of the Industrial Corridor board of directors says later this month, his group will be asking the city of Milwaukee for five million dollars in funds to match with private money to create crews to build homes on vacant lots in parts of the city. Areas, Winston says, like near the 30th Street corridor.

"And if the trail comes in, the ability to have transit oriented housing. The ability for people to walk out of their home, with their bikes, get on the trail and go to Wauwatosa, or downtown, Summerfest or activities at Havenwoods," Winston says.

A leader of Soul Roll MKE, Amarr Nsoroma, of the group Red Bike and Green demonstrates biking hand signals, while the riders were at Garden Homes Park.
Chuck Quirmbach
A leader of Soul Roll MKE, Amarr Nsoroma, of the group Red Bike and Green demonstrates biking hand signals, while the riders were at Garden Homes Park.

Soul Roll MKE bike rides later this summer, starting at Washington on July 28 and Merrill on September 23 parks will explore central and southern sections of the 30th Street corridor. A leader of the rides, Amarr Nsoroma, of the group Red, Bike and Green says no area should be left out.

"Yeah, we're trying to encompass the entire part of the 30th Street Corridor," Nsoroma says.

In hopes, that perhaps a collaboration of local, state, and federal governments, maybe teaming with the private sector, will get the trail built.

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