Ostrowski's Outlook IX
Spring 2001
I haven't done book reviews in this column before but I just read something that I have to share. The book is published by the Public Works Historical Society of APWA and is called The Politics of Congestion: the Continuing Legacy of the Milwaukee Freeway Revolt.
The book covers the periods before, after and during the 1970's when completion of a planned freeway system for Milwaukee was stopped. I recommend the book not because I expect many of you to be all that interested in which segments of Milwaukee's system were not completed but because there's a lot to be learned about governmental process and the role of technology in society.
I grew up in Milwaukee and worked on several of the projects discussed in the book. I knew the names of some of the players but I was a lowly summer-temporary employee of the Wisconsin Highway Commission and didn't hang out with those folks. While I was there, freeways were still being built but things were about to change. I moved to Seattle and worked for the Washington Highway Department just in time to see I-90 stalled and the RH Thomson freeway killed.
A couple of things struck me about the book. First, the people involved took very strong positions about whether freeways were the right solution for Milwaukee or not. When you read the various viewpoints in the book, you can't help but notice that none of them have changed their view over the years. This is a typical Milwaukee trait but it's also a human trait to be strongly moved by our biases. Each contributor was asked to give his analysis (they were all men) of what lessons were learned by the Milwaukee freeway revolt. Those who were strong freeway supporters believe that the lessons learned had something to do with what a mistake it was to not build the whole freeway system. Those who were against freeways believe that the lessons learned were about how Milwaukee was better off without more freeways.
The lesson I learned is that Milwaukeeans spent a lot of time debating freeways while the world was changing around them. Global markets and a transition away from the heavy industry that made Milwaukee famous (along with its beer) did more to shape the look and feel of Milwaukee today than the freeways.
The second thing that struck me about the book is that I and many of the people I know grew up professionally during this paradigm shift. I worked on one of the first environmental impact statements and dutifully prepared schedules for the Bay Freeway while my friends at the City of Seattle were doing similar exercises. We were coming of age while the world was changing around us. Next to war and riots, freeway planning was pretty tame stuff. However, I think it affected the way we approach change and paperwork. My generation isn't the greatest generation but it is the one that's had to handle a lot of change whether we liked it or not. We've also been there as each additional process and paper trail was added to the business of building stuff. We're like the camel that can handle each additional load of straw until the last one breaks its back. The back hasn't broken yet but maybe it will soon.
The world is changing around us again. That unstable feeling beneath your feet might not be another earthquake. It might be another paradigm shift taking place. Let's hope that 30 years from now we don't appear in a book about the shift from representative government to an initiative driven society. Let's also hope that even if we do appear in such a book it's not to whine about how we all knew how to do things better but some evil force prevented us from doing it. That's not exactly how Milwaukee turned out but it's close enough to be scary.