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11.2006
Brainstorming the KK River Trail
Michael Timm
Original Article: Bay View Compass
Volume 3 Issue 11
It's a project about building positive community connections and improving the quality of urban life.
The goal: creating a safe and attractive 2 1/4 mile on- and off-street trail that brings people back into contact with an overlooked urban river and connects downtown, Walker's Point, Lincoln Village, and Bay View for pedestrians and cyclists.
Construction on the Kinnickinnic River Trail, a provisional title, could begin next year. But the planning process has already brought people together.
Over 100 interested parties put their heads together at a design workshop October 25 to brainstorm different options for improving the corridor near the proposed trail and how the trail could connect or relate to existing neighborhoods, the river, green space, transportation routes, businesses, and cultural sites. Their ideas were presented in poster form at a November open house at the United Migrant Opportunity Services (UMOS), 2701 S. Chase Ave., where the public was invited to provide written feedback. About 50 people attended.
The city has obtained or has access to sufficient right-of-way for at least a 10-foot bike path for the length of the trail. From north to south, the trail corridor follows a mostly-derelict railway from Washington Street to Maple Street, then follows city streets to the intersection of First Street and Lincoln Avenue, where it follows the east bank of the Kinnickinnic River to Chase Avenue, then following Rosedale Avenue to a trailhead at Sixth Street.
Ideas for enhancing the corridor ranged widely: distributing free bike helmets along the way, developing a rail car café, establishing a restored prairie, adding access points to the river, building vendor kiosks near a trailhead, marking the trail with old bike parts, replacing the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and First Street with a roundabout, establishing some kind of ecology center near the trail and river, providing new access for kayaks and canoes, converting First Street into a tree-lined boulevard, employing environmental educational signage, getting local schools involved in trail activities, building a trail bridge to cross Chase Avenue, converting part of the UMOS parking lot into rain gardens, using a trail surface more permeable than asphalt.
Speaking at the open house, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett saw the trail as one way to make Milwaukee the "most livable big city in the country" and encouraged the process. "We've got potential energy I want to turn into kinetic energy, he said.
The next step is the publication of a document that will summarize all the trail ideas and feedback from the public open house. That should be done early next year, and from there the planning committee will refine the plans for the trail and river corridor.
"People want to move around and find safe and attractive ways, and that's human nature," said Angie Tornes, with the National Parks Service Rivers and Trails program, instrumental in organizing the planning process. "That's why this trail's so exciting for the south side."
For more information or to add your ideas, contact Sixteenth Street Community Health Center at (414) 672-1315, ext 374.
KK River Trail Planning Committee
Mary Beth Driscoll
Groundwork Milwaukee
Adam Flickinger
Community Design Solutions
University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee
Andrea Fuentes
Department of Environmental Health
Sixteenth Street Community Health Center
Ben Gramling
Department of Environmental Health
Sixteenth Street Community Health Center
Therese Gripentrog
Land Management Section
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Ray Isaacs
School of Architecture & Urban Planning
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Dave Schlabowske
Department of Public Works
City of Milwaukee
Angie Tornes
Rivers & Trails Program
National Park service
