MILWAUKEE — A local community group is hoping its voice can be heard over business interests when it comes to safety improvements on Brady Street.
The grassroots group, A Better Brady Street, released a statement Monday in response to a letter leaked from the Brady Street Business Improvement District (BID). The BID’s letter called for the reversal of many traffic calming measures that were instituted within the last two months.
“Honestly, we just want the safest thing for our community,” Carver Nightingale said. “We think undoing all these changes that have been empirically proven to work is not going to help anyone.”
Nightingale is most aggravated with the BID’s reluctance to install cement planters. In its statement, the BID included four requests:
- Not installing planters
- DPW restore traffic lanes
- DPW install stop signs
- DPW restore previous parking and loading zones
While Nightingale is supportive of adding stop signs, the other three requests are non-negotiables for them.
“They have the planters that they could put out and they didn’t,” Nightingale said. “This is a neighborhood first. Honestly, how many people have to die before businesses care?”
TMJ4 News reached out to the BID for comment and it did not respond. The BID’s letter does include traffic safety improvements, including stop signs at four intersections and increasing law enforcement’s presence during late night hours. However, the reversal of improvements that have been already done is a tough sell for Alderman Jonathan Brostoff who represents the area.
“I hope they’ll do the right thing,” Brostoff said of the BID’s reluctance to install the cement planters. “I wish we could all see eye to eye on this instead of having to fight tooth and nail to save people’s lives.”
According to Brostoff, the traffic calming measures that have been implemented aren’t going anywhere. The curved traffic lines will remain and the elimination of a couple of parking spots and loading zones won’t be coming back, according to Brostoff.
“We’re going to keep moving forward,” Brostoff said. “We’re not going backward. There has been some pushback from some of the businesses on safety measures to improve the street but at the end of the day, the street will become safer.”
Since 2017, five pedestrians have been killed in crashes on Brady Street.
“The stakes are too high to just kind of throw our hands in the air and say it’s too complicated,” Brostoff said. “We’re going to continue to move forward and we’re going to continue to make improvements.”
Brostoff says the city is still seeking community input about the possibility of pedestrianizing Brady Street, though he said no date has been set for that meeting.
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