MILWAUKEE — Three days changed the landscape and perception of Sherman Park.
After the officer-involved shooting death of Sylville Smith, several businesses were set ablaze, damaged or looted. It was the epicenter of a social uprising demanding equality for the city’s African American population.
Those three days in August shaped the view of Sherman Park as a whole, even nearly seven years later.
“This community was up in flames,” Bishop Walter Harvey at the Parklawn Assembly of God said.
“We’re not trying to forget the memory of Fond du Lac Avenue or the Sherman Park area, but we’re trying to expand the knowledge,” Moe Wince said.
Wince and Harvey crossed paths during those dark days for the neighborhood. It was then that they decided to come together to uplift the community they love. It started by establishing the Sherman Park Grocery in 2022.
With a hearty welcome, Wince greets every customer he sees with an ear-to-ear smile and a genuine sense of gratitude for their patronage.
“We appreciate you so very much,” Wince said. “We’ll see you soon.”
It’s the success of the Sherman Park Grocery that Wince and Harvey hope to replicate on their stretch of Fond du Lac Avenue through a Business Improvement District (BID). They are hoping the BID will stretch from 35th Street to 60th Street on Fond du Lac Avenue.
“Creating or forming a BID on Fond du Lac Avenue shows us and gives us a great deal of hope,” Wince said.
Essentially, a BID gets businesses in a specific neighborhood or corridor to join together and collect funding to promote improvements in their area the city otherwise wouldn’t be able to offer. Think extra lighting, signage, beautification or safety improvements.
“From lighting to trash pick-ups to bus stop booths, even garbage cans if you will,” Wince said. “Additional speed and traffic signs which is important not just for businesses but residents as well.”
It’s something greatly needed in this part of town. According to the most recent census data, this area of Milwaukee has a median household income $41,222. Milwaukee County’s median household income is $59,723. Property values in 53216 average $149,503 compared to $251,250 for the rest of the county. And the unemployment rate is 6.67 percent compared to 4.23 percent for the rest of the county.
These areas are what Wince hopes the prospective BID will impact.
“Building community,” Wince said. “Cohesiveness, collaboration, working together, leaning in and lifting up together and building community, building businesses, enhancing residents in the neighborhood, increasing job availability and increasing the tax base.”
“This is a dream come true,” Harvey said. “It’s an answer to prayer.”
Compared to nearly seven years ago, Harvey describes this as the high point of Sherman Park’s potential.
“It’s a difference of night to day,” Harvey said. “Those who remember the unrest, that was a nighttime experience. What we see with the businesses and BID is the light switch turned on. Dreams are coming alive. Entrepreneurs are being activated. People in the community having quality places that are providing life-giving services.”
“It’s the utmost in community organizing, to get down to it,” Ken Little with the Department of Community Development said. “That’s what it’s really about.”
Little assists neighborhoods with establishing BIDs and helping them thrive. He points out, BIDs are not appointed by the city or targeted by city officials. They are birthed from the residents in an area wanting to make change.
It’s a strategy Milwaukee has taken off with. In total, there are currently 32 BIDs in the city. It makes Milwaukee the home of the third largest number of BIDs in the country, behind only New York (76) and Chicago (53) and was once tied with Los Angeles. To Little, it’s representative of a community taking charge of what it wants done in its neighborhood and raising the money to do so. That money is purely the community’s, the city doesn’t touch a dime.
“All of the dollars they collect through the assessment, 100 percent of those dollars go back into the neighborhood,” Little said. “They know what’s going on in their neighborhoods. They can address those things on a micro-level and that’s really what it’s all about.”
“We’re dreaming about more businesses, more quality schools, safe streets, economic, a spiritual, social revival occurring,” Harvey said. “Sherman Blvd. and Fond du Lac Avenue becoming an oasis like we see on Kinnickinnic or Oakland Avenue between Capitol and Hope. Or, North Avenue in Wauwatosa. We want that same sense of human flourishing and thriving right here.”
“It makes Fond du Lac a signature neighborhood,” Ald. Khalif Rainey said. “A signature corridor.”
Rainey lives close enough to this potential BID that he frequents the Sherman Park Grocery as a patron. He sees it as a small example of what the potential BID could bring to the entire neighborhood.
“We receive additional services by these businesses imposing this assessment on themselves,” Rainey said. “That means better lighting, better signage, more trashcans, signature trashcans that represent the Fond du Lac Ave. BID. That’s what the neighbors will see and experience. You all know, people love living in a nice clean neighborhood. Those are some of the tangible benefits the BID will bring to neighbors.”
While a BID won’t reverse the pains of the past, Wince feels, it can heal future wounds before they begin.
“I know the potential BID here on Fond du Lac Avenue will be so impactful as it relates to building and restructuring or revitalizing,” Wince said. “Breathing a breath of life on this corridor, not just for businesses but the community and its residents. That in itself is proof it can change.”
The BID isn’t official yet. The neighborhood will get a chance to weigh in later this year and then, in the fall, the Common Council will vote on getting the Fond du Lac Avenue Business Improvement District on the books next year.
