14 minute read
Leading through life experience
David Crowley and Cavalier Johnson share how their strikingly similar journeys shape their approach to office.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson serve their constituents with an authenticity that comes from experiencing and overcoming challenges that are all too common in Milwaukee. The two leaders grew up in the same zip code, went to the same high school and most importantly, share a passion for building partnerships and finding solutions.
Johnson and Crowley recently sat down with Milwaukee Commerce to discuss how their backgrounds influence how they approach their jobs, and the symbolic value of having African-Americans occupy the highest offices in the city and county:
Milwaukee Commerce: The face of Milwaukee’s leadership is becoming younger and more diverse. What does that mean to each of you?
Cavalier Johnson: We were just at Milwaukee High School of the Arts. Those kids, for the first time, they can see themselves in the leadership of the two highest offices in the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County.
We’re a community that is a majority people of color – near 65 percent. Folks in this community now can see their own reflection, and know that the folks who hold the positions of mayor and county executive have those experiences in the neighborhoods that they live in, those challenged neighborhoods. We both know what it’s like to move around a number of times with evictions, having food insecurity and bouncing around from school to school. We’ve lived those things. And we carry those things with us to our positions of leadership.
David Crowley: To see this young, diverse talent – not just the mayor and I, but when you look at the Milwaukee County Board of Advisors with Marcelia Nicholson and the change in leadership at Common Council President with Jose Perez, it is exciting.
When we think about the youth, this is an aging population, this is an aging state. We want to encourage not just those in our generation but younger, wanting them to take advantage of these opportunities that are being afforded to them.
This is an exciting time for Milwaukee. We are probably one of the youngest African-American cities in the country. It has taken us a long time to get here as far as the leadership, but I think now, it’s about making sure that we continue to drive this ball up the field. It’s good to be the first, but we want to make sure we’re not the last. And we have to make sure we’re doing the work that needs to be done.
MC: Are you surprised at where we stand right now in terms of younger, more diverse leadership?
DC: I am. Absolutely. I’m a kid that grew up on 23rd and Burleigh, 22nd and Brown, and went to public schools my whole life. When you think about that particular mixture of ingredients, it hasn’t necessarily meant success in the City of Milwaukee.
But my success isn’t just about my school or where I grew up. I think about all the different organizations – Urban Underground, Public Allies, YMCA, COA -- and just the countless mentors and people who have touched me along the way.
I am extremely grateful for where I am today. I never saw myself being in this position. But there’s this purpose of being able to continue to inspire. Because I think about the fact that I didn’t necessarily have a lot of people, particularly growing up in my grade school years, in politics where I’d say, “Oh, I want to be like that person.” I wasn’t even thinking about politics then. But I think this is a very unique opportunity that we need to continue to take advantage of. I look at my past, and everything that I’ve been through, and that was the best obstacle course that I could have gone through to be better prepared for the position I’m in today.
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson
CJ: I think it depends on when you ask the question. If you ask me that today, my thought about whether or not this could happen is different than it would have been 20 years ago.
Because 20 years ago, who would have thought that, not just two guys from 53206, but two Bay View Redcats, two African- Americans would hold the top two leadership positions in the city and county. But you also think about the fact that 20 years ago, we hadn’t even seen Barack Obama, who busted open the doors to show that an African-American can achieve even the highest office in the country. Now, certainly there have been African- American mayors over the course of the decades, but I think that was the glass-shattering moment. It showed that people, no matter where you come from, even if you’ve got a funny name, a skinny kid – or a short kid! (laughs) – you can do great things.
MC: It seems like each of you grew up experiencing some of the trauma that too many other Milwaukee kids experience. How did those experiences influence how you approach your jobs?
DC: For me, it’s the foundation. And I always think about understanding where I come from and what I’ve always wanted to see has helped guide me to making a lot of the policy decisions that we make, when you think about evictions, when you think about mental health, when you think about addiction – things that my family struggled with. We’ve all been through adversity, some worse than others. It helps to define me, but it is not who I am, if that makes sense.
CJ: I remember when I was in fourth grade, living on 21st Street between Wright and Clarke. And earlier this year, that’s the same block, right across the street from where I lived, where six people were found dead, execution-style, in a home. When I lived there years ago, I recall sitting on the porch, but then standing up and looking around like, “Man, I want more for myself, my family, for my community.”
Hindsight being 20/20, and looking at the struggles my family and folks in that neighborhood faced, that’s why I’m so keenly interested in building a stronger, better economy for folks. Because when folks have access to a good, family-supporting job – not two or three jobs where you can make ends meet, but a good job, where you can purchase your own home, you can put food on the table, you can put clothes on your kids’ backs, you have stability. And we’re lacking that in Milwaukee in certain neighborhoods.
So if we can create more stability in folks’ lives, if they can purchase their homes and have neighborhoods that are not porous and transient, folks actually get to know each other. They’re not just the people who live by you. They become your neighbors. And when you have a critical mass of that, that’s how neighborhoods become cohesive. That’s how they jell. And when those neighborhoods jell, that’s how you get to the true public safety that folks want to see all throughout the city.
MC: While having each of you in office represents progress, no one would suggest that it means everything is fine now. How does your background help you approach solutions to the significant issues we face?
CJ: For the long term, our holding these positions creates hope in the lives of young people in our community. They can see themselves here, and that puts them, hopefully, on a trajectory to continue to do well in school so they, too, can become the next mayor, the next county executive. Because we can’t stay here forever.
DC: Nor do we want to! (laughs)
CJ: When we were at that school this morning, you see all the talent that is in this community, especially among kids of color. And we want them to be able to come into these positions in the future to be able to help out their neighborhoods, too. Our experiences in these neighborhoods helps ground us in the decisions we make.
DC: The mayor and I are keenly aware of the symbolism. We understand what this means, not just for young people but also the generation that came before us and everything they fought for. We’re standing on their shoulders.
That’s one of the reasons we’re out in the community. We actually ask what their issues are, and more importantly, what they believe the solutions are. We have to inspire, we have to give a voice to those we represent, we have to empower them to be a part of the solution. Because the work we’re doing, the change when we talk about public safety, education, health care, when we talk about the social determinants of health, this isn’t work that we can do alone in government. This is about how do we focus on cross-sector collaborations, working well with organizations like MMAC, GMC and other folks around this county, to push for that change.
David Crowley, Milwaukee County Executive
MC: Increasing diversity, equity and inclusion is a key focus for MMAC and its member companies. Are you seeing a change within companies here?
CJ: The Region of Choice initiative, I think, sets a really good standard in this community, not just for MMAC members but the business community in general, about where we want to go.
We’re a community that has a high minority population. We’re a majority-minority community here in the City of Milwaukee and the leadership ought to reflect that. It certainly does here at this table, but that should also be in the private sector, too.
I’ve been supportive of the Region of Choice initiative. I think that businesses have really latched on to that, and see the need and the desire to go there. Look, whether it’s in politics or in the private sector, if folks can see themselves in a position, that encourages the next generation of folks to take on those opportunities.
DC: I’m extremely excited about the Region of Choice. I think at the end of the day, it’s nice to have not just the public sector, but the private sector, really focusing on how do we build on our strength, which is our diversity. And how do we make sure that we have more people of color all throughout a company? We’ve had to look internally at Milwaukee County to make sure we’re doing that, and I’m glad to see other organizations throughout Milwaukee County doing that.
But I will say, we live in a microwave age. Everybody wants to see everything happen so quickly. This is going to take time. But I can honestly say it has been great working hand in hand, in lockstep, with many private companies figuring out how we can move the needle just a little bit more.
I’m really proud of where we’re going, but more importantly, we have been continuously hammering the message about diversity, not just in the public sector but in the private sector. That lets me know that we are on the right path.
I’ll tell any business owner: The more diverse your company is, the more diverse your (revenue) dollars get.
MC: What is the main thing people should know about the need for an additional revenue stream for the city and county?
CJ: We’re in a position where, unlike every other major city in America, we’re not able to capitalize on visitors who are coming here and take in (a portion of) the dollars that they leave in our community. The state certainly gets a chance to do that. We don’t get the chance to do that.
You’ve got visitors coming from outside the city, folks from across the state and around the country descending on Milwaukee all throughout the summer, and they’re spending a lot of money. Millions and millions of dollars, all those dollars that go into the economy, they get taxed and they go into government coffers – but they don’t go into our government coffers, the ones who are actually providing a service.
If somebody goes to an NBA playoff game at Fiserv Forum and the Deer District, those folks drive in on our infrastructure. If they get hurt, they’re calling our fire department, our EMS. If they need police, it’s the City of Milwaukee police showing up. Our taxpayers are the ones paying for that, and all this money’s being taxed. But none of it is going to support these services.
We’re just simply asking for our tip. If you go to a restaurant and you get good service, like you get here in the city and county, they’re being served well but they’re not leaving a tip. It’s not because they don’t want to, it’s just that unfortunately the state has not authorized us to be able to take in that tip. We’re simply asking for the ability to capture some of those dollars so we can continue to fund the services that folks in our communities expect and deserve.
DC: At the end of the day, this affects our quality of living. Whether you’re talking about public safety, health care, transportation, public health, all those things are affected if we don’t have the ability to really leverage our economic activity. We should be able to capture those dollars.
MC: What kind of opportunity does the 2024 Republican National Convention represent for Milwaukee -- and what was it like to play a key role in that, as it meant reaching across the aisle politically?
CJ: Both the county executive and I want Milwaukee to be in the conversation. We don’t want Milwaukee to be left behind. We don’t want it to be an afterthought when people are talking about Chicago and New York and L.A. and even Atlanta and Denver, places like that. We want Milwaukee to be in the mix – and now, we are in the mix.
We successfully bid on and won the Democratic National Convention in 2020, and I was really excited about that. But unfortunately, because of the pandemic, we lost out on the economic impact that it was going to bring. We had the opportunity to bring (another) large-scale political convention to Milwaukee, making Milwaukee a history maker in terms of the fact that we’re one of few cities to win back-to-back nominating conventions. That’s huge for Milwaukee.
And my view is this: It’s not about politics, it’s about business. And when we bring the RNC here and we have the economic fallout here, it’ll put the eyes of the world on Milwaukee, which will in turn entice other large-scale convention, spots and entertainment events to Milwaukee, filling our hotels and putting dollars in the pockets of not only our businesses, but the people who work in those businesses. This is about business. This is about our economy. This is about creating a foundation on which to build the future.
DC: Just like the mayor said, this is about putting the spotlight on the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County. I truly believe that we should be celebrating because I’m not sure how often you get two political parties, back-to-back, to come to your city to say that we’re going to pick our next nominee in your town -- which is incredible.
But I think we also have to remember, we had the DNC and many people made investments gearing up for the DNC. Then we got hit by a major pandemic. The people who made those investments, the people who are looking to expand and build capacity in their businesses, deserve to be able to host -- whether it’s the RNC or DNC. Or as the mayor said, I don’t care if it’s Summer Slam, the Harley-Davidson convention or the Northwestern Mutual convention. We want you in Milwaukee to be able to showcase what we have to offer, because we know that provides more opportunities for us down the line.
People need to realize that we have many hidden jewels and treasures all throughout this city and county. And once you visit a place like this, you quickly fall in love with it.
