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Wisconsin Policy Forum’s report says that targeting parks to sell or otherwise liquidate must be based on data about “usage and revenue generation.” This could foment conflict among Milwaukee County’s 18 municipalities and even pit neighborhoods against each another. Would any county residents let their favorite parks be sold or closed without a fierce fight? People with clout would likely fare best in keeping favored parks intact.
Stealth Plans and Deals
The scheme to sell O’Donnell Park, Milwaukee’s premier civic plaza, for pennies on the dollar, was sprung on the public in July 2014 after two years of top-secret plotting by the Abele administration. After the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors rejected O’Donnell Park’s sale in December 2014, Abele ran to Madison and connived to get himself the unilateral power to execute sales of any land not specifically zoned as parks with just one other officials’ signature. Now Abele could sell thousands of acres of parkland that lacks such zoning, with no oversight by the county board and citizens. It’s logical to assume that other parkland sales are secretly in the works.
Loss of Community Heritage and Character
Abele, in keeping with his cheeky “I-don’t-care-ism,” appears intent to let county parks lose their distinctive appeal and landmarks be reduced to rubble—like his Eschweiler mansion on Lake Drive. That includes “demolition by neglect” of Milwaukee landscapes designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Warren Manning, Horace Cleveland and Dan Kiley, all renowned landscape architects who hailed from the Boston area. The county executive, also from Boston, seems oblivious to potential economic paybacks of protecting these irreplaceable legacies.
Breaking Faith with the Social Compact
“Parks for all forever” has been the motto for American parks since the mid-1800s, when they began to serve as “public backyards.” In addition to being known as America’s most segregated metro area, Milwaukee County could garner infamy for selling beloved parks and dismantling its “necklace of green.” Long a national model of civic governance and emphasis on the common good, Milwaukee could become a laughingstock. “Come to Milwaukee County: We Sold Our Parks” will never be a selling point.
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