The first elected African American Mayor in city history Cavalier Johnson joins Wisconsin’s Afternoon News on Wednesday. Johnson coming off his historic win wants to hit the ground running when it comes to providing opportunities to Milwaukee residents.
“I want to work to make sure that’s happening, but I also want to make sure we have people centered development in our neighborhoods,” said Johnson. “So when we build an environment in neighborhoods that draws people out, it will also draw private development in neighborhoods across the city and not just downtown,”
Johnson defeated challenger Bob Donovan garnering 72 percent of the votes compared Donovan’s 28 percent.
Johnson believes stability is key to revitalizing some of the cities declining neighborhoods.
“I want to get back to that, I want to get back to the point where we had the highest quality of life for African Americans in the united states, and we weren’t on the worst of the worst lists,”
The Hop is also on Johnsons mind when thinking of new ways to create growth in Milwaukee.
“I think there is certainly room for expansion of the street car and in places that make sense, what is right now just a surface parking lot right across the street from the Milwaukee public market, those developers have cited the street car as a prime reason why they located at that site,” Johnson said. “And it will do the same thing, creating development and jobs and growth in Milwaukee. So i want to see that sort of growth, that sort of development, along the street car line outside of just downtown,”