JULY 5, 2016
URBAN MILWAUKEE Website, the blog | Below are comments placed on the article titled, "Bronzeville and Walker Square Hail Bublr" by Rebecca Carballo, Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service.
Our fact-finding triggered some interesting and telling comments. Their comments speak volumes to the climate of "denial" and "I do not care".
The comments say, "I am not my brother's keeper" and "I approve the disregard" - DISCRIMINATION, TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION and "it is OK".
It speaks to the SEGREGATION that promotes Enduring Concentrated Poverty.
Do notice the wording of the comments.
Rigged System
The use of the city coffers and its resources are going to everybody but the CORE CONSTITUENTS - African American, other People of Color and Work Challenged.
When our city elected officials - turn a blind eye - engage in SEGREGATION, DISCRIMINATION, and Conflict of Interest for starters - give away our resources (tax credits, districts, real estate, special funding, special legislation - NBA MEGA Bucks Deal), without investment conditions with transparency and accountability; there is NO bar set for respecting the People.
Today, I call for accountability from all Charter officers:
Mayor Tom Barrett, Common Council - President Ashanti Hamilton, Cavalier Johnson-2nd District, Nik Kovac-3rd District, Robert J. Bauman-4th District, James A. Bohl, Jr.-5th District, Milele A. Coggs-6th District, Khalif J. Rainey-7th District, Robert G. Donovan-8th District, Chantia Lewis-9th District, Michael J. Murphy-10th District, Mark A. Borkowski-11th District, José G. Pérez-12th District, Terry L. Witkowski-13th District, Tony Zielinski-14th District, Russell W. Stamper, II-15th District, Comptroller Martin Matson, City Attorney Grant Langley, and Treasurer Spencer Coggs.
What say you? What are you doing?
How do we have a "sitting" City Engineer, Jeff Poleske, on the Board of Bublr Bike?
What say you? What are you doing?
How do we have a "sitting" City Engineer, Jeff Poleske, on the Board of Bublr Bike?
 |
| Bublr Bike Staff |
===============
6 THOUGHTS ON “BRONZEVILLE AND WALKER SQUARE HAIL BUBLR”
- July 3, 2016BUBLR BIKE, the idea, fits in with today’s lifestyle, recreation, exercise and federally supported PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION for 21st Century strategic planning. HOWEVER,BUBLR BIKE forgot to include the CORE CONSTITUENTS in Milwaukee.BUBLR BIKE leaders are not and have not been good STEWARDS while using funds taken from the city coffers for startup and state-funding from federal funding (over $5 million dollars) Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Program for expanding. How did African American, other People of Color and Work Challenged neighborhoods get overlooked? They should have been first and for sure simultaneous to any other site. ALL HANDS ON DECK – ALL MILWAUKEEANS involved.Not just downtown, tourists, east side, and near Walker’s Point – areas for the Caucasian-dominated population.That is called RED LINING, DISCRIMINATION, and DISENFRANCHISEMENT.It sends the wrong message from Kevin Hardman, executive director, James Davies, Operations Director & General Counsel, Bruce Keyes, Foley & Lardner, LLP – Board President and Co-Founder, Barry Mainwood, Mainly Editing – Board Vice President and Co-Founder, Trent Johnson, Foley & Lardner, LLP – Board Secretary, Radhika Maheshwari, Johnson Controls – Board Treasurer, Juli Kaufmann, Fix Development, Jeff Polenske, City of Milwaukee and Rese Schneider, Public Policy Forum.What are African American, other People of Color and Work Challenged families supposed to think? There is NO EXCITEMENT of the two sites mentioned in this article. There is the thought of being LEFT OUT – an “after-thought”, based on present implementation. That is just WRONG. Especially when you travel in the downtown, east side, UW-M, MSOE, Marquette and near downtown Walkers Point, the bikes are everywhere and “IN EXCESS” – STATIONS HERE AND THERE.Halyard Park resident Pam McFarling said she was excited to see Bublr Bikes come to her neighborhood.“I saw them in other places and I thought it would be cool to have one in the neighborhood,” McFarling said. “I don’t have a bike but I really like riding them.”This is a very telling statement by Pam McFarling. It speaks volumes to the discrimination and being left out.Others in the article spoke of a need for a cargo attachment. If Bublr Bike were “in-tune to the People” and customer care for families in Milwaukee, they would have known this and had it built into the expansion dollars.Russell Jobs, Dream Bikes, should not have been the main source for placing the bikes at Brown & MLKing Drive. He has a working agreement with Bublr Bike.Bublr Bike sites are maintained by Caucasians only (in a city majority People of Color, with Enduring Concentrated Poverty and huge unemployment).Bublr Bike has jumped on the Milwaukee County Transit System with Announcements of stops of Bublr Bike – most of the folk riding the bus do not have them in their area.It is important to note, Bublr Bike owners have their eyes on “FRANCHISING” and moving to Glendale, Whitefish Bay and other suburbs and the immediate world – and they have not taken care of the ones who got them started.Where is Tom Barrett,Mayor (Executive Branch), Ashanti Hamilton, Alderman & Common Council President and the 14 Alderpersons (Legislative Branch)?Milwaukee Professionals Association LLC wrote about this:http://mpapublicpolicyreview.blogspot.com/2016/06/bublr-bike-redlining-discrimination-and.html
- What a load of crap.There have been people of color that work for bublr to help maintain the system. I know one personally.They also did not have the money for a simultaneous city wide implementation. With these types of systems you need a critical density of stations in order to make people feel they can ride it to where they any without being stuck looking for a bike station. You are already seeing the system expand outside of areas this core and it will continue to grow. The reasons there is heavy focus around universities is that is because those universities provided specific funding. Note that the only two stations north of north Ave on the east side are at UWM.
- July 5, 2016The facts as we have found them are what they are.If You are pissed, guess how African American, other People of Color and Work Challenge – in mass – feel. It is wrong Michael. It is wrong.As far as who they hired. Did you say you knew of “ONE” hire?We used Bublr Bike reporting from their website. The photo of staff may of been removed since we started outreach of this DISENFRANCHISEMENT – we see Sharon Adams, Walnut Way and Maanaan Sabir, Juice Kitchen, friends of Julie Kaufmann, The Fix and Bublr Bike board member – falsely representing Bublr Bike outreach to African American. It is wrong Michael.See the link below.BUBLR BIKE must answer to REDLINING in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – Public Transportationhttp://mpapublicpolicyreview.blogspot.com/2016/06/bublr-bike-must-answer-to-redlining-in.html
- I’m sorry, but such over-the-top comments come across as more of a rambling rant than a list of legitimate concerns. (All caps comes across as shouting and what seems to be a number of personal attacks doesn’t help the cause either.)Bublr continues to expand from its initial downtown/university-based starter phase. Given limited funding, any such system needs to start in the area likely to demonstrate the strongest demand. Experience with systems elsewhere, both in the US and around the world, shows that for bike share to work well stations need to be located fairly close together – instead of spreading stations far from each other, there needs to be a concentration (or density) of stations. This also means that expansion will tend to occur in neighborhoods contiguous to the existing system. More funding will enable the network to expand more quickly to more neighborhoods.As a useful, important transportation service, it is only natural to include announcements on MCTS buses. Downtown is the most transit-accessible neighborhood in the city – more accessible to residents and visitors than any other single neighborhood – meaning that Bublr bike stations in the downtown area may be useful to any persons traveling to or through downtown. The ability to link the use of bike share and transit helps to expand the reach of both networks.The idea of having cargo bikes available is interesting. I’d be curious if any other bike share systems offer this as an option. It would seem to present a number of logistical challenges though, which is why I imagine that it is not a common feature of any systems with which I’m familiar.
- Mary isn’t the fact that Bublr is expanding into more and more neighborhoods, including the two mentioned in this story, a good thing and exactly what you want it to be doing? They do not have unlimited funds and resources. Someone’s full-time job is seeking funding opportunities and other partnerships to keep it going and growing. Your criticisms seem excessively harsh and highly unfair.
- The responses to Mary are spot on. Mary Glass doesn’t seem to understand the SOP in creating a successful bike sharing system or that stations may open outside the normal circumstances if sponsored by an entity in that area (universities, businesses, suburbs) due to limited resources to roll out city-wide right away. Because of that lack of understanding, Mary gets a pass. But what doesn’t get a pass is the jumping to conclusions regarding race. This is particularly concerning since this is an article talking about minority areas getting stations.Bublr bikes has always talked about their desire to move out into neighborhoods and has made clear from day 1 that it needs to happen in a way that connects a certain density of stations. They have also said how they’d make this happen in step with available resources. We’re seeing that come to fruition, yet some people still aren’t happy. One should take the time to fully understand why things are done the way they are done before making up your mind on what you think should be done.
