As part of WUWM's series, North Avenue: Its politics and its people, we've been talking to voters, political strategists, a demographer and a historian about the street that connects metro Milwaukee from the city's east side out to Waukesha County.
Metcalfe Park is a neighborhood right in the middle of North Avenue's stretch through the city of Milwaukee. It borders North Avenue from 27th to 38th streets. Beyond politics, and beyond elections, there's an organization there that's tirelessly advocating for the community. It's called Metcalfe Park Community Bridges. It has its office on North Avenue and describes itself as, "a grassroots movement aimed at reclaiming and re-empowering our community."
WUWM talked to Melody McCurtis, deputy director and lead organizer of Metcalfe Park Community Bridges, about the organization and how its putting community first. McCurtis says what her organization is asking for is: "Development that's rooted in social justice ... development that's community led. So nothing should be implemented without the community's full support and buy in."
The stretch of North Avenue through Metcalfe Park was razed during the 1960's to build a highway that never materialized, the Park West highway project. This failed highway project destroyed businesses and economic infrastructure and left the area with countless empty lots, something that McCurtis refers to as "historical disinvestment" that has crippled the area.
"We had a lot of booming jobs in the community along North Avenue, especially on the 30th St. Corridor," she says. "A lot of those facilities are just still there and they're vacant." She says this disinvestment has continued into recent years, as health clinics and other local businesses have left the area.
"We should be able to have as many clinics in our neighborhoods that we have liquor stores and corner stores," says McCurtis. "We should have multiple grocery stores, not just relying on one grocery store that is for multiple neighborhoods. We should be able to walk and support a small business on our corridors. So those are some of the things that we're seeing right now. And because of all this historical disinvestment, it costs more to to reimagine these spaces in these places that have been abandoned."
Metcalfe Park Community Bridges is working to change the ways the city interacts with Black communities in Milwaukee. McCurtis' mother, Danell Cross, was recently featured in a documentary called: The Invisible Net of Racism. In it, she said that how the city interacts with its Black residents shows how they value the people that live in places like Metcalfe Park. Cross says, "And right now we can see that most of the funding for our community goes into policing. And so that is expressing the value that these people in this community need policing over everything else. We need policing over quality homes. We need policing over parks for our children to play."
Cross continues, "What we're really trying to do is to help people value the people who live in this community so we can get real community development and what that looks like to me is development that is not undergirded by stereotype, that's not undergirded by racism, that actually welcomes the voice of the community."
McCurtis says what that means is that they want folks to actually involve community members in the beginning, the middle and the end of the process. "One of those examples, along North Avenue, there is a Metcalfe Park play field. And what you'll see is, is that the community is doing a lot of envisioning and imagining and putting together these pieces to really influence investment in the city." She says the space is going to be implemented next year and has been fully designed for them by them.
Another example is the organization's involvement in halting momentum on Milwaukee's Department of City Development project Growing MKE without first asking more of its community to weigh in.
"We've been able to work with We Energies and MATC to really develop a big plot of land [along North Avenue] into a training facility as well as adding some green infrastructure to help with the flooding on that side of Metcalfe Park," she says. The training program will have full ride scholarships through MATC so that community members can become fully certified line mechanics.
McCurtis would ultimately like to see Metcalfe Park be a walkable, bikeable and driveable destination that people come to every day. "Metcalfe Park is in the center of Milwaukee. You can get anywhere and everywhere in Milwaukee within eight to 15 minutes from North Avenue, right? So it is a hub, right, that that thousands of folks use every day." McCurtis wants more businesses, green infrastructure and well thought-out protective bike lanes.
McCurtis already has some favorite stops along North Avenue, including the Metcalfe Park Community Bridges office, Butterfly Park and the Metcalfe Park Play Field. She's looking forward to more to come, with the community's input.
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