Anti-Prostitution Effots by the West End Community Association (WECA), 1985-1994
Katie Witz, Urban Studies Doctoral Student
In a western section of Milwaukee comprising three neighborhoods, Merrill Park, Piggsville and Concordia, a neighborhood association created an anti-prostitution committee that made regional headlines in the 1980s and 1990s with several of their campaigns. This section of Milwaukee erected barriers to outsiders, creating a sense of self-containment and isolation from bordering areas. The area was home-owning and family-friendly, but gradually experiencing an increase in urban problems: poverty, single-parent households, alcohol and drug abuse, vandalism, vacant lots, boarded up homes, absentee landlords and crimes. The committee, Residents against Prostitution (RAP), was formed “as an issue group to combat prostitution and its related activities” 1 for the West End area. RAP called for laws to be enforced to the fullest extent as well as new laws and penalties to be drafted to more fully punish prostitution and its related crimes that were seeping into the neighborhoods. After analyzing the WECA archives, this research project observes what RAP accomplished and analyzes three particularly questionable strategies: publishing a list of ‘john’s’ names in the paper, sending letters to automobile owners after cars came into the neighborhood supposedly to solicit prostitution and advertising billboards associating prostitutes with AIDS. The three strategies were challenged in different ways, which illustrates that there was not a uniform response to anti-prostitution or prostitution in Milwaukee. Further the residents of the WECA anti-prostitution organization relied on seemingly obvious distinctions between residents and non-residents. The residents were framed as worthy and in need of protection from outsiders who came to the neighborhood to conduct in illicit sexual activity.
1 Residents against Prostitution, West End Community Association, box 6, folder 1, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries’ Archives Department.
Exploring Barriers to Employment for African American Women: Looking at Urban Dynamics in Milwaukee
Caitlin D. Taylor, Urban Studies Master’s Student
We know that joblessness causes a myriad of problems for individuals and the communities they live in. Some of the issues taking place within the urban environment include: extreme disinvestment in Milwaukee’s poorest neighborhoods, highly segregated communities, inaccessible public transportation, decentralized industry, discrimination, strict employer policies, and spatial mismatch. I argue that each of the above-mentioned issues relate to deepened joblessness among Milwaukee’s African American population. Current focus on African American male unemployment has dominated local conversations, leaving women largely excluded from the conversation. This study shifts the focus in order to gain a better understanding of the unemployment picture in Milwaukee’s African American communities.
The Black female employment rate in Milwaukee is the 4th lowest rate in the United States. Data also shows that Black women work in low-wage economies, that they commute farther from the city than any other racial group, and that more households are dependent on Black females as the primary source of income than of white females. This study explores some of the reasons as to why Black women are so disproportionately affected, as opposed to white women. This data suggests that further examination is needed into the barriers that negatively impact African American women’s employment. I argue that we need to look at the issues using a specific theoretical lens which focuses on Black women’s everyday lives. This study imparts an in-depth look at issues relating to racial and gender discrimination and structural factors while also looking at the effects of neoliberal policies on communities (providing important policy context to understand the everyday lived experiences of unemployed Black women).This study uses a multi-method approach which combines census data, local and national rhetoric analysis, and interviews with African American women living in Milwaukee’s poorest neighborhoods (in order to illuminate their experiences with navigating joblessness).
The (Local) Story of Mass Incarceration
Heather Angelinetta, Urban Studies Master’s Student
In 2009, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that United States (U.S.) state and federal prisons held an estimated 1,615,500 prisoners – the highest prison population the U.S. has ever encountered.2 Increasing an enormous 700 per cent since 1970, the current system of mass incarceration has affected – and continues to affect – millions of American men, women and children. Yet the most vulnerable, those most likely to become entangled in the U.S.’s criminal justice system are minority communities, particularly young, African American men. Milwaukee and Wisconsin as a whole are no stranger to these types of dismal figures; by 2010, one out of every eight adult black men in the state were serving time behind bars, with more than half of African American men in their thirties having served time in prison in Milwaukee County to date.3 This unprecedented rise in the carcereal state has, rightly, attracted much attention from civil rights advocates, journalists, legal scholars, social scientists, the media at large, as well as historians. Yet this attention has largely told a national story of the current system’s inception, origins and subsequent development, with the narrative often charting the rise of the New Right and a return to a Jim Crow-esque racism; prisons functioning as a reactionary form of racial control in a new era of “colorblindness.” Yet, whilst Milwaukee and Wisconsin would appear – based on figures alone – to fit neatly within this narrative, by returning to the prison siting debates of the early to mid-1980s along with examining the papers and correspondence of, amongst others, Mayor Henry Maier and Governor Tony Earl, a different story – one firmly rooted in progressive and reformative policy tendencies – begins to unfold. Building on the work of prominent historians such as David Rothman, Lee Bernstein, and Heather Ann-Thompson, this work aims to tell a different, and local, alternative to the dominant national paradigm.
2 E. Ann Carson, “Prisoners in 2013,” U.S. Department of Justice: Bureau of Justice Statistics, last modified September 30, 2014, accessed November 3, 2014, http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p13.pdf.
3 “Project Milwaukee: Black Men in Prison,” WUWM, accessed November 3, 2014, http://wuwm.com/topic/project-milwaukee-black-men-prison.
An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Increased Judicidal Oversight and Court-Ordered Batterer Intervention Programming in Milwaukee County Misdemeanor Domestic Violence Cases: Preliminary Findings
Nelida Cortes, Urban Studies Doctoral Student
In 1999, Milwaukee County was one of three locations in the United States chosen by the Office on Violence Against Women to participate in the Judicial Oversight Demonstration Initiative (JODI). JODI was a five year project aimed at testing the idea of whether an organized community response to domestic violence, with increased judicial and criminal justice involvement, would affect victims’ safety and offender accountability. Due to its involvement with JODI, Milwaukee County implemented a number of procedural changes intended to increase victim safety, increase offender accountability, and reduce instances of domestic violence. The most prominent change was the institution of probation review hearings, followed closely by the requirement that domestic violence probationers attend batterer intervention programming. Although studies have reviewed the effectiveness of Milwaukee County’s procedural changes on offender accountability and recidivism, none have examined offender recidivism data past the year 2005; this study does. The study examined a random sample of misdemeanor domestic violence cases filed by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office in 2005. Presenting descriptive data regarding various characteristics of the cases, the study found that 52% of offenders were charged with new crimes after being placed on probation for their original 2005 domestic violence case.
Examination of Three Cities Experiencing Urban Shrinkage: Lessons for Detroit
Natalie Bantleon, USP 600 Capstone Seminar Student
Urban shrinkage is an ever increasing topic of interest in the field of Urban Studies and Planning, but has not yet been widely examined by researchers. The act of downsizing an entire urban area has become a global phenomenon facing many cities in the 21st century. The downsizing trend began to pick up speed during the 1970’s, when many industrial corridors lost their companies to global competition. The research topic at hand attempts to answer the question: how have cities dealt with urban shrinkage? What lessons can Detroit learn from other cities that have already experienced decline? Examination of three major cities within this study include: Youngstown, Ohio; Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; and Osaka, Japan. Viewing historical case studies regarding specific cities that have already experienced periods of decline, allow insight on beneficial approaches to urban shrinkage. Incorporating the thoughts of Joel Rast on “Governing the Regimless City” and Betka Zakirova on “Shrinking at the Urban Fringe: Crisis or Opportunity”, offer a sense of direction for future city growth. Further investigation on the topic of urban shrinkage reveals that diversification economically, socially, and politically have offered the best approach to achieving a sense of urban stability. The city of Detroit is a unique case, grappling with the current task of reimagining an entire urban area as a political process. Strained racial dynamics within a Black urban regimes and surrounding suburban areas suggest a challenging future for the city of Detroit, but previous cases of urban shrinkage and revival offer hope for the years to come.
Building Neighborhood Capacity Program: Impact in Amani and Metcalfe Park
Kylie Burk, USP 600 Capstone Seminar Student
Many cities in America, especially in the rustbelt, have experienced varying degrees of urban decline and neighborhoods declining as a result of changing economies. The Building Neighborhood Capacity Program, or BNCP, focuses on building neighborhood capacity to achieve better results in public safety, education, housing, and employment. Since little research has been done it is important to determine how two community organizations, Next Door Foundation and the Dominican Center for Women, have impacted their neighborhoods using the BNCP grant. By utilizing U.S. Census data and by interviewing residents of the Amani and Metcalfe Park neighborhoods in Milwaukee, the impact and effectiveness of the program through statistics and through residential opinions will be assessed.
Video Surveillance’s Impact on Crime: Comparing Public Areas in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Alvin Olson, USP 600 Capstone Seminar Student
The increased use of technology in cities can be seen as a defining feature of urban life in the 21st century. The objective of this study is to examine if new technologies are making cities safer to live in. In doing so, this study seeks to examine the relationship between new technologies, particularly improved camera surveillance and levels of crime in surveillance-enabled public spaces. Although some studies have examined U.S. cites e.g. (Nieto, 1997; Yesil, 2006; Welsh and Farrington, 2003; Welsh and Farrington, 2009), there is limited recent literature using a quantitative design to examine the roles of innovative surveillance technologies and how they impact the safety of a city. This study hypothesizes that new surveillance technologies will have a positive effect on crime, thus making surveillance-enabled areas safer. The unit of analysis for this study is surveillance enabled public spaces in two U.S. cities Washington D.C. and Chicago, IL. The sources of data will be the reports on crime in both cities. The data will come from the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia and the city of Chicago’s data portal on crime. It is important to examine not only if surveillance technologies do make cities safer but also to look at how new technologies are changing the urban environment. The privacy implications as well as how policy is being legislated are also key areas to examine in order to better understand how new technologies are altering the urban landscape.
Planning Our Urban Future: Transit-Oriented Development, Employment, and Gentrification
Gard Pecor, USP 600 Capstone Student
As our world becomes increasingly more urban, our urban infrastructures will be pushed to their limit with ever-increasing populations. To combat the issues related to urban sprawl, many think that one solution may be Transit-Oriented Development (TOD). TODs are comprehensive development plans that seek to increase economic development, public transport use, and walkability while decreasing urban sprawl and auto-dependency. Due to the effectiveness of TOD on many accounts, this development strategy has been more recently used as an urban renewal tool. Some argue that TOD links low-to moderate-income (LMI) workers with previously unreachable employment opportunities while simultaneously improving the neighborhood. Others argue that TOD causes property values to rise and ultimately forces the LMI residents out of the area and out of reach from the employment centers they were supposed to be linked to. This has become a contentious issue in Milwaukee as the recently approved streetcar system has been touted to increase economic development, create jobs, and better connect our LMI residents with employment opportunities. Those in opposition argue that the investment should have been made in the bus system and that the proposed route does little to create economic development or improve the standing of LMI residents. This paper will analyze data collected from large urban cities in the Midwest to uncover how various forms of TOD have impacted employment and gentrification.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s (SNAP) Impact in Food Deserts
Ashley Parker, USP 600 Capstone Student
The topic being explored in this research is food security, specifically how access and affordability affect choice in food selection. This is explored through the connection between food deserts and Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP) benefits. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding as to how receiving SNAP benefits makes a difference in food selection, when an area is considered a food desert. The significance of this study is to examine how food choice is affected when the options are limited and the burden of affordability is lessened by SNAP benefits. This study will take place in Milwaukee, WI, specifically the Lindsay heights neighborhood. The methodology being used is a “mixed methods ethnographic” approach, which utilizes: GIS methodology, in-depth interviews with residents, and participant observation.
Social Housing: The Best Model for Modern Public Housing?
Ryan Peterson, USP 600 Capstone Student
It is an undisputed fact that dilapidated public housing developments have plagued our country for decades. The severe drain on resources just to maintain a mediocre or often times deteriorated state of these buildings is completely outlandish. Just the maintenance and upkeep on these buildings is an expense that could be cut out entirely if another concept of public housing were to be put into place. Not to mention, the system of public housing in our country is just as outdated as the buildings themselves. Thus, this research project has been undertaken to decipher whether there are systems elsewhere in the world that have more efficient systems that provide better results for their residents while spending their resources more efficiently, but not necessarily spending less money. Informed by brief historical context, this research study will attempt to look at the current state of multiple public housing models current being employed across the world. The specific system that will compared to the United States system of public housing will be the social housing system employed in several European countries. Since it would be almost impossible to compare the entirety of America’s public housing system to several different countries in Europe, two locations will be used to inform the study’s conclusion. The first location to be analyzed is Washington D.C., which employs the public housing model, and Vienna, Austria, which provides an excellent example of the social housing model. These models should provide adequate context for a dynamic case study of the two housing models.
Soviet Monuments and Memorials in 21st Century Eastern European Cities
Ben Schroeder, USP 600 Capstone Student
While there is a bevy of academic research focused on the historical context of Soviet-era monuments and memorial spaces in Eastern European cities, I seek to understand these spaces in the context of modern cities—cities which are becoming more liberal, “Westernized,” and increasingly detached from their Iron Curtain pasts. To accomplish this, I will use three cities as case studies: Moscow, Russia; Berlin, Germany; and Kyiv, Ukraine. Much has been written about the commodification of these spaces, but there exists a gap in explaining how this commodification may influence collective memory. My primary goal is to examine whether or not these sites and symbols promote certain narratives about these cities’ Soviet pasts, and how individual governments use policy to influence these narratives. This study will primarily be qualitative in nature; historical analysis will be employed to place these spaces in their current context, and surveys and interviews will gauge how these sites influence the collective memory of the society in which they reside.
Evaluating the Success of the Remediation of Highly Contaminated Brownfield Sites: A Case Study of the 30th Street Industrial Corridor and Its Efficacy in Area Revitalization and Job Creation for Impacted Residents
Angelo Vlahos, USP 600 Capstone Student
In Brownfield remediation efforts, low market, highly contaminated sites have largely been neglected by dominant market-based models. The problem with this approach is that minority and low-income residents are disproportionately impacted by highly contaminated brownfield sites which are rarely addressed, resulting in a system of inequity in the remediation of brownfields across municipalities. Fortunately, the City of Milwaukee has opted to adopt vast area-based strategies that have allowed for massive collaboration of public, private, and community entities in addressing this issue, with the goals of reinvigorating disproportionately impacted neighborhoods via the assessment, clean-up, and eventual redevelopment of contaminated sites into viable commercial, industrial, and residential purposes. In this study, the area-based strategies being employed in the 30th Street Industrial Corridor Project will be examined in order to gauge its efficacy in the revitalization of the community and most importantly, the securement of lucrative employment opportunities that can provide for area residents. The area effects of the catalytic project developments will be examined using hedonic modeling to measure impacts on surrounding property values, alongside an observation of crime rate fluctuations and changes in employment rates. In order to determine the quality of jobs being created in the area, employment opportunities will be evaluated based on their estimated stability in current and future economic contexts and their ability to provide a livable wage. Lastly, surveys and interviews will be conducted with area residents in order to provide a ‘ground-level’ perspective on the employment opportunities being created with the intention of revealing nuances that cannot be fully accounted for in quantitative data analysis.
Building Equity Into Local Economic Development: Finding the ‘Missing Link’ in the Practice of Local Economic Development in Milwaukee
Jonatan Zuniga, USP 600 Capstone Student
Recent literature on local economic development agrees on incorporating equity and sustainability into economic development practice. It has focused on three macro principles that economic development should do: increase standard of living, reduce inequality, and promote and encourage sustainable resource use and production. In the last decade, the Department of City Development of Milwaukee has used these principles to create comprehensive development plans for all the areas in the city. The purpose of this research is to examine how local economic development takes place in Milwaukee and to what extent local economic development planning goals are realized. This study will address these questions by conducting interviews with the responsible parties of the catalytic projects outlined in the comprehensive plans for the Near South Side and Northeast Side. Additionally, it will include information gathered by analyzing records of the Department of City Development, the City Plan Commission, the Economic and Community Development Committee, and of Community Development Corporations. I hypothesize that these local economic development plans have not been implemented equally around the city