In today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, was a proposed Light Rail plan by Michael Cudahy.
I won't repeat his reasoning for Light Rail here. If you are interested and don't have today's paper, you can look it up online at http://www.jsonline.com/
The initial line he proposes, in part, comes from downtown up Farwell and Prospect (one way on each), joining up on Oakland Avenue, to terminate at the Shorewood / Milwaukee boundary line.
Now let's imagine that the line would continue up Oakland Avenue, through Shorewood to Hampton, then west Santa Monica, north to Silver Spring, and then west on Silver Spring to Bayshore.
Since we are going to tear up Oakland Avenue anyway, wouldn't this be the ideal time to explore the Light Rail option ?
If the plan goes ahead as Michael Cudahy proposes, and the heavy infrastructure costs are covered by the Federal Money that he has identified, perhaps Shorewood can participate at not much more of a cost than including the rails in the Oakland Makeover.
I would be willing to bet that Mr. Cudahy and Mayor Barrett, would be very interested in working with Shorewood --- and perhaps our neighbors in Whitefish Bay and Glendale.
For Whitefish Bay and Shorewood, Light Rail would help their shopping districts compete with Bayshore --- even as folks ride the rail to Bayshore, they will have the opportunity to shop Shorewood and Bay's more boutique offerings along the way.
For Glendale, it would make Bayshore a more viable destination for shoppers from the East Side and Downtown.
If we are serious about increasing Shorewood's residential appeal, and building up our retail markets, I believe Light Rail will do much more than our current plans for new street lights and garbage cans along Oakland and Capitol ---- or artificial turf and a second dome at the high school.
