I WONDER IF HE KNOWS THE REST OF THE STORY.

Milwaukeeans are going through yet another argument over whether to widen the expressways, or tear them down, or do nothing at all.  A special contributor to Milwaukee's Journal-Sentinel, urban transportation maven Charlie Rosenberg, suggests that the easterly extension of the East-West Freeway to the lakefront, whose construction required the removal of the North Shore Line's Milwaukee Terminal and the Everett Street Depot, be allowed to remain.

His column calls attention to a common phenomenon these days, namely the Credentialed Experts of years ago making decisions that turned out, retrospectively, to be wrong.

It was a no-brainer to tear down Park East, because it was a spur to nowhere. It went nowhere because, decades ago, a large number of people in Milwaukee said no to extending a freeway up the east side near the lakeshore. That was an example of popular revulsion stopping a project that political and business insiders had committed to without thinking things through.

The idea, back in the day, was that Park East would provide a faster way from the northwest side and the likes of Menomonee Falls and West Bend to the lakefront, and the Chicago and North Western's lakefront depot had to go to make that possible.  He goes on to explain why the easterly extension, which separates downtown from the Third Ward, still has its value.

What's interesting, though, is his conclusion.

Of course I favor mass transit. But until there is a high speed rail line from Delafield into downtown Milwaukee and then down to Kenosha, we need our existing freeway system to function smoothly for those who must rely on it.

I wonder how much of his city's history he recalls.  Delafield to Kenosha does not offer a proper value proposition for "high-speed rail."  Speedrail, perhaps.  Long ago, though, there was a through car in each direction, daily, offering dining car service between Kenosha and Watertown, on the long-gone interurban whose Rapid Transit Line was coveted by that previous generation of those Credentialed Experts to ... build the East-West Freeway, which swarms of motorists are now discovering is anything but free.