Planning Trends Reflect Commitment to Pedestrian Satisfaction

MILWAUKEE, WI

Milwaukee's new $13.8 million RiverWalk, which hugs the waterfront between Pleasant St. on the north and Clybourn St. on the south, is another reflection of pedestrian power. Newly landscaped, the RiverWalk has spawned its own share of restaurants, and plans are underway to extend the pathway. Photo provided courtesy of Milwaukee Convention & Visitors Bureau.

After years of taking a back seat to motorists, pedestrians are beginning to reshape the urban and suburban landscape. Sidewalks have sprouted eateries, insinuated their way into auto-dominated shopping strips and made inroads even in far-flung subdivisions. "It's a sign that the urban form is coming back into popularity," explained Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, a longtime advocate of pedestrian-friendly planning. Mayor Norquist continued, "In the 1960s and 1970s, the pedestrian was at the low end of the priority list. The goal was to move cars between increasingly insignificant spaces. But people now are more interested in gathering places. They're starting to see the sidewalk and landscape as the connective tissues of neighborhoods."

In Milwaukee, one indicator is the flowering of sidewalk cafes. In the mid-1980s, there were only a handful. Now there are permits for 54, according to the Department of Public Works (DPW), and more are on the way. Most are downtown, which is in the midst of a housing boom, or on the east side, where pedestrian traffic is bustling.

A new ordinance streamlines the cumbersome process for setting up sidewalk dining. In the past it could take weeks for a permit to wend its way through the bureaucracy and win approval from the Common Council. Now, restaurateurs with the requisite plans and insurance can get their permits in a few days, once DPW sign off.

Pedestrian-friendly planning also undergirds the city's newly adopted design principles, which encourage street-facing windows in commercial and office buildings, along with facades that define street edges and corners.

Specifically, the Milwaukee Art Museum plans to build an expanded lakewalk on a soon-to-be-rebuilt seawall behind its futuristic new addition. And the City and State Department of Natural Resources are nudging Summerfest to open up the lakefront walkway behind Maier Festival Park for year-round public use. If all of these plans come to fruition, pedestrians could someday follow an almost unbroken trail along the river and downtown lakefront.