UWM Correct To Withdraw Lakefront Site For Freshwater School

As some of us have been saying for weeks and months, the proposed site at the Pieces of Eight restaurant on the lakefront for the UWM School of Freshwater Science was too small and controversial to be the community's first and best choice.

Now UWM agrees - - Tom Daykin is reporting - - and that's good news.

In a Journal Sentinel Crossroads op-ed a few weeks ago, I suggested that UWM, the city and state agree that the current site of the UWM WATER Institute on Greenfield Ave. - - close to the harbor and on the near south side - - get a complete makeover to add the school and boost the neighborhood.

That gets water-related job creation to the grassroots, and puts freshwater teaching side-by-side with research and the Institute's boat - - something the Pieces of Eight did not accomplish.

There is ample room there for the M7 Water Council, but if the address is not prestigious enough, there is certainly Class I real estate space downtown for the Council's offices.