Milwaukee’s N. Water Street Project: Residents Discuss Redesign

The City of Milwaukee Department of Public Works (DPW) organized an open-house style public involvement meeting at MSOE Diercks Hall on October 7, 2025, and presented their current design of the North Water Street Project, which will be a full reconstruction of N. Water Street from E. Kilbourn Avenue to E. Pleasant Street. 

At this point in the process, people behind the project are looking to see if most of the community agrees with the proposal. 

DPW’s first publicly involved meeting on this project was held in November 2024 to get community members’ input or comments, and it focused on three design alternatives. 

Oct. 7’s meeting was a presentation of the final design, which was completed with November’s feedback from representatives of the community and other alternative analyses. 

Public Involvement Meeting Summary

The open house took place in person, with interested locals walking through and learning about the status of the project.

People were scattered about the hall, taking their turn to talk with project leaders and City of Milwaukee DPW workers.

For most of the meeting, there was civil dialogue, but at one point, there was a conflict among the attendees.

Kevin Muhs, the city engineer for the City of Milwaukee and the project, understands that public feedback can be conflicting because of different perspectives and opinions.   

“The nuanced details let us know something specific about an intersection or a specific stretch of the street that we may have missed or didn’t consider, or a resident might have an additional perspective on,” Muhs said. 

Many of the Milwaukee citizens reacted positively to the updates on the project, including one who is a biker and appreciates the planned bike lane design.

One person who reacted negatively to the project doesn’t want to see development in the Water Street area because they believe it will only attract more people, which will cause more issues.

“We’re very concerned that the Water Street Entertainment District is causing damage to our area, and we do not want to see any more investment on Water Street to attract any more people to an area that’s causing so many problems,” Mark Unak said. 

Project Breakdown 

North Water Street is a transit corridor of four Milwaukee County Transit Services (MCTS) routes with high ridership. 

This corridor has a high number of past and predicted crashes with a significantly higher crash rate compared to similar streets, according to the City of Milwaukee DPW. 

Average Daily Traffic (ADT): 

• Northbound – 8,922 vehicles  

• Southbound – 8,895 vehicles 

• Total – 17,817 vehicles  

The North Water Street Project hopes to redesign this downtown entertainment district as a multimodal street that supports all necessary modes of transportation. 

Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) is funding the preliminary design, and the City is working on identifying funding for the final design and construction. 

The ultimate goals of the project: 

• Decrease motor vehicle speeds 

• Increase walkability  

• Enhance transit operations and rider experience  

• Support existing and future businesses 

• Design with sustainability in mind 

North Water Street’s existing cross-section has two driving lanes in each direction, 10ft sidewalk length, striped bike lanes and on-street parking available on both sides. 

The preferred design would be a narrowing of the street with raised bike lanes and bus-only lanes separated from travel lanes with a median providing pedestrian refuge.  

If you have any questions or want to share your thoughts, contact the project team at waterstreetproject@hntb.com. 

The City Engineer 

According to Muhs, the core of this project has two primary purposes, which include slowing down speeding and improving bus times. 

“There have been a couple of fatalities over the past few years in the corridor from people walking across the street and being hit by drivers,” Muhs said. “And so, we wanted to reduce excess speed, and we really want to prioritize transit to get the bus moving faster and offering better amenities or levels of comfort for people waiting for the bus.” 

According to DPW, North Water Street is a catalytic project in the “Connec+ing MKE Downtown Plan 2040” that should prioritize pedestrian and bicyclist use within enhanced public spaces downtown. 

“We want everybody who’s going to use the street, including UWM students who might be down here to catch a show or go to the bars and restaurants, to have a safe experience,” Muhs said. 

Some redesign projects are done to retrofit safety improvements onto an existing road by removing the top layer and replacing it, but this will be a full reconstruction. 

“We’ll be going down to dirt and replacing everything that you see above,” Muhs said. “This is a really exciting opportunity to rethink Water Street and rethink the entire corridor.” 

Even though Muhs is an employee of the city, he also lives in the city and works downtown near City Hall with regular experience of the street. 

“This is more about my role at work in trying to serve the residents of the city as best as possible and give everybody safe travel throughout the city,” Muhs said. “That’s really core to what we’re trying to do at the Department of Public Works, and that’s kind of why I do the job I do.” 

The Local Business Owner 

Drew Deuster is one of the owners of the Red Rock Saloon and McGillycuddy’s, located on Water Street. 

This was one of the many residents and community members who returned to this public involvement meeting to check in with the project’s progress and gain information on the design in its current form. 

“I love the initiative that’s being taken to make some of these changes,” Deuster said. 

Deuster attended the November 2024 meeting and was aware of the proposed changes that are looking to be made from street redevelopment to traffic calming measures. 

“Obviously, there are a lot of fast-moving cars, there’s a lot of traffic, and there are a lot of pedestrians,” Deuster said. “The addition of a safer street pattern with things like bike lanes and sidewalks, also hopefully some beautification, is much needed.” 

Back in November, Deuster gave his perspective as a business owner, which included cleaning up the street to make it look nicer, as well as extending the sidewalks to provide more room for pedestrian traffic. 

“I don’t see much negative impact from it,” Deuster said. “Generally, during the peak times of our business hours, oftentimes the streets are closed anyway. So, I think that in terms of how it will impact us, I don’t see much impact.” 

The bus lane in the median is an addition to the plan that Deuster is looking forward to seeing. 

Deuster attended the Oct. 7 meeting to see where the project stood and get up to speed with the plan moving forward by looking at what’s happening with the funding. 

The President of a Nearby Condominium Association 

Mark Unak is the president of the L’Hermitage Condominium Association, which has 48 condominiums at the corner of Juneau Avenue and Jackson Street in Milwaukee. 

According to Unak, the intersection of Juneau and Jackson is the most dangerous in the city, with many homicides in the last five years. 

“Additionally, on June 15th, A four-door Dodge Ram truck rammed through our outer wall of our condominium and hit our building, causing $51,000 worth of damage,” Unak said. 

Unak says that after calling 911, the police didn’t arrive for two hours, and by that time, the driver of the vehicle was gone. 

“We think that we are second-class citizens,” Unak said. “When you consider that there are 35 police officers on Water Street, who cannot leave the area even when a 911 call happens three blocks away. So, we, three blocks away, are second-class citizens to the bars and bar owners who are on Water Street. We get no police coverage.” 

There was a polite confrontation between Unak and Deuster on the necessity of the North Water Street project and the priorities of the City of Milwaukee government officials. 

Unak believes that the new project will create more congestion and doesn’t integrate well with public transportation. 

“I don’t know if these guys who are doing these plans have really talked to the police,” Unak said. “So maybe the city needs to get all their guys together and talk first before they put these plans in place.” 

After touring the open house of materials informing the public on the design plans, Unak stopped at the comments table and wrote out feedback for DPW before leaving. 

“We don’t want to see any more development that enhances the experience of the entertainment district,” said Unak while writing on his feedback sheet. “And it seems that this project is providing street-level enhancements that will make the entertainment district more attractive and bring more people in, which is pretty much counter to our experience and will affect the safety and property values of our community.”