Government Is Supposed To Be Good At The Simple Things

At least they got the streets renamed.

Milwaukee’s Common Council met on Tuesday to take care of the city’s business, and did, mostly.

If you haven’t been to local government meetings you’ve been spared from the mundane business of city government. In fact, that’s what most local governments do, the mundane things.

They approve transfers of funds, they rubber stamp road projects, they spend state or federal grants. In Milwaukee’s case on Tuesday, the city council okayed plans to add Willie 'Baylew' Mitchell’s name to an honorary stretch of MLK Drive. They did the same for Rev. Lovell Johnson, Sr. for a stretch of North 16th.

That’s what a lot of city government is: Doing the easy things.

Milwaukee’s government does a lot of easy things because they cannot seem to tackle any of the city’s serious problems.

Milwaukee saw its 100th homicide of 2024 on Monday.

Milwaukee Police say 17-year-old Javontae Davis died in a shootout at 3:30 in the afternoon. Investigators say he and two passengers, including a 15-year-old girl, opened fire on a driver. That’s when detectives say a man in another car shot and killed Davis. It wasn’t Milwaukee’s only homicide, it wasn’t even Milwaukee’s only homicide of the day. But it was the city’s 100th. Mayor Cavalier Johnson managed a few words Tuesday, and suggested that all is well in Milwaukee.

“Anybody who causes death, or harm, or destruction in Milwaukee should be held fully accountable for their crimes. Fully accountable for their crimes. And if an individual is being arrested for that, that means the city is doing its job in the criminal justice system,” the mayor told reporters.

The mayor spent 16 seconds on those three sentences. Just 45 words. That’s all that Milwaukee’s mayor spent on a grim milestone for the city. Compared that to the hour spent the very same day talking about Milwaukee’s new city flag. The Journal Sentinel wrote the story like this.

“After a heated hourlong debate, the Milwaukee Common Council delayed a vote Tuesday on whether to change the official city flag to "Sunrise Over the Lake," commonly known as the People's Flag.”

The city council spent an hour arguing over whether “all of the people” are represented by the People’s Flag. 

An hour. Compared to 16 seconds spent on the 100th murder of 2024.

This is where Milwaukee’s city government is. City leaders essentially ignore the serious issues, pretend that Milwaukee isn’t dangerous, and paper-over the problems that plague everyday Milwaukeeans, to try and do the little things.

But the city can’t even get the simple things like a new city flag right. (And don’t even get me started on the city’s response to reckless driving.)

It is one thing to focus on the ancillary things when your city works. It’s another to focus on them instead. And it is something worse to fail at the little things while you also fail at the big things.

And make no mistake, Milwaukee is failing.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s new city budget proposed both tax and fee increase, after just adding a new citywide sales tax. Milwaukee Public Schools have one of the worst graduation rates in Wisconsin, and the worst racial learning gap in the country. And Milwaukee just saw its 100th homicide of the year. But you didn’t hear a lot about that, because you know, there’s a flag debate to settle and an art car that’s broken.