Light rail would help land Milwaukee NBA All-Star Game

Boosters are right: Milwaukee's new NBA arena should make the city a contender for an All-Star Game.

But people arriving by plane will expect to be directed at the airport to the light rail connections for the Arena, the entertainment district and downtown hotels but now-Gov. Scott Walker, the GOP and talk radio killed light rail here years ago.

A starter light rail system was recommended for Milwaukee County in a major state-funded regional transportation study in the 1990s that had considerable public and private sector support.

But conservative AM talk radio and opposition in Waukesha County blocked further study of light rail for Milwaukee, even though $241 million in federal funds was set aside specifically for transit improvements in Milwaukee County.

Had plans unfolded on schedule, the starter light rail, with an estimated 21,000 riders on weekdays, would have opened in 2006 and run about 10 miles from the Third Ward to Summerfest, downtown, Miller Park, the Milwaukee County Zoo and the County Grounds.

Queuing up at airport rent-a-car booths or bus stops isn't going to match our potential NBA visitors' 21st century expectations.

Light rail service extensions to the airport, UWM the Fond du Lac Avenue industrial corridor would be by now routine - - and I'm betting that commuters in places like New Berlin and the North Shore would have also been petitioning for stations - - had the system not run into partisan and anti-urban resistance.

Milwaukee's streetcar lines would make getting around the downtown easier were the NBA to hold its event here - - and people attending conferences and conventions are also going to swear by it - - but that doesn't solve the obstacles facing airport travelers getting in and out of downtown.

Remember that the NBA All-Star-Game, now a multi-day 'experience,' is a winter event, which is why during last weekend's Super Bowl extravaganza transit officials there made light rail transit even more attractive:

VERY IMPORTANT: On Super Bowl Sunday, Blue Line trains will be reserved for ticket holders only. Same for the Green Line between the Stadium Village stop and U.S. Bank Stadium. Passengers without tickets to the game will be transported on replacement buses. Rides will be free on Feb. 4.

Get with it, Wisconsin. The Foxconn site isn't the only destination starved by Republican ideologues for modern transit.