Mitchell Street Sun Fair dropped after state law cuts funding

2018 event would have required more security

A popular street fair on Milwaukee’s Historic West Mitchell Street has been canceled, in part because a new state law cut the fair organizer’s funds.

The eighth annual Historic Mitchell Street Sun Fair, scheduled for June, was dropped after the Historic Mitchell Street Business Improvement District’s board decided it couldn’t afford the event, said Nancy Bush, board executive director.

“We hope to bring it back next year,” she said Thursday.

The business district usually spends around $16,000 to stage the weekend festival, which includes carnival rides, games, and vendors for food and beverages.

But this year’s event would have cost more because the district was planning to hire additional security guards, Bush said.

Board members and others had concerns after last year’s Sun Fair was marred by a fight among several young people.

Also, the Republican-led state Legislature and Gov. Scott Walker approved a budget proposal last fall that included a provision that reduced the funding that Milwaukee business improvement districts can collect.

As a result, the Historic Mitchell Street Business Improvement District’s 2018 budget, which was expected to be around $120,000, was cut by $10,000, Bush said.

The Sun Fair has never lost money since the district began sponsoring it in 2011, she said.

But district officials were concerned about the state-mandated budget cut’s effects on raising money to pay the higher security costs, Bush said.

“We weren’t in a position to handle that,” she said.

Business improvement districts throughout Wisconsin raise money by collecting annual special assessments on commercial properties within their boundaries. The districts spend those funds on events, street cleanup crews, landscaping and other beautification work, and other items.

Some of those special charges come from buildings that have a mix of apartments and street-level commercial space.

Buildings that are used only for apartments don’t pay the charges.

A provision slipped into the state budget proposal last fall focused on mixed-use properties.

It said the special charge can be based only on the value of the mixeduse property’s commercial space — and not the entire building’s larger value.

That budget provision applied only to Milwaukee business improvement districts.

Milwaukee has 32 business improvement districts and seven neighborhood districts — more per capita than any other U.S. city, according to a July report from the Public Policy Forum.

However, a lack of performance data greatly restricts the ability to measure the effectiveness of Milwaukee’s districts, the report said.

The Bay View Business Improvement District is facing a possible termination after a petition seeking its dissolution was filed recently with city officials.

The petitioning commercial property owners say the district’s work hasn’t been worth the expense — which district board members dispute.

Ironically, the Historic Mitchell Street Sun Fair is being canceled at a time when the street has added new developments.

Those include The Alexander Lofts, an underused retail and office building that was renovated into a new Milwaukee library branch on the first floor and 33 market-rate apartments on the upper floors.