Ament Nixed Park Trade With City, So It Still Controls MacArthur Square Park

I note in this Journal Sentinel story that new Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele sees the advantages of MacArthur Square Park, the massive space in front of the Courthouse with a view to Kilbourn Ave. and the downtown.

And it comes with a parking facility - - all owned by the City.

True story:

When I was working in Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist's office, he offered to then-County Exec Tom Ament a swap: MacArthur Square Park for Red Arrow Park, a County-owned property at Wells St. and Kilbourn Ave. just to the north of the City Hall complex.

Norquist's idea was to give each unit of government, for planning and operational purposes, control of the park and open space adjacent to their respective seats of government.

Ament said "no" and that was the end of it.

This was in the late '90's, during a period of perhaps six-to-eight months in which Ament and Norquist and their senior staffs had fairly regular breakfast meetings.

Governments are too often fearful of giving up control of assets: when Scott Walker was first elected in 2002 as County Executive, Norquist offered to take over control of the County's greenhouse operation and merge it into the City's to end the duplication of services.

Walker said he'd think about it, then declined.

So it goes...