Media and others interpreting civil unrest in Milwaukee might want to dig deeper into a few issues:
* Cities are the creatures of the state in Wisconsin.
* The "hypersegregation" label applied to Milwaukee is regional
* The state put a permanent limitation on Milwaukee's growth, tax base, job market and citizen opportunities when it froze the city's borders in 1955 through the so-called anti-annexation "Oak Creek Law."
* The state created a seven-county Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission regional planning commission in the late 1960's made up of Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, Walworth, Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha Counties. SEWRPC prepares influential studies, provides technical assistance to governmental agencies in matters such as housing, water and transportation, and has the power to approve certain highway projects paid for with federal funds.
All effect job creation, distribution and access.
Each of the counties has three commission seats. For most of its existence, the commission had no African-American members.
Most of the region has higher incomes and housing values than does Milwaukee. Commissioner appointments are controlled by the Governor and the counties.
The City of Milwaukee, with a population larger than all the non-Milwaukee counties, and by far the largest number of transit dependent, minority and low-income residents in the region, has no designated commission start or appointing authority.
In recent years, the commission did establish a task force on economic justice, but only after initial resistance and pressure from citizen and civl rights organizations.
The same kind of pressure recently forced the state to add about $11 million dollars worth of temporary transit services to a billion-dollar regional highway expansion at Milwaukee's western border with the more affluent, faster-growing Waukesha County which the state is building at the recommendation of the commission.
* Cities are the creatures of the state in Wisconsin.
* The "hypersegregation" label applied to Milwaukee is regional
* The state put a permanent limitation on Milwaukee's growth, tax base, job market and citizen opportunities when it froze the city's borders in 1955 through the so-called anti-annexation "Oak Creek Law."
* The state created a seven-county Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission regional planning commission in the late 1960's made up of Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, Walworth, Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha Counties. SEWRPC prepares influential studies, provides technical assistance to governmental agencies in matters such as housing, water and transportation, and has the power to approve certain highway projects paid for with federal funds.
All effect job creation, distribution and access.
Each of the counties has three commission seats. For most of its existence, the commission had no African-American members.
Most of the region has higher incomes and housing values than does Milwaukee. Commissioner appointments are controlled by the Governor and the counties.
The City of Milwaukee, with a population larger than all the non-Milwaukee counties, and by far the largest number of transit dependent, minority and low-income residents in the region, has no designated commission start or appointing authority.
In recent years, the commission did establish a task force on economic justice, but only after initial resistance and pressure from citizen and civl rights organizations.
The same kind of pressure recently forced the state to add about $11 million dollars worth of temporary transit services to a billion-dollar regional highway expansion at Milwaukee's western border with the more affluent, faster-growing Waukesha County which the state is building at the recommendation of the commission.
