MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee Alderman Bob Bauman said the Milwaukee Police Department released a parking restriction map for the Republican National Convention on social media on Monday.
"Why two weeks,” Bauman questioned.
Bauman said he was confused when he first heard about the map. Some of the parking restrictions start July 5th.
"We don't know where this demand for an extra week of no parking originated and that would be nice to know at some point.,” Bauman explained.
Bauman said he expected parking restrictions, but not this far in advance.
"It pretty much prohibits parking in all of the West Town part of downtown, west of the river, south of Cherry, north of St. Paul, and east of I-43 entirely for two weeks,” he explained.
MPD said in an email that the map was taken down because it was not finalized. Bauman who represents downtown, was never included in this conversation.
"Businesses that depend on street parking for their customers to access them are essentially out of luck for two weeks,” Bauman explained.
"We had no idea about the parking restrictions at all,” Owner of Fully Loaded MKE food truck, Eric Blue said.
Blue knows about the RNC. However, he wasn't told about parking restrictions starting before the convention. He relies on his downtown business to keep his company going.
"This is about 50 percent of our business comes from this area down here. So, it’s definitely going to have a big impact on us,” Blue explained.
TMJ4’s Megan Lee asked Blue if he was shown any maps or anything by the City of Milwaukee. He responded with, “We haven't had any."
Now that Blue might have to move off of Water Street for two weeks, he’s hoping his customers support him wherever he is located.
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