By Milwaukee Courier Staff
Mayor Tom Barrett
This past week Mayor Tom Barrett came one step closer to his next term as Mayor of Milwaukee.
The Mayor won with over 50% of the vote, 2,912 more votes than the 2016 Spring Primary. He will face Sen. Lena Taylor in the General Election on April 7, 2020.
On the night of the primary election, the Mayor reiterated his commitment to bring this city together. He stated that all across our city, in every neighborhood, he talks to neighbors who love their kids and want them to get a good education, folks who want to have access to jobs that will support their families and families who want to afford the roof over their heads and feel safe in their homes.
We all want the same things, we all have that in common.
We know that Milwaukee is a city that has many positives. For example, the violent crime rate went down four consecutive years in a row, there was a 20,000 job increase in 10 years, Summerfest, the best team in the NBA, The Milwaukee Bucks and the 2020 DNC coming in July – all of these positives benefit Milwaukee immensely. The Mayor knows that these benefits must also reach the city’s poor, including predominantly Black neighborhoods.
We know that our city has faced many external challenges over the years as well. We were hit hard by the global recession, we were met at the bargaining table, time after time, with hostility throughout Gov. Scott Walker’s tenure of divisiveness and disinvestment in Milwaukee, we continue to fight back against the racist policies of generations past, and the loss of manufacturing jobs has at times put the city against the ropes.
Barrett has made steps and is taking action to resurrect struggling neighborhoods by designating city resources to further prevent home foreclosures and renew vacant spaces across the city, resulting in new businesses, jobs and opportunities in our neighborhoods.
He is working to make Milwaukee a national leader in expanded early childhood education by preparing thousands of our city’s children for the future, and employment opportunities for people in Milwaukee looking for a rewarding career that can support a family.
Continuing his work on the city’s Black Male Achievement Advisory Council, BMA, is an important first step, but there is much more work to do when it comes to addressing the multiple challenges that place black men and boys in our community at a significant educational, economic and social disadvantage compared to their peers. These problems will not go away by themselves. BMA is working to advance black male achievement through the collective input and efforts of all community stakeholders.
Under Barrett’s leadership, the community can also look forward to the opening of The Office of African American Affairs which will be housed at 4830 W. Fond du Lac Ave. The facility will serve as an accessible home for city and community resources and programs.
Additionally, the Mayor, Congresswoman Gwen Moore and other community leaders have rallied to make sure that local businesses benefited from the 2020 DNC Convention. There are still opportunities to have your business involved with the convention. Millions of dollars have been allocated for businesses in the minority community. Go to www.milwaukee2020.com to register your business and for more information.
Barrett knows, and has said many times, that the politics of division is a road to failure. Now more than ever our city must be unified. We get more done when we go together and there is still more to be done.