Reducing Blight While Restoring Community in Metcalfe Park
Marquette University students from the campus social justice club joined with officers from MPD District 3, residents of Metcalfe Park, and organizers from the Safe Streets Initiative, Safe & Sound Community Partners, and the North Avenue Community Development Corporation on Saturday October 30th for a neighborhood cleanup of vacant properties called Restoring Communities.
Safe & Sound organizers were familiar with the serious challenges with vacant properties in the area, having conducted block-by-block and porch-by-porch surveys of vacant properties in the Metcalfe Park neighborhood during the three weeks prior to the event. Through these efforts, our staff identified, documented, and reported 212 vacant buildings to the City’s Department of Neighborhood Services. Fifty-seven of the properties were identified as “unsecure”—having open doors or windows and in many cases accessed by squatters, vandals, and trespassers. An additional 71 properties were identified and reported as having other blight and code issues such as graffiti, broken windows, or out of control weeds and tall grass on the property.
The efforts on Saturday were to focus on 16 of the boarded-up, vacant properties in the worst condition located on the 2400-2600 blocks of N 32nd-34th Streets. Prior to the cleanup, Kathy Walker of North Avenue CDC assisted in securing supplies from Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful and recruiting residents from Metcalfe Park to participate.
When Marquette students arrived Saturday morning, Assistant District Attorney Chris Ladwig presented them with a history of the neighborhood and how blighted and vacant properties contribute to increases in crime, which devastates the neighborhood further. Safe & Sound Organizers Annie Weidert, Talibah Mateen and Tim Schermetzler, along with Paulina De Haan of Marquette University Law School’s Safe Streets Initiative, and District 3 police officers each led small groups of volunteers who fanned out across the neighborhood, tackling vacant properties one by one throughout the morning. A number of residents who saw the cleanup in progress jumped in to lend a hand. One man approached a Marquette student volunteer named Leslie to thank her for the work. Leslie thanked the man and invited him to join in, after which he spent the next hour assisting the students in cleaning up his block. Nathaniel, a fourth-grader at Westside Academy, heard the clatter or rakes and shovels from inside his house and came outside to help as well. Another notable participant was Common Council President and Alderman for the Metcalfe Park area, Willie Hines, who also joined students and residents in the cleanup efforts and thanked everyone for their commitment to the neighborhood.
In all, the group removed over 60 total bags of garbage from streets and yards, cleaned graffiti, cut down high weeds, and cleared yard waste and other debris from the yards of the vacant properties in preparation for the winter months.
After the conclusion of cleanup efforts, community and student volunteers gathered in facilities provided by local business partner Master Lock Company and the Local 469 UAW for pizza and refreshments. Food and refreshments were provided by Marquette Law School’s Safe Streets Initiative, Safe & Sound, Amaranth Bakery & Café, and the local McDonald’s owned by the Mac Allen Partnership. The group was also welcomed and thanked by Milwaukee Police District 3 Captain Brunson and Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm. Both the Captain and DA Chisholm stressed the importance of community involvement and a sense of mutual responsibility in keeping neighborhoods safe, and how law enforcement alone is not enough to make neighborhoods secure places in which to live and work.
The event concluded with a restorative justice circle facilitated by the Safe Streets Initiative’s Community Coordinators Paulina De Haan and Ron Johnson. Residents and students had the opportunity to reflect on their service to the community and listen to one another’s reactions to the event. One Marquette student commented that she had always recognized the environmental impact of garbage yet never thought about how removing blight could decrease crime in a neighborhood until now. One of the Metcalfe Park resident participants responded that she was “surprised with how calm it was in the neighborhood,” indicating the event’s immediate effect upon the peace of the neighborhood. Paulina De Haan commented that events like Saturday’s truly restore communities by forcing negative elements out and allowing the good people in the community to come together and reclaim their neighborhood. The challenge remains to sustain resident involvement and neighborhood pride while extending the reach beyond the 10 blocks visited on Saturday.
