Milwaukee – Page 42 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Residency Requirements and the Sense of Community

Post author:David R. Papke
Post published:February 23, 2013
Post category:Milwaukee Public

Ray Papke, my late father, was a maintenance man for Milwaukee Public Schools and proud of it. He had no quarrel with the requirement that City of Milwaukee employees live within the City. He was born in Milwaukee, worked for Milwaukee, and pleased to live in Milwaukee.

Were he alive today, Ray Papke would have opposed Governor Scott Walker’s proposed elimination of residency requirements for City employees, but I can’t imagine him voicing the common arguments against the proposal. To wit, (1) Property values in the city will fall, (2) The City’s racial and ethnic diversity will decline, and (3) People are more effective working for others if they know and live with them.

No, Ray Papke’s position was one based on a more fundamental sense of community, one that literally had a geographic foundation. He lived and worked for this town in this place. This view of social life is of course missing in the Governor’s vision of free-floating individuals who should be able to live wherever they want. It’s also missing in the arguments of the Governor’s opponents, arguments primarily couched with reference to socio-economic concerns and workers’ efficiency.

I fear that the vision of community held dear by Ray Papke was buried along with him and his generation of honest, patriotic, blue-collar Americans. We cannot relive the past, but these Americans were in touch with something that added depth and meaning to their lives.

Health Commissioner: Milwaukee Must Deal with Race and Poverty Issues

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:January 17, 2013
Post category:Health Care Milwaukee Public Speakers at Marquette

If Milwaukee is to become a healthy city in both broad terms and in terms of specific issues, it must deal with issues in an honest, constructive way with poverty and race, City of Milwaukee Health Commission Bevan Baker said Thursday during an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” session at Eckstein Hall.

“Milwaukee will not be the greatest, most relevant, healthiest city in America until we deal with our dirty linen,” Baker, health commissioner since 2004, told an audience of about 150.

“To do that,” he continued, “we have got to do what other cities have done, and that is to address race, to address poverty, to look at these issues, and say, it is tough, it is unimaginable, it makes me sick, it is ugly, but to be great we have got to do the unimaginable thing, and that is to once and for all say, and in true fashion, to take our spiritual and moral compass and say, Milwaukee will not be the healthiest, greatest, most relevant city in America until we deal with our dirty linen. That’s what New York has done and that is what Miami is trying to do and that’s what other cities in this nation I have lived in have done.”

Danae Davis: Growing Pearls Among Central City Teen Age Girls

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:November 18, 2012
Post category:Milwaukee Public Speakers at Marquette

Danae Davis was well along in a distinguished career in executive positions in government and corporations. But she was approaching 50, she felt she needed to do something that had more meaning for her, and she was distressed about the situations of so many young people in Milwaukee.

A friend, Colleen Fitzgerald (now an executive coach for Marquette University), was founder of a small organization that aimed to help central city teenage girls make good decisions about their lives. It was called Pearls for Teen Girls. Fitzgerald suggested to Davis that she become executive director. It paid a lot less than corporate work. But it was exactly the kind of thing Davis was looking for.

That was six years ago. Pearls has grown from serving about 500 girls a year to about 1,100. Davis says she is serious about growing it to 10,000 girls a year. And its track record is impressive – nearly 100% of participating girls who have reached the appropriate age have graduated high school on time and gone on to post-secondary education. Nearly 100% have avoided becoming pregnant.

Davis told Mike Gousha during an “On the Issues” session at Eckstein Hall on Nov. 15 that Pearls is built around small groups of girls ages 10 to 19 who meet weekly for sessions that mix fun with programs focusing on serious issues. The result is a support structure for girls to pursue constructive futures.