In Summer 2014, Dr. Michael R. Lovell was taking the helm as president of Marquette University. At the time, area residents and longtime anchor businesses were experiencing — and independently trying to operate through — unprecedented increases in crime on Milwaukee’s Near West Side, which stretches from Marquette’s campus several miles west to Harley-Davidson’s headquarters and Molson Coors’ Miller Brewing facilities.
Urged on by President Lovell, Marquette soon teamed up with a dynamic group of community stakeholders to form Near West Side Partners (NWSP) — a nonprofit that, through community-engaged research, strives to revitalize and sustain thriving business and residential corridors across the seven neighborhoods of Milwaukee’s Near West Side to make it a great place to live, work, play, and stay.
Forming a Partnership
During her first meeting with President Lovell, Rana Altenburg, associate vice president of public affairs at Marquette, recalls learning the president’s top priority for the University.
“At that initial meeting, he asked me, ‘What is the biggest risk to Marquette and its success?’” Altenburg reflects. “And when I told him it was safety, he immediately suggested we look at any data we had and engage with other neighborhood stakeholders who were experiencing similar challenges.”
Interns in Marquette’s Office of Public Affairs conducted preliminary research to determine the surrounding areas experiencing the most crime. The data, Altenburg says, revealed that of the more than 100 blocks between the Marquette and Harley-Davidson campuses, only 10% of the blocks were high crime zones.
Just two months prior, a stray bullet went through the window of a conference room where a crisis management meeting was being held at Harley-Davidson. The bullet was the result of an unrelated domestic dispute that originated in another neighborhood. That event, which thankfully resulted in no physical injuries, had the company wondering about its future in Milwaukee.
The data, Altenburg says, served as two reminders. First, if a global company like Harley-Davidson — which provides jobs and reinvests in the community — were to leave the area, it could have a devastating impact on the surrounding neighborhoods. Second, working independently to address these challenges was daunting, so beginning a dialogue between the two institutions that shared similar goals could be game changing. Altenburg connected with key players including Paul Jones, who at the time was the chief legal officer for Harley-Davidson, and now serves as general counsel and vice president for university relations at Marquette.
Out of this, NWSP was born. Today, the organization’s anchor institutions include Marquette, Harley-Davidson, Advocate Aurora Health, Molson Coors, and Potawatomi Business Development Corporation. Through its efforts, NWSP has launched a crime reduction initiative, has helped establish dozens of businesses, assisted in creating affordable housing, and more.
“We started discussing what we could do differently,” Jones says. “And we decided rather than to individually build our walls taller, we’d like to see what would happen if we opened our gates and engaged with others. What if we harnessed all our strengths to better the greater community? Those conversations brought in other anchor organizations. We started there and we’ve kept going ever since.”
Revving Things Up and Seeing Results
Under the leadership of the Marquette University Center for Peacemaking, NWSP launched the Promoting Assets Reducing Crime initiative (PARC), a multidisciplinary and cross-sector effort to improve housing conditions, activate commercial corridors, improve safety, and change perceptions of the Near West Side.
The partners worked to evaluate the needs of the NWS neighborhoods and the areas that could serve as potential business and housing locations. Just two years later, NWSP launched Rev-Up MKE, a small business competition that provides start-up entrepreneurs the chance to launch or expand their businesses, and get the support needed to make them successful in the Near West Side through resident engagement and more. Competition finalists get hands-on business training at Marquette’s 707 Hub in preparation for a final live business pitch event. Winners receive significant resources to enhance their new venture, which will be located in a Near West Side storefront.
Marquette alumnus Pete Cooney won the first Rev-Up MKE competition for his ice pops business, Pete’s Pops, which is now thriving in the neighborhood. Pete’s Pop’s success supplied momentum for other local entrepreneurs to open new businesses in the Near West Side, which now boasts 350 businesses — many of which are minority-owned.
“The really cool thing is that through Rev-Up, we have been able to strategically connect business owners with property owners and landlords who really want commit to the mission of Near West Side Partners,” says Kelsey Otero, senior director of community engagement at Marquette.
Through NWSP’s revitalization efforts, Altenburg adds, the organization has addressed many of the issues relating to crime, particularly violent crime. NWSP has, in the last eight years, partnered with more than twenty-five university departments and remains committed to several different initiatives outside of crime reduction and business recruitment, including one dedicated to expanding access to healthy foods.
In 2018, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded NWSP and Marquette a $1.3 million Choice Neighborhoods Initiative grant to create a locally driven, comprehensive strategy to transform a local multifamily housing development and the surrounding neighborhood into an inclusive community of opportunity. The grant includes funding for six community improvement Action Activities.
Pat Kennelly, director of Marquette’s Center for Peacemaking, says that through its efforts to make neighborhoods the best they can be, NWSP easily positions itself within Marquette’s values and mission. “When it comes down to it, what Near West Side Partners does is the practical application of peacemaking,” Kennelly says. “At its core, peacemaking is about building relationships so that communities can flourish. A part of that is a sense of safety, economic opportunity, healthy equity, personal agency, and access to education. Near West Side Partners takes a holistic approach to foster these qualities for all through different projects and initiatives.”
All photos courtesy of Marquette University.
By Shelby Williamson, Senior Communication Specialist in the Office of University Relations at Marquette University