When it was announced that Milwaukee business and civic leader, Joseph Zilber, was giving $50 million to fund neighborhood initiatives the response, as expected, expressed gratitude and hope.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett called the action "an unbelievably generous gift from Joe Zilber to this city."
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article focused on something just as important as the size of the gift, it's scope:
The Zilber Neighborhood Initiative, as the effort will be called, will work with local organizations to support specific efforts to improve the quality of life in up to 10 neighborhoods...
...A key early step will be creating or selecting a "central intermediary," an organization to oversee the effort and make decisions on where money should go, while giving neighborhood organizations and representatives a strong voice in what goes on.
The gift to the people of Milwaukee measured in dollars is obvious. Not so obvious is the thought and planning that went into the structure of the gift. As Zilber noted:
...There are a great many individuals and foundations prepared to invest resources to strengthen our community. For months I have worked behind the scenes with these entities. My mission is to mobilize them with good ideas, strong proposals and the promise that our shared commitment to our great city will yield positive results...
Joseph Zilber and his advisers gave careful thought to the structure of neighborhoods, how neighborhoods change, and the importance of building upon neighborhood assets:
We can (and must) act quickly and decisively to support programs that work, replace those that don't, bring proven and promising solutions to scale, sustain them long enough to gain traction and provide them with sufficient resources to get the job done.
The selection of Susan E. Lloyd of the Program on Human and Community Development to direct the effort is just one more indicator that this is a well planned gift. The money is important, but the context makes it even more valuable.
Can you imagine Jerry Frautschi or Pleasant Rowland doing something like that? Neither can I.
Posted by: Charlie | May 13, 2008 at 10:32 AM
First, let me say it's a generous gift from an individual and I agree with the thought of it, but details are lacking. You forgot to mention that Zilber's intent is for this to be a catalyst for similar large donations. That might make the initiative a little more substantial.
However, I think people are greatly over-estimating the extent to which $50 million can help one, no less ten neighborhoods in a big city (and over ten years?). In Chicago/Milwaukee, that'd probably be one block of two-story row houses. There will be administrative and planning costs running probably ten percent.
There are some great things happening in Milwaukee along the east, lakeside neighborhoods. But go west of the river into MLK Boulevard and North Avenue and there hasn't been the infusion of resources there should be. There have been new building projects here and there, but the overall commerce and continuity of the street is no better than it was twenty five years ago, even worse in some spots. $50M won't go far in those neighborhoods.
Now breaking down that 3/4 mile of interstate-to-nowhere near MSOE/Water Street was a brilliant idea. It opened so much space for new development and got rid of a barrier between the downtown and MLK Boulevard that will hopefully help over decades.
Of course, these types of projects make the city that much more lazy and inattentive. If anything, the $50 could be put toward planning and forcing the city to commit to a long-term, continual plan. I like the idea of jobs for the citizens. (You convinced us of that Paul.) If this donation could spark that, it would be successful.
Sprawl is always an issue and Milwaukee was sort of a pilot program in how to not do things (i.e., the Northridge/Southridge model). Perhaps the city could be compacted some and return the edges of the city, like the 1960s/1970s big-box parking lots, back to green space rather than to appliance/home-builder stores.
Posted by: Dan Sebald | May 13, 2008 at 11:28 AM