Lisbon Ave, Milwaukee

My last post was about North Avenue leading up to the intersection of Lisbon and North. As you may recall, the City of Milwaukee is pushing for new development around Washington Park. The Washington Park Plan which was adopted on June 30th, 2006 notes three primary commercial corridors: North Avenue, Lisbon Avenue, and Vliet Street. See the plan here: http://www.mkedcd.org/planning/plans/WashingtonPark/pdfs/WPPlan.pdf
North Avenue was discussed in the previous post. If you read through the plan, eventually it says Lisbon is too close to North Avenue to support businesses and recommends development of residential housing. The plan puts its support for new commercial development along Vliet. The plan is a great source of raw information - it includes demographic studies, maps of abandoned buildings, and even samples of development.

I don't agree with their assessment of Lisbon though. Especially around Washington Park. The traffic patterns are high, connecting to North Ave, Highway 41, and acts as a downtown artery. As it reaches Washington Park, the city built a brand new public Library on Sherman Boulevard. From Sherman west to North Ave is where I believe new development could be focused. There is a small triangle between Lisbon and Washington park which if improved would provide a continual flow from North Avenue right into this great park.

We should look to benefit from the North Avenue development and keep right on going back down Lisbon. This has already started. Right at the intersection of North, Lisbon, and 49th Street, there is a 7-unit commercial building being restored with apartments upstairs. There are several buildings, and open lots, which could be utilized for this. Improving this one small triangle would improve Washington Park. Today, it is surrounded by declining neighborhoods. To the West, it bordered by Highway 41. This would improve the Northern boundary of the park.