× Expand Photo Courtesy of The Hop

On Friday, Sept. 7, a 67-foot, 83,000-pound streetcar was delivered to the City of Milwaukee from a Brookeville Equipment Corporation plant in western Pennsylvania. It joined four others that had already begun gliding across tracks doing test runs throughout Downtown. At a press conference celebrating the delivery, Mayor Tom Barrett told a crowd of onlookers, “People who are in the heart of the city will see these cars moving around, and in the weeks ahead they’ll see them even more.” In one sense it was the end of a fight that had spanned decades. In another, it was just the beginning.

Hopping Aboard The Hop Fares are free for the first year thanks to a $10 million sponsorship from Potawatomi Hotel and Casino. Hours are 5 a.m.-midnight on weekdays, 7 a.m.-midnight on Saturdays and 7 a.m.-10 p.m. on Sundays. There are four streetcars moving along the route, with expected service times of 10-15 minutes. Bike racks are available inside streetcar vehicles.

The contention surrounding this project is not lost on Barrett, but the mayor believes in the streetcar even if it has not always been the most popular position to take. “There are many issues where we’ve decided that you have to do what’s right for our community,” he said. “Some of them generate controversy, and some of them don’t. I always felt that this was going to be a significant step forward for the residents of the city, for connecting people and for economic development.”

But, even after the votes have been counted and the tracks have been laid, not everyone agrees. “I feel that the funding priorities in a number of areas are higher than for a streetcar,” said Alderman Tony Zielinski. The Bay View alderman is running against Barrett for mayor in 2020 and has used the streetcar as a wedge issue. He said one reason for running is “because of initiatives like this where the city isn’t listening to the residents of this community.” He also said there will be no expansion of the system if he becomes mayor.

The streetcar, dubbed “The Hop,” opens to the public with a weekend-long celebration taking place Friday, Nov. 2, through Sunday, Nov. 4. As the city awaits the debut of its new $128 million transportation system, questions remain about expanding the route, its economic impact and a growing list of injury claims being taken on by a major local law firm.

Expansions and Backup Plans

Even staunch streetcar supporters like Downtown Alderman Robert Bauman use words like “a start” and “modest” when referring to the initial 2.5-mile route. “It’s kind of the model for streetcar projects around the country to start out with a mile-and-a-half to two-mile route and then expand off it,” said city engineer Jeffrey Polenske, who has been involved in the design and implementation of the project since the beginning.

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Courtesy of The Hop The streetcar route, with potential future extensions.

The city already has extensions in varying stages of development. The first is a 0.4-mile loop that will connect the initial route to lakefront attractions like Discovery World, the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Summerfest grounds. Plans for the extension, which is fully funded and expected to open in late 2020, include a stop at the much-delayed Couture high-rise. The Couture’s issues—which include a Wednesday, Oct. 31, financing deadline from the City of Milwaukee to avoid a default notice according to the Journal Sentinel—could cause problems for the streetcar if the high-rise is not built.

If this were to happen, Bauman said that there is a backup plan that is “arguably as attractive, if not more attractive.” That is to run the tracks across Lincoln Memorial Drive to the front of Discovery World. “Rather than forcing people to get off at the Couture and walk across Lincoln Memorial Drive, they would basically ride across and be put at a station that is actually quite a bit closer to the destinations,” Bauman said. Polenske said he is confident the current route will move forward as planned.

The second planned extension would connect the Milwaukee Intermodal Station to the Fiserv Forum through Vel R. Phillips Avenue, then west to the Pabst Brewery Complex. The Common Council has approved $20 million for the $40 million project; the city has applied for a federal grant for the rest. But, with the current administration in Washington, D.C., federal funds are increasingly difficult to come by. “I don’t anticipate one dime out of the federal government for this project, so long as Trump’s people are in charge,” Bauman said.

Again, there is a backup plan. Depending on costs and the status of the grant, the city could use the money that is already approved to advance the route just to Wisconsin Avenue. This would bring streetcar access to the Wisconsin Center District, Hilton Milwaukee City Center and the Shops of Grand Avenue. “Ideally, we’re always trying to leverage as much federal funding as we can,” Polenske said. “But we are looking at our options.”

Why rush, when the city could wait for federal funds and complete the whole route at once? “Part of the reason we are looking at this with some urgency is that it would be a big piece of serving the Democratic convention,” Bauman said. “It would provide additional connectivity and really help our bid package.” Meanwhile, Polenske said that it is “an extraordinarily aggressive schedule” and “hard to say one way or the other” if the timeline is even possible. “But we are looking at our options to see how we could best advance the project, and, in part, be able to accommodate an event like that being held Downtown,” he said.

Some opponents have derided the streetcar as a shiny toy that only serves a narrow group of upwardly mobile Milwaukeeans who live and work Downtown. Preliminary plans are in motion to change this. Through a federal grant, the city was able to study how a streetcar route could benefit the Walker’s Point and Bronzeville neighborhoods. “We’re already starting that planning exercise, and that will help us determine how we reach out beyond just the central business district,” Polenske said. Findings from the study have been released, but an extension to either neighborhood is “probably five years away,” according to Bauman.

‘An Economic Development Tool’

As Mayor Barrett sold the idea of a streetcar to the city, he did not simply tout its merits as a transportation option. “I look at this as an economic development tool,” Barrett told the Chicago Tribune in 2012, a claim he has often repeated since. Though it is early, the results have been positive so far. Earlier this month, the city announced that property values within a quarter-mile of the initial route have increased by nearly 28% since the project was approved in 2015. This is twice the rate of citywide property value growth according to the statement.

The real estate development community has also, by and large, embraced the project. Paul Dincin, principal at Catapult Realty, said that the streetcar was a factor in his firm’s decision to purchase and develop the Underwriters Exchange Building on North Broadway, which will be renamed Street Car Flats. “I see the new streetcar line as a positive factor for Downtown development,” he said in an email. “It shows a commitment by the city to continue to make the Downtown area a vibrant place to work and live.”

“The exception would be a real estate developer who does not say this is a significant factor in their decision to acquire a site, to develop a site, to invest in a site,” Bauman said. “The rare case would be a developer who does not say the streetcar is relevant to them.”

According to Mayor Barrett, “The market is speaking.” “We’re seeing office buildings, we’re seeing hotels, we’re seeing apartments, because people understand that, when you have fixed transit like this, it’s an investment in the future,” he said. “When they see the city investing in the future, they want to invest in the future as well.” But, as development dollars flow in, liabilities may be on the horizon.

Is the Streetcar Safe for Bikes and Motorcycles?

In August, the law firm Hupy and Abraham announced that it had taken on a client who was injured while riding his motorcycle across streetcar tracks. The statement claimed that the rider was switching lanes when his front tire wedged between the tracks, throwing him off of his motorcycle and breaking his arm. By late September, Hupy and Abraham managing partner Jason Abraham said the firm was representing “about a dozen” bicyclists and motorcycle riders who were making claims against the city for streetcar-related injuries. He expected that there would be more. “I look at it and think of car accidents,” he said. “They’re a function of miles driven. The more we go, the more likely it is that something happens to us. I think the same thing applies here.”

Polenske referred any specific questions about the claims to the City Attorney’s office, which did not respond to multiple requests for comment. He did speak about the Department of Public Works’ response to the issue. “With any accident that we become aware of, we will evaluate and investigate it,” he said. “In general, our goal is to make people more familiar with the infrastructure that’s been put in place… It does take time, and it’s not just that we’re going to start, do it now and be done with it. It’s something that we will have to continue to do.”

× Expand Photo Courtesy of The Hop

Still, the growing number of claims could become a real concern for the city and is already becoming a talking point of streetcar opponents. “That’s just going to be another cost to the city that is associated with the streetcar,” Zielinski said. “We don’t have the money to pay for these lawsuits that are going to be coming.” Whether or not lawsuits are filed remains to be seen. When suing a governmental entity, litigants must first file a notice of injury. This is where Abraham is currently with his clients. Time must pass, and additional paperwork must be completed before an attorney is able to file a formal lawsuit. Abraham is going through these steps and doing his homework in the meantime.

“I’m going to take the cases, I’m going to do the research, and if it turns out that I believe that the city is negligent—and that means they could have done something differently to prevent these accidents—then I’m ultimately going to file a lawsuit,” he said.

Despite the unanswered questions, the streetcar is coming. Supporters are as energized as ever, while many doubters remain just as skeptical. As for the latter, Barrett thinks that many of them will come around. “I anticipate people who haven’t been Downtown in decades to still be critical of it,” he said. “But, people who see how this fits into the other pieces of the incredible renaissance that’s going on in Milwaukee right now will have a better understanding of it.”