Trolley downtown for
“young talented educated people”.

Milwaukee does not have an effective mass transportation system, no commuter trains and a very poor and expensive bus service. For a young adult living in North Central Milwaukee, without a car, it is almost impossible to get to and back from an industrial job in the suburbs, where they are. While there is over a 50% unemployment rate with young African-American male adults in North Central Milwaukee our Mayor is pushing for a $123.9 million dollar trolley service for downtown Milwaukee he says will attract “young talented educated people” to live in the downtown area.

The State is pushing for multimillion dollar expansion of I-94 expressway for “moving commuters, tourists, freight and other movements to major sites around and beyond the Southeast region” without driving through any neighborhoods, especially the racially segregated neighborhoods of North Central and South Central Milwaukee. The “young talented educated people” could take the trolley to their car and get in and out of Milwaukee.

I see this as all part of larger plan, conscious or unconscious, to segregate the poor and minorities into certain neighborhoods that do not have jobs but have poor housing and education and less hope and opportunity to make a better life.

I joke that Milwaukee is building a wall around North Central Milwaukee which is 85% plus African American, the poorest area of city with high unemployment, poor education and highest rate of incarceration. One person took me seriously for a second and quickly realized what I was talking about was the invisible wall of discrimination. If we imprison people like the Israelis have done to the Palestinians in Gaza we are asking for trouble. There is a spark of hope in all humans that eventually will rise up nonviolently or violently to seek freedom and equality. Where will the “young talented education people” who have their own trolley go then? They would probably get out the expanded freeway and head out of town. Trolleys and expanded freeways will not settle problems of a racist city. They will only make matters worse.

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