Urban Environment, Endless Degradation

The damage to Wisconsin's urban environment continues unabated.

Milwaukee County and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee are pressing ahead with a plan to put an engineering and innovation center at the County Grounds in Wauwatosa - - ripping up some of the remaining open space in the County and destroying a Monarch butterfly migration site.

As will the Wisconsin Department of Transportation when it widens the Zoo Interchange, also at the expense of County Grounds acreage.

Oh, just a bunch of butterflies, you say? Why be concerned with them, or the wetlands lost to I-94 construction between Milwaukee and the stateline south of Kenosha, or the projected land and stream damage for the pending City of Waukesha bypass?

Wisconsinites are rightly proud of the state Stewardship program's preservation of land Up North, and yes, there is some holding back development in and near the Kettle Moraine (but not much).

But highway expansion - - all 127 miles of the regional freeway system are due to get another lane in both directions, with wider ramps, too - - puts a $6.5 billion priority on land loss in the name of traffic flow.

Its shameful that UWM wants to plop its new science complex on open space when there were multiple opportunities in and near the downtown that would have put students and faculty closer to other universities, many businesses and all the already-built infrastructure.

For UWM, the County, and WisDOT, cities are seen as impediments to 'better' trucking or commuting routes - - and with an environment easily sacrificed instead of carefully folded into sustainable plans and developments that honor what and who is currently there.

Not to mention in the generations coming up.