Victory Garden Initiative comes to Bay View on Saturday May 23

The Victory Garden Blitz is coming! It will be happening all throughout the county, in Shorewood, Riverwest, Tosa, and the northwest and west sides of Milwaukee, as well as our little south side enclave.

So what is it?

On Memorial Weekend, the Victory Garden Initiative and its many partners will be installing “victory gardens” throughout our great city. In the end, we should have literally dozens of gardens built up, each prepared for growing nutritious, delicious foods.

There are many ways to get involved. It starts in Bay View at Katy Kujala-Korpela’s apartment building on S. Austin Street. Folks will be meeting there at 9am, and will help get a garden set up in a neighbor’s yard, who has graciously volunteered the use of their yard as a garden for the apartment dwellers.

There are further stops at 11AM and 1PM, one of which is our place, which I’ve dubbed the Pennsylvania Avenue Yard-Farm. Please call 750-3818 and talk to Mark to find out where you cna go to help.

At my place, we will need folks who can help build raised beds (which involves lifting wooden boards) and moving a lot of soil into the newly built beds. If you’re up to it, please come; we need you!

We will be using plants bought at the Bay View Garden And Yard Society plant sale, which is happening next weekend (the 30th) at South Shore Park, as well as a few local growers and merchants.

Here’s where to find info:

http://thevictorygardeninitiative.com/

http://thevictorygardeninitiative.com/2009/05/18/how-to-volunteer-for-the-blitz/ ["How to Volunteer for the Blitz"]

Thanks!

Also: Coverage from Journal Sentinel, Shepherd Express, and WUWM. And, Mayor Barrett declared this weekend to be a Victory Garden weekend. Thanks Mr. Mayor!

And… see how our new raised beds look over here!

Getting ready for the Great Milwaukee Garden Blitz of 2009

My home garden bed is coming right along in preparation for the Blitz that will be happening next week Saturday. Using some tools loaned by very generous neighbors, I’ve gotten the dandelion population largely under control, at least in the garden bed. And today, I reunited with an old compatriat to haul a very large amount of lumber down here. On Blitz Day, we’ll be using the lumber to make raised planting beds. (It just occurred to me that we’ll need chicken wire or something similar to keep burrowing critters out. To do next week…)

Having been doing minor things such moving and writing my senior thesis during the past few weeks, I had neither the time nor the energy to devote to preparing the garden area. Here’s what it looked like in April of 2009:

(If you were wondering, that is not our trailer. It belongs to the previous residents and is no longer here.)

So, time passed, the weather warmed a slight bit, just enough for plants to grow, and here’s how it looked shortly after we started moving in:

This is what I got for not putting down a huge tarp! Plants of all sorts, welcome and unwelcome, deliberate and intrusive, all springing to life. A picture from a week later would show lots of yellow dandelion flowers standing high across the yard. (Creeping charlie makes up most of the rest of it.) As I said, using the tools loaned to me by very generous neighbors, I’ve reduced much of the dandelion population.

As eager as I once was to renew my War on Creeping Charlie, which had been inspired by the federal government’s great overwhelming successes in the wars on poverty, drugs, and terra terror, I’m going to let it go for now. We’ll be manually levelling the surface and then putting in homemade raised beds, and I’ll have the open areas covered in mulch after that. And we need to have the overhanging tree limbs greatly shortened, as it’s already blocking a lot of light.

We’ll definitely need help on Saturday the 23rd. If you can lend a hand, no matter how little effort you think you can muster, I’d be much obliged. Get in touch with Gretchen from VGI if you want to help! And thanks in advance.

Deep Thought

The sales tax that Scott Walker once vetoed has sprung back to life. Again.

We can has KRM? Fer real?!

A LOL Cats-style headline seems quite appropriate, as my brain is still trying to wrap around some incredibly good news this morning.

KRM, a county RTA, and the 1% sales tax have passed the Joint Finance Committee. If it goes through, we’ll have dedicated property tax relief and funding for the parks, transit, and EMS.

It still hasn’t quite sunk in; the stuff I’ve been talking about for months and what I worked hard to get passed on the ballot back in November has passed a huge barrier and made it into the state budget!

Quoting Dan Cody:

“Overnight, the Legislature’s  voted to create a commuter rail authority in Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha counties funded through a rental car fee.

“They also voted to allow Milwaukee County to impose a 1% sales tax that would allow the County to remove transit, parks, cultural programs and emergency medical services from the property tax levy.”

Now it goes before the state legislatur, and eventually the governor’s pen. We need to keep the pressure up to make sure what JFC passed goes through. As Chris Larson told me, we can celebrate for a moment, but “we can’t dance on the ten yard line.” And to use another tired sports saying, it ain’t over till it’s over.

Still, big thanks to everyone in the Quality of Life Alliance. We did it!

[Here's Journal Sentinel's story on it.]

Deep Thought

How did the availability federal stimulus money effect Scott Walker’s position, philosophical stance, or behavior? How will this effect his upcoming gubernatorial bid?

Last minute attempts to get 1% sales tax through Joint Finance

We the People of Milwaukee asked for and voted in favor of the 1%. Let’s make it happen!

Copying an email from Bill Sell — hope you don’t mind that, Bill –

Once more into the breach (vote expected this Thursday)

A call today, or tonight (voice mail or fax or email is fine) to

John Lehman (d)
Senate District 21, Racine
PO Box 7882
866 615-7510
608 267-6793 fax
Sen.lehman@legis.wisconsin.gov

To ask him to support RTA and Milwaukee’s desire for a sales tax to pay our own way to fix our parks and transit

pick any of one or two or three reasons:

* Today 40,000 jobs are inaccessible to public transportation in Milwaukee due to the Walker bus cuts.
* If our buses do not get dedicated funding, the number of inaccessible jobs will rise to something over 100,000.
* Milwaukee voted to fix this with a rise in our County’s sales tax. And a reduction in our property tax. Our bus system will die without this change.

and please say THANK YOU for his support

thanks so much
peace and joy to all, especially
* our Milwaukee workers and students who are
* blind
* underage
* carless for any reason
* seniors who should not be driving

Bill Sell

---

We also need to push Lena Taylor and Pedro Colón on this, as they both sit on Joint Finance.Let’s make it happen!

Joint Finance Committee Asked to Include 1% Sales Tax For Milwaukee County in Budget

[Repost of Dan Cody; I am also part of the Quality of Life Alliance and have taken prescribed action on this matter.]

The Quality of Life Alliance, a group I’m a part of, released the following press release today asking for the Joint Finance Committee to include the voter approved 1% sales tax for Milwaukee County in the upcoming budget.

For the sake of our Park System, Transit, and Emergency Medical Systems, we are asking the Joint Finance Committee to include in the next State budget what the citizens of Milwaukee County have already approved: a one percent sales tax increase that will provide sustainable, dedicated funding for Parks, Transit and EMS.

“Please don?t continue to allow the voices of the 400,000 people who voted in November?s referendum to be ignored”, remarked Cheri Briscoe of Sierra Club-Great Waters Group and Quality of Life Alliance member. The referendum was advisory and requires action from the state to be enacted.

“Our Milwaukee County Park System, once proud and strong, is now limping along with an ever decreasing staff to perform daily maintenance and a log of deferred maintenance for its facilities of nearly $275 million,” added Jim Goulee, a QLA member who is also on the Board of Directors for Preserve our Parks.

This group’s attempt to gain local legislative support for enabling legislation from our state legislators was unfortunately, a tough sell. The Governor instead inserted the creation of RTA for Milwaukee, Kenosha, and Racine and funded by a sales and use tax in his proposed budget, leaving out any support for Milwaukee County Parks.

It is now becoming apparent that the proposal for the creation of the Southeastern Wisconsin RTA is not finding the necessary support from the Joint Finance Committee and may not be included in their version of the state budget. Instituting the sales tax increase in Milwaukee County would, in fact, provide the source of funding needed for a Milwaukee County RTA and could easily accommodate a broader RTA if and when it is created.

“Milwaukee County needs property tax relief and we need a solution to our looming transit and parks crisis,” commented County Supervisor Chris Larson, Quality of Life Alliance spokesperson. “Milwaukee County needs the 1% sales tax that was passed in referendum nearly months ago. Property tax payers can?t wait any longer, transit riders can?t wait, any longer, and all our neighbors who love our parks shouldn?t have to wait any longer to see these problems fixed.”

Quality of Life Alliance (QLA) is a grassroots organization made up of representing a wide swatch of Milwaukee County?s concerned citizens set out to improve our community for a stronger future. Members of the Quality of Life Alliance include transit riders, union leaders, parks supporters, and business men and women, and everyday citizens who are deeply concerned about the future of Milwaukee County and all of Southeastern Wisconsin. Quality of Life Alliance provided the advocacy effort that led to the passage of the sales tax/property tax relief referendum last November. The Quality of Life Alliance is a registered political action committee based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

It’s important the members of the Joint Finance Committee understand the importance of this dedicated funding source to the regions well being for decades to come. All we’re asking is to let the voices of the people of Milwaukee County be heard on this issue.

If you know any of the members of the JFC from the Milwaukee area like Rep. Tamara Grigsby, Rep. Pedro Colon, Sen. Lena Taylor or Sen. Alberta Darling, please contact them to voice your support.

[h/t Dan Cody.]

Vote, darnit, vote!

Today’s the spring election in Wisconsin. There are three four several races I’ve got something to say about:

Zach Wisniewski for South Milwaukee School Board

Zach is a great guy. Given how he talks about the South Milwaukee School Board meetings convening and taking literally minutes to unanimously vote without real discussion or debate, it sounds like they could use a shot of new blood. And Zach is the man for the job. I’m looking at you, my three South Milwaukee readers!

Shirley Abrahamson for the Wisconsin Supreme Court

Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson is on the ballot. That’s the race I have the most to say about. The last two state Supreme Court races have been bought and sold by the manufacturing lobbyist group. They’ve sat this one out for some reason, but that doesn’t mean you can not vote in this. Her opponent is a right-wing hack who would tip the balance on the state supreme court for the at least the next ten years if he gets in. So let’s see that he doesn’t, and vote for Shirley Abrahamson.

Tony Evers for state Superintendent of Schools

My pick in the state schools superintendent race is Tony Evers, who is currently the deputy state superintendent. The teachers that I know want him in. His opponent has a well-connected corporate lobbying effort backing her, but has no actual hands-on experience. That’s why my vote is going to Tony Evers.

J.D. Watts for Judge – Milwaukee County, Branch 15

J.D. has come to Drinking Liberally twice under his own volition. That’s enough for me. And he’s got experience being a judge, and a good legal mind. Give J.D. your vote.

Christopher Lipscomb for Judge - Milwaukee County, Branch 6

Like Mr. Watts, Mr. Lipscomb has abundant experience as a judge. And I bet Sup. Theo Lipscomb’s brother makes for a fine public servant.

Please vote, especially today, when we need every vote we can get to make sure this one comes out right. Look no further than Minnesota, where Al Franken is still waiting to be seated thanks to complexities with vote counting. Your vote does matter.

And the numbers are in…

1) I’m sorry to say that Zach will not be serving on the South Milwaukee School Board. That’s disappointing, but, the voters know who he is now, if not how to spell his name. Seriously, bravo for being a candidate. Also, fellow traveler Michael Mathias narrowly lost his bid for MPS school board. Another well run, honest race; sorry it turned out this way for you both. We need more people like you – both of you.

2) As Chadwick said in the comments, the two statewide races did turn out quite nicely. Congratulations to Mr. Evers and Chief Justice Abrahamson, and my personal thanks to the voters of Wisconsin. Most of you, anyway.

3) Congratulations to J. D. Watts, for beating a man who ran a dishonest, low-brow campaign.

I wonder, if WMC & Co. were buying this supreme court race, would their ethnic-fear-tinged ads have tipped the race to Gabler? We can only wonder. But, the good guys (mostly) won.

Bay View Compass: “We Energies 90 acres no longer part of Cardinal Stritch University expansion plan in St. Francis”

This is pretty big news. And it might just mean that the last natural grassland in Milwaukee County has been preserved from development — for now.

From the Bay View Compass:

In July 2008, Cardinal Stritch University began negotiations with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee to purchase the Cousins Center at 3501 S. Lake Drive in St. Francis. The 415,000 square foot building has been underutilized for years and the Archdiocese wanted to sell the property. The purchase agreement under negotiation was contingent upon also buying approximately 90 acres to the south of the Cousins Center owned by We Energies, for use as athletic fields on the new campus.

As it gathered more information about the We Energies land, the University decided against purchasing the property because of the current downturn in the economy. The Board believes that this is the time to be prudent and develop the best fiscal plan for the new campus.

I will use this opportunity to call for the State of Wisconsin to purchase the land and permanently preserve it in its natural state. And I will be speaking to my state senator and representative about this.

New Phoenix Light Rail System Exceeding Ridership Projections

Fellow Cheddarspherian and all around good guy Dan Cody tipped us off to the fact that light rail ridership in the patently not-liberal city of Phoenix, Arizona have shattered all expectations and ridership projections. He is referring to an MSNBC article that reports this good news.

According to the article, “908,052 people rode trains in February; the total number of boardings for the first two months of 2009 was 1.82 million.” That means roughly 912,000 people rode in January, which is slightly more than the number of February riders, but that can be expected, given the holiday travel that took place in January and the simply shorter calendar month of February.

As Dan points out, many anti-rail conservatives said the Phoenix light rail system would be a huge waste of money and that no one would ride it. They predict much the same for the future Milwauke system, yet they appear to have been summarily proven wrong in the case of the Phoenix system. The success of the Phoenix rail system may be even more surprising, given that Phoenix has no great Socialist roots, as does Milwaukee.

But people in Phoenix, like people in Milwaukee, will quickly latch on to any system that demonstrably works better and gives them a better way to do what they need to. People are taking the light rail system into downtown Phoenix, leaving their cars behind at park and rides, which cost less than parking downtown. Sure enough, downtown parking garages are reportedly lowering their rates to better compete with the rail system. Thus the much revered “invisible hand” of capitalism is working its magic. Just what free marketeers want.