SLAY: 25th Ward Dead Last in Bricks & Mortar Investment
Mayor Slay’s website is bragging about over $2 Billion Dollars in bricks & mortar investment from July 2001 through November 2004. Pretty impressive.
However, when you start to look at the detail ward by ward you get a much different picture of the disparity between the wards. Not surprising to many of us that live in the 25th Ward – we came in last with a total of $4.9 million. Next to last was the 13th Ward of Fred Wessels with a total of $6.4 million – 30% more than the 25th.
Comparing the 25th Ward to downtown or West end wards would an unfair comparison. However, I think looking at the wards adjacent to the 25th Ward is fair. Here are the other wards adjacent to the 25th:
• 25th Ward (Kirner): $4.9 million (28th overall)
• 13th Ward (Wessels): $6.4 million (27th overall)
• 20th Ward (Schmid): $17.3 million (21st overall)
• 11th Ward (Villa): $21.1 million (19th overall)
• 14th Ward (Gregali): $22.2 million (18th overall)
• 15th Ward (Florida): $32.3 million (12th overall)
• 9th Ward (Ortman): $78.2 million (7th overall)
Here is how the numbers break down for the 25th Ward:
• Residential Investment: $2.9 million
• Business/Retail: $800K
• Schools/Daycare: $100K
• Board of Public Service Contracts: $1 million
• City Demolition: $100K
Below are some observations/notes from these figures:
• Over half the residential investment is for “misc. residential repairs.”
• The residential figures included a total of 12 housing units – 10 substantial rehab and 2 new construction.
• Due to redistricting, some of the work is outside the current 25th ward boundaries. For example, the business section includes Ackerman Toyota, King Dodge, McMahon Lincoln Mercury and Bimmers R Us.
• No detail is supplied on the section for Elementary/Secondary/Daycare investment. In other wards this includes both public & private investment.
• The Board of Public Service Contract total of $1 million lists three things – Mt. Pleasant Park improvements, Amberg Park Playground and Roller Hockey Rink in Mt. Pleasant Park. The 14th Ward to the West had the same $1 million in BPS contracts but they listed alley repairs and work on Delor.
• The city spent $100K demolishing 7 structures.
• Slay’s website indicates the figures were rounded to the nearest 100,000.
While I understand one of the wards must be last it would at least be nice to see investment spread around a bit more. The 25th Ward’s measly $4.9 million investment is less than three tenths of one percent of the total investment over the last four years. We couldn’t even muster a full one percent!
I invite you to take a look at the above figures and use the links provided to see the numbers from each ward.
– Steve