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GIVE MILWAUKEE VA CENTER PLAN ANOTHER CHANCE --
Opinion from Whitney Gould who urges both
sides of the argument to cool down.
Background with backlinks here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfMAR07/nf030307-5.htm
Story here...
http://www.jsonline.com/
story/index.aspx?id=585051
Story below:
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Give VA center plan another chance
Whitney Gould
Wander along the cracked roads that snake through the grounds of the
Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center and you might think you were in
a ghost town:
Gracious old brick and clapboard buildings are crumbling, their Gothic
arches, brick corbeling and intricate grillwork mute testimony to the
craftsmanship and vision that built this tranquil refuge for veterans
returning from the Civil War. Yellow "caution" tape blocks the entrance
to rotting wooden steps. Paint flakes off old wood. Roofs are patched
and brittle. A fallen screen dangles from a fire escape.
Until recently, it looked as if this faded architectural trove was about
to get new life. Under a thoughtful plan from Milwaukee's Department of
City Development, the city would lease the site from the U.S. Department
of Veterans Affairs for 75 years. Five of the most historic buildings in
the northern part of the 196-acre grounds, including the original
Soldiers Home (the mansard-towered Old Main, built in 1869), would be
restored for veteran-centered housing and other services.
An office park for biomedical and high-tech firms would be developed on
a 27.5-acre parcel on the southern part of the grounds, near the VA
hospital on W. National Ave., with some of the research there centered
on ways to help war-battered vets; roads and infrastructure would be
improved. The city would finance its share of the project with $21
million in tax-incremental financing, to be paid back with tax revenue
from the new development.
Help for vets, as many as 1,500 new jobs, a rescue for some of the most
historic buildings in Milwaukee - what's not to like here?
"It seemed like a winner for everyone," Rocky Marcoux, the city's
energetic development commissioner, told me.
But many veterans didn't think so. They torpedoed the plan, arguing
against any development that would intrude on what they consider "sacred
ground." The 27.5-acre southern section, they said, should be used to
expand Wood National Cemetery, the historic burial ground off I-94 that
the VA has now closed to all but a few new graves. Vets dismissed the
plan for a columbarium, to house the ashes of cremated vets, as
tokenism.
They also objected to the fact that some non-veterans might be allowed
into the proposed housing; never mind that federal fair-housing laws
would come into play and that veterans would still get preference.
But now that they "fought City Hall and won," as Joe Campbell, a
spokesman for the vets, put it, what next? The old buildings remain
empty; the VA is spending $1.3 million a year to heat and maintain them;
and veterans need more services.
"If we can afford a tax to support Miller Park, on former VA land, maybe
we need a new tax to support veterans," Campbell said.
As the daughter of a Navy veteran, I'd gladly pay such a tax myself, but
I suspect it's a non-starter. Even after the scandalous revelations at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center (a non-VA facility), I don't see elected
officials jumping to impose new taxes to save vacant VA buildings. And
the VA's top priority, quite rightly, is care for combat vets.
When I pressed Campbell on what other funding mechanism he might
suggest, he offered no specifics.
"I'm dealing with a lot of heart and a lot of hope," he said. A new
draft proposal by veterans groups on how to save the buildings is
equally vague.
The bottom line is that heart and hope are not enough. Here, as in any
preservation scheme, you need a revenue stream. The city's proposal
offered that. Yes, you can fault city officials for not including vets
in the process early enough. But planners then bent over backward to
address critics' concerns, some of which seemed a surrogate for
long-standing resentments against the VA.
Now, the vets may get something they like even less. Dean Martell, who
runs business enterprises at Zablocki, says the next step will be to let
private developers float proposals for reuse of the property.
"They may not have the same incentive as city officials did to listen to
the vets' concerns," he cautions.
As Claude Hutchison, who runs the VA's office of asset enterprises in
Washington, reminded me: "Our charge from Congress is to create value
for unutilized assets." That won't mean a Wal-Mart, he says, but it
could mean other retail or office development, as is happening on VA
sites elsewhere.
I think the better option would be for everyone to cool down awhile and
then revisit the city's creative proposal. In the meantime, let the VA
explore an expansion of Wood National Cemetery into other parts of the
grounds. And let the vets remember Voltaire's wise caveat: "The perfect
is the enemy of the good."
On the Web
• For a tour of the VA grounds, narrated by
Whitney Gould, click on
www.jsonline.com/links .
• For more on the Milwaukee Department of City
Development's redevelopment proposal:
www.mkedcd.org/va
• For more on veterans' opposition to the
redevelopment plan:
www.woodsVA4vets.org
E-mail to
wgould@journalsentinel.com
or call (414) 224-2358.
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Larry Scott --
