Barrett Urges State To Drop Pabst Farm Interchange

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett used his State of the City address Wednesday to urge state road planners to abandon the proposed $21.1 million I-94 interchange to the now-not-so-ritzy planned Pabst Farm shopping mall.

He called for that money to be redirected to more pressing needs, like fixing Milwaukee streets.

It's a reasonable suggestion - - raised often on this blog and elsewhere for months - - since a) the mall developer shelved its plan for the upscale mall, b) Pabst Farms, like many developments, has been torpedoed by the recession and a burst housing bubble, and c) a second mall developer has turned the upscale mall concept into a glorified strip mall.

The state should build a special interchange for that?

I think we're all coming to our senses, which means pay as you go, fix what you already have, buy what you need and can afford, and when given the choice, don't use public money to build Bridges, Roads and Interchanges To Nowhere.