Happy Monday and welcome to another edition of the Milwaukee Leader’s weekly news roundup. You may have noticed we’re publishing the roundup a bit late this week, but the bad news went up north for the weekend before we could flag it down. This week, we’ve got the rotting corpse of Northridge mall, an attempt at hamstringing non-carceral justice programs, sterling leadership and poise from our Republican delegation to the Congress, and more. Thanks, as always, for your support of the Leader.
Heat Islands Impact Milwaukee’s Disenfranchised
It has been a scorching July here in Milwaukee, and the heat is not evenly distributed in our city. Despite Lake Michigan’s moderating effect on our climate, heat islands in the city can cause local temperatures to soar to eight degrees or more Fahrenheit over the citywide average. Heat islands come about due to factors such as large stretches of uninterrupted asphalt such as parking lots, a lack of shade and vegetation, and air pollution levels. Tragically but unsurprisingly, these effects are most prominent in Milwaukee’s Black and brown neighborhoods, which also are more likely to lack amenities such as convenient transportation to public beaches or affordable air conditioning. As the climate continues to warm, Wisconsin’s antidemocratic political structures that disenfranchise working people and people of color will concentrate the negative impacts of that change onto vulnerable communities. Sweltering residents should not seek aid from our enlightened leadership in the state capitol: although assembly leader Robin Vos avers that climate change is ‘probably’ real, he has insisted that no mitigation efforts will move forward while he is in command of the chamber. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Chicanery At City Court Tries to Derail Anti-Carceral Efforts
An investigation by WisconsinWatch, an investigatory news watchdog, has revealed that two judges at the Milwaukee Municipal Court have tried to unceremoniously and abruptly ax a valuable local organization’s (JusticePoint) contract which allowed it to provide alternatives to fines and imprisonment for Milwaukeeans accused of crimes. JusticePoint was given extremely little notice of their impending dissolution, and the judge’s reasons for pursuing this dramatic cut in a valuable service were unclear.
Milwaukee already incarcerates vastly too many of its citizens, and Milwaukeeans who are incarcerated are disproportionately likely to suffer from mental illness, addiction, poverty, and trauma. Organizations like JusticePoint are an insufficient but nevertheless invaluable effort at reducing some of the damage that incarceration can do. The efforts to kneecap it speak to a culture of vindictiveness and spite at the Municipal Court, and are worthy of investigation and condemnation. (WisconsinWatch)
Potential Buyer for Crumbling Northridge Mall Pulls Out
The abandoned husk of Northridge Mall will continue to stand like a monument to the city’s failures to address the concerns of its northwest side for at least a while longer, as a consortium planning on purchasing the site declined to do so this week. The city government was concerned that instead of proceeding with razing the site as required by law, the buyer intended to turn it into ‘industrial storage’ of an unspecified type which could lead to ‘safety’ concerns, per the Journal Sentinel. Northridge closed down twenty years ago, and the site was sold to a bizarre shell company headquartered in China which refused to pay taxes and fines for years until the site was finally foreclosed on.
The abandoned mall is a headache and a hazard for local residents; fires have broken out frequently over the past few years and the structures are unstable and rotting, presenting a health risk as they attract rats and other vermin. That the city, county, and state seem unable to think of any solution beyond simply trying to pawn off the site on a series of unreliable and predatory “developers” speaks to an impoverished mindset about improving the lives of Milwaukee’s citizens. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Republican Representative Does His Bit To Encourage Youth To Give Socialism Another Look
The Leader would like to offer its critical support for comrade Derrick Van Orden (R-Town Where Minnesotans Buy Fireworks And Spotted Cow) who encouraged Senate Pages at our nation’s Capitol to reconsider aligning with the immortal science of Marxism by calling them ‘lazy shits’ and asking them to ‘get the fuck up’ from taking pictures while lying down in the Rotunda. The struggle for socialism is long and sometimes makes for strange bedfellows, but help from any quarter is always welcome, even if it comes from a man who is most famous for trying to take a loaded Sig Sauer on an airplane and for losing an argument he instigated with a children’s librarian.
More seriously, Van Orden’s outburst is revealing of the American right’s seething contempt for young people and its cult of hierarchy. As the American right grows ever more extreme, a genuine political alternative that addresses the needs and dignity of young people is ever more important. On a related note, keep an eye out over the next few weeks for the Leader’s coverage of the Democratic Socialists of America’s contention in Chicago. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
