Basic Information
- Type of Place
- Independent City or Town
- Metro Area
- Politics c. 1860?
- Don’t Know
- Unions, Organized Labor?
- Don’t Know
Sundown Town Status
- Sundown Town in the Past?
- Possible
- Was there an ordinance?
- Don't Know
- Sign?
- Don’t Know
- Year of Greatest Interest
- Still Sundown?
- Surely Not
Census Information
| Total | White | Black | Asian | Native | Hispanic | Other | BHshld | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1860 | ||||||||
| 1870 | ||||||||
| 1880 | ||||||||
| 1890 | ||||||||
| 1900 | ||||||||
| 1910 | ||||||||
| 1920 | ||||||||
| 1930 | ||||||||
| 1940 | 2527 | 0 | ||||||
| 1950 | 2752 | 0 | ||||||
| 1960 | 9537 | 1 | ||||||
| 1970 | 15089 | 6 | ||||||
| 1980 | 16928 | 23 | ||||||
| 1990 | 15128 | 22 | ||||||
| 2000 | 14405 | 41 | ||||||
| 2010 | 14,046 | 244 | ||||||
| 2020 |
Method of Exclusion
- Unknown
Main Ethnic Group(s)
- Unknown
Group(s) Excluded
- Black
Comments
Third and final official Greenbelt town.
STEVE WATROUS, ARTICLE 6 17 99 “New Urbanism and Nostalgia in Greendale”
Take the Norman Rockwell version of a small town hometown. It brings a warm glow to some but a guffaw from others. Yet who gets to be the artist, and who ends up in the picture?
That`s part of the debate over New Urbanism, discussed by some 800 people from 20 countries at their “Congress” in Milwaukee June 3 6. The proper role of nostalgia is also an issue in that most planned of Milwaukee suburbs, Greendale, with a major renovation of its downtown nearly completed.
The conference and the community coincided during an afternoon field trip to Greendale, billed as a development containing “many of the elements of New Urbanism.”
Despite the extensive planning, said tour leader David Drews, “Greendale was always a real place. But Reiman wants it pretty,” he added wistfully, noting the hanging flower baskets and added on towers that appeal to upscale tourists. Drews grew up here and became an architect but no longer lives in Greendale.
Roy Reiman moved to Greendale over 30 years ago and built a publishing empire of magazines laced with nostalgia for country places and old ways, such as “Crafting Traditions”. “Greendale is our hometown now. That`s what we`re trying to re create,” he said. “I remember growing up and listening to the band play in the gazebo on Saturday nights.”
Reiman bought all the downtown stores in 1996 for $2 million when they were mostly empty. He was the man with a plan and the money to make the village center come alive again. “We tried very hard to retain the original and blend it with the 1990s,” he said.
The hometown look is good enough that a crew working for Steve Forbes was filming around Greendale recently, especially the gazebo, presumably seeking the “small town USA” look for his presidential bid, according to resident Nicki Johnson.
New Deal money and planning built this village from 1936 38 during the depression. “Greendale is a famous example of city planning,” said Frank Zeidler, who helped with the engineering. It was constructed along with Greenbelt, Maryland and Greenhills, Ohio as “Garden City Communities,” a movement that started in England at the turn of the century.
The English idea was to build small cities, “where working men could live outside the industrial area, separated by a green belt,” says Zeidler. It was a response to the overcrowding, slums and pollution of cities despoiled by the unplanned growth of manufacturing. Housing for low income industrial workers was an important goal in Greendale.
The downtown, designed to resemble colonial Williamsburg, was within walking distance of all residents. This is a principle of New Urbanism, as is de emphasizing autos through narrow streets and compact housing. Walkways connect the neighborhoods here.
The small shopping area had difficulties from the start. The original plan envisioned a much larger number of housing units, but Congress cut the funds and Greendale was frozen at a size too small to support shops on Broad Street.
This main street was designed away from the heaviest car traffic and not well served by mass transit at the start, both problems for New Urbanists. Supermarket chains later found the buildings and parking lots too small and abandoned the village center, but the near fatal blow was Southridge.
When the biggest and most profitable mall in Wisconsin arrived in 1969 on the edge of Greendale, the commercial center began a decline similar to that of other small towns when Wal Mart builds on the outskirts.
“About two thirds of the businesses were closed when I bought the buildings,” said Reiman, “and the rest were on their last leg.” The absentee owners of the shops hadn`t kept them up, he added.
Reiman sought to make over Greendale`s downtown in both the look and type of businesses. “We were very selective,” he said. “We didn`t want to duplicate Southridge.” He figured the niche was nostalgia: “We have better history than Cedarburg!”
The stores include The Candlemaker, Ferch`s Malt Shoppe, Great Harvest Bread Co., and the Original Coffee Company. Planned for opening later this year is the Taste of Home Restaurant, named after one of Reiman`s magazines. Hundreds of tourists come daily to see Reiman`s visitor center and Greendale, an many stay to shop.
Reiman won`t say how much the renovation cost but jokes that it won`t pay off in his lifetime. The newer commercial building, constucted on the east side of Broad Street in 1958 and resembling later long box strip malls, hid the park behind it. Reiman`s architects knocked out two storefronts in the middle to connect shoppers with the park, which now has a footbridge and large flower garden. “We wouldn`t have done this if we were just in it for the money,” he said. “I wanted to bring the green back to Greendale.”
Resident opinion about the changes is mostly positive, said Kim Johnson, a photographer who was a village trustee during the renovation. The newer residents are favorable toward it. “The old timers say it`s beautiful but not the original Greendale,” he said about an apparent case of dueling nostalgias. “Some people here are really enamored of the beautiful old Greendale.” He lives in the original section.
Reiman said he hadn`t heard the complaint that the original Greendale had been lost. “They would have lost it anyway,” he said. “They would have had a bunch of empty buildings. Only Ricardo`s Pizza would still be open.”
Johnson generally favors the renovation. “It needed to be done and Reiman could do it in a unified manner. It`s not the old Greendale but that might not have worked commercially.” He couldn`t see any other option for revitalizing the downtown.
The original buildings were simple, plain and utilitarian, in Johnson`s opinion. They needed the architectural embellishment they never got originally. Although the built on towers and lattices make the commercial area look like an upscale development, he said it had not become a theme park. “The design is more modern than Norman Rockwell,” he said. Johnson can once again walk to shops useful in daily life, such as the hardware store.
So how does Greendale measure up to principles discussed at the Congress? “Nationally, Milwaukee is seen as the New Urbanism utopia,” said environmental activist Jeff Poniewaz. This is due partly to Mayor John Norquist`s national leadership on these issues, and his honor spoke at several of the Congress sessions.
Wearing a red, orange and gray Hawaiian style shirt at the Saturday mayors` session, Norquist blasted federal policies for sapping the vitality of cities and encouraging ugly suburbs, and lampooned planning too far ahead of market conditions.
Greendale, of course, was built with federal dollars and policies, completely outside market considerations. So why a tour there connecting it with New Urbanism? Greendale is a refreshing exception to usual federal policies, explained Norquist. “It`s a triumph of aesthetics.”
But Greendale is an incomplete triumph for both New Urbanism and the original plan. Serving low income workers was modified as a goal when cost overruns and a funding cut off before completion raised the cost per dwelling. The original housing was simple and Spartan, but still cost too much for people at the bottom of the ladder. “I couldn`t afford it,” declared Zeidler.
Even with federal subsidies, it costs so much to build decent housing that a person making the minimum wage simply can`t afford it. This will hinder New Urbanist dreams for a completely new city since poor people are likely to be around for awhile.
Income limits kept the rich out of Greendale at first and the majority of original residents were blue collar workers from the south side. When the project was privatized in 1952, row houses and modest cost lost favor during expansion. First came 1950s ranch houses with big yards, then luxury homes costing as much as $800,000.
“Greendale was a triumph of land use planning,” said Zeidler, “and because of the nice plan, wealthy people started moving there. Now it`s a high cost, upper income area,” he lamented.
Needing a car to get to work further justified changing the goal to serving “modest” or middle income residents. Light industry within walking distance didn`t come until years later, a further disappointment for New Urbanism.
Diversity is another principle of New Urbanism. Eleanor Roosevelt visited Greendale under construction in 1936, found much positive about it, but wondered if it would serve blacks. It did not and became as homogeneous as surrounding suburbs. Left to their own devices, many people prefer to live near others like themselves, but not too close.
Grassroots people power is not a top priority for New Urbanists, and they can get annoyed at pesky local dissenters. Greendale was planned top down from Washington with only a bit of input from potential residents. Perhaps that`s the only way grand projects can work, albeit imperfectly.
Early Greendale residents often conflicted with outside managers, but once on their own they moved away from both the original plan and New Urbanist ideas, and they permitted Southridge to nearly kill the old village center. It took a financial angel, Roy Reiman, to give the downtown a new chance at life.
Yet despite any imperfections, as David Drews noted, people consider Greendale to be a special place, and property values are much higher than the buildings alone would warrant. Even the small, no basement original units sell for around $100,000.
New Urbanists tend to assume that the public will like trendy architects` dreams and live more happily in such buildings, and Greendale is at least a partial confirmation of this theory. But actual people also like having choices and, even in Greendale, only a minority of the 15,000 residents live in the area most approximating a New Urbanist vision.