{"id":25122,"date":"2015-11-05T15:48:32","date_gmt":"2015-11-05T20:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=25122"},"modified":"2015-11-05T15:48:32","modified_gmt":"2015-11-05T20:48:32","slug":"back-to-the-future-revisiting-milwaukee-2015-water-jobs-and-the-way-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2015\/11\/back-to-the-future-revisiting-milwaukee-2015-water-jobs-and-the-way-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Back To The Future – Revisiting \u201cMilwaukee 2015: Water, Jobs, and the Way Forward\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

During a time-travel scene in the 1989 film \u201cBack to the Future II,\u201d director Robert Zemeckis and writer Bob Gale attempted to predict the world of \"Banner<\/a>October 2015.\u00a0 They got some things right and others wrong.<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0Zemeckis and Gale aren\u2019t the only ones who made predictions about 2015, however.\u00a0 Six years ago, in November 2009, Marquette Law School\u2019s Public Policy Initiative convened a conference entitled \u201cMilwaukee 2015: Water, Jobs, and the Way Forward.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 The speakers included Wisconsin\u2019s then-Governor Jim Doyle, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett; and Badger Meter\u2019s Rich Meeusen, co-chair of what was then called the Milwaukee 7 Water Council (and now is simply The Water Council<\/a>).\u00a0 The conference\u2019s key theme was making southeast Wisconsin the hub of freshwater-related business in North America.<\/p>\n

Meeusen delivered one of the gathering\u2019s most memorable lines: \u201cMy dream is, by 2015, when people think water, they think Milwaukee.\u201d\u00a0 Another speaker, Anselmo Teixeira of Siemens, noted that as of 2009 no water technology hub had been established in North America.\u00a0 Teixeira recognized Milwaukee\u2019s advantages in seeking to become such a center, but cited the need for government, university, and business leaders to do \u201cthe right things.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Six years later, in the conference\u2019s title year, we can begin to evaluate whether Meeusen\u2019s dream has become a reality.<\/p>\n

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One can easily make the argument that over the past six years, Milwaukee has become synonymous with water sector innovation; indeed, recent articles in The Economist<\/a>, the Chicago Tribune<\/a>, and the Buffalo News<\/a>, are among the many recognizing Milwaukee\u2019s leadership role in water matters.\u00a0 \u00a0In 2013 Forbes Magazine called Milwaukee \u201cthe capital of water.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 Some skeptics continue to claim that all of this is the product of an elaborate public relations campaign with little substance; \u201csmoke and mirrors<\/a>,\u201d when put in appropriate context.\u00a0 But they are in the distinct minority, especially amid enduring and concrete signs of the region\u2019s progress:<\/p>\n