Via Dan Knauss
I understand that there will a meeting on tonight at 6pm at the DNR building (2300 MLK Dr.) in rooms 140/141 to provide information about a proposed 5 story condominium and retail development in the old Christian Faith East Church at 2001 N. Holton St. (Holton and Brown). The local alderman, McGee, Jr., apparently opposes it because it will drive up property values at 5th & Center and is "anti-black gentrification."
I can't make it which is a shame. I'd sure like to hear Alderman McGee explain how keeping tax base and the middle class out of Milwaukee will make the city stronger.
In any event, there are some already some pretty pricey properties between Holton & Brown and MLK and, in that neighborhood, some fairly clear - if invisible - boundaries between gentrified and nongentrified areas with few of the benefits of the former spilling over into the latter. I'm sure that Alderman McGee's bold policy initiatives like more cruising and no snitching will keep it that way.
I believe that Halyard Park, west of MLK and BH, has higher property values, or at least higher prices on the market recently. That is a mostly, if not exclusively black neighborhood built up by residents from a former brownfield long ago. "Gentrifiers" include a lot of black and white home and business owners who like to see their equity and values increase within reason, and decent city services as well with an increasing tax base. One vocal opponent to the BH conservation overlay district--billed in part by McGee as an anti-gentrification measure--was a black resident with multiple properties who admired Boston coach houses near down town selling in the range of $500-800,000. Additionally, many BH residents, many of whom a re white, supported the overlay because they like their values at about $300,000 and don't want them to climb toward $500,000. figures of $200,000-300,00 for duplexes and single family homes in nearby Riverwest are viewed by some there as outrageous and a threat, while others see it as a good thing.
ReplyDeleteMaking the city stronger comes after making McGee stronger. His strategy is to stick it to outsiders.
ReplyDeleteMcGee had some interesting things to say about his constituents after the meeting.
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