30th Street Corridor trail on Milwaukee's north side moves forward with $200K grant
The project to build a new 6.7-mile paved trail and linear park along the 30th Street Corridor on Milwaukee's north side is taking a step forward thanks to a $200,000 grant from the Catena Foundation.
The grant will be used to begin a two-year trail development process that the organizations overseeing the project say will be equitable and community-driven.
The 30th Street Industrial Corridor Corp. is leading the equitable trail development process in partnership with the Northwest Side Community Development Corporation, Near West Side Partners and Havenwoods Neighborhood Partnership. The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC), the nation's largest trail organization, is also providing support for the project.
Last year the RTC released a feasibility study that looked at the possibility of creating a trail along a rail line just west of 30th Street that runs from Havenwoods State Forest on West Silver Spring Drive to the Hank Aaron State Trail near American Family Field.
The trail would be a crucial link in the RTC's Route of the Badger, an effort to create a 700-mile trail network in southeastern Wisconsin, by connecting with the Hank Aaron and eventually an extension of Milwaukee's Beerline Trail. It also would provide access to a trail in an area of the city that is disproportionately lacking access.
According to a 2017 study from RTC, fewer than one in 10 residents in Milwaukee's poorest neighborhoods live within biking distance (2 miles) of a bike trail. That's compared to almost one in four residents in the city overall. In neighborhoods experiencing inequality, just 3% of residents live within walking distance (0.5 miles), compared to 8% of residents in the city overall.
But the addition of two trail corridors — the 30th Street Corridor, plus one on the south side along the Kinnickinnic River — in addition to trail extensions, would increase those numbers to 14% for walking and 59% for biking citywide, and 11% and 66% respectively in the neighborhoods experiencing inequality.
"The area that we'll be in along that 30th Street rail line will cross American Family Field on the near west side, but it will also come through North Avenue, Burleigh, Locust, Capitol Drive, all of those areas which really don't have access to a lot of the wonderful trail systems that we have here in Milwaukee and in the state," said Cheryl Blue, executive director of the 30th Street Industrial Corridor Corp.
"It would make navigating the city by bike a doable thing, and it will give a lot more people in the community access to a trail which of course, has many benefits to your life, to your health, connecting the city, emissions, all kinds of things," she said.
Investing in the Corridor
What's more, the trail would be another investment in an area of the city that once helped contribute to Milwaukee's reputation as the "machine shop of the world," but has struggled with poverty and crime since those companies left and took their well paying jobs with them.
"The 30th Street Corridor was once home to A.O. Smith and Badger Meter and Briggs & Stratton ... And because of those companies and those jobs, that's why most of the Black people that live in the city came here. We have an opportunity and a duty to invest in this area of the city as well," Blue said. "So this process and a lot of the other wonderful projects that are happening in the corridor ... we want to build momentum and for people to invest in our area of the city, because it's critical to Milwaukee's overall success as well."
Willie Karidis, RTC’s Route of the Badger project manager, echoed this sentiment, noting the trail is one part of many efforts to revitalize the city's north side.
"There's a lot of things going on on the north side that need attention — the reckless driving and safety in the streets, workforce development and increased jobs. ... This is a piece of the puzzle. Safe recreation, safe alternative transportation, adds capacity to communities," he said.
That's why it's been crucial to engage multiple partners in the effort, from politicians at all levels to local business owners like Que El Amin, who is developing a $66 million apartment and commercial complex known as Community Within the Corridor and who Karidis said has traveled around the country looking at other trail projects and their effect on development.
But it's also vital to gather input from community members, which is why the planning process is so important, he said.
"A lot of these infrastructure projects in other parts of the country didn't go through this process. So then they got the money, they put the thing down, and then gentrification happened and people who were living in the community who were supposed to benefit from the amenity were forced to move out because of rising real estate values. ... So we have to engage with the community, being led by community organizations like 30th Street," he said.
Blue agreed it's vital to get community input before building the physical trail.
"We want to engage all of the stakeholders in the process to talk about the trail, what it looks like, who does it serve, how does it serve the community, how does it fit in with all of the other projects and concerns of people that live there, because we don't want the trail to come in and to push people out of their community to gentrify them out of their community, " Blue said.
But that doesn't mean other work on building the trail isn't happening at the same time. Karidis said work is being done on getting an easement along the rail line, which is owned by the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad.
Building a trail is a long, complicated process that Karidis has already been working on for five years, and it will likely take many more to complete.
But for now, the ball is at least rolling. Blue said they have hired Christopher Boston to facilitate the trail development process. Boston is the pastor of Milwaukee's Lamb of God Missionary Baptist Church and has years of experience working in community development in Milwaukee.
Within the next month, Blue said, they hope to begin hosting public meetings to start gathering feedback.
"We will be having community meetings over the course of the next two years to get at what the issues are. How does that work together with all the other projects and ideas going on in the community? Because the goal is synergy. The goal is working together. Because we have a lot of challenges on the north side. There's still lots and lots of bright people that live there, lots of wonderful neighborhoods and communities, so we want to come together to talk about how we can build a brighter future for the area, using this trail process as a means for us to get together," Blue said.
She emphasized that this wouldn't just be a trail for people to use for everything from recreation to commuting to work, but a linear park with other developments.
"There's other models and other cities that have done it. You can have lots of things built along the trail as well so that it's not just a bike trail with a walking path. There may be activity, there may be some retail, it just all depends on how the process goes," she said.
"All of these things are interconnected," Karidis said about the developments in the Corridor and the issues they're trying to address, from providing safe, affordable housing to workforce development and good-paying jobs. "And that's what the equitable development planning process is all about. It's about addressing lots of different things, different concerns. But the trail is the connector in between."
Contact Chelsey Lewis at clewis@journalsentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter at @chelseylew and @TravelMJS and Facebook at Journal Sentinel Travel.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee's 30th Street Corridor trail moves forward with grant
