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A Special WUWM News SeriesThe Milwaukee River allowed commerce and industry to thrive during the city's formative years and provided recreation. However, disregard for the river's health led to decades of decay.WUWM News explores recent developments to rejuvenate the Milwaukee River and their success at drawing people back to the city's historic arterial.

New Housing and Commerce Highlight River Renaissance

We now continue our series about the revival of the Milwaukee River.

As we reported earlier, the City of Milwaukee exists here because of the river. It, with its mouth in Lake Michigan, supported commerce and industry in the early days, and provided recreation. However, no one tended the health of the river, so it decayed; and manufacturers left its banks, as trains and trucks replaced boats. The community abandoned the ailing Milwaukee River for decades, but a turnaround began in the 80s. The city initiated improvements, including Riverwalk, and worked with developers.To view the new river wealth, WUWM’s Bob Bach hopped aboard a boat with Rocky Marcoux, commissioner of City Development. Marcoux says residential construction has boosted the value of riverfront property by more than $300 million.

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