11:00 August 15, 2005
Buffalo News - "Milwaukee set example to raze Skyway"

The following piece presents a terrific image of how Milwaukee's actions became the model for other cities.

Monday, August 15, 2005

The Buffalo News

COMMENTARY

Milwaukee set example to raze Skyway

8/15/2005

By DONN ESMONDE

The elevated road crossed over the river running through downtown and hovered over prime waterfront property.

It was ugly, it cut people off from the waterfront, and it stifled development. Where shops and condos should bloom, there was scrub brush and parking lots.

Powerful people said it should be taken down, that the city would be better off without it.

No, I'm not talking about our Skyway - although, judging by photos, this road could have been its twin.

The road in question is Milwaukee's Park East Thruway. Or it was. The up-in-the-air road came down a couple of years ago, with a push from then-Mayor John Norquist. It came down for the same reason Rep. Brian Higgins said again last week that our elevated road should fall: It does more harm than good.

"When Norquist first talked about it, people were like, "Oh come on, you can't take down the Freeway,' " said journalist Tom Daykin, who covers development for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “Norquist said it was an obstacle between people and the waterfront. Taking it down would free up land for development, add to the tax base, bring more people and jobs downtown."

All of which is what Higgins says about the Skyway. The problem is saying it doesn't make people believe it. Which is why what happened in Milwaukee matters to us. The Milwaukee model shows that what goes up can come down - and argues that we'd be better off if it did.

It cost $45 million to take down about a mile of the Park East Thruway and replace it with surface streets and a bridge.

"People thought that (taking it down) would screw up the commute, but it really hasn't," said Daykin. "They built a boulevard and a nice bridge, and nobody is complaining."

City officials say that the land opened up by the elevated road demo - about the size of nine Wal-Marts - will lure more than $250 million in development.

The seeds are already growing. Work has started on a 130-unit condo project; a deal was just signed for a $10 million condo-retail complex; and a county-owned stretch of land should fetch $2.5 million.

City development official Andrea Rowe Richards said taking down the elevated road created "one of Milwaukee's greatest (development) opportunities in decades.”

"It provides a large tract of (downtown) land," wrote Richards in an e-mail, "to create additional tax base and to reknit downtown."

The Journal-Sentinel's Daykin agrees, and unlike Richards, he isn't on the city payroll.

"People think it was a good idea," Daykin said. "What used to be a parking lot is going for upwards of $2 million a parcel. Developers are competing for sites and spending real money. They're not asking for financing or handouts."

It's exactly what Higgins says will happen if the Skyway falls.

"If we remove the barriers to waterfront access," Higgins said, "this community will have its choice of developers, instead of chasing developers with public (handouts)."

Higgins said the cost of taking down the Skyway would be offset by the skyrocketing value of the waterfront land and the high cost of keeping the elevated albatross - estimated by Higgins at $100 million for repair and redecking in coming years. It's a high price for obsolescence. The Skyway was built 150 feet off the ground a half-century ago to accommodate lake freighters, which are now seldom seen on the Buffalo River.

Higgins is looking instead at surface roads and lift bridges, or - less likely - a tunnel. All would be better than the waterfront-choking eyesore.

It worked in Milwaukee. The lesson: Knock it down, and they will come.

e-mail: desmonde@buffnews.com