On Friday, myself and a number of other GLUE conference go-ers were able to tour the Menomonee Valley, a redeveloped former brownfield in Milwaukee.

This area was formerly home to heavy industry and manufacturing, such as stockyards and railroads. The site is now touts itself as a national model in economic and environmental sustainability.

Laura Bray, Executive Director of Menomonee Valley Partners gave us a tour of the site, highlighting its sustainable design, public park and bike trails, the Harley Davidson Museum, Miller Park, a Native American casino, and a number of businesses, including some manufacturing.

She emphasized the area’s land use planning, how it uses wetlands to treat storm water, use of native Wisconsin species, university partnerships and more.

There’s also some public art, and best of all… more than 4,000 jobs.

There’s still more work to be done though, such as connecting the adjoining Silver City neighborhood with the site to help people access the valley and its jobs and recreation.

We also drove through the Silver City area, SoHi (South of Highland) neighborhood, and past Marquette University. Thanks to Ms. Bray for our wonderful tour.

(I appologize for the lateness of this post. I am still recovering from the conference!)