Thursday, January 28, 2016

Major Milwaukee County Parks Are In Peril

As the gentle reader knows, Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele has been concentrating unprecedented power in his hands to ease his path as he continues to go about dismantling Milwaukee County government.  Abele does this through buy-partisanship -- he pays off Republican state legislators to pass bills that give him these increased powers.

One of the more recent power purchases made by Abele was Act 55, which allows Abele to sell off any county-owned land - except for parks - without public notice, public hearing or legislative oversight.  It was because of this law that Abele was able to sell tens of millions of dollars of Park East land for a dollar.

Per a press release from County Board Chairman Theodore Lipscomb, they have identified 43 parks that have not been properly zoned as parkland and could be sold off by Abele without any say from anyone else.  Some of the parks on that list are simply jaw-dropping.  These include the following parks:
  •  Chippewa Park; 
  • Red Arrow Park; 
  • Cathedral Square Park; 
  • Zeidler Union Square; 
  • Mitchell Boulevard Park; 
  • Mitchell Airport Park; 
  • Milwaukee Rotary Centennial Arboretum; 
  • Grobschmidt Park; 
  • Franklin Park; 
  • Oakwood Park; 
  • Whitnall Park; 
  • Sheridan Park; 
  • Brown Deer Park; 
  • Greene Park; 
  • Estabrook Park; 
  • Pere Marquette Park; 
  • Froemming Park; 
  • Lincoln Park; 
  • Rawson Park; 
  • Melody View Preserve; 
  • Riverside Park; 
  • Bay View Park; 
  • Grant Park; 
  • Kohl Park; 
  • Lake Park; 
  • Armour Park; 
  • Runway Dog Park; 
  • Servite Park Reserve; 
  • Wilson Recreation Center; 
  • Joseph-Lichter Park; 
  • Juneau Park; 
  • St. Martins Park; 
  • Algonquin Park; 
  • Doctors Park; 
  • Hanson Park, 
  • A.C.; Southwood Glen; 
  • Baran Park; 
  • County Grounds Park; 
  • Kletzsch Park; 
  • Falk Park; 
  • Rover West; 
  • Scout Lake Park; and 
  • Big Bay Park.
A resolution has been introduced that would prevent Abele from selling these parks by correcting their zoning status.  The concern is whether it can be passed quickly enough to keep Abele honest, which is a tall order in itself.

What could prove interesting is the fact that polling numbers show that the bulk of Abele's support in the upcoming election  come from conservatives and Republicans, most of whom live in the suburbs.  I wonder if they will be reconsidering their support for Abele knowing that he could sell their community parks from right out under their noses and there isn't a damn thing they could do about it.

At least Chris Larson has made a commitment to Milwaukee County and its parks.

2 comments:

  1. Yet more examples of the looting of the public commons.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey, Mary Lazich, what is Greendale going to say when their precious Scout Lake Park is sold off ?????

    ReplyDelete