Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson; 1-on-1 interview

MILWAUKEE – Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson joined FOX6 News on Thursday, Sept. 21 for a 1-on-1 interview. This, after announcing his intention to run for reelection in 2024.

A transcription of the interview is below: 

Suzanne Spencer: It’s appropriate you’re joining us on “Gun Violence Prevention Day of Action” an important issue in your city, specifically among children. The number of child homicide victims in the past four years has gone up. You’ve been an elected official during this time. What will you do to turn this around?

Mayor Johnson: “You probably saw in my budget presentation just earlier this week that there are going to be no cuts. I’m proposing zero cuts to the Milwaukee Police Department in 2024. So the police play an important role, but not just police. It cannot just only be police. And so we’re working with the Office of Prevention that will be reorganized within the Department of Administration to be the Office of Community Wellness and Safety. That’ll have a role there as well. And then we’ll have to continue raising our voice to members of the legislature because we don’t control gun law at the local level. That’s the state and federal responsibility. So we’ll continue reaching out to members of the legislature to see what we can do, even if on the margins to affect this issue of gun violence in the city. Milwaukee, especially as it relates to especially as it relates to kids.”

Suzanne Spencer: You mentioned in that 2024 proposed budget that you just announced this week that you will be adding more police officers. Some people have called in the city for more mental health specialists rather than first responder. Why do you think more is the answer? 

Mayor Johnson: “I think it’s a combination of everything. I don’t think it’s one item. I don’t think it’s one silver bullet to address a very complicated issue. So I’m not opposed to having conversations around mental health clinicians. In fact, as a member of the council, I sponsored an ordinance that would help us to incorporate mental health workers into some of the policing work that we do. So I’m not opposed to doing that, but it’s a number of things. It’s police work, it’s the Office of Community Wellness and Safety, it’s programs like Earn and Learn. It’s programs like Camp Rice, and it’s calling on, you know, some of the other folks in the community, whether they’re parents, teachers, mentors, friends, to step up and be a part of the solution here, too.”

Suzanne Spencer: Earlier this summer, 11-year-old Tyrone Reese Junior, a fifth grader, was killed by reckless driving. That suspect is in court today. What concrete things are you doing to make streets safer for children in the future and for adults? 

Mayor Johnson: “Absolutely. So when I became mayor, on day number one, I declared reckless driving a public safety crisis in Milwaukee. And if you go around the city, Milwaukee today, you’ll see a number of investments that we’ve made changing our infrastructure to address the issue of reckless driving. And in my State of the City address just in June, I talked about my desire to work to build out a protected bike lane network throughout the city, adding miles and miles of protected bike lanes. That’s good for bicyclists like Tyrone and other travelers. But what it also does is create another barrier for folks who seek to drive recklessly in our community. It slows that traffic down and make sure that pedestrians, bicyclists, scooter riders, stroller pushers and the like have a safer way to traverse our city.”

Suzanne Spencer: Let’s go back to earlier this week. You were at American family Field. You called for the Beer District similar to the Deer District that we see downtown. Your comments met with some hesitation from the Brewers president about reforming the parking lot there. Why do you think that that is a solution moving forward? 

Mayor Johnson: “I think that there is so much opportunity at American Family Field. I understand the Brewers desire to preserve the tailgating, culture. I think that’s valuable as well here. However, at the same time, too, they’ve got more parking at American Family Field than Lambeau Field. They’ve got more parking available than Camp Randall. They’ve got more parking than some parks at Disney World, right. And so I’d like to see activation there. We’ve done a great job in Milwaukee over the course of the past 20 years or so, creating new neighborhoods. When you think about the Pabst Brewery neighborhood. When you think about others across the city, including the Deer District. And I think there’s an opportunity to do something more at American Family Field as well. And that’s exactly what I want to see 20 years down the line from here. I don’t want to have a sea of parking around American Family Field. We can do so much more and serve Milwaukee’s future better.”

Suzanne Spencer: Besides that idea, you were born and raised in Milwaukee. What have you always wanted to see come to fruition in the city that has not yet been done? 

Mayor Johnson: “I really want to see, and we’re in the midst of working to bring that to fruition here in the city, is for folks to have access to family supporting jobs. Again, you know, in this city, you know, years and years ago when manufacturing was king here, folks had access to good paying families-supporting jobs, and it created stability in neighborhoods. I’d like to see that back in Milwaukee. We’re going to do that by continuing to have the posture that we’ve had since I’ve been mayor, seeking to grow the city, having new jobs, new opportunity, new development, getting people who live in the challenged neighborhoods that I lived in growing up, giving them opportunities to work on those new construction projects, getting them jobs in the trades and in unions, and helping to lift them up, creating stability in their lives, therefore then in their kids lives, in the life of their neighborhood. And when those neighborhoods begin to gel and they become cohesive, I mean, that’s really how you get to the overall public safety that all of us want to see. So the so that’s what I’ve wanted to see and that’s what I continue to want to work on as mayor in the next term.”

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The 2024 Mayoral Election will be on the spring ballot with a Spring Primary on Tuesday, Feb. 20 and the Spring General Election on Tuesday, April 2.