{"id":27432,"date":"2018-02-22T21:05:25","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T03:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=27432"},"modified":"2018-02-22T21:05:25","modified_gmt":"2018-02-23T03:05:25","slug":"leader-offers-bold-vision-for-renewing-historic-harbor-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2018\/02\/leader-offers-bold-vision-for-renewing-historic-harbor-area\/","title":{"rendered":"Leader Offers Bold Vision for Renewing Historic Harbor Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lilith Fowler says she is \u201ca fixer-upper\u201d type of person. That\u2019s true whether she\u2019s dealing with a home or a neighborhood \u2013 or big challenges that can have impact on an entire metropolitan area. A few years ago, she was the first executive director of Menomonee Valley Partners, a non-profit that played a valuable role in the revitalization of a big swatch of land near the heart of the city.<\/p>\n

She has taken on a new challenge: Catalyzing a boom in the area around Milwaukee\u2019s harbor, about 1,000 acres that is in large part unused or underused now, with many environmental challenges. The area can roughly be described as lying on either side of the southern stretch of the Hoan Bridge. The goal is to bring to the area the kind of appealing development that has come to nearby areas such as the Third Ward and Bay View.<\/p>\n

In an \u201cOn the Issues with Mike Gousha\u201d program in the Lubar Center of Eckstein Hall on Thursday, Fowler, executive director of Harbor District, Inc.,<\/a> a new and still-small non-profit, summarized the state of the area now (pretty used up) and offered visions, both in words and slides, of what the area could be (pretty beautiful, with a lot of river walks and promenades, as well as mixed commercial and residential development).<\/p>\n

\u201cThis area is so unique and so special,\u201d Fowler said. \u201cThis is an amazing asset.\u201d As down as the area is now, it offers a lot of land with long stretches of waterfront, close proximity to downtown and the freeway system, easy access to cultural assets, and appealing locations for development. Very few cities in the United States have opportunities of this kind in locations such as this, she said.<\/p>\n

It won\u2019t be easy to get there and large results won\u2019t come quickly, she said. The effort will require a lot of involvement and help from different levels of government and private owners and investors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like one magic path forward, right?\u201d Fowler said. The role for the organization she heads will be \u201cgetting all the little pieces and nudging them along and getting them to move in the same direction.\u201d But she said small positive steps are underway, such as building a public plaza at the end of Greenfield Ave., with a kayak and canoe launch and a play area that will available by this summer.<\/p>\n

The reason Milwaukee exists is because of the harbor area, Fowler said. It was where the first settlers found hunting and fishing opportunities and then built a port that, at one time in the 19th<\/sup> century was one of the busiest in the world. The area still offers reminders of Milwaukee\u2019s heritage, both environmentally and economically, she said, and it can again become a destination for business, residents, and visitors.<\/p>\n

In introducing Fowler, Gousha, the Law School\u2019s distinguished fellow in law and public policy, said the area could provide \u201cthe next great urban step\u201d for Milwaukee. Fowler offered visions to support that thought, along with the caution that it will take a lot of get there.<\/p>\n

To view the hour-long program, click here. \u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lilith Fowler says she is \u201ca fixer-upper\u201d type of person. That\u2019s true whether she\u2019s dealing with a home or a neighborhood \u2013 or big challenges that can have impact on an entire metropolitan area. A few years ago, she was the first executive director of Menomonee Valley Partners, a non-profit that played a valuable role […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,122,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-milwaukee","category-public","category-speakers","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27432"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27437,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27432\/revisions\/27437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}