Photo Gallery

Recent Friday Photos

• Infill, Infill, Infill
• Marsupial Bridge Connection At Mid-Point
• Casino Hotel is Coming
• The Moderne’s New Restaurant
• UWM’s New Freshwater School Makes Progress
• The State’s Square Deal
• Prospect Mall’s Progress
• Milwaukee From Atop the Pabst Silos
• Inside the Brewhouse Inn
• Controversial Building Going Up

The Mayor’s home.

Mayor Tom Barrett was Congressman Thomas M. Barrett when he and his wife Kristine M. Barrett bought this unprepossessing Washington Heights home for $273,000 in 1999.

The 3,507 sq. ft, 2-story “plus attic guest room” mansionette has 5 bedrooms, 3 full baths, 2 half-baths, a family room and a built-in wood-burning fireplace that provides a homey backdrop for the mayor, his family and family dog in campaign literature and Christmas cards. The mayor and his wife, a school teacher in the Wauwatosa district (no residency requirement there!), raised four children in the home. According to his gubernatorial campaign website, “Their home is in the same neighborhood where Tom grew up, and is the same area he represented in the State Legislature and in Congress. Together, the family stays true to the same Wisconsin values that have guided Tom throughout his entire life.”

That may be laying it on a bit thick, but the fact of the matter is that the mayor’s residence, which dates to 1916, was built during a high time for quality residential construction. Streetcar lines stretching as far as Wauwatosa opened up this verdant agricultural glen to urban settlement in the late 1890′s. The virgin land was laid out in broad avenues and leafy boulevards, such as the one to which the mayor’s residence lends such grace and stature.

The home is sited on a 59 ft x 190 ft rectangular lot; the symmetrical structure is centered on the shorter axis, its south-facing brick walls eager to soak up the rays of the benevolent sunshine that suffuse it with warmth and light. The symmetry extends to that portion of the landscaped grounds visible to the passing public. A modest, well-trimmed hedge caps the crest of a cleanly mowed bluff. A four-step concrete stairway of becoming modesty leads to the raised plateau upon which the dwelling nestles, at one with its environment.

An asphalt driveway separates the mayor’s dwelling from the neighbor to the west, and affords convenient access to the attached, 429 sq. ft. garage.

A full, yet “unfinished” basement of 1,614 sq. ft. keeps the living floors frost-free in the winter, aided by a $9,000 boiler added to the building on January 24th, 2008 by Nimmer Heating and Air Conditioning. Yet, there was no call for Nimmer to air condition the home, where the mayor and family must sweat it out during the blistering zephyrs that so frequently characterize summer in the western precincts of the great metropolis. An underground oil tank that once stored fuel for the dwelling was removed, at a cost of $1,100, two years prior to the mayor’s occupancy.

An alley dead ends several houses north of the mayor’s, which means that he, like others similarly situated, is obliged to haul his garbage and recycling to the curb on the appointed day. [Note to Mayor: your next garbage pick up is May 21st. Whose turn is it to take out the bin?]

The home also has “dual staircases,” to ease vertical travel for the Barretts and their bounding brood. There is also a chute to send the mayoral laundry to the cellar, where the family washerwoman has a fully equipped facility with electric appliances.

The city assessor originally classified the structure as being of “mixed” architecture, but in 1991, this aesthetic decision was overridden, and “the style changed to ‘Colonial’ for uniformity.” Whatever the name, this structure has some uniformly nice elements. The vestibule floor is quarry tile, and a 5 foot tile wainscoting provides for sanitary conditions in the bathrooms. Coved ceilings surmount the second floor rooms, while 52 leaded-glass windows sparkle in the sunlight and glow with warmth on a chill winter’s eve, while in the butler’s pantry, no doubt, the mayor’s butler polishes the Barrett family silver.

The home is topped with a gray slate roof reminiscent of the salt-and-pepper hair that helmets the mayor’s skull. The facade of the building is reserved, restrained, dignified unto dull, not unlike its occupant. Yet whimsical curved dormers hint at the mayor’s humorous streak.  Sixteen electrical outlets and 10 fixtures were added to the building in 1946, during a “modernization” after the home was sold by the estate of Anna Conrad to Frank Ripple, Jr. for $20,000. The 2013 valuation of the home is at a constant $42,700 for the land and $328,800 for the improvements, giving a total assessed valuation of $371,500, down from $403,800 the year before.

Taxes of $11,249.42 are paid in full. These include $8,638 in city taxes, which means the mayor himself pays for about 6 per cent of his $145,069 salary through his property tax. You can see why he supports city residency rules.

In 1984, the assessor gave the home a “B” grade. This was updated in 1986 to “solid B grade quality.”

BAD DOG!

The mayor’s residence was the site of two recorded service requests by the Department of Neighborhood Services. In June, 2009, the department made note of DOG BITE, “quarantined, released, notified.” The dog catcher was back again at the mayor’s house in September, 2009, issuing a report of DOG BITE (2ND BITE), “quarantined, released, notified,” which was also entered into the permanent record of the mayor’s home. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen the mayor’s dog in his recent campaign literature and Christmas cards.

THE RUNDOWN

• Style: Colonial “for uniformity” [City Assessor]
• Neighborhood: Washington Heights
• Walkscore: 63 out of 100 “Somewhat Walkable” Dana’s Fieldhouse is .29 mile away.
• Transit Score: 51 out of 100, “Good Transit.” Vliet street teems with bus traffic just two blocks to the south.
• Street Smart Walkscore: 63 out of 100, “Somewhat walkable.” Viet Hoa Grocery is .6 mile away, but I don’t see Mayor Eat-Lunch-at-His-Desk making a beeline for it.
• Size: 3,507 square feet
• Year Built: 1916
• Assessed Value: $371,500
• Property Taxes: $11,249.42, paid in full.

How Milwaukee Is It? Mayor Barrett’s home it is about 5.5 freeway miles to City Hall, while the mayor was able to bicycle the 4.1 miles on city streets in about 25 minutes during Bike to Work Week. [See Urban Milwaukee Gallery.]

House Confidential Street Smart Rankings

1. Latrell Sprewell (96)
2. Mark Belling (94)
3. Michael D. Drescher (94)
4. Mark Attanasio (93)
5. Barry Mandel (93)
6. Drew Gooden (92)
7. Don Smiley (91)
8. Dr. Hermann Viets (88)
9. Jeff Joerres (87)
10. Jim Wiechmann (86)
11. Brandon Jennings (82)
12. Marina Dimitrijevic (81)
13. Robert Bauman (81)
14. Robert Greenstreet (68)
15. Rocky Marcoux (68)
16. Tom Barrett (63)
17. Sue Black (61)
18. Brian Taffora (57)
19. Tim Sullivan (49)
20. Julia Taylor (40)
21. Chris Abele (37)
22. David A. Clarke, Jr. (11)
23. Allan Huber “Bud” Selig (5)
24. Scott Skiles (3)

Paving crews put down a lift of fresh asphalt on the north segment of KK River Trail between Maple and Washington Streets.

The long wait for the Kinnickinnic River Trail is nearly over, with paving already done from Washington to Maple, and the south leg from Lincoln to Rosedale under construction. I know more than a few folks in Bay View and Lincoln Village who have almost given up on that project ever being built, but they should be able to ride the north leg by Memorial Day and the full length of the trail to S. 6th Street and Rosedale Avenue by the fall. The time needed to construct a new bridge over Chase Avenue is the reason the south segment will not open sooner.

Looking south from the KK River Trail trailhead at Washington Street.

Click this link to view a Google Map I created of the Kinnickinnic River Trail. The map also shows the section of Washington and South Water Streets that will be improved for bicycling as part of the Bay View to Downtown Connector (the sad alternative to a bikeway over the Hoan Bridge).  As the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District continues to remove the concrete lining of the KK River to the west of 6th as part of their flood abatement project, the trail will be extended west as well.

Please note that even though the north segment of the KK River Trail is paved, construction is ongoing, so it is not open yet. I spoke with the construction supervisor from Milwaukee DPW, and he thought that segment of trail might be complete and open by Memorial Day, but he added both Washington and Maple Streets are slated for full reconstruction projects. While those roads are being improved (and they need it) getting to the trail will be difficult or impossible until later this summer. People are advised to stay out of active construction zones.

A rendering of the future KK River Trail bridge over Chase Avenue.

Perhaps even more exciting is the opening of Three Bridges Park, the new 24 acre park, between the Mitchell Park Domes and the Menomonee Valley Passage in an abandoned former rail yard from about 27th to 35th Streets along the Menomonee River. The park will be operated through a partnership of the city of Milwaukee and the state Department of Natural Resources. Two new bridges will dramatically improve access to the new park, the Hank Aaron State Trail, the other recreational opportunities, and of course, to all the new businesses and jobs created recently in the Valley.

The bridge, still under construction, to Mitchell Park Domes from the new park the Menomonee Vally.

The two new bicycle and pedestrian bridges will be at 33rd Court (behind Palermo’s Pizza and nest to Falk) and from a new hill in the park up to the Mitchell Park Domes. The new Menomonee Valley Park will also have community garden plots and will provide access to the river for fishing and canoeing. The wet spring had delayed plantings and some other landscaping, but the grand opening of the park is still scheduled for July 20th.

The new bridge over the Menomonee River into the park from behind Palermos.

The park is being built on a site that is too narrow for commercial development, according to Laura Bray, executive director of Menomonee Valley Partners. MVP has been leading the economic development and environmental restoration of the Valley. Many employees of companies in the valley already take advantage of those amenities, Bray says. ”Those amenities have become a great tool for recruitment and retention of employees,” she adds. Who wouldn’t want to work at a company where you can walk to a Brewers game, go for a bike ride through a prairie or fly-fish for trout without moving your car after work?

The sad days in the Valley.

I think of my grandfather, who proudly worked in the Milwaukee Road Shops, an enormous complex that made rail cars and locomotives for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroads, and sadly grew up watching the Valley erode into empty, polluted brown-fields. Compared to those days, the transformation of the Valley around the Hank Aaron State Trail has been almost magical. Anyone who drove I-94 west of downtown looked down on the empty shells of factories and our city’s most visible eyesore. Since the trail was built and the investment was made to reclaim about 300 acres of brownfields, more than 35 companies have moved to the Valley, investing hundreds of millions of private dollars. One million square feet of green buildings and seven miles of trails have been constructed, and 45 acres of native plants installed, leading to improved wildlife habitat, improved water quality, increased recreational opportunities in the heart of an urban center, and at the same time creating more than 4,700 family-supporting jobs.

New jobs along the Hank Aaron Trail in the Valley

The Kinnickinnic River Trail and the new park and segments of the Hank Aaron State Trail in the Menomonee Valley were planned and funded before the current leadership in the State Capitol started their “war on Milwaukee,”  and thankfully momentum will carry the projects through to completion. Although it is a smaller project, the KK River Trail should help to revitalize the corridor and neighborhood it runs though, much in the same way the Hank Aaron State Trail helped spark the economic reinvestment in the Menomonee Valley.

New life in the Valley. These little guys should help you forget about the bullies in Madison long enough to make you smile.

So if you live in Milwaukee and have been feeling a little beat up on lately, I hope you can take some solace in the great new park and trails you will have to ride in. As you pedal through them, you can also feel a little better because of all the jobs and revenue the public investment in those trails and parks has brought to our city and the state. Hopefully the positive momentum of our state’s most populous and economically powerful community can keep us moving forward despite the drag from the political over-reach we are fighting. Milwaukee remains the most diverse, cosmopolitan, and culturally vital urban center in Wisconsin and it is still a great place to live, visit, work, do business, and of course, ride a bike.

Recent Bike Czar Stories

• How Bike Messengers Break the Laws
• Scofflaws Defend Themselves
• The Worst Law Breakers on the Road
• Bicycle Lobbyists Hit the State Capitol
• Year’s First Fatality, Bicyclist Hit by SUV
• Fun Exhibition for Milwaukee Bikeshare
• How to Deliver 500,000 Packages
• Will Chicago’s Bike-Friendly Policies Steal Jobs from Seattle?
• Feast or Famine
• Three Novels About Bicyclist
• Bigger State Pie, But Smaller Slice for Bikes

This story was originally published by the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin.

Brew City Bombshells sitting pretty. Photo courtesy of the Brew City Bombshells. Photo by Krista Culbertson.

“I think my mom knew after she saw the kinds of shoes I was buying at the mall.”

Lia Manning is talking about what she calls “stripper heels”: high heels with dangerously tall platforms, buckles and sparkles that dazzle. They aren’t her everyday shoes, but they are what she uses for work. Not her day job at a bank, but the other job.

Manning often tells people she’s a dance instructor, but she actually teaches pole and lap dancing. “Not everyone gets it,” she says.

She began to teach burlesque classes at Miss Pole in Brookfield after taking note of the resurgence of interest in the art form. The studio is one of two fitness centers in Milwaukee that now offer burlesque classes. New troupes are forming and styles are developing. Women from all backgrounds are beginning to peel off their stockings and join the show.

Nationally, as a New Yorker story notes, there has been a resurgence of interest in burlesque dancing. Locally, troupes such as the Brew City Bombshells have been gaining popularity in recent years and new groups have been following in their successful footsteps.

TAKING THE STAGE

At 10 o’clock, the lights go down and there’s a flurry of chatter in the crowd. Friends are clutching beers and laughing at their inside jokes. As the music gets louder, the sing-alongs begin.

Stonefly Brewery at 732 E. Center St. in Riverwest, is packed near the small wooden stage. As the music dies down, people crowd closer to get the best view. The large windows around the bar let in the outside world, and curious passersbys pause to take a look.

The décor behind the bar includes replicas of da Vinci’s “Last Supper” and Renoir’s “A Girl With a Watering Can.” These contrast with the large pop art prints spread across the back wall. In a way, the show about to take place on stage is exactly like this, mixing the new with the old.

The cat calling begins immediately as Kandi Kickass takes the stage to lay out the rules for the performance. No photography, be respectful. “But you can touch me all you want – for $20,” says Kickass with a cheeky wink.

Tonight’s Brew City Bombshell performance is a “Beauties and Beards Variety Show.” In a style similar to vaudeville acts, the show offers more than just burlesque performers. There are the Miltown Kings, a Milwaukee drag troupe, a male burlesque performer and a man with bull-horns whose specialty, he promises, is hammering a nail up his nose.

Burlesque performer Sugar St. Clair takes a stroll down Humboldt Boulevard. Photo by Krista Culbertson.

A dancer named Sugar St. Clair takes the stage with a giant fan and looks coyly at the crowd until the music screeches over the sound system. An instrumental version of the jazz standard “Luck Be a Lady” begins to croon from the speakers.

St. Clair’s blonde curls echo the classic style of Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable. She twirls her giant parasol. Parts of her performances sometimes include a more dangerous act (she has a fire dancing routine to Monroe’s “Some Like it Hot”). Something to mix it up, but this show echoes the 1940’s.

“I love classic – old, retro glamour,” says St. Clair. “Everything that is luxurious.”

St. Clair says her love of burlesque is oddly related to her life-long hobby of sewing. Her mother taught her to hand-stitch at a young age, a technique that has lent itself to hand-stitching sequins on bras. “Being able to sew my own costumes made my mom more comfortable with me doing burlesque,” she says. “It gave us an opportunity to sew together.”

The dance form definitely has an image issue. Burlesque is often confused with strip tease. St. Clair acknowledges the sisterhood between the two, but burlesque, she notes, includes an artistic glamour.

Tyler Melso is a student at UW-Milwaukee. He had heard of burlesque before, but stumbled upon the Bombshells show at Stonefly by accident.  “I think it’s empowering for women, which is a good thing,” says Melso. “It’s the positive side of stripping. It’s not my thing,“ he says, but admits it was a way to pass the time while he drank four beers.

St. Clair isn’t a full-time performer or even a seamstress. She works selling mechanical parts to countries in the Middle East. It’s a far cry from the sequins and tassels of the stage.

“I like to think of us as the Village People,” says Manning, of the the students she teachers burlesque at Miss Pole. “We have women that are nurses, lawyers, women who work in the technology department…”

Raven McCaw is another burlesque performer for the Bombshells – and she continues dancing even in her third trimester of pregnancy. Before every show, the performers have meetings to touch base about the theme of the shows and to just hang out. With women coming from all different backgrounds, making a connection is important.

“It’s really laid back, just us getting together and talking ideas, crafting and snacks,” says McCaw.

Asking favors for costumes is part of the bonding for burlesque performers. “We’re all really close,” says St. Clair. “When you’re getting up in someone’s bra and underwear, it’s pretty personal.”

FINDING THE SPOTLIGHT

Patricia Hawkins, owner of Miss Pole, at first wasn’t sold on the idea that burlesque would be a good addition to the pole dancing classes. But Manning and her fellow burlesque instructor, Jesse Linksi, insisted on moving forward with the new classes.

The two worked on a routine in Manning’s basement. The instructors wanted to offer students something to practice at home without needing a pole. The routine is set to Lady Gaga’s song, “Vanity.” Feather boas are a must.

“Students don’t have to focus on a prop. As the weeks go on, they begin to play around with the routine and add their own personal touches,” says Manning.

The three Miss Pole studios in Madison, Brookfield and Kenosha have added more burlesque classes than they offered a year ago. More advanced classes have been set up for returning students who are hungry for more.

“I had this pre-conceived notion that it was for girls who just wanted attention,” says Manning.

The classes became something she did only for herself. “For a long time it was pretty taboo for women to embrace their sexuality,” says Manning. “Attitudes are changing.”

Manning says women from all backgrounds are trying the classes, from as young as 18, the studio’s age requirement, to grandmothers. During the first week, many women are still reserved. Many times it takes the six weeks for them to become comfortable with themselves in a sexual  way.

“I see all kinds of women come in. There are really thin, shy girls who are sort of hunched over and by the end of the six weeks they are walking out of class with their heads held high,” says Manning. “That is what makes it all worth it.”

Manning and St. Clair agree that there isn’t a single type of woman who is attracted to burlesque. No body type is required, no race or cultural background: only the desire to be performing to an audience.

“Burlesque isn’t about pleasing others,” says St. Clair. “It’s about demanding that attention on stage.”

Miss Indigo Blue is the co-director of education at the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas. She says American burlesque gained popularity in the early 20th Century through vaudeville shows. These variety shows offered comedians, dancers, musicians and often a burlesque performer.

“Neo burlesque is a revival that has women challenging social norms again. Performers are bold and people really pay attention,” says Blue.

St. Clair’s acts aren’t always inspired by vintage performers. She’s also a burlesque dancer in a new troupe the Dainty Rogues. Their shows are different than those of the Bombshells. It’s not burlesque, says St. Clair, but  “geeklesque.”

These shows are often based on geek-themed entertainment such as the TV series produced by Joss Whedon, steampunk (a science-fiction, machinery version of the past) or games like Dungeons and Dragons. St. Clair has a geek-themed double-act with her fiancé, Faye Tahl.

“There’s a huge market for it now. Geeks like burlesque,” says St. Clair. “But what they really like are happy, confident women.”

This new form expands on the old American Burlesque tradition of humor. There is a playfulness that allows performers to explore new ideas. “Burlesque was meant to make people laugh,” says Blue.

The stories and themes may change as fads do with the decades, but there is always the same appeal to its performers.

“I still remember watching my first burlesque performance,” says St. Clair. “She had on these glittery high heels and she demanded the attention of everyone watching. I said to myself, ‘That’s what I need to do! I need to be on stage and wear those shoes!’”

Sallie Brown, Rhulene Artis, Dave Libert, Alisia Moutry and Kirstin Anglea display the Milwaukee Environmental Sciences banner inside the new school. (Photo by Sue Vliet)

Between now and the first week in August, when Milwaukee Environmental Sciences is expected to open, the new principal and others have a lot of work to do to get the former 65th Street School building ready.

Milwaukee Environmental Sciences will be a year-round Expeditionary Learning school, using hands-on projects to explore topics in depth. More than 150 schools in 31 states and Washington, D.C., use this model.

According to Dave Libert, school planning leader for the Milwaukee Teacher Education Center (MTEC), children will spend several weeks studying topics such as water quality, urban forestry, ecosystems in nearby Dineen Park’s lagoon, or gardening on the school’s planned green roof.

When students study water quality, for example, they could delve into the 1993 outbreak of the cryptosporidium parasite in Milwaukee’s water supply. Lessons might include presentations by Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District personnel and other experts.

“This isn’t like kids playing at answering [real-world] questions; they’re working on them,” said Libert.

This is the fourth attempt to bring Expeditionary Learning to Milwaukee. According to Libert, who was not involved in the earlier efforts, the earlier schools were unsuccessful “due to a lack of rigor.”

New principal Kirstin Anglea is ready to begin the school year this August. (Photo by Sue Vliet)

Milwaukee Environmental Sciences plans to blend academic rigor with student participation to ensure that the school performs at a high level. The school, spearheaded by MTEC, will also offer professional development for teachers in training. Milwaukee Environmental Sciences is MTEC’s first charter school.

The MPS School Board approved MTEC’s proposal for the new charter school in January. MTEC’s lease on the building begins July 1.

According to Kirstin Anglea, the new school principal, the building will need work before students arrive.

“[Over the next few months], my biggest concern is to make sure the building is impeccably clean, the library is ready to be filled with books and be a comfortable space,” she said. “I want to make sure the bathrooms are as environmentally friendly as possible and clean. … For a lot of the rest of the space, we want to work with the kids to make decisions about the school.”

Another big task during the next few months will be to reach out to families to encourage them to enroll their children in the school, according to Anglea. The planning team is holding parent meetings, distributing fliers and door-hangers in the neighborhood surrounding the school, and will host a June 8 picnic for families. Organizers hope that 180 students in grades pre-K through 5 will sign up for the school this year.

Tina Weatherall’s granddaughter will be starting K4 at Milwaukee Environmental Sciences this year, and Weatherall said she is excited to “get in on the ground floor.”

“I had been getting ready to start researching schools for my granddaughter,” said Weatherall. “It was going to be a process. When I went (to the library) for the orientation, I was so impressed; I just knew that this was the school.”

Weatherall said her granddaughter is very active, and she hopes the EL curriculum can keep young students like her focused on learning. “When they’re that age, you really have to be able to hold that attention. The teaching style of that school is really going to work with my granddaughter.”

Having worked in childcare for the past 11 years, Weatherall said she knows what to look for in a school. “You see a lot of charter schools opening up nowadays, and, being honest, this is the first charter school that I researched and I was very impressed with. It’s not just someone coming in trying to make a few extra dollars,” she said.

As a “non-instrumentality” charter school, Milwaukee Environmental Sciences will have its own governing board and fewer regulations than MPS schools. However, Anglea emphasized that it will be a public charter school. “We are not just taking the best and the brightest,” she said. “We want a diverse student body.”

According to Anglea, who most recently was a graduate professor in educational leadership at Cardinal Stritch University, hands-on instruction in real-world settings is key to learning.

“Kids have disengaged from school and we can’t afford that,” she said. “Not if we want engaged citizens in the future.”

This story was originally published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, where you can find other stories reporting on fifteen city neighborhoods in Milwaukee.

Gov. Scott Walker

When Gov. Scott Walker proposed to slash public worker benefits in 2011, he famously said the state was broke and he had to take these measures to balance the budget. And in his first biennial budget he did indeed cut the state’s long-term deficit. But all signs suggest he will throw away most of those gains in his new budget, while greatly increasing the state’s bonded indebtedness.

A report by the non-partisan Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance does an analysis using generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, to look at the overall state deficit. Walker cut it from $2.99 billion to $2.21 billion in 2012 and by this summer that is expected to drop to $2.06 billion.

But under the governor’s new budget, that figure is expected to increase to $2.36 billion by 2014 and $2.64 billion by 2015.  Meanwhile he wants to greatly increase bonded debt. WisTax noted he is asking to issue an additional $2.1 billion in bonds, equal to 16% of all outstanding state debt.

Perhaps most alarming is Walker’s approach to funding transportation, which could leave the transportation fund so in debt that 25 cents of every dollar would be spent on debt service by 2023, as my colleague Dave Reid has reported.

A report from the bipartisan Transportation Finance & Policy Commission, alarmed by the growing transportation fund deficit, had recommended increasing the gas tax, which hasn’t been hiked since 2006, and comes nowhere near paying for the cost of roads in Wisconsin.

“They (commission members) were very nervous” about the growing transportation fund shortfall, notes Todd Berry, executive director of the taxpayers alliance. “Our revenue raising structure (for transportation) is very narrow.” The gas tax, which has been set at 32.9 cents since 2006, “doesn’t adjust for inflation as the sales tax does,” Berry notes. “I think inevitably Wisconsin will have some kind of quasi-toll tax. Transportation in other states is becoming very much like a utility where you are metered and sent a bill.”

Nor has this been the only commission to express nervousness about the state’s growing indebtedness. “Two years ago the state Building Commission told the legislature of ‘the concerns of the governor and the Building Commission over the state’s level of outstanding debt,’” the WisTax report noted.

Meanwhile, there seems to be little interest among Republicans to consider road tolls or raising the gas tax. Instead, Walker and Republicans intend to lower the income tax, which Berry has questioned. He notes all the controversy and recalls Republicans faced for slashing worker benefits and education funding.

“When you expend that much political capital and encounter that much difficulty in cutting the budget, it’s surprising you’d be so quick to give that up.” The income tax cut, he notes, is a key contributor to dissipating the progress Walker had made in reducing the state’s GAAP deficit.

In the longterm, the apparent progress Walker made on the GAAP deficit may turn out be a small footnote to a longterm trend that suggests Wisconsin is underfunded and under-taxed. Throughout the tenure of Republican Governor Tommy Thompson, the income tax was not indexed for inflation and poured in a regularly increasing stream of revenue. In 1999, the legislature finally put a stop to this. But by then Thompson had greatly increased spending on highways, prisons and local schools and governors have struggled ever since with this level of spending.

Thus, since the income tax was indexed the GAAP or “structural” deficit, as some refer to it, has steadily risen, from just $830 million in 2000 to just under $3 billion in 2011. Doyle campaigned against Republican Scott McCallum for ballooning the structural deficit and Walker campaigned against Doyle on the same issue.

“During Doyle’s tenure, you had state legislators talk about one-time deals that will hurt us, like a transfer of money from the transportation fund,” Berry recalls. “The Legislative Fiscal Bureau made it look worse than it was, and I said that on a number of occasions.”

The reality is that these kind of one-time fixes have always been done. Thompson’s “deputy governor” James Klauser was often hailed as a magician for pulling off these murky, one-time deals. And while Doyle raided transportation for the general fund, Walker’s budget simply reverses that, raiding the general fund for transportation.

The bonded indebtedness of the state has also risen steadily since the income tax was indexed. The WisTax report doesn’t go back to 1999 but does show the state debt has risen from $5.8 billion in 2002 to $13.6 billion in 2013, and that will jump to $15.7 billion if Walker’s budget is approved in this regard.

From a GAAP analysis, the WisTax report noted, Wisconsin had the third-highest deficit in 2011, trailing only California ($19.9) million and Illinois ($8.1 million), two states that serve far more people. The reality is that no governor has solved the mismatch between spending and tax revenues in Wisconsin, and Walker looks like he will be the next governor to fail.

Short Takes

-I have long argued that state constitutional offices like treasurer and secretary of state are antiquated and unnecessary and simply waste tax dollars. Republican Kurt Schuller ran for treasurer and won with a pledge to serve only one term and work to eliminate the office. He has gotten little interest from Republicans. Worse, they have now proposed to remove the state’s unclaimed property from the Treasurer’s office and fold it into the Department of Revenue.

This is Schuller’s main duty and the money made from the unclaimed property program pays his salary.  Odds are this will require more staffing in the Department of Revenue to run this program, costing taxpayers more money. One sign of this is that state Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend), a hard-core fiscal conservative, opposed the move. There is clearly more to this story; the proposal doesn’t pass the smell test.

-The five county supervisors pushing a petition calling for the resignation of Milwaukee County Board Chairwoman Marina Dimitrijevic and requesting a special meeting of the Milwaukee County Board to elect a new chairperson have failed. The supervisors needed to get seven more board members to sign the petition and failed to get even one additional supporter. In a way, the passage of the state legislation downsizing the salaries and budget of the board members eliminated the major reason to dump Dimitrijevic. Her opponents on the board felt she had hurt their cause with state legislators by misleading them as to whether the board was negotiating with unions.

But now that the legislation has passed, the point is moot. Dimitrijevic still appears to have strong support from board members, who now face a reduction in their staff and powers, and may feel they need someone in charge who has strategically united them in their battles with County Executive Chris Abele.

The Wisconsin Alliance for Tenants’ Rights calls AB 183, the “third anti-tenants’ rights law since Republicans took over the state government in 2010.”According to Colin Gillis of the alliance, “Large property management companies and organizations that represent their interests are taking advantage of a Republican-controlled state legislature to rewrite tenant-landlord law in Wisconsin, and they are hoping nobody will notice.”

Yesterday, Tuesday, May 14th, the matter was debated on the floor of the assembly and approved for its third reading as a special order of business June 6th, 2013.

The law would provide for a number of changes, including mailed eviction notices, instead of served summonses of eviction. No sheriff needed! The law would also make it easier for landlords to sell items left behind by evicted tenants, even if the item happens to be a mobile home.

Under current law, “a landlord must disclose to a prospective tenant any building or housing code violation to which certain specified criteria apply, including that the landlord has actual knowledge of the violation. The bill changes that criterion from the landlord having actual knowledge to the landlord having received written notice of the violation from a local housing code enforcement agency.”

One way a landlord would have “actual knowledge” of the violation is through the currently required standardized check-in sheet that all landlords must provide when a tenant commences occupancy of a premises. The bill changes that, and now only requires the landlord to provide a check-in sheet (a blank piece of paper will do) “that the tenant may use to make comments about the condition of the premises.”

The tenant then has 7 days to determine all deficiencies in the apartment and to send the check-in sheet back to the landlord. (Don’t forget to keep a copy!)

For example, if a tenant fails to note insect or rodent infestation or damage to the property within the first week of occupancy, the landlord could assume the damage to have been caused by the tenant’s “action or inaction,” allowing the landlord to charge the tenant for its remediation.

The landlord, under current law, must provide tenants with a list of deficiencies of which he has “actual knowledge.” This provision has been changed to require tenant notification only if the landlord had received “written notice of the violation from a local housing code enforcement agency.”

The bill additionally prohibits a municipality from “enacting or enforcing ordinances limiting tenant’s responsibility, or the landlord’s recovery right, for damage to or neglect of premises, or requiring landlords to communicate information not required by state or federal law, or to provide any information a municipality has about a landlord, unless required under federal or state law, or is required of all residential property owners.”

This would seem to limit the power of an alderman or other official from compiling and disseminating a list of “Dirty Dozen” landlords, for example. Such lists have been very effective in Milwaukee in the past.

The bill also provides for do-it-yourself evictions, in which no Sheriff Deputy need be present, which, inspector Edward Bailey of the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department said in a letter to legislators, “would not fit well with our experiences in a major urban city.”

Mayor Paul Soglin of Madison questions whether a one-size-fits-all landlord-tenant law is suitable for a state like Wisconsin, where there is a tremendous disparity in communities, their housing stock, and the percentage of mercantile apartments. Urbanized areas like Milwaukee and Madison, with a high percentage of rental housing, would suffer disproportionately, he argues.

There is also concern that the matter is being “rammed through” the legislature. It was first introduced on April 29th, 2013.

The bill is supported by the Apartment Association of South Central Wisconsin, representing the urbanized area of Madison, with a high percentage of rental housing, the Wisconsin Housing Alliance (housing manufacturers, that is) and the Wisconsin Realtors Association.

Opposition to the bill comes from the cities of Madison and Milwaukee, Dane County, Disability Rights Wisconsin, Legal Action Wisconsin, the United Council of UW Students, and the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

FUN FACT: The legislature has been in a partisan frenzy to enact all sorts of legislation meddling with the powers and finances of municipal governments — and county governments, too, if the county happens to be Milwaukee.

However, you would never expect this to be the case according to the “Principles of the Republican Party of Wisconsin,” (which I didn’t know they had, given how the GOP has been behaving lately.)

Principle #1: “I Believe … The proper function of government is to do for the people those things that have to be done but cannot be done, or cannot be done as well, by individuals, and that the most effective government is government closest to the people.” [Emphasis added.]

But, since the government closest to the people in Milwaukee and Madison happens to be filled with Democrats, the government furthest from the people, controlled by Republicans, will have to do.

“PABST, PRESENT AND FUTURE” – Assembly Democrats Push for Majority

Campaign signs from the area’s Four Freshmen are behind the welcome table at the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee fundraiser “Pabst, Present and Future,” held at the Pabst Theater, Friday, May 10th, 2013. Photo by Michael Horne

The Wisconsin Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee has a simple mission: “to help elect Democrats to the assembly.” It is also a vehicle for political supporters to pump money into campaigns beyond the contribution limits set for individual candidates. Similar entities exist in the Senate; Democrats and Republicans both play this game.  The group held an event Friday, May 10th, 2013 at Cudahy’s Irish Pub in the Pabst Theater to meet the four freshmen assembly Democrat representatives from Milwaukee:  Evan Goyke [18th], Daniel Riemer [7th] Mandela Barnes [11th] and LaTonya Johnson, [17th].

There were speeches, including from Chet Gerlach, a former assemblyman who now lobbies and runs bicycle tours in Door County.  He was followed on the podium by others, including Rep. Gwen Moore, who has been doing her duty raising funds for fellow Democrats this season.

The City Hall scaffold provides a lasting background for Rep. Gwen Moore, as she exhorts the Assembly Democrats. Photo by Michael Horne.

The legislators had their say, with the principal speech being given by Goyke, who said that the statewide freshman class has “got people who beat incumbents,” despite “the worst gerrymandering” of any legislature in the nation, rivaling that of North Carolina, also “at the top of the food chain.” He supported this by saying that 200,000 more people voted for assembly Democrats than for Republicans, yet they are far from controlling the assembly.

What to do? “We have to work block-by-block, precinct-by-precinct, door-by-door” in the upcoming election cycle, he said. Among the attendees were David Riemer, who lost a race for County Executive to Scott Walker, there to support his son Daniel, former Sen. Gary Goyke, providing similar services for his son Evan, and former Sen. Barb Notestein, out for the evening. Milwaukee aldermen Bob Bauman and Nik Kovac were also in attendance, as were former Rep. (U.S.) and current Rep. (WI) Peter Barca, joined by colleague Jon Richards. Dr. Robert Starchak was also there.

TRAIN DAY IGNORED BY WISDOT – Does Gov. Scott Walker have his fingers in everything?

A freight train, Chicago bound, passes the Amtrak Hiawatha outside the Milwaukee Intermodal station. This was the highlight of Train Day, 2013. [Note spectators.] Photo by Michael Horne.

Saturday, May 11th, 2013 was National Train Day, even in Milwaukee. The event was held at the Milwaukee Intermodal Station downtown, and drew such exhibitors as Lionel Club of Milwaukee, Kalmbach Publishing, Operation Lifesaver, Wisconsin Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, Talgo Inc., Amtrak and more.The highlight of the event, regrettably, was watching Amtrak and CP freight trains pass through the station, which made for a sight. There were no historic (or futuristic) trainsets on the sidings, as in past events, or as in other, more progressive cities.Absent from the event, unlike during similar Train Days during the administration of Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson, was any presence of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Apparently the Scott Walker administration’s anti-passenger rail policies extend to the absurd level of denying that the state has real responsibilities in rail — whether passenger or freight. For example, WisDOT owns the intermodal station, and you’d figure somebodywould show up to represent the landlord.

Children are propagandized into accepting passenger rail as a legitimate transportation option during Train Day, held in a government-owned building. Where is the outrage? Photo by Michael Horne.

There were some delightful moments — children playing conductor on model trains, for example. But nothing was more precious than the presence of the folks from Talgo, proud of the trains they manufactured in this city, and abashed that there are two complete sets sitting in a warehouse that Walker refuses to accept for his shortsighted ideological reasons. All aboard!

HORNE ABOUT TOWN

I will be giving my monthly speech this evening, Wednesday, May 15th, at 6:30 p.m. at Shakers, 422 S. 2nd Street. I plan to discuss swindlers, big and small, public and private, in this city during (mostly) the 19th century. There is an abundance of material, starting from the very first days of settlement.

And as part of Bike To Work Week 2013, Vulture Space, the Community Bicycle Project, has arranged a number of events in town. I will be part of the Antique and Vintage Bicycle Show, which is free to the public Thursday, May 16th, from 4 – 8 p.m. at the Milwaukee Public Museum.

The Milwaukee Wheelmen and South Shore Cyclery will be bringing in a collection of antique bicycles, while the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin and others will have displays at the event. Around 6 p.m. I will deliver a brief address on the history of bicycling in Milwaukee. The speech is based on new research at the Public Library and elsewhere, and will be augmented with other previously published material. I look forward to seeing you there!

The sign Troka painted welcomes customers to the store, which is situated in the 1913 Brickyard Building. Photo by Peggy Schulz.

Bay View Books & Music may have the perfect location: it’s nestled into a spot on the 2600 block of S. Kinnickinnic Avenue that may be the busiest section, the crème de la crème of this bustling retail strip. The book store is on the ground level of the Brickyard Building, built in 1913. Surrounding that building are retail establishments as varied as Heavenly Kidzz, a children’s clothing store; Solid State Tattooing Co.; Pipe Dreams smoke shop and accessories; Kathy’s Green Creations, featuring recycled, wearable art; and what is thought to be the oldest commercial spot in Bay View, Price Right Gifts, at 2664 S. KK. Historic photos inside that combination snack and gift shop, now also selling pipes, show the storefront not much changed since the early part of the 1900s.

Bay View Books & Music is a latecomer to this location, having moved here in 2011. Owner William Frickensmith began the business as Recycled Records & Books, located in the Prospect Mall. That store moved to a site on Layton and Packard, under the moniker Bargain Books & Music, after the Prospect Mall closed. Dan Dehling, who began working for the store when it was in the Prospect Mall, is in the process of buying the store from Frickensmith.

A recent acquisition of a “Cabaret” poster from its days on Broadway lights up Bay View Books & Music, along with Phie Troka and Dan Behling. Photo by Peggy Schulz.

The store sells a wide variety of used and like-new books and music, including a healthy selection of vinyl. There are three other music outlets nearby, but Dehling says they all help rather than compete with each other. “We’re interconnected,” he says. “We advertise for each other.” Dehling makes it a point to patronize the other stores around him, too. “I probably spend 80 percent of my income on this block.” Events such as the Bay View Bash in September help all of the businesses in the area.

The key to success for any used book seller, Dehling feels, is “condition, condition, condition.” That is, being able to acquire used books at reasonable prices that are in good to excellent condition, so that re-sales, whether in-store or on-line, are profitable. The store’s business is balanced fairly equally between the two venues, Dehling says. Every book that’s listed on-line is physically in the store, although those that are on the more collectible end of the spectrum are kept behind the counter. A concept called “shelf wear” can pretty quickly turn a $1,000 book into one that might sell for only ten bucks if handled often enough by casual customers who might not appreciate the true value in their sometimes less-than-clean hands.

Collectors hope to find nice pieces, as Dehling describes them – old, oftentimes rare books that are in excellent condition. But, those collectors usually are willing to start with what’s known in the business as a filler copy, meaning the would-be collector has a copy of the desired book to start with, regardless of its condition, and is willing to wait and work up to something much more precious.

Dehling attributes much of his current success to his now full-time assistant, Stephanie “Phie” Troka, who started working for Dehling on a contract basis, painting the easel-style sign that sits on the sidewalk in front of the store, about a year and a half ago. Troka handles most of the on-line posting of books, including a recent major project where she condensed the listings, purging most of the non-movers. The store’s website is operated through Abe Books. Some day Dehling and Troka hope to get all of the stock in the store that’s valued at a minimum of $10 listed on the website.

Vinyl lovers can find plenty to please their ears, as Troka demonstrates. Photo by Peggy Schulz.

Both are down-to-earth, yet hopeful, about the realities of selling used books. Dehling is encouraged that in the store, books still outsell music. And Troka’s face lights up when she talks about positive experiences with customers, even miniature ones. “A little boy, maybe 3 or 4, came in with his mom and was looking for a book on whirlpools,” Troka says. “He kept tugging on his mother’s pants, asking her to ask me for different things.” He couldn’t read, Troka says, but he still found great delight in many of the books in the store.

One of Dehling’s favorite anecdotes about the used book business dates back to the Prospect Mall location. “A picker guy walked in with two first editions of ‘Atlas Shrugged,’ with dust jackets,” Dehling recounts. “Picker guy” is a term for someone who frequents rummage sales and stores such as Goodwill, trying to pick out items that might be of resale value to a store such as Bay View Books & Music. The store initially paid the picker guy $50 for each book. After those two copies sold to collectors for $650 and $580, the picker was paid an additional $100.

“Winnie Ille Pu,” a Latin version of “Winnie the Pooh,” awaits a lucky buyer at Bay View Books & Music. Photo by Peggy Schulz.

Neither Dehling nor Troka are in it for the money. One other short-term hope Dehling has is to simply stay in business. “Our original goal was to hit $100 in sales, in the store, per day,” Dehling says. That happens fairly often, but slow days are common, too. Dehling offers a rueful quip on the business he loves: “I think all booksellers end up living in a room surrounded by books they thought they could sell.”

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Stephanie Harling leaned forward as she sat across from Dan Woodring at his desk, rapidly suggesting ways Waukee Engineering Co., a local company that supplies equipment to the heat processing industry, could engage in community development.

“We need to sustain this community,” said Harling, executive director of Havenwoods Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit agency focused on improving the quality of life in the northwest Milwaukee neighborhood.

Woodring, the company’s product and quality control agent, said he would be willing to work with the organization, possibly joining a manufacturing roundtable discussion or training young people for technical careers.

“If this is better for the community, it’s better for our business,” he said.

Harling, 46, became the nonprofit’s executive director 11 years ago.

She works with residents and local businesses to improve streets such as Kaul Avenue and housing developments such as Westlawn on Havenwoods’ southern edge.

“I love Milwaukee,” Harling said. “I’m a life-long resident, so I want all of the city to thrive. I just love seeing people have opportunities in front of them.”

Harling cited her mother, Mary Jo Morris – who advocated for Milwaukee public education as a member of the PTA until her death in 2007 – as inspiration.

“That’s where I get my civic passion — by being dragged to school board meetings as a 7-year- old,” Harling said, laughing.

Stephanie Harling (right) discusses with Dan Woodring of Waukee Engineering Co. possibilities for the company to engage in community development. (Photo by Rob Gebelhoff)

The Bay View resident found her career in economic development by accident. After earning her bachelor’s degree in corporate communications at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1991, Harling worked in sales and marketing for broadcast companies. She considered pursuing a master’s degree in elementary education, but found herself working for a nonprofit development group temporarily. That sparked a passion for community improvement.

Changing perceptions is the most difficult challenge in improving Havenwoods, Harling said.

“When I told peers that I was working in community development, they made references to ‘Gunshot Alley’ and ‘good luck,’” she said. “They were referring to what they thought was a challenging, hopeless community. What we’ve discovered is that it couldn’t be further from the truth.”

Harling organized her group’s initiatives into three categories: crime prevention and community organizing, economic development and healthy neighborhoods. Community leaders have noticed differences in the community as a result of these initiatives.

Police Capt. Jerome O’Leary, who has spent the last seven years with the 4th Police District, credited Harling and the nonprofit for helping to cause a major shift in the area.

“If you look at what the neighborhoods used to be and what they are now, they’ve really changed,” O’Leary said. “If it weren’t for Stephanie and for her group, it would not have changed.”

He added, “I love to see kids riding bikes in the spring and summertime. I smile when I think of all the work that we’ve collectively done.”

The nonprofit developed a relationship with the 4th District by involving police in community activities. For example, Harling’s group guaranteed a police presence at landlord compact meetings, which discussions that address drug and crime problems in the area. O’Leary said this made a significant difference in his job.

“You need people like Stephanie to build trust among the residents … by talking with people and also by showing that she has a strong relationship with the police,” O’Leary said.

The business community also has noticed Harling’s efforts. Woodring, for example, pointed out efforts to beautify the area.

“The new Havenwoods signage and the little things around the area makes the community great,” he said. “It shows that things are improving – that people care.”

Harling sees room for more improvement in Havenwoods. In the next five years, she can envision the Silver Spring Drive’s retail area revitalized, with more leadership and engagement from residents.

For now, Harling said she won’t rest because she’s “fallen in love” with the neighborhood.

“We have good-working, salt-of-earth people in this community,” she said, “and that’s the message we would like to get out.”

This story was originally published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, where you can find other stories reporting on fifteen city neighborhoods in Milwaukee.

Gov. Scott Walker

Some campaign promises build in a bit of wiggle room. The one made by candidate for governor Scott Walker to “Strip policy and pork projects from the state budget” did not.

This unequivocal pledge, posted on Walker’s campaign website, committed the candidate to eschewing both parties’ longstanding practice of using the budget to make policy changes and reward special interests.

In April 2011, less than four months into Walker’s term, the truth-testers at PolitiFact Wisconsin branded this a broken promise. It noted that the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau had identified dozens of non-fiscal items in the governor’s budget repair bills and first biennial budget.

Walker’s latest executive budget, for 2013-15, included what the Fiscal Bureau identified as 58 policy items and 15 pieces of pork — that is, expenditures or breaks with specific beneficiaries. The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee removed only a dozen policy items.

Spokesman Tom Evenson, asked if the governor had a change of heart about his campaign vow, said in an email that Walker has turned a $3.6 billion budget deficit into a projected $560 million surplus and made gains in job creation.

“We’re better off than we were two years ago, and sound fiscal management is allowing us to invest in our priorities and move Wisconsin forward,” Evenson wrote.

It’s hard to deny that Walker is doing pretty much exactly what he promised to stop. But that doesn’t mean the pork projects and policy items included in his budget are bad ideas.

Among the identified earmarks, a.k.a. pork, are $10.6 million for a Milwaukee facility to serve families affected by domestic violence, $5 million for a Wisconsin Maritime Center of Excellence in Marinette County, and a $1 million allocation to the Teach for America program.

Moreover, some items flagged as non-fiscal, including a program for expanded DNA collection, do involve budget allocations. The Fiscal Bureau acknowledges its list “always requires some subjective judgment” but says it applies consistent criteria, like whether an item “typically would be reviewed by a standing committee of the Legislature.”

Among other things, Walker’s budget would ease state regulation on rent-to-own companies, remove a ban on foreigners buying up large chunks of Wisconsin land, create a new charter school oversight board, disallow wolf hunting at night, and name a Milwaukee crime lab after a former Milwaukee County prosecutor.

Even some members of Walker’s own party think he’s gone too far.

“The governor campaigned on not having policy in the budget,” state Sen. Rob Cowles, R-Allouez, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “What happened to that promise?” His answer: “They pile things into the budget so they can hide them, and they don’t have to take responsibility for their action.”

One controversial policy item in Walker’s budget would bar local governments and school districts from imposing residency rules on their employees. This has been decried as a meddling attack on local control and as political payback to police and fire unions in Milwaukee that have supported Walker.

At a May 8 press conference in the state Capitol organized by the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett called the proposed change “horrible public policy” that could never pass as stand-alone legislation.

Another speaker, Beloit City Manager Larry Arft, said local communities want to make sure their employees are “sharing the destiny of the residents that are paying their salaries.” And Two Rivers City Manager Greg Buckley said it’s a good to have municipal workers living nearby “when the crap hits the fan or when it starts backing up in your basement.”

The Joint Finance Committee, meeting the next day, largely ignored such concerns. It kept intact the ban on residency rules while allowing only distance-based rules for certain emergency workers.

During that same meeting, the Finance Committee added a new non-fiscal budget provision — forbidding any municipality from banning the sale of large sugary drinks.

Bill Lueders is the Money and Politics Project director at the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism (www.WisconsinWatch.org). The project, a partnership of the Center and MapLight, is supported by The Joyce Foundation.

The Center collaborates with Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television, other news media and the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by the Center do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

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Water samples from the popular Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis, shown here in October 2012, contained a component of plastic, an antibacterial soap ingredient, an antibiotic used on swine, a breakdown product of cocaine, an antidepressant, a fungicide and a drug used to treat Parkinson’s disease, according to one of two Minnesota Pollution Control Agency reports released Monday. Wisconsin’s lakes have not undergone similar scrutiny. Kate Golden/Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Minnesota researchers found 56 chemicals — including cocaine — in the state’s waters, according to two studies released Monday that raise questions about potential impacts on wildlife and human health.

Environmental experts said the discoveries in lakes, rivers and streams increase the pressure on Wisconsin to figure out what’s in its water. A key Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources official said that the state’s waters were likely also contaminated, but that the state had no money for such monitoring.

The chemicals were detected at trace amounts in 47 of 50 Minnesota lakes, including many in relatively pristine parts of the state.

Some of the most troubling chemicals are thought to be endocrine disruptors, which can block or act like hormones in people and wildlife. They are used in pharmaceuticals, personal care products and industrial processes, but are largely unregulated.

Cocaine, to the surprise of researchers, turned up in samples from a third of the state’s lakes. Another surprisingly common find was an antibiotic approved for use only on swine.

Along with Minnesota’s past work, the studies “suggest that PPCPs (pharmaceuticals and personal care products) and endocrine active chemicals are widespread in lakes and rivers, and that fish are likely altered on genetic, cellular, organism, and population levels when exposed to the chemicals that find their way into surface water from a variety of sources,” wrote Mark Ferrey, the Pollution Control Agency researcher who conducted the two studies.

Former Wisconsin DNR secretary George Meyer said the tests show that Wisconsin, which has not conducted similar studies on this scale, needs to develop a plan to figure out what’s in its water.

“It’s the old adage ‘If you don’t look, there’s not a problem,’ right?” said Meyer, now the executive director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, a sportsmen’s conservation group. “The public needs to know what’s in the water and what the significance of that is.”

Meyer said it was highly likely that Wisconsin’s lakes would show a similar chemical profile to Minnesota’s — and might show, he added, “possibly even a higher level of chemicals.”

“I think we should thank Minnesota for bringing some light to this issue,” said Melissa Malott, water program director of Clean Wisconsin, an environmental advocacy group. “It doesn’t in any way change my opinion that we should be doing something about this in Wisconsin.”

Minnesota has one of the nation’s most ambitious state-level testing programs for unregulated contaminants in surface waters.

The Minnesota agency’s statement did not speculate on potential human effects, which were beyond the scope of the study.

Experts say fish are more vulnerable to surface water pollution than people because they live in  water, so they get more exposure. Previous Minnesota studies have documented endocrine disruption in fish from the Mississippi River and other contaminated waters.

But the chemicals are of growing concern to people, too: A United Nations report in February noted the rise in endocrine-related disorders like cancer, obesity, early puberty and infertility and identified widespread pollution as a “global threat” to wildlife and people.

Science on chemicals’ presence in the environment has exploded since a landmark 2002 U.S. Geological Survey study found them widespread in streams and groundwater susceptible to contamination.

But much of the science so far has focused on waters assumed to be polluted, like those receiving wastewater treatment plant effluent, while the waters in the two new Minnesota studies were chosen randomly. The studies also were unusual for the large number of samples, which can produce more statistically robust results.

“This study shows these compounds are out there, and that gives more supporting evidence that you should do these studies in other states,” said Dana Kolpin, the USGS scientist who led the 2002 study. “It wouldn’t be a waste of taxpayer dollars.”

Questions remained, Kolpin said, about how septic systems, recreational water use, wastewater treatment plants and other sources each contributed to contamination.

Ferrey agreed and said that was the next step.

“Will we see correlations between land use and the appearance of the chemicals that we detected in these lakes or rivers?” Ferrey said. “We just haven’t done that kind of analysis yet.”

(The story continues on page 2)