Author: Correspondent

Harbor District, Inc. and Rockwell Automation recently announced that Harbor View Plaza has been selected as the name for the Harbor District’s first waterfront park. Harbor View Plaza is under development at the east end of Greenfield Avenue and will be the first waterfront public park within the nine miles of waterfront in the Harbor District. The Plaza includes a canoe and kayak launch and a play structure for children and families. Construction on Harbor View Plaza will begin with a groundbreaking event scheduled for August 24 at the plaza site, 600 E. Greenfield Avenue. “Harbor View Plaza is...

CEO compensation surged in 2017, after two years of relative stability, according to new analysis by EPI Distinguished Fellow Lawrence Mishel and Economic Analyst Jessica Schieder. Average compensation for CEOs of the top 350 publicly traded firms increased 17.6% to $18.9 million; the compensation of a typical worker in these industries, meanwhile, rose 0.3%. The ratio of CEO-to-worker compensation rose to 312-to-1, far greater than the 20-to-1 ratio in 1965 and more than five times greater than the 58-to-1 ratio in 1989. 2017 represents the first year since before the Great Recession that the ratio rose above 300-to-1, although...

The Fund for Lake Michigan recently provided a significant grant to Take Back My Meds MKE, to expand the number of drop boxes for the safe disposal of unused medicine and to fund public outreach regarding drug take back. Medicine flushed down the toilet flows directly to Lake Michigan because it passes through wastewater treatment plants that are not designed to remove drugs. Medicine thrown in the trash often leaches into rivers that flow to the lake. A large and growing number of chemicals related to unused medicine are currently being detected in Lake Michigan near Milwaukee. Recent studies...

Participants in the August 11 community bike ride near the Oak Creek Coal Plants learn how Southeast Wisconsin is affected by coal pollution. As they cycled a trail around the power plants in Oak Creek co-owned by We Energies, MG&E, and WPPI, 35 riders young and old learned how the coal used to generate their power damages the health of people and the environment. The “Ride for Renewables,” hosted by the Clean Power Coalition of Southeast Wisconsin and the Sierra Club, was a free educational event designed to highlight the dirty nature of coal and the importance of switching...

Milwaukee landed near the top of the AARP’s 2018 Most Livable Cities list, vibrant large, medium, and small communities where residents thrive, thanks to quality-of-life factors such as plentiful jobs and accessible health care. This year’s list of 30 cities and towns, an update of AARP’s Livability Index launched in 2015, includes five other medium and small cities in Wisconsin in addition to Milwaukee. To assess their livability, AARP looked at 40 criteria in seven categories: housing, neighborhood, transportation, environment, health, civic and social engagement, and opportunity for jobs. Nineteen of the cities that made this year’s list also...

Members of the 53206 Drug-Free Communities Project coalition welcomed the Milwaukee Common Council’s vote against renewing the liquor license of S&S Liquor, which had contributed to longstanding safety issues in the Amani neighborhood. The council voted 14-0 to confirm the Licenses Committee’s unanimous vote on July 17 against renewing the store’s liquor license. The committee voted after hearing from residents who both supported and opposed S&S Liquor’s license renewal, as well as members of the Milwaukee Police Department and community partners. “It was a team effort. All the partners played a role and were important in this victory,” said...