Milwaukee – Page 71 – Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

A Heartbreaker Named Detroit

Post author:Richard M. Esenberg
Post published:December 26, 2008
Post category:Milwaukee Race & Law

As a native Milwaukeean, Detroit breaks my heart. There are just a few cities that you can go to that you remind you of home. Chicago and Cleveland are the big two. Cincinnati is reminiscent, but a bit too southern. Detroit — or what used to be left of Detroit — was another. (Minneapolis is an entirely different kind of place.)

So pieces like Matt LaBash’s recent cover piece for the Weekly Standard disturb me. Websites like this one are fascinating and frightening chronicles of how bad urban decay can get. I have always thought that a conservatism that has no concern for places like the inner-city of Detroit is not a conservatism that I want to be part of.

But one cannot, I think, make a great city by litigation or subsidy. Here in Milwaukee, the ACLU has filed a complaint with the Federal Department of Transportation alleging that actions of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation in approving the certain aspects of the reconstruction of I-94, including the partial closure of a city interchange and the construction of a new suburban interchange, violate the anti-discrimination provisions of Title VI and its implementing regulations. It also complains of a decision to widen the freeway (which runs through the city) from six to eight lanes instead of using the money for commuter rail.

Musings on Residential Segregation

Post author:Richard M. Esenberg
Post published:December 19, 2008
Post category:Milwaukee

I was interested to see a discussion on residential racial segregation in Milwaukee on the Political Environment Blog run by former journalist and Mayor Norquist aide Jim Rowen.

I was once absorbed in this debate. As a young associate at Foley & Lardner, I was part of the defense team representing twenty-four suburban school districts who were sued by the Milwaukee Public Schools. MPS sought a metropolitan-wide integration plan. We tried the case for a few months and then it settled on terms largely favorable to the suburbs.

I was in charge of the “housing” case, i.e., our response to the plaintiffs’ claim that residential racial segregation (causing school segregation) was caused by discriminatory government practices over a period of fifty years or so. Very heady stuff for a young lawyer still north of thirty.

I have kept up with the issue casually since then but I think that there were three important things that we learned then that are still relevant today.

New Sick Pay Ordinance May Lead to Rejuvenation of Milwaukee Equal Rights Commission

Post author:Paul M. Secunda
Post published:December 16, 2008
Post category:Labor & Employment Law Milwaukee Wisconsin Law & Legal System

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has the scoop:

Milwaukee’s dormant Equal Rights Commission could be back in business early next year – just in time to enforce the city’s controversial new sick pay ordinance.

On Tuesday, the Common Council will consider legislation to reconstitute the body with a focus not only on the sick pay measure, but also on the city’s own equal rights performance and on forms of discrimination that aren’t covered by state or federal laws. If that measure is approved, Mayor Tom Barrett will nominate a slate of seven panel members for confirmation in January, mayoral aide Leslie Silletti told the council’s Judiciary & Legislation Committee last week.

The Equal Rights Commission was founded in 1991 to investigate complaints of discrimination in housing and employment.

But the commission disbanded in 2003, amid complaints that former Mayor John O. Norquist’s administration never gave the seven-member panel the resources it needed to do its job. Since then, a single staffer in the city Department of Employee Relations has been carrying out the body’s mission, investigating some complaints himself and referring others to state and federal agencies . . . .