If — and it's a big if — a meat packing plant proposed at Milwaukee's Century City Business Park comes back to life, that process will start with persuading people like Mabel Lamb.
Lamb lives on Milwaukee's north side, where Century City is located.
She and other neighborhood residents say they didn't know enough about Strauss Brands LLC's proposal before the company withdrew it after running into opposition from people living near Century City.
"I need more information," said Lamb, Sherman Park Community Association executive director.
Lamb's group is among the neighborhood associations sponsoring a Saturday community meeting for residents to learn more about Century City, and provide input about the business park's future.
That could include a revival of the Strauss Brands proposal — which appeared to be dead in October.
Strauss said then it was dropping plans to relocate its slaughterhouse and meat processing facility, with 250 jobs, from Franklin Business Park to Century City. The Milwaukee business park is south of Capitol Drive and west of Hopkins Street.
Mayor Tom Barrett, asked at a recent Wisconsin Policy Forum event about rumors that Strauss might still consider Century City, invoked the Biblical figure of Lazarus, who returned from the dead.
Strauss executives have had no public comment since their October announcement. Meanwhile, there's been no public review of tentative plans to relocate in Franklin.
But, if the company takes a second shot at Century City, it would need more support from neighborhood residents.
Strauss withdrew its $60 million proposal after Ald. Khalif Rainey, whose district includes Century City, flipped from a supporter to an opponent.
That happened after his constituents raised concerns about the proposal.
Rainey didn't respond to a question about whether he would support a revived Strauss proposal if it gained approval from enough district residents.
It's possible the Common Council could approve the Strauss plans, which included up to $4.5 million of city financing, even without Rainey's support.
But that's unlikely to happen if enough neighborhood residents, such as Brother Jeramie Rice Bey, remain opposed.
"How many times do you have a meat packing plant right in the center of a city?" Bey said. "It just doesn't seem right."
Bey is president of Amani United Neighborhood Association.
He and other opponents said the facility would cause pollution, smell bad and bring jobs that injure and traumatize workers.
In response, Strauss said around 60% of the company's 170 production workers already live on Milwaukee's north side. Those union members earn entry-level wages starting at $14 to $17 an hour.
A refrigerated, fully enclosed production facility and nightly cleaning would mostly eliminate smells at the Century City facility, according to the company. Waste would be treated before being sent to the sewer system.
Bey also opposed the Strauss Brands facility because of what he considers a failure to engage with residents about the proposal.
"They didn't want to come and talk to the people first," he said.
Cheryl Blue, executive director of the 30th Street Industrial Corridor Corp., a nonprofit neighborhood improvement group, supported the Strauss proposal.
But she believes people living near Century City "never really got the facts about the facility." And that helped raise opposition, she said.
The lack of input from north side residents is a common theme.
"There was no community engagement that I know of involving Strauss," said Yvonne McCaskill, coordinator of the Century City Triangle Neighborhood Association.
"Obviously, neighborhood residents said there was not enough information," she said.
"The community seemed to feel kind of left out on the initial decision," said Lamb, whose organization has long represented people living in the Sherman Park neighborhood.
Lamb learned about the Strauss proposal when it was announced on Sept. 4.
The Journal Sentinel and other news outlets generally referred to the Strauss Brands development as a "meat processing" or "meat packing" operation.
At the Common Council Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee's Oct. 8 meeting, Strauss Brands and Department of City Development officials acknowledged it would include a slaughterhouse.
"For most people, a meat packing plant is very different from a slaughterhouse," Lamb said. "It would have been helpful to be completely transparent."
In the days after that Oct. 8 meeting, which included a unanimous recommendation from Rainey and other committee members to approve the Strauss proposal, Common Council members were getting dozens of emails opposed to the Strauss Brands development.
But many of those opponents, including animal rights activists, didn't indicate whether they lived in Milwaukee. Some listed addresses in such neighborhoods as the east side, Walker's Point and Bay View — and generally not the north side. Other opponents were from such communities as Cudahy, Glendale, Greenfield, Madison, Shorewood and West Allis, according to a Journal Sentinel review of information obtained through the state Open Records Act.
But Rainey started getting emails and phone calls from his constituents on Oct. 15, the day the Common Council delayed acting on the Strauss proposal in order to have another public hearing.
Some of those opponents who contacted Rainey specifically referenced hearing about the Strauss Brands proposal that morning on a WNOV-AM radio talk show popular with the African-American community.
The show's host, Michelle Bryant, also is chief of staff to state Sen. Lena Taylor, who's running against Barrett.
The initial fallout from the council's vote to delay acting on the meat processing plant seemed innocuous.
An Oct. 16 email from city Development Commissioner Rocky Marcoux to Barrett reported that Marcoux's meeting with Randy Strauss, Strauss Brands chief executive officer, went well.
Meanwhile, an Oct. 18 email among Department of City Development officials outlined plans to work with Rainey and others to provide more information to neighborhood residents about the Strauss proposal.
But, later that day, Rainey announced his opposition, citing the response from his constituents. It stunned department officials.
"This is beyond belief," Marcoux said in an email. He added that "we lack credibility when the local alderman abandons the project."
In another email to a department official, Marcoux criticized Rainey for not accepting requests that he tour the Strauss facility in Franklin "so that he would be able to recognize the total untruths that have been circulated about the deal and the company."
The next day, Marcoux, in an email to Barrett, outlined a response.
"The local business support is there," Marcoux wrote. "We obviously need more support from the neighbors so assuming I can keep Strauss in the deal we'll work on that."
In another email, Marcoux told Barrett that Randy Strauss was "caught off guard" by Rainey's announcement, but that no decision had yet been made.
However, two days later, on Oct. 21, Strauss announced it was dropping its proposal.
"Just got off the phone with Randy," Marcoux said in an email to Barrett and others. "It's over."
But, with Barrett's most recent comments, some neighborhood residents believe the Strauss proposal could be revived.
"People need to know more because they're still talking about it," Lamb said.
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December 14, 2019 at 01:00AM
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If Strauss meat packing plant's move to Century City is to be revived, it starts with persuading neighbors - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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