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| Ribbon cutting for the 3 Bridges Park opening |
MANDI stands for The Milwaukee Awards for Neighborhood
Development Innovation. The annual awards, given out by the Local Initiatives
Support Corporation (LISC), recognize outstanding efforts to revitalize
Milwaukee's central city neighborhoods. According to the MANDI page on LISC’s website,
the goal of the award “is to lift up the inspiring stories of people and
projects working to ensure that Milwaukee's central city is a great place to
live, work, play and grow.”
Awards are given in six categories. Three Bridges Park is
one of three finalists for the Brewers Community Foundation Public Space Award,
which recognizes a public space that helps build the community. The other two
finalists are the Milwaukee Rotary Centennial Arboretum and Journey House
Packers Football Stadium.
I feel the need to say at the outset that these are all
exemplary projects. I don’t envy the job of the volunteers who make the final
selection, which might seem a little like choosing the best of your three
children. All three will help make Milwaukee’s central city a better place to
live, work, play and grow. And yet, I personally find the story of Three
Bridges Park the most inspiring. Furthermore, the “story” of the park is more
like a compilation of many stories told from many different points of view.
Last week the awards committee visited the Menomonee Valley
branch of the Urban Ecology Center, which is adjacent to the park. They were there
in order to hear testimony from stakeholders and neighbors about the value of
the park, to hear their stories. The hearing is part of the rigorous and
thoughtful analysis and discernment process that leads to selection of the
award winner from amongst the finalists.
Some of those stories came from people in leadership
positions who were instrumental in the creation and development of the park.
Laura Bray, Executive Director of the Menomonee Valley Partners, gave an
overview of the park. A video allowed us all to quickly experience,
vicariously, the joy of people of all ages skiing and snowshoeing in the wintry
conditions outside.
Ken Leinbach, Executive Director of the Urban Ecology
Center, began with the word, “transformation.” Milwaukee’s newest park was
created from scratch, “from the ground up,” as its promoters like to say. An
abandoned rail yard next to a formerly polluted river is now a welcoming place
to experience nature. The Menomonee River has been there all these years, he
said, no more than 25 yards from some of the houses in the neighborhood. Any
yet it was completely inaccessible until now.
Melissa Cook, the DNR’s Trail Manager for the Hank Aaron
State Trail, explained the importance of the connectivity provided by the new
park. A section of the Hank Aaron Trail runs through the park. Along with the
eponymous 3 bridges and the Valley Passage Tunnel, the trail creates linkages
between Mitchell Park, the new Menomonee Valley Branch of the Urban Ecology
Center, Miller Park stadium, the entire Valley itself, the surrounding
neighborhoods and beyond.
Several business leaders were there because visionary
redevelopment plans that included Three Bridges Park had led them to bring
their businesses back to a Menomonee Valley that had seen industries and jobs
depart for decades previously. The Wisconsin Bike Federation decided that being
adjacent to Three Bridges Park was an ideal location for its members, who bike
there from all over the Milwaukee region.
Eloquent as many of the leaders were, some of the most
inspiring stories came from people who live in the neighborhoods nearby.
Several people who live and work in the Silver City
neighborhood that abuts the park to the south described with great passion how
important it is to have a safe park, open green space, and a clean river so
close for their children to enjoy nature. Three nearby neighborhoods, among the
most densely populated in the state, had little parkland before. Now they can
bike, explore and fish in Three Bridges Park.
A woman who came in her wheelchair applauded the developers
of Three Bridges Park for making it so accessible.
A young father told the story that moved many in the
audience to tears, including me. He and his wife moved to the Merrill Park
neighborhood just north of the Valley last year and their first child was born
at the same time as Three Bridges Park. He took the baby out to the park for her
first portrait next to one of the newly planted trees. They plan to repeat the
process yearly to mark the growth: of his daughter and the tree and the park.
I myself spoke about the experience of “discovering” the resurgence
of feral wildlife in the post industrial brownfields of the Menomonee Valley
many years ago during my explorations of what I came to call the urban
wilderness. Since then I’ve seen a metamorphosis that seems as miraculous as
that which turns a caterpillar into a butterfly. But there is no miracle in the
intentionality of this enterprise, which is the result of hard work, dedication
to a visionary plan and devotion to the needs of an urban community.
Glenna Holstein, director of the Menomonee Valley branch of
the Urban Ecology Center, capped off the session by asserting that the story of
Three Bridges Park is story of hope. Three Bridges Park is a good news story
for young people growing up in a world of bad news. It is a story about the
environment that stands in contrast to the all too common gloom and doom of
pollution, global warming and habitat destruction; one that is uplifting about
something we are doing right to make a brighter future.
The images accompanying this post were taken during the Three Bridges Park opening ceremonies in July, 2013. To see more images from the event click here.
To see a video of the opening ceremonies click here.
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