As part of WUWM’s 60th birthday celebration, we are listening back to archival interviews, including Lake Effect's first interview in 1999 with Mayor Norquist.
We asked current Mayor Cavalier Johnson to join us and reflect on some of the issues the city was facing in 1999 and where those issues stand today. The first portion of this interview focuses on Milwaukee's role in immigration enforcement.
Following Mayor Norquist's lead, Mayor Johnson spoke about his approach to building enough housing for one million Milwaukeeans, his approach to budgeting and attracting big events to the city, and crime.
You've talked about your desire for Milwaukee to reach a population of 1 million people — almost doubling our current population. But today in 2025, does Milwaukee have the housing stock for that?
I think we need more housing. I've been very, very clear about my desire to have more of it all. I want for there to be more affordable housing. I want for there to be workforce housing. Of course, you know, luxury apartments continue to rise ... I think that's a good thing too. But we need more. We need more, and we've also got to work to make sure that we focus housing density in commercial corridors that can support them, so that we have the vibrancy and the people to support local businesses on the ground, because that means jobs for the people who live on either side of those commercial corridors to be able to go to work.
And when you have that sort of density and you have folks supporting those jobs, that means that there are opportunities—more job opportunities—for the people who live in the city of Milwaukee, and people spend their dollars locally. So then, we have dollars continuing to circulate here in our community as opposed to the bleed-out, where it goes to other communities nearby or far away. I want those resources to happen here—or to be spent here—but that is dependent on us being able to develop the housing that we need. So yeah, we need to have more housing in the city of Milwaukee
As recently as 2023, Milwaukee's budget was in a state of crisis, and you were warning about having to make drastic cuts to city services if changes were not made. What has happened in the years since?
Well, a number of things. So, Mayor Norquist touched on this. I know that even before Mayor Norquist, there were these same sorts of challenges that—ultimately, it was my responsibility as mayor; I just happened to come in at the right time, or the wrong time, depending on how you look at it—where we had to address this issue so we wouldn’t have, you know, this issue around crisis budgeting and creating stability and financial security.
So, we worked to put the city in a position where we were able to increase state shared revenue for the first time literally in decades, bringing more resources to the city that way. And then, being able to access a tool that virtually every other major city in America has at their disposal—a sales tax—put the city of Milwaukee on a more stable budgeting trajectory. That’s what we were able to accomplish.
And, I mean, look, I’m a person who looks at the future, and I want to focus on that. But this lesson from the past with Mayor Norquist, I think, is timely for the situation we find ourselves in today because I have the same sort of idea, the same sort of budget mentality. I want stability. I want security. And that relates not just to budgeting, but also to what happens in the neighborhoods.
I want our neighborhoods to be safe, secure, and prosperous too. But the stability and the safety are really, really important—whether it’s the work we do out in the city or the work we do in City Hall with our long budgeting process that we undertake for several months throughout the year.
The Milwaukee Police Department reported that crime was down almost entirely across the board in 2024 – save for carjacking, motor vehicle theft, and robbery. And those last two – if I remember correctly – were up 2% and 1%, respectively. So I think, overall, good news there. Looking to criminal justice in 2025, what is working and what is not?
So, for us, since I became mayor, we have focused on public safety using a two-pillared strategy—one on accountability for people who cause death, harm or destruction in the city of Milwaukee. I think those individuals should absolutely, 100% be held accountable for the crimes they commit, because if you don’t, then I believe they feel like they have free rein to go out into neighborhoods, harm more people, and destabilize more places. And that's not fair to our constituents, our citizens, our residents who are out there just trying to live their lives day to day.
The other pillar is prevention, and that's working to make sure that individuals in our community—particularly our kids, right?—have opportunities to keep themselves safe, have mentorship, and have opportunities to put a dollar in their pocket and learn the way to do that with an honest day's work, an honest day’s work for an honest day's wage. So, accountability and prevention, I think, have been really, really important in our efforts on public safety over the last two years. Now, there are other things tied to lowering crime as well, but those are the top two areas where I think we've made a significant impact in driving crime down.
When I became mayor, I also made it a practice to bring the chief of police and our Office of Community Wellness and Safety out every quarter to talk to the community directly about where we stand with public safety in Milwaukee. I think it's important to do. And I think it's important to constantly remind the public—and this is one of the other things we did in terms of prevention—to remind the public that everybody has a role to play in public safety. It's not just me. It's not just the Police Department. Everybody has a role.
So, if you're somebody who’s got a young man in your home or your family who may have the propensity to do something he would end up regretting, talk him out of it. If you're somebody who's got a young person you don't want getting mixed up in the wrong crowd, steer them toward this program here. If you're somebody who sees something going on in your neighborhood that is not quite right, call the police. If you're not comfortable calling the police directly, there's a number you can call anonymously. If you don't want to talk to the police at all, then call our Crime Stoppers tip line. Get involved and work to ensure safety.
Of course, housing, jobs and education all play a role in creating a safer city. The last thing I'll say on this—because I think you pointed this out very well—is that in terms of crime, when we did the 2024 wrap-up earlier this month, myself and the chief, there were, I think, 13 crime categories listed. And in 10 of those crime categories in the city of Milwaukee over the course of 2024, crime was down, with only modest increases in the areas you pointed out
