Real estate boom is no reason to tear down I-794. Milwaukee needs the connection. | Opinion

The esthetically fulfilling proposals to tear down the I-794 connection from I-43 and I-94 to the Hoan Bridge ignore some fundamental facts that are vital to people who live, work and travel in and around Milwaukee. For myself, I live on the near west side, but many people who live a mile or five north and west of me, or even a mile or two south, would face the same difficulties.

The I-794 connection is not the Park East Freeway. It was a no-brainer to tear down Park East, because it was a spur to nowhere. It went nowhere because, decades ago, a large number of people in Milwaukee said no to extending a freeway up the east side near the lakeshore. That was an example of popular revulsion stopping a project that political and business insiders had committed to without thinking things through.

Now, a different set of political and business insiders are pushing a plan that will also be a major inconvenience and perhaps even a hazard to people trying to live their ordinary lives. I-794 is not a spur to nowhere. It is a vital connection with several miles of freeway on either side. Its not just about getting to downtown Milwaukee.

Tearing down 794 would add congestion to downtown streets

If it is replaced with surface streets, thousands of cars every day will be brought down to surface level in one of the most congested areas of the city. What should be two minutes driving time will become ten, twenty, at certain times of day perhaps thirty minutes. City traffic that is already difficult at busy times of day will have to compete with all this additional traffic for the same densely packed local streets. Impatient drivers will add to the unsafe practices already plaguing our streets.

There are those who blithely claim that the city streets can handle the extra traffic. I haven't seen any hard numbers. Exactly how many cars pass through that freeway connection every hour? How many cars would that add to city streets? Cars in a hurry to get somewhere else? Go ahead, divide them up between Clybourn, Michigan and Wisconsin and then factor in the congestion as all those cars from all three streets try to get on the freeway to the Hoan Bridge, backing up into the congested business areas. Not to mention, Wisconsin Avenue curves north, it doesn't connect to the freeway.

Opportunities for real estate speculation and development pale by comparison to this disastrous mixing of long distance through traffic with downtown urban driving. It is no part of the business of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to facilitate profitable real estate development. The job of WISDOT is to provide convenient, safe transportations options, and as much as possible, options that allow people to get where they are going quickly.

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I am familiar with the convenience of the current connection from five years of temporary delivery work during the Christmas season. I had to commute from the near west side to Cudahy, and often to drive a truck across the Hoan to points north and west, then return, then commute home.

More recently, I have a job that requires me to drive to Racine and Kenosha. Sure, I could take I-94, but its a long drive east from the freeway to the areas near the lake I need to get to. I-794 to Hwy 32 is more convenient, safer, and probably better for air quality and reduced CO2 (although I now drive an EV).

Downtown Milwaukee streets can't replace freeway connection

Every one of the thousands of people who depend on the I-794 connection will have a unique story, but it all adds up to one common point: We need that freeway connection to remain a freeway connection. Surface streets will not serve the same purpose. Instead of getting on I-43 at Walnut, I would have to drive say, 17th to Clybourn to Michigan and across downtown in stop and go traffic to get to the Hoan Bridge. Others will pick up I-43 or I-94, drive a few miles, then have to come down to surface in the Third Ward, only to go back up to the freeway. It's a horrible breach in what should be a smooth and seamless trip.

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I might add that the same objections apply to redoing the I-94 interchange with 175 as a surface street. I drove a paratransit bus for five years. I often had a stop in the middle of the north side, far from the freeways to my east and west, followed by a stop in the middle of the south side.

It was a tremendous convenience to me and my passengers to be able to make a freeway connection at North Avenue that would take me through to National Avenue. I expect people who live and work around the intersection of North, Lisbon and 51st streets could provide similar examples. It is so much better than trying to deal with 35th Street, 27th Street, or Hawley Road.Of course I favor mass transit. But until there is a high speed rail line from Delafield into downtown Milwaukee and then down to Kenosha, we need our existing freeway system to function smoothly for those who must rely on it.Charlie Rosenberg graduated from Appleton High School West in 1972, and has been a Milwaukee resident since 2002. A proud member of Amalgamated Transit Union local 998 (and briefly shop steward), he has contributed to several encyclopedias, and researched over 250 lives for African American National Biography.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee real estate growth shouldn't hurt downtown commuters