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This story is part of The uprising in Sherman Park: 10 years later, a Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service series examining resilience, collective action and ongoing efforts to address the inequities that sparked a pivotal moment in Milwaukee’s history.

Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson-Bovell remembers hearing the pain of community members who felt unheard and disenfranchised during the Sherman Park uprising of 2016. 

The unrest occurred after Milwaukee Police Officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown shot and killed 23-year-old Sylville Smith. Heaggan-Brown was acquitted of Smith’s killing but was later sentenced to prison on unrelated sex crimes charges. His death sparked days of protest in Sherman Park, with clashes between residents and police and significant damage to property.

“I think a lot of it had to do with the community’s relationship to public safety, but also the historic disinvestment,” said Nicholson-Bovell, who was a new county supervisor representing parts of Sherman Park in District 10 at the time. 

Milwaukee’s manufacturing industry once supported good-paying jobs for Black residents, said U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore. But when many of those family-sustaining jobs vanished, residents faced structural inequalities that impact maternal health outcomes, incarceration rates and poverty and unemployment, she said. 

“Years of facing disinvestment and these challenges cultivated tensions that reached a breaking point after Sylville Smith’s death,” Moore said. 

In the aftermath of the uprising, many government leaders, community members and philanthropists shared an interest in addressing longstanding systemic issues that contributed to the summer’s tensions. 

Ten years later, those investments have led to some changes, although it’s unclear how many Sherman Park residents directly benefited.

Home renovations

An investment of $4.5 million in state funding to improve housing stock and employment opportunities in Sherman Park and Milwaukee was announced a few weeks after the uprising by then-Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele. 

The initiative promised $1.5 million for employment programs, $2 million to help the city demolish and renovate tax-foreclosed properties and $1 million in Wisconsin Fast Forward grants awarded to Milwaukee businesses and nonprofits for job training. 

With $1 million, the city launched the Milwaukee Employment/Renovation Initiative, or MERI. The program helped six developers purchase distressed tax-foreclosed homes for $1 and receive grants of $10,000 per property to rehabilitate them to go back on the market. 

The program faced early criticism from residents, and progress was slow initially.

The developers eventually renovated and sold 104 homes, 81 in the greater Sherman Park area, with most projects wrapped up by mid-2019, according to a presentation to a Common Council committee at the time. Additional private donations and funding led to a $7.9 million total investment in the properties. 

Each property renovation had to employ at least one worker certified in the city’s Residents Preference Program for unemployed, underemployed or low-income workers. A total of 33,000 hours were logged by Residents Preference Program workers.  

Jim Gaillard, vice president of Ezekiel Community Development Corp., said the initiative fit naturally with the nonprofit’s model of training chronically unemployed people, minority contractors or those impacted by the justice system to develop skills in the construction trades while rehabbing homes. The nonprofit, also known as Ezekiel HOPE, works to sell the properties to first-time homeowners.

“We needed to show some people that they could do more than what they thought they could do, so it gave people hope,” Gaillard said.

The city later launched another round of funding, dubbed MERI 2.0, that was open to a wider boundary of tax-foreclosed properties. 

Lafayette Crump, commissioner of the Department of City Development, said both iterations helped shape the Homes MKE program, under Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s administration, which has fully renovated 77 homes with 20 more properties still in progress. 

“It’s really a great example of how strategic public investment could improve property values, return homes to the tax rolls but also strengthen neighborhood stability by moving more of these properties back into productive use,” Crump said. 

Ezekiel renovated five homes through MERI, three during the second phase and three in Homes MKE.  

“I think the other big thing is that it opened people’s eyes to what can be done if you put a concentrated effort together,” Gaillard said.

Reasons for Hope MKE Fund

Darlene C. Russell, director of community engagement for the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, remembers the period of unrest as a painful and emotional time.

“I also remember neighbors checking on one another, community leaders stepping forward and residents asking what they could do to help,” she said. 

That spirit of community care inspired the Greater Milwaukee Foundation to launch Reasons for Hope MKE with $200,000 in initial funding. The micro-grant fund is designed to provide immediate and flexible support for community-led efforts throughout the city, Russell said. 

Over the last 10 years, the fund awarded 312 grants totaling over $2 million. 

While Sherman Park was central to its creation, the fund is open to grassroots organizations throughout the city for neighborhood-strengthening initiatives such as youth and arts programming, community events and leadership development, according to Russell. 

“It was never intended to be a quick fix to systemic issues. Instead, it was designed to invest in trusted neighborhood leaders already doing the work,” Russell said. 

Residents from a variety of neighborhoods serve on the fund’s Community Advisory Council and receive training on grant administration. The current 13-member council reviews Reasons for Hope MKE grant applications and makes funding recommendations.

Community members have donated $146,800 to the Reasons for Hope MKE Fund in addition to institutional funding.

This year, the fund has supported Sherman Park through grants for activities like community gardening and wellness programming with Iwigara Holistic Hub in the 2800 block of North 35th Street and the UpStart Kitchen Food Crawl with PRISM Economic Development Corp.

Other projects

The BMO bank branch, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Jet Beauty Supply and a former BP gas station, which were damaged or destroyed during the uprising, were rebuilt. The BP gas station is now a Citgo. 

Other investments supported the Sherman Phoenix Marketplace development, the county park and other initiatives.

The city provided $225,000 for the Sherman Phoenix Tax Incremental District. Moore and Sen. Tammy Baldwin advocated for federal funds for the neighborhood, including a $750,000 grant to the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corp. to support the Sherman Phoenix and neighborhood entrepreneurs.

Milwaukee County received a $250,000 Community Development Investment Grant in 2018 from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. to support construction costs of the entrepreneurial hub, according to Nicholson-Bovell. 

Milwaukee County funded $2.3 million in heating, ventilating and air conditioning system upgrades for the Mary Ryan Boys & Girls Club at Sherman Park in 2016.

More recently, Nicholson-Bovell and the County Board helped leverage nearly a million dollars of American Rescue Plan Act funding to build public and private partnerships to support a multimillion-dollar revitalization of the park. Improvements included a new splash pad, improved lighting and pathways, resurfaced athletic spaces and more.

“When you go into Sherman Park today, it looks a lot different than it did 10 years ago,” Nicholson-Bovell said. “It feels more open, more airy, it’s better lit.”

Reflections

Looking back, Crump said he’s glad there was political will at local and higher levels of government to make some determinations after the Sherman Park uprising, and later in 2020 and 2021 after the COVID pandemic and death of George Floyd prompted similar conversations.

“But it’s unfortunate that it takes those major incidents that draw a lot of attention in order to make those things happen,” he said. 

Going forward, Mabel Lamb, who became executive director of the Sherman Park Community Association in 2018, said she would like to see even more investment in the neighborhood’s housing stock, upgrades for businesses and the community as a whole. 

As their work continues, Moore, Crump and Nicholson-Bovell plan to keep listening to residents.

“My constituents didn’t want just jobs, but an opportunity to have a voice in their community and to feel respected,” Moore said. “There is still so much work to do.” 

Russell said after 15 years with the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, she’s learned that hope is not simply an idea. 

“It is something you can witness. It is something you can nurture. It is something you can invest in,” she said.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

Investments changed Milwaukee’s Sherman Park after 2016 uprising, but who benefited remains unclear is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Milwaukee’s Public Transportation, Utilities and Waterways Review Board waded into the statewide fight over utility regulation on Wednesday with a three-hour hearing discussing forming a publicly-owned electric utility. 

The proposed starting point: assuming control over We Energies’ infrastructure within city limits.

“Energy networks are best delivered by monopolies,” said Jim Carpenter, a board member. “The problem is that We Energies is a profit-driven monopoly, and sometimes profits get in the way of providing the best solution to a problem.”

The board has no power to recommend action by Milwaukee’s Common Council; Wednesday’s meeting was the board’s first since 2023. Instead, Aldermen Alex Brower and Robert Bauman used the hearing to open a discussion about the viability, risks and potential benefits of a possible city-owned electric utility. Backers and critics alike packed the board room, some eager to weigh in on the proposal.

“Everyone deserves to have savings. Everyone deserves to have the option to have control over their power,” said Cleopatra White, a working-class single mother in Milwaukee’s Southgate neighborhood. 

She said she wanted to show support for creating a publicly-owned utility because it’s an issue that affects everyone in Milwaukee, regardless of political party. 

What is a public utility? 

Wisconsin’s publicly-owned utilities — Manitowoc Public Utilities, for instance — generate roughly 11% of the electricity produced in the state, often with lower electric rates than their investor-owned counterparts. 

Wisconsin law allows municipalities to acquire utilities’ property, but that option is largely untested.

Brower pitched the takeover as a means to shield residents from electrical rate increases. We Energies filed its most recent rate case in April, projecting a roughly 9.3% increase in customers’ electricity rates over the next two years. 

But the plan faces pushback from We Energies and the union representing its workers. They argue that residents benefit from the economies of scale that a large, well-established utility provides.

“Reliability is not created by changing who owns the utility,” said James Meyer, business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 2150. “It comes from trained workers, proven emergency response systems and the ability to move crews, equipment and materials quickly when customers need help. Milwaukee has that today, and this proposal puts it at risk.”

We Energies spokesperson Brendan Conway said his company is responsive to ratepayers’ concerns about costs and service. 

“We know many families in Milwaukee are feeling pressure from rising energy costs, and we’re focused on keeping bills low while delivering the reliable energy customers count on every day,” Conway wrote in an email. 

How would a municipal utility be created? 

State law offers two routes for municipalities to assume control of utility infrastructure within their territory: seizing the facilities through eminent domain or negotiating a purchase agreement. 

The eminent domain route would likely require legal action by the city to prove the “necessity of the taking,” attorneys working with the Milwaukee Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) wrote ahead of Wednesday’s hearing. 

Brower won his seat representing District 3 in a special election last April with the backing of Milwaukee’s DSA chapter, which helps organize the “Power to the People” campaign drumming up support for a municipal electric utility. Many of its members attended the hearing. 

Both options would require a referendum and a hearing before Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission to determine a fair price for We Energies’ property. But Milwaukee’s suburbs rely  on much of the same infrastructure as the city, which could block Milwaukee from acquiring shared infrastructure. 

Shorewood Village Manager Rebecca Ewald, whose community shares a substation with Milwaukee, told Wisconsin Watch that she hasn’t discussed the idea with its sponsors. Oak Creek City Administrator Andrew Vickers declined to comment on the plan; his city, which borders Milwaukee’s southern edge, hosts several We Energies power plants. 

Milwaukee itself has only one We Energies power plant: the Valley Power Plant along the Menomonee River near the city’s central business district. It generates enough electricity to meet roughly 10% of Milwaukee’s annual needs, Conway said. 

Brower argues the current lack of generation within city limits wouldn’t hinder his goals. “We have the power to purchase (electricity) on the wholesale markets,” he told Wisconsin Watch.

State law allows municipal utilities to construct generators outside of their boundaries. In Brower’s view, Milwaukee could expand rooftop solar and battery storage to meet some energy needs — possibly sited on the city’s abundant vacant land.

Municipal control of We Energies’ substations and transmission assets could also mean shrinking the pool of customers paying for that infrastructure, including We Energies’ new mixed-use Juneautown substation in the city’s Historic Third Ward.

Act 10, a 2011 state law stripping most public-sector employees of collective bargaining rights,  also complicates the picture. 

Brower believes a Milwaukee public electrical utility should aim to hire the We Energies workers who currently operate infrastructure within the city, but doing so would make them public-sector employees. “We don’t want that,” he said.

“We are seriously considering a legal option of outsourcing the day-to-day management to a third-party entity once we acquire the utility infrastructure,” he added — a possible workaround to ensure that  employees under a municipal utility would retain their current rights. 

His pitch has yet to sway the IBEW, which generally supports We Energies in cases before the PSC and Legislature. 

“If the workers are forced into uncertainty over pensions, healthcare, seniority, contracts and union protections, many may not move to the city from the utility,” said Sam Rozenberg, an IBEW member and We Energies dispatcher who spoke at the hearing. “They have options. And if they leave, Milwaukee loses more than employees. It loses the people who know this system and know how to restore service safely.”

While there is no guarantee current We Energies workers would join a new municipal electric utility, Ursula Schryver, senior vice president of education, training and events for the American Public Power Association, told the board that Milwaukee could tap into a national network of public utilities to respond to natural disasters.

Other cities explore municipal utilities

Milwaukee isn’t the only city exploring this option. 

St. Petersburg, Florida’s city council approved a feasibility study earlier this year. Ann Arbor, Michigan’s city council voted down a proposal to study a municipal takeover of electric infrastructure last spring, though the plan’s backers now plan to take the matter to voters as a ballot petition.

A similar study commissioned by the San Diego, California city council produced an $8 billion cost estimate,  prompting some city leaders to balk at the idea. The same study also suggested that San Diego residents could recoup the costs in the long run. 

Brower said  San Diego’s deliberations offer a chance to pressure an investor-owned utility to make concessions. Even if the possibility of a municipal takeover in Milwaukee acts as a bargaining chip during an upcoming rate case, he said, “there’s power in winning concessions. But we are fighting for the entire thing.”

Samuel Mendoza, who recently moved with his wife to Milwaukee near the Harambee neighborhood, discussed his experience working in public works for the City of Los Angeles. While he didn’t work under the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, he said the municipal utility paid its nearly 12,000 workers well.

“I’m surprised coming here that there wasn’t already something municipal,” Mendoza said. “Especially things that are really specific to the city, you’d want to have a utility company that could handle those issues instead of just being so widespread.” 

What happens next?

We Energies was absent from the hearing. Brower invited the company to join a meeting with the board or the city’s representatives to make its case. 

As for next steps, Bauman suggested exploring the public utility concept through a task force made up of members of the Common Council, mayoral administration and Department of Public Works and then requesting that the council fund a feasibility study.

Could Milwaukee create its own electric utility? Officials explore taking over We Energies infrastructure within city limits  is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Initial damage assessment reports indicate that this month’s flood damage is smaller in scale to last year’s storms and will not meet the requirements to request federal assistance, according to county and city officials. 

Milwaukee County is coordinating with municipal emergency managers to evaluate damage using resident reports to 2-1-1 and communication with local and regional partners, according to Emily Tau, public affairs director with the Milwaukee County Office of the County Executive. 

“While the impacts to affected households are significant and taken seriously, at this time, the impacts from this flooding in Milwaukee County do not meet the thresholds required to initiate a FEMA Preliminary Damage Assessment and potential Presidential Disaster Declaration,” Tau said.

Ryan Zollicoffer, director of the City of Milwaukee Office of Emergency Management, said joint teams from the Department of Neighborhood Services and the Milwaukee Fire Department are continuing on-site evaluations of the most impacted residential areas.

Based on preliminary reports, both Zollicoffer and Tau said the magnitude of damage to date appears substantially lower than after August’s flooding, when historic rainfall exceeded 10 inches in parts of Milwaukee. Rainfall totals from April 13 to April 15 topped 5 inches in the city. 

Zollicoffer said some residents may be eligible for assistance through the U.S. Small Business Administration disaster loan programs, depending on final damage determinations.

The city and county will then work with the state to determine whether any additional recovery resources or support mechanisms are warranted, he said. 

Some elected leaders have expressed interest in exploring options to request aid.

Governor’s effort

On Wednesday, Gov. Tony Evers announced that he directed Wisconsin Emergency Management to submit a request for FEMA to assist the state in conducting a formal federal preliminary damage assessment from recent extreme storms and flooding throughout the state.

Wisconsin Emergency Management is the division of the state’s Department of Military Affairs that coordinates disaster and emergency responses.

Evers signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency on April 15 and authorized the Wisconsin National Guard to assist in relief and recovery efforts from flooding, hail, strong winds and tornadoes that hit communities across Wisconsin in April.

In an April 17 letter, Evers requested Wisconsin’s two U.S. senators and eight U.S. representatives help urge the Trump administration to reconsider the denials of the state’s requests for assistance from August’s storms and approve outstanding requests.

President Donald Trump approved individual assistance to Wisconsin homeowners and residents after the August flooding. However, the administration denied requests for assistance to repair public infrastructure and for the hazard mitigation grant program. 

Wisconsin appealed both decisions to FEMA but was once again denied public assistance and is still waiting on a response for the hazard mitigation grant. 

“These denials and delays have left Wisconsin more vulnerable to this next wave of storms and flooding,” Evers wrote. 

Wisconsin does not have its own standing assistance program to help property owners make repairs from flooding or storms, according to Wisconsin Emergency Management, the division of the state’s Department of Military Affairs that coordinates disaster and emergency responses. 

Next steps

Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson-Bovell authored a resolution to be introduced at the outset of the new board term in May that requests the county Office of Emergency Management conduct a comprehensive assessment of the damage from April’s storms, according to Erin Caffrey, communications specialist with the Milwaukee County Clerk’s Office. 

The countywide review of damage would be used to inform recovery efforts and strengthen future applications for state and federal aid, she said. It would also support the development of a coordinated flood preparedness, response and communications plan that would create a flooding information alert system and help supervisors effectively engage with residents, Caffrey said. 

“This resolution is about bringing our partners together, assessing the damage, improving communication with residents and making sure we are better prepared before the next storm hits,” Nicholson-Bovell said in a statement. “Our communities deserve a coordinated response and the long-term investments needed to protect homes, neighborhoods and businesses.” 

Ald. Andrea Pratt introduced a communication file to the Milwaukee Common Council to discuss city intersections and areas that are hot spots for flooding, which was on the agenda for a Public Works Committee meeting on Wednesday morning at City Hall.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson, County Executive David Crowley and Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District Executive Director Kevin Shafer formed a Flood Mitigation Task Force to evaluate mitigation efforts to reduce impacts from future storms and solicit feedback. It is expected to meet soon.

Other resources

Anyone can report storm damage or request to be connected to volunteer cleanup resources by calling 2-1-1 or submitting a report online through the 211 Wisconsin website. 

The Wisconsin Conference of the United Methodist Church, in partnership with UMCOR and Team Rubicon USA, is organizing 100 volunteers to assist families with cleanup in Milwaukee County in the coming weeks and months, Tau said. The American Red Cross and the Salvation Army are also active in support efforts. 

Organizations interested in coordinating with partners through the Southeast Wisconsin Community Organizations Active in Disasters can visit sewicoad.org or contact coadsewi@gmail.com.

Residents who lost food purchased with FoodShare can apply for replacement benefits through the Wisconsin Department of Health Services until the extended deadline of May 4.^.

Call or text the Disaster Distress Helpline at 1-800-985-5990 for free, 24/7, confidential, multilingual emotional support.

The Department of Neighborhood Services’ Compliance Loan Program helps owner-occupied properties address building code violations with a no-interest, deferred payment loan. Residents can apply if flood damage is under the purview of the program and they meet the requirements.  

Jeremy McGovern, marketing and communications officer for the Milwaukee Department of Neighborhood Services, said the department would not be opposed to waiving permit fees related to flood damage repairs like it did for the August floods, but doing so would require Common Council authorization. 

He also said the city’s Neighborhood Improvement Project inspectors and plan examiners can be resources in helping navigate timelines and repairs.

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Find more resources in NNS’s previous reporting. 

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Meredith Melland is the neighborhoods reporter for Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

Federal flood assistance unlikely in Milwaukee: Officials discuss next steps is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.