MILWAUKEE — After winning enough delegates Tuesday night to clinch the 2024 Democratic nomination, President Joe Biden hit the road and made his second trip of the year to battleground Wisconsin.
The latest visit to Milwaukee came with a major announcement to make streets safer.
$3.3 billion is how much the Biden-Harris administration is putting towards reconnecting and rebuilding communities across the country with 132 projects in more than 40 states, including in Wisconsin.
“Today, we’re making decisions to transform your lives for decades to come, and we’re doing it all across America,” President Biden told the crowd gathered at the Pieper-Hillside Boys and Girls Club in Milwaukee.
Back in the Badger State on Wednesday, President Biden said it’s time to deliver for communities left behind for far too long.
“Imagine all those homes and mom-and-pop stores that could’ve been passed down from family to family. Financial security, generational wealth would have resulted,” President Biden explained.
The president announced $36 million for Milwaukee’s 6th Street ‘Complete Streets’ project, which is an effort to transform a more than two-and-a-half mile stretch of road with wider sidewalks, safer bike lanes, and faster transit thanks to dedicated bus lanes.
“We need safe streets for all of our pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists, and Milwaukee County deserves roadways that connect our people, businesses, and neighborhoods—not divide them,” Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said.
Back in the 1960s, nearly 17,000 homes, and about 1,000 businesses, were demolished to make way for I-94 and I-43 in Milwaukee, as roads like 6th Street were widened for faster traffic off the interstates.
“I’m old enough to have gone to church on 5th and Galena and be able to walk there from my house on 11th and Highland,” Rep. Gwen Moore explained. “Can’t do that now because of the Park West Freeway destruction of our community and our sense of community and being together. All of that’s going to change with this announcement today, y’all.”
The White House said the president’s ‘Investing in America’ agenda put 47,000 infrastructure projects across the nation in motion—amounting to $650 billion in private sector manufacturing and clean energy investments.
However, for President Biden, the goal is much simpler: reconnect the community.
“Investing in all America and all Americans to make sure everyone has a fair shot where we leave nobody behind,” President Biden said. “Look, our plan is working, and America is coming back. That’s America—that’s what this project is all about. Projects for jobs and justice, prosperity, and unlimited possibilities.”
The investments also include $1 million for the Perry Street overpass in Madison.
Unlike recent trips to Wisconsin, the president also hosted a campaign event and spent Wednesday night in Milwaukee before heading to Michigan on Thursday.
Wisconsin Republicans reacted to the president’s visit on Wednesday by simply pointing to the rate of inflation.
“You’ve got gas prices up, grocery prices up, natural gas prices up, mortgages up, inflation ticked up again for the second month this week, so Joe Biden isn’t coming to Wisconsin with good news. He’s coming to Wisconsin with bad news because that’s really most of all the news he’s got to share right now,” Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman Brian Schimming said.
“The vice president was in Madison last week. The president is in Milwaukee today. What does that tell us, that the Democrats have to go to their hardest core bases that they have in this state to try to shore up support when they are dropping in numbers in their own party, in their own base demographic groups? They’re dropping everywhere,” Schimming added.