A very enthusiastic supporter at the Biden Harris Campaign office in Milwaukee (Photo by J. Wiegert)
By Karen Stokes
President Joe Biden was in Milwaukee on Wednesday to announce the $3 billion in infrastructure investments in disadvantaged communities across 40 states. The grant will be funded through the bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.
During his visit, he addressed an audience of 100 people at the Pieper-Hillside Boys & Girls Club, located at the corner of North Sixth Street and West Cherry Street, with details about The Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods program promoting a $36.6 million grant for a reconstruction project.
The project will connect historic and diverse communities along 2.6 miles of the 6th Street corridor from North Avenue to National Avenue. The vision for the area proposes making 6th Street a Complete Street that will include safe, dedicated infrastructure for walking, biking, and transit as well as green infrastructure that will provide much needed tree canopy and green space while easing the load on Milwaukee’s combined sewer system. The project aims to connect neighboring communities and downtown resources through comfortable, affordable, safe, and sustainable modes of transportation and a transformed street that enhances the character of the unique communities along the corridor.
Congresswoman Gwen Moore, County Executive David Crowley and other supporters at the Biden Harris Campaign office in Milwaukee (Photo by J. Wiegert)
“What stood out about this project was how many benefits we saw all at once through the transformation of this 2.6 mile stretch of 6th Street,” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said during a press call Tuesday.
“These are life changing improvements,” Biden said. “They’re also going to make it easy for historic Black communities in the north and Latino communities in the south to access jobs, school and entertainment opportunities in the city and central hub — from watching the Milwaukee Bucks play to attending the Milwaukee Area Technical College.”
Milwaukee’s 6th Street corridor is near Interstate 94/43. Construction for that project in the 1960s led to the demolition of roughly 17,000 homes and 1,000 businesses in the city, according to the White House. Biden said many other communities across the nation have been impacted by similar projects.
During his address, Biden said the U.S. interstate highway system built in the 1950s transformed communities across the country but ravaged many Black and brown communities.
President Joe Biden at his campaign office in Milwaukee (Photo by J. Wiegert)
“Instead of connecting communities, it divided them,” Biden said. “These highways actually tore them apart.”
To date, the President’s Investing in America agenda has mobilized 47,000 infrastructure projects across the nation and $650 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments that are revitalizing communities, creating good-paying jobs, and improving the health and safety of families across the country. President Biden is building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down– that means investing in all of America to make sure everyone has a fair shot and to ensure a comeback story for thousands of communities.
“You’ve lived in and felt the decisions made decades ago. Today, we’re making decisions to transform your lives for decades to come, and we’re doing it all over America,” Biden said during his speech.
The trip to Milwaukee was part of a series of campaign stops around the country where Biden is bringing his message to voters about his administration’s investment in infrastructure. The president has held events in Pennsylvania and Georgia over the last week, and will head to Michigan on Thursday.