Co. Exec. Crowley on WTMJ: Milwaukee being ‘robbed’ of in-person DNC could help bring more events here

Metropolitan Milwaukee will not be seeing the expected $200 million economic benefit from hosting the Democratic National Convention, after it moved to a mostly-virtual format due to coronavirus.

However, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley believes there could be a silver lining for the city’s future when it comes to garnering and hosting big events.

“We were robbed of this convention. The whole country realized that. Hopefully we can use that to bring more development here in the future,” Crowley told WTMJ’s Steve Scaffidi on Friday.

“We are disappointed in the fact that we weren’t able to welcome everybody and accept their money. The economic impact we’ve seen this whole summer has been cruel to us. The fact the Democrats still came out and did their virtual convention is still a good thing. It let folks know, particularly in Milwaukee, that they didn’t forget about us.”

Coronavirus has affected nearly every level of life, including government operations. Crowley says he and Milwaukee County are attempting to figure out how to better adjust to the virus and bring things closer to normalcy.

“We are definitely focusing on re-opening. We have the County Courthouse. We have to figure out how it’s safe,” said Crowley. “We have to make sure things are clean and sanitized on our buses, so people (can) feel safe.”