21 Day Initiative Summary

Apart of the Near West Side Partners tool box in improving our commercial corridors is the "21 Day Initiative". This tool works with many community stakeholders and has been proven to be effect to encouraging businesses along the commercial corridor. To learn more our team has outlined the process below for our most recent initiative on 27th Street “.

The first stage was to identify businesses on the 27th St. Corridor between Wisconsin Ave. and State St., that we believe to have significant issues on the exterior of their properties. Eleven letters were sent by mail and hand-delivered to the individual property owners or managers, with photos highlighting our concerns. The letters also informed each property owner/ manager that after 21 days their properties will be part of a tour that would feature:

Alderman Robert J. Bauman of the 4th District
DPW Street Services Manager James Washington
DNS Special Enforcement Inspection Matt Jordan
MPD District 3 Community Prosecution Unit (Catelin Ringersma and officer Melvin Finkley)
Marquette University Police Department (Jeff Kranz and MUPD CLO Officer)
NWSP staff (Keith Stanley, Bobby McQuay and Lindsey St. Arnold Bell)

On August 21, 2019, The Near West Side Partners along with the above mentioned completed the second stage of our “21 Day Initiative”. We started the tour from the Mobile Design Box, with a brief description of why we are taking the tour. As we visited the properties we had an opportunity to talk with most of the owners /managers that we sent letters. Each of them had the opportunity to ask question, present concerns and provide a plan to address the issues that were identified in the letters. The tour lasted one hour and really gave a perspective to the city service workers as to the magnitude of the challenges that exist in that section of the corridor.

During the tour several items caught the attention of DPW, DNS and MPD the next steps are to:

Gather the reports each department made for NWSP / PARC records
Get clarity of who is responsible for follow up and follow-through
Identify properties that work orders will be issued to
Connect with the owners/managers to identify the timeline for completion of work
Set a date to review the “21 Day Initiative” and the outcome