Small Steps

This past week, the Walnut Way Conservation Corp held a ribbon cutting ceremony for Phase I of a two phase building project.  The Innovation and Wellness Commons is another piece in the Walnut Way movement to revitalize the physical landscape and social spirit of the  Lindsay Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee. As part of a huge study I did on that area, the following was in my conclusion.  I wrote this in 2013 and am so pleased the organization was able to make it happen.  At the time, I was not sure if it was feasible.  (Please note:  MHNA is Walnut Way, Maple Heights is Lindsay Heights, and Bridge Harbor is Milwaukee.)

In perhaps its most ambitious response to creating a structure to support and encourage collaboration, the MHNA recently announced plans to build the Healthy Living Commons, a $6 million, 45,000 square foot mixed-use development that will create what Tommy calls “a healthy living campus for the neighborhood.” By far the largest financial undertaking in the history of the MHNA, the Healthy Living Commons will provide space for organizations and groups wanting to collaborate on behalf of Maple Heights.

Mrs. Anderson sees the groups and organizations “that land in the Healthy Living Commons will be of like mind around something, you know, their missions will be aligned in terms of working with the community.”  While the idea of school as a neighborhood hub is often mentioned as an important piece of the reconceptualization of the school-community relationship, Tommy talked about how the Healthy Living Commons could function as a focal point and gathering place for the residents of Maple Heights.  He describes the vision MHNA has for the Healthy Living Commons:

It will be a central hub where it’s easy to be healthy, easy to connect with people, it’s easy to find some something that you need, it’s easy to connect socially.  It’s built out of this idea ‘let’s really make this hub central to this campus, people can go to, but then trickle out and connect to the rest of the neighborhood.’  It’s about starting in one single spot and growing things out.  Growing this is like a vessel, like an artery from the heart, so the Commons is the heart.

Intended to be part of the commercial development of Maple Heights, the building will provide physical and social space for the partners and residents who are committed to Maple Heights. Located right in the center of the Maple Heights commercial corridor, Jack talked about “the transformation impact of having a building like this, what it looks like now and what it can become, and what it will do to the commercial corridor.” 

At a community event announcing the Healthy Living Commons project, residents reflected on both the past and future of Maple Heights.  One of the residents spoke about the significance of both this building and the people who will give the building its meaning and action: 

I grew up not too far from Susan, my little sister and Susan was best friends, so I guess to me, this whole thing is transformational, but it’s also a reinvigoration of the community that I grew up in.   This community, that’s why Susan so vested in it, but when I say that, because we know what this place can be, we know what it was, so part of it for me is the reinvigoration of the community.   I want people to know that it is going back to the path I used to see. Sitting on a porch with a handful of people in the midst of really bad stuff and having them focus away from that that bad stuff and have them say ‘we will take care that.’  I do know one thing.  If it’s gonna happen at all in Bridge Harbor, it’s gonna happen here in Maple Heights.

Is it possible this building can be so transformative?  My argument in matters such as this one directly explains my “uneasy optimist” attitude.  Is it naive to believe structures like the commons can send a powerful message of hope and change in one of the poorest zip codes in Milwaukee? What will be interesting is just what kind of message this building sends to the rest of the neighborhood.   Do the residents even see the message this project is conveying or is it too idealistic to think the renovation of one building can be a counter-narrative to the many buildings that are in complete disrepair?  The building’s importance goes beyond the businesses it will attract, the jobs it will bring, to how it affects the tacit knowledge that has been created through years of socialization.  As someone who has watched with great interest the revitalization of this neighborhood, is it plausible to think this building can be another part of the movement to truly change a neighborhood that has suffered from years of physical, social, and emotional neglect?  When I stare at this one building in the midst of so much despair, I have hope that it will be another  small step in the reemergence of a once-proud neighborhood.  However, considering this has been one of the most violent years in Milwaukee's history, I suspect there are many who would think this is like the proverbial pebble in the ocean.  That may be right, but if I really believed them, I could no longer be the Uneasy Optimist.....