Should east side street become public plaza?
After East Ivanhoe Place was shut down to cars for a music festival, developer looks to make that permanent
Normally dominated by cars, one block of East Ivanhoe Place housed a temporary stage as people listened to bands, bought food and merch from vendors, met friends and enjoyed a sunny Saturday during the recent Summer Soulstice Music Festival. If developer Tim Gokhman had his way, a pedestrian plaza on Ivanhoe Place between North Farwell and North Prospect avenues would become a permanent part of Milwaukee’s east side — and be replicated in other neighborhoods. But Gokhman, whose properties include Crossroads Collective food hall at Ivanhoe and Farwell, says City Hall hasn’t embraced the idea — even though city plans encourage such public gathering places on Ivanhoe Place and other locations.
“There’s just a general lack of appetite,” said Gokhman, managing director of New Land Enterprises LLC.
City officials say they generally support such gathering places.
But the Ivanhoe proposal needs more buy-in from additional property owners on the block as well as other stakeholders, they say.
“A permanent, full closure of Ivanhoe requires additional consideration including the concurrence of the local business improvement district, neighboring businesses and nearby residents,” said interim Commissioner of Public Works Jerrel Kruschke.
“We are open to working with all stakeholders on a new vision for the East North Avenue corridor,” Kruschke said in a statement.
Gokhman characterized that position as needing “100% consensus of every business owner on the street.”
“That’s a high bar,” he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Smaller scale closure sought
To try to accommodate other businesses, Gokhman is pursuing a closure of Ivanhoe Place for just a half-block east of Farwell Avenue.
That would create a public plaza between Crossroads Collective and Hooligan’s tavern, and would connect to Black Cat Alley.
The half-block west of Prospect Avenue would be converted from one-way to two-way traffic, he said.
That would allow cars access to the drive-thru window at Educators Credit Union and to the parking garage for the Overlook on Prospect apartments.
A representative of Educators Credit Union “seemed amenable to that idea,” said David Smulyan, executive director of the East Side Business Improvement District. Gokhman is a member of the district’s board.
Brett Nielsen, the credit union’s business relationship director, declined to comment because Educators hasn’t seen a detailed proposal.
Developer Robert Joseph, whose company operates Overlook on Prospect, said he generally supports the idea if it improves pedestrian access and doesn’t affect his building’s parking structure.
But one concern would be whether the new street layout would cause more traffic congestion tied to the credit union’s drive-thru, Joseph said.
Likewise, Hooligan’s owner Mark Buesing said the plaza would provide some benefits. But he also echoed Joseph’s concern about congestion from credit union drive-thru customers.
Gokhman said the new street pattern would likely mean less congestion by eliminating through traffic.
A push for more gathering spaces
Gokhman also said the congestion issue, and City Hall’s reaction to it, goes to a larger problem: Milwaukee’s lack of a concerted effort to create more public gathering places.
“Everybody always wants to do something good,” he said. “But if it’s not easy, we always find ways for it to be difficult.”
That translates to few streets that are “pedestrianized,” Gokhman said, as well as few protected bike lanes to encourage an alternative to driving cars.
Other communities, ranging from big cities like Chicago to smaller cities such as Iowa City, Iowa, have figured this out, he said.
Milwaukee competes with such cities to attract new residents, including younger people, Gokhman said.
“I think there has to more of an impetus from our elected officials to push for this,” he said.
Gokhman isn’t alone in advocating for more public spaces.
Indeed, the Department of City Development and Department of Public Works in March unveiled a study that highlights opportunities for city agencies and others to add more gathering places.
The study also proposes strategies “of how new gathering places can be used to advance city goals for increased safety, health, economic opportunity, and racial equity.”
That includes making both neighborhoods and business districts more vibrant, while also slowing down traffic — which helps combat Milwaukee’s reckless driving plague.
Along with public sites, such as Harbor View Plaza and downtown’s improved Cathedral Square Park, gathering spaces include private developments that have a public element, like the Sherman Phoenix small business hub in Sherman Park and Zocalo Food Truck Park in Walker’s Point, according to the study.
Also highlighted: streets converted to plazas, such as Fiserv Forum’s Deer District.
Among the study’s list of possible future projects is the Ivanhoe Place plaza.
It “would be an ideal location for a plaza as it is in an area of high pedestrian activity surrounded by many retail businesses,” the study said.
Injuries to pedestrians a concern
In addition, Ivanhoe Place is on Milwaukee’s Pedestrian High Injury Network “so closing a portion of the street would reduce pedestrian conflicts with turning vehicles, create a quiet place in a busy commercial district, and expose more people to Black Cat Alley,” it said.
Suggested funding sources for creating new gathering places include tax incremental financing districts as well as Milwaukee’s new Healing Spaces Initiative.
The idea of converting the Ivanhoe Place block to a plaza, at least during the summer, also was included in the city’s official comprehensive plan for the northeast side.
The Common Council and then-Mayor Tom Barrett approved that plan in 2009.
While that hasn’t happened, Crossroads Collective has used portions of Ivanhoe Place’s parking lane to create seasonal outdoor seating for its patrons under the city’s Active Streets for Businesses program.
Creating a year-round plaza at Ivanhoe
and Farwell “could possibly work, as long as it clearly is meant to welcome and serve all,” said Virginia Small, an independent journalist who often writes about urban spaces and environmental issues.
“It cannot just be an enlargement of outdoor dining. There are already many places with sidewalk seating for specific establishments,” Small told the Journal Sentinel.
“However, I know of few densely urban places in Milwaukee that encourage people to sit without having to buy something. Streets need to serve a balance of necessary uses,” she said.
Small agrees with Gokhman that making Milwaukee walkable and inclusive requires public spaces.
State Street in Madison noted
Both cite Madison’s State Street as a successful example of limiting traffic to create public space that benefits everyone, including nearby business operators.
The fate of an Ivanhoe Place plaza depends to a great degree on gaining support of the Common Council member whose district includes that location.
That seat is vacant after the district’s previous alderman, Nik Kovac, was appointed city budget director in May.
Kovac will be succeeded after a November general election — presumably by state Rep. Jonathan Brostoff, the only candidate on the ballot.
Brostoff is interested in Gokhman’s proposal but said he’ll need more information before making a decision on whether to support it.
“Pedestrian promenades are really exciting and interesting to me,” Brostoff said. “I appreciate the out-of-the-box thinking. I hope to find out a way to make it work.”
Meanwhile, Gokhman would like to obtain city approval to create a temporary plaza for events, tied to Crossroads Collective, that go beyond the June 18 Summer Soulstice fest.
“If nobody comes and it sucks, I have no interest in shutting it down,” Gokhman said. “But I can’t even get a consensus for that.
“The loudest voices are the ones saying ‘no,’” he said.