New Urbanism

[Galway Eagle]

Does anybody on here listen to Strong Towns, Not Just Bikes, or any other new urbanist channels/podcasts? It sounds like the strong towns group in Milwaukee is really pushing hard for the removal of 794 and extending a walkable park area.

curious if anyone has any opinions on what it'd take to achieve a mindset change in the US to move away from car dependency.

[Skatastrophy]

Does anybody on here listen to Strong Towns, Not Just Bikes, or any other new urbanist channels/podcasts? It sounds like the strong towns group in Milwaukee is really pushing hard for the removal of 794 and extending a walkable park area.

curious if anyone has any opinions on what it'd take to achieve a mindset change in the US to move away from car dependency.

Get rid of 794 but I wouldn't get rid of the Hoan Bridge though. That would be a great street with pedestrian and bike infrastructure added.

Reclaim the parking lots around Summerfest grounds for community/commercial space and that would be a bangin area.

[The Sultan]

Yeah you can't get rid of the Hoan Bridge. 

But getting rid of the elevated I-794 makes sense because the elevated freeway is in for major maintenance in the coming couple of decades. I know people think that it would be like the removal of the Park East Freeway, but I-794 carries a lot more traffic. But having it be some sort of surface street I think would be very helpful to the city.

[jficke13]

I don't listen to those podcasts. I have noticed a strain of very weird cars-are-the-root-of-all-evil-and-suffering culture/fandom that runs around twitter and some niches of my social circles. I'm of the mind that we're not going to be able to wave a wand and turn the US into a Taiwan-style environment with no need/reliance on cars and car infrastructure. That being said, people in this country are pretty unhinged about their cars/gigantic trucks. I'm down with removing 794 per some of the kinda renderings and proposals, it seems like a cool stretch for redevelopment.

[Sir Lawrence]

3,000 folks work in the US Bank building.  NML is renovating what it calls its North Office building bordered by Wells/Mason/Cass/Marshall, bringing 2,000 employees from its Franklin campus.  "The upgrades to the North Office Building would increase the capacity for Northwestern Mutual's downtown campus to 9,000."

The under construction 44 Floor Couture project will have over 300 apartments.  That is a lot of vehicles coming into a tight area considering the lake  (Lincoln Memorial Drive) preventing access from the east.  I'm all in on developing the area, but where would you dump all the traffic from eastbound I-94?  West of the river?  Right now it's a very efficient traffic conduit.   

[Not all scoop users are created equal apparently]

Make Milwaukee a 15 minute city

[Galway Eagle]

Make Milwaukee a 15 minute city

everywhere should be a 15 minute city or neighborhood

[Not all scoop users are created equal apparently]

everywhere should be a 15 minute city or neighborhood

👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️👁️

[Hards Alumni]

Does anybody on here listen to Strong Towns, Not Just Bikes, or any other new urbanist channels/podcasts? It sounds like the strong towns group in Milwaukee is really pushing hard for the removal of 794 and extending a walkable park area.

curious if anyone has any opinions on what it'd take to achieve a mindset change in the US to move away from car dependency.

Yes.  794 should go.

[tower912]

I don't have a dog in this specific fight.   However, the ship has sailed in most cities as far as light rail replacing highways.  My driving experience around the Midwest and East coast says there are a lot of highways where their daily flow far exceeds their original design.   I don't see any easy inexpensive fixes.   

But, man, I would love a bridge from Muskegon to Milwaukee.

[Not all scoop users are created equal apparently]

I don't have a dog in this specific fight.   However, the ship has sailed in most cities as far as light rail replacing highways.  My driving experience around the Midwest and East coast says there are a lot of highways where their daily flow far exceeds their original design.   I don't see any easy inexpensive fixes.   

But, man, I would love a bridge from Muskegon to Milwaukee.

I could be biased but Light rail that operates within the slower local roads and then in the median of busier roads really helps, especially commuter convenience. I park and ride all the time to skip traffic. Would be really cool if Milwaukee had a downtown to airport rail connection that's not the administrative pain of amtrak.

[tower912]

I understand that and agree to an extent.  My 400k metropolitan area would never support that.   In a perfect world, Milwaukee would have light rail like spokes on a wheel with a loop 20 miles out connecting the outer burbs.   Then a line serving Madison and one going up the coast to GB.   Alas, neither the will nor the $ is there.

[Galway Eagle]

I understand that and agree to an extent.  My 400k metropolitan area would never support that.   In a perfect world, Milwaukee would have light rail like spokes on a wheel with a loop 20 miles out connecting the outer burbs.   Then a line serving Madison and one going up the coast to GB.   Alas, neither the will nor the $ is there.

Isnt Grand Rapids bigger than Pittsburgh? They have a great light rail network

[tower912]

Pittsburgh 300k, GR 200k.   GR Metro is around 400k.

[Galway Eagle]

Pittsburgh 300k, GR 200k.   GR Metro is around 400k.

Ah i see, thanks.

[#UnleashSean]

3,000 folks work in the US Bank building.  NML is renovating what it calls its North Office building bordered by Wells/Mason/Cass/Marshall, bringing 2,000 employees from its Franklin campus.  "The upgrades to the North Office Building would increase the capacity for Northwestern Mutual's downtown campus to 9,000."

The under construction 44 Floor Couture project will have over 300 apartments.  That is a lot of vehicles coming into a tight area considering the lake  (Lincoln Memorial Drive) preventing access from the east.  I'm all in on developing the area, but where would you dump all the traffic from eastbound I-94?  West of the river?  Right now it's a very efficient traffic conduit.

Office jobs are going to be dead in a decade.

[The Sultan]

Office jobs are going to be dead in a decade.

Yeah I don't think so.

[#UnleashSean]

Yeah I don't think so.

Let's find out what happens in 2033

[Goose]

Sir

I do not venture down to US Bank building often anymore, but it sure seems quiet to me when I do. How many people do you think are back to USB building on a daily basis. I am guessing Baird, Foley and others are getting folks back to the office, but it definitely does not have a pre-pandemic feel to me.

[lawdog77]

Office jobs are going to be dead in a decade.

Predicting another pandemic?

[JWags85]

Predicting another pandemic?

No I'm sure just another acolyte of the "offices don't accomplish anything, everyone is WAY better at work at home, and thinking otherwise is stealing people's lives and time"

It's amazing how post COVID everyone's commute magically became 1-2 hours minimum, which conveniently fueled the loudest of the anti-office voices

[Sir Lawrence]

Sir

I do not venture down to US Bank building often anymore, but it sure seems quiet to me when I do. How many people do you think are back to USB building on a daily basis. I am guessing Baird, Foley and others are getting folks back to the office, but it definitely does not have a pre-pandemic feel to me.

Baird is back and taking over more floors.  Foley does seem quiet.  Some of the Baird groups must have a mix of in office and WFH.  Fridays are quieter in the building. 

[Goose]

Sir

Thanks for the update. We four blocks to the west on Wisconsin Ave and 7 people in a four story building. We had a tenant take two floors in 2021 and expected 20+ on a daily basis anx I do not think they ever had more than four on a given day. Thankful I am not the owner of this joint.

[Jockey]

No I'm sure just another acolyte of the "offices don't accomplish anything, everyone is WAY better at work at home, and thinking otherwise is stealing people's lives and time"

It's amazing how post COVID everyone's commute magically became 1-2 hours minimum, which conveniently fueled the loudest of the anti-office voices

Promotions are hard to come by when the bosses don't even know who you are.

[mu_hilltopper]

None of the scenarios have the removal of the Hoan as an option.  Not sure where that idea was started.

It's 1.3 miles from the lake to the Marquette interchange.  794 is a very efficient way to get people around at ~60mph.    This alternative removes about 1.3 miles of freeway and replaces it with a boulevard .. future average speeds would be ~20mph with stoplights, so instead of taking 1.5 minutes, it'll take ~4.

The argument for keeping it as-is, is that it's efficient and speedy, and the motoring public love it.   

The argument for the boulevard is that it's cheaper, opens development, and a few minutes more travel isn't that burdensome.

It's obvious what's going to happen.  794 is coming down.  There will be uproar and letter writing campaigns, but in the end none of that will matter.   The urbanists will get their way.

I'm calling it now:  #donedeal