Milwaukee — Opponents Mobilize

July 2015

The Milwaukee Business Journal reports that street car opponents have launched a petition drive for a referendum aimed at blocking rail transit in the future. The Downtown street car and a leg to the lakefront are already approved by the city and cannot be challenged by a referendum. So the Milwaukee organization called "Stop the Milwaukee Street car" is mounting a new effort against future expansions of the street car.

Invovled are some of the same people who, earlier this year, mounted an unsuccessful effort to force a referendum on initial phases of the streetcar system. The city is now engineering that project, with plans to start construction of the track and overhead lines early next year.

The Milwaukee organization wants to block future expansions of the streetcar. City officials intend to expand the system from downtown to neighborhoods including Bronzeville, Walker’s Point and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Marquette University campuses.

The petition would require city residents to vote on whether to create a new law requiring binding referendums on future rail transit projects costing at least $10 million. The organization must collect at least 31,000 signatures from city residents over a 60-day period to force a referendum on whether to create that law.