Milwaukee business leaders rally to support proposed downtown streetcar

On Monday, February 9, 2015, a day before the Milwaukee Common was scheduled to vote on the streetcar project being proposed for downtown Milwaukee and the city’s east side, a contingent of local business leaders declared their support for the $124 million project publicly during a press conference held at the Manpower headquarters in downtown Milwaukee. Members of the coalition included Linda Gorens-Levey, managing partner of Stark Investments; Greg Wesley, partner at Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan; Jorge Franco, president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin; and Greg Marcus, president of the Marcus Corp. “We support the proposed streetcar because it makes economic sense as part of a larger growth strategy for Milwaukee that is already generating billions of new development and thousands of jobs for our community, said Jeff Joerres, executive director of Manpower Group. The project was approved by the Council on a 9-6 vote. Voting in favor of the measure were Aldermen Ashanti Hamilton, Bob Bauman, Willie Wade, Jose Perez, Russell Stamper, Common Council President Michael Murphy, Nik Kovac, Terry Witkowski and Milele Coggs. Anxious to see the project move forward, Mayor Tom Barrett signed the legislation during an afternoon press conference. Opponents of the project are collecting signatures to force a referendum on the streetcar proposal.