Transit Ridership Up Nationally: Milwaukee County Missing The Wave

Under the disinterested leadership of Milwaukee County Executive and grasping gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker, Milwaukee County's failing bus system is not part of the national transit boom.

Milwaukee County will never get the spinoff development benefits from rail transit that are accruing in other cities unless and until the business community begins to see Walker as an economic liability.

The answer is not to promote him to the Governor's office, but to form a coalition with other transit believers and activists that will put a pro-transit, pro-development leader in the County Executive's office.

Paired with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, such a County Exec would be able to coordinate local, state and federal transit investment funds in a coherent fashion.

And to work more productively with the private sector on transportation-related issues.

Another issue that must be addressed is Milwaukee's continuing presence in SEWRPC, the in-bred regional planning commission that is stacked in favor of rural and suburban counties, and on which the City of Milwaukee has no votes among the 21 commissioners.

With a muted voice at SEWRPC, Milwaukee cannot make progress on its transit needs, which enables a distorted housing and jobs' market to grow in the suburbs while declining in the city.

SEWRPC's guiding decades-old land-use plan and thinking continues to support this imbalance - - look no farther than SEWRPC's new water supply study, which recommends diverting Lake Michigan water to Waukesha while not considering the impacts on regional housing and transportation programs, costs, deficiencies and projections.

Milwaukee - - the city and the region - - will remain stunted economically until the old ways in the Milwaukee County Courthouse and at SEWRPC's Pewaukee offices are modernized, or replaced outright.