Milwaukee, WI
Flooding prompts changes to leaf pickup, street sweeping in Milwaukee
A look at flooding in Downtown Milwaukee by Milwaukee School of Engineering
Sewer caps were bouncing from the corner of Kilbourn Avenue and Milwaukee Street by Milwaukee School of Engineering as a storm went through downtown Milwaukee
After a month of historic rainfall in Milwaukee, the city’s Department of Public Works is introducing two measures aimed at assisting in flood prevention.
The city will transition to bagged leaf pickup in the fall and will implement a set monthly street sweeping schedule on the city’s “exception streets” that allow parking on both sides.
The new leaf bagging policy changes Milwaukee’s current leaf collection policy of asking residents to rake leaves into the street for pick-up.
Leaders from the Department of Public Works discussed the measures and fielded questions from council members at the city’s Public Works Committee meeting April 29. Many of the questions were related to concerns over flooding across the city, and what more could be done to stop it.
Several council members voiced frustrations shared by residents in their districts who have repeatedly experienced flooding that impacts their homes and workplaces.
“When we add up all of this pain and suffering, there is a major impact to the city of Milwaukee,” said Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic, who represents the 14th Distrtict.
Milwaukee City Engineer Kevin Muhs said city leaders are still working out logistics for the changing protocols for leaf pick-up and street sweeping, but wanted to give residents a heads-up that the new measures will be coming.
The new leaf pick-up will start in the fall, while the change in street sweeping schedule will likely take at least a year to fully implement – and potentially as long as three years – as it will require paying for and installing new signage across 25% of the city, Department of Public Works Commissioner Jerrel Kruschke said.
The street sweeping change will be a gradual roll-out, impacting some streets before others, Department of Public Works spokesperson Tiffany Shepherd said. Vehicles that illegally park during the monthly street sweeping on the “exception streets” will be ticketed and towed.
The announcement of the new measures come after a record-breaking April rainfall for Milwaukee. From April 1-28, Milwaukee logged 9.39 inches of rain surpassing its April record – from NOAA data available since 2000 – of 7.38 inches, set in 2013.
April storms caused about 2.7 billion gallons of sewer water to flow into local waterways and Lake Michigan – a part of Milwaukee’s Deep Tunnel system that prevents backups in resident basements, Kruschke said.
The changes to leaf pick-up and street sweeping aim to reduce a contributing factor to flooding, since leaf debris can clog sewer drains and catch basins.
Kruschke said that during 2025-26 leaf pick-up, the city collected 13,569 tons of leaves – about 1,500 tons more than the previous year. However, he said, DPW crews were not able to access leaves in many areas of the city where vehicles are permitted to park on both sides of the street.
He pushed back against the notion that the city isn’t doing enough for leaf clean-up and other types of flood prevention.
“Our staff has been working around the clock, 12-hour days, pretty much nonstop, basically since October,” Kruschke said.
“Mother Nature has not been our friend in April, period,” he said.
In addition to rolling out changes to leaf pick-up and street sweeping, the Department of Public Works is partnering with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District on projects throughout the Milwaukee area, and continues to seek opportunities to improve stormwater management, Muhs said.
“We’ve not just been sitting around. … Obviously, the Deep Tunnel is the most siginificant initial investment in managing water drain routes in the city’s history, but that type of work is continuing to happen,” Muhs said.
Kevin Shafer, MMSD executive director, said among those projects is the construction of a 30-million gallon stormwater basin at North 35th Street and West Capitol Drive that, along with two other basins completed in 2018, will slowly drain water from major storms into Lincoln Creek. Another project underway, in partnership with Milwaukee County, is carving a basin in Jackson Park to store floodwater before it moves into the Kinnickinnic River.
Each project costs $40 million to $50 million, Shaker said. MMSD began accelerating them after the city’s August 2025 record-breaking rainfall.
“We’re going to need them six, seven years from now,” he said.
Still, Shafer acknowledged that Milwaukee’s recent severe rainfall totals from April 2026 and August 2025 are more than the city’s infrastructure has been able to handle.
“We’ve got great partnershps throughout the communities, but 15 inches of rain, 7 inches of rain – there’s no system in the country that can handle that much rainfall,” he said.
Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @ArseneauKelli.
Ashes, dog stolen in Milwaukee break-in
A Milwaukee woman is asking for help after she said her puppy and a red heart containing her sister’s ashes were stolen during a May 27 apartment break-in.
MILWAUKEE – A Milwaukee woman is asking for help after she said someone broke into her apartment and stole several items, including her puppy and her sister’s ashes.
What we know:
The break-in happened May 27 at a first-floor apartment near 45th and Hampton.
Treneicia Baker said she got her puppy to help her grieve after her older sister, Keisha, died of heart failure in early March. Baker said she and her sister lived together and never spent a day apart.
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She said the puppy, a teddy bear bichon, had become a major source of comfort.
“I got her because the house was too quiet. I was lonely,” Baker said. “She kept me company, and she kept my mind at ease when things were rough when I was missing my sister.”
Baker said the person who broke into her apartment stole several items, including a laptop, towels, credit cards, a gaming system and food from her kitchen.
The Milwaukee Police Department said no one is in custody.
What they’re saying:
“They tore up the whole house literally from the front door to the bathroom was tore up,” she said.
But Baker said the biggest losses were her puppy and a red heart containing her sister’s ashes.
“I just want my sister’s ashes back and my puppy,” Baker said. “What would you want with someone’s ashes? That’s irreplaceable. You can’t get that back.”
As Milwaukee police investigate, Baker is asking for help getting back what she says cannot be replaced.
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“It would mean everything to me,” she said. “Literally everything.”
Baker said she believes the break-in was random.
What you can do:
Anyone with any information is asked to contact MPD at 414-935-7360 or to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 414-224-TIPS or use the P3 Tips app.
The Source: The information in this post was collected and produced by FOX6 News.
Johnson pleas for “something” to be done about gun violence
Mayor Cavalier Johnson makes a plea for “something” to be done about gun violence after a Milwaukee shooting that left police and suspect injured.
One person was injured in a shooting Tuesday morning, June 9, near a day care center and two schools, Milwaukee police said.
The shooting occurred just before 8 a.m. on the 2700 block of North 44th Street. A 31-year-old suffered unspecified injuries in the incident and was transported to a local hospital, police said.
No additional information about the victim was immediately available. Police are seeking unknown suspects.
The location of the shooting is blocks away from Washington High School of Information Technology, Milwaukee Math and Science Academy and Gregory’s Little Helpers child care center.
Washington High School did not go into lockdown, according to a WISN-TV (Channel 12) report. However, principal Jose Frias sent a note to families saying the school was safe and classes would continue normally, the news station reported.
The circumstances leading up to the shooting remain under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact Milwaukee Police at (414) 935-7360 or, to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at (414) 224-Tips or P3 Tips.
Milwaukee, WI
Milwaukee tenants react after landlord makes first public remarks since being sued by city, Common Ground
MILWAUKEE — Leaking ceilings, cracked walls and big holes are the conditions Carolyn Ferguson has been living in for years at the home she rents from Highgrove Holdings, LLC.
READ ALSO | Milwaukee tenants, Common Ground push city leaders for more landlord accountability over nuisance violations
“It rains in here, it rains in the dining room in there,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson is one of several tenants working with community nonprofit Common Ground and the city of Milwaukee to sue her landlord over alleged neglect, code violations, vacancy and unpaid property taxes.
The mother of 17 is raising her last daughter and is fighting cancer. The condition of her home is another burden.
“I’ve got to worry about that, and worry about the surgery, and all this other stuff and I mean he’s just making it even worse for me than it is,” Ferguson said.
Brendyn Jones/TMJ4
On Monday, during an unrelated press conference by Common Ground, Highgrove Holdings owner David Tomblin made a surprise appearance and faced questions from TMJ4 chief investigative reporter Jenna Rae. While he didn’t answer many of them, he did say the group has made progress.
Watch: Milwaukee tenants react after landlord makes first public remarks since being sued by city
Milwaukee tenants react after landlord makes first public remarks since being sued
When asked about the city of Milwaukee’s lawsuit over issues at his properties that he is not addressing, Tomblin responded.
“Well, we are addressing them, but in the proper time,” Tomblin said.
Brendyn Jones/TMJ4
Ferguson said she has not seen any of those fixes.
“He hasn’t fixed anything, like I said, out of the nine years I’ve been here, he’s had at least seven years and nothing, nothing at all,” Ferguson said.
The issues are impacting multiple generations of the Ferguson family. Carolyn’s daughter used to live at the property until she moved out after poor conditions were never addressed. More than a year later, that unit is still boarded up.
“When is he going to fix my momma’s ceiling? When is he going to do something about the roof? When are you going to do something about that basement downstairs? I would ask him a lot of questions,” Edwina Ferguson said.
Brendyn Jones/TMJ4
TMJ4 reporter Brendyn Jones called Tomblin Monday night. He picked up and requested to know the names of the tenants who were interviewed. Jones said that information would be available after the story was published, so he declined to answer questions.
While Tomblin said there will be a press conference with tenants soon, he did not commit to a date or time.
Common Ground’s Kevin Solomon said the pressure on Tomblin is working.
“It’s political, and it shows that our pressure is clearly getting under his skin. The lawsuit will play out; Common Ground will stay on it,” Solomon said.
The next court date for the lawsuit is at the end of July.
This story was reported on-air by Brendyn Jones and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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