Wauwatosa’s Innovation: Marketing Parkways

What‘s in a name? First came Innovation Drive, in Wauwatosa’s . Then UWM touted its planned engineering campus on the County Grounds as Innovation Park. The , on Innovation Dr., even adopted the moniker for its .

Now officials have decided to brand the entire city of Wauwatosa as “Innovation Parkway,” based on the observation that it is interlaced with parkways. The brand is being rolled out with the companion slogan “great opportunities at a great location.” The intent is to encourage economic development by promoting the city’s central location in the Milwaukee region and its accessibility as well as the proximity of its parks.

I’m in favor of economic development. Of course. Especially in the current economic climate, who would question the need to attract business and create jobs? I’m also – no surprise here – in favor of parks, parkways, and open green space.

What’s in a name? I call this column Wild Wauwatosa in order to promote the “great opportunities” we have in our “great location” for enjoying the outdoors and connecting with nature. Our parkways provide beauty, serenity, and recreational opportunities throughout the city, making Wauwatosa an especially attractive community.

I hope that it is this inherent value of parkways that the architects of the city’s new identity had in mind and that all new development will respect the integrity of those lands.

A short stroll along the Oak Leaf Trail on a pleasant evening is enough to convince anyone that Wauwatosans love the parkways. The Common Council, the mayor and the newly created Community Development Authority should not be surprised if many of their constituents view this campaign with a measure of skepticism.

Real estate developments notoriously are named after natural features that have been diminished or destroyed. The term “park” itself long has been co-opted, its meaning subverted in oxymoronic combinations like Industrial Park and Business Park. How farfetched is the fear that “Innovation Parkway” will likewise disregard the meaning of parkway, or that public parkland will be lost to commercial development?

Examples of this are as near and recent as Aurora’s Hospice Care Center on Honey Creek Parkway and the “Research Park,” which sits on land that really did look like a park not so long ago.

Wauwatosa’s new identity and marketing campaign won’t necessarily have this destructive effect on the parkways, nor should it. But if economic development is allowed to trump land preservation and the public’s enjoyment of nature then the danger is real. The citizens of Wauwatosa should be particularly concerned that the Community Development Authority is empowered to negotiate privately – without public input – even when development plans involve public land and taxpayers’ funds.

The consultants who recommended the new brand to city officials wisely identified Wauwatosa’s parkways as among its most valued assets. Mayor Jill Didier wants to use the new marketing strategy to “make a buzz around Wauwatosa.”

A truly innovative idea would be to promote Wauwatosa as a place that protects nature. Let’s make a buzz about the indisputable importance of the parkways and the nearness of nature to the quality of life in our community. Economic development and the public interest both would benefit from this approach.

Development should be sensitive to the public’s enjoyment of the parkways; it should occur in locations that will never compromise their value. Wauwatosa really is blessed with an abundance of nature – that’s something worth creating a buzz around.