Common Council President Michael Murphy Returns to UWM

In a small room in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Honor’s House, Michael J. Murphy, the 47th President of the Milwaukee Common Council, had an informal discussion with students and alumni about the future of Milwaukee, focusing on the city’s need to improve its public transportation system.

With about only 10 people in the audience for the Nov.18 speech, the talk felt incredibly personal, with Murphy sharing a lot about himself and his personal life, along with how he got to be where he is today. “Coming from an immigrant family, a big message from our parents was to work hard and get a good education,” said Murphy. “We were all very fortunate that UWM was available for us.”

He explained that his parents moved to the United States in the 1960s and then he was born, making him a citizen before his parents. Growing up in Milwaukee, Murphy and his four siblings all graduated from UWM.

Murphy was a geoscience major and praised the program but confessed to never having taken a political science course in his time at UWM. However, he explained how the geosciences in turn helped him in the political field, by helping him to be inquisitive and use analytical skills. He also encouraged students to get active and seek internships and jobs in different fields.

“Try to be exposed to as many different issues as possible,” he said. “Broaden your scope for marketability.”

Murphy has been working to set up new internship opportunities with the sciences, most notably with the Water Council, the Great Lakes Research Facility and the Health Department.

“When you have a campus in an urban area, you should take advantage of the great opportunities you have here,” Murphy said. “You would be surprised at how few people just simply call up and knock on your door and say, ‘Hey, listen I want to do this.’”

When Murphy opened up the floor for audience members to ask questions, he was addressed with a few interesting issues. UWM alumni John Ward inquired about a recent Time Magazine article that placed Milwaukee as the second poorest city, behind Detroit. The article, which analyzed residents that make below $25,000 a year, found that Milwaukee has 37.8 percent of its residents that are living in poverty.

Murphy did not shy away from this brutal statistic and admitted that there are many obvious issues in Milwaukee. He explained a strategy that is designed to improve the tax base of the city and create more jobs for residents. The Water Council was one proponent that he mentioned, and he thinks there is a lot of interest with some unnamed Fortune 500 companies within the region to bring in some industry.

One obvious factor working towards the Time Magazine poverty statistic in Murphy’s eyes is Milwaukee’s seriously lagging developments in transportation.

“We are just behind the times with transportation in this state,” said Murphy. “The problem is that we have state leaders right now who are anti-transit.”

He also detailed the new $180 million double-decker bridge that city officials just announced they want to build, while the same week State Rep. Robin Vos publicly stated that bus transportation is a social good and not a strategy for moving residents to jobs.

Murphy had clear reservations with this opinion and asserted that if residents in Milwaukee’s low-income districts didn’t have viable transportation options, they would be missing out on many potential new job opportunities.

Another key question Murphy was asked was about the development of the BMO Harris Bradley Center downtown. While Murphy did not have much information about it, he did say that a decision on the final plan should be right around the corner.