The Bottom-Up Revolution
Steve Schaer and Patrick Schloss share how landlocked, eleven‑square‑mile West Allis, Wisconsin, has become one of metro Milwaukee’s most business‑friendly cities by growing from within after major factory closures. They trace the community’s path from brownfields and aging corridors to adaptive reuse, new housing, and lively main streets filled with independent shops, coffee houses, and breweries. Along the way, they highlight zoning shifts, creative financing tools, arts events, transportation academies, and on‑the‑ground outreach that together have changed the city’s trajectory.
Transcript (Lightly edited for readability)
Hi there, and welcome to Bottom Up Shorts. I'm Norm with Strong Towns, and this is a Strongest Town Contest interview with the folks from the community of West Allis, Wisconsin. With me today are Patrick and Steve. Patrick and Steve, welcome — do you want to introduce yourselves to our audience?
Sure. My name is Patrick Schloss, Economic Development Director here with the City of West Allis. I was a Main Street director here in our business improvement district for 24 years, so I've been involved with everything from the small merchants on Greenfield Avenue all the way up to large development projects.
Excellent. And Steve?
I'm Steve Schaer, Director of City Planning, also a longtime city employee here in West Allis — about 30 years. The city has changed quite a bit over that period of time, and it's been very rewarding to be part of it. We're both residents, too.
Fantastic. I'd love to hear what's been exciting about this year's entry in the Strongest Town Contest, and what you think is appealing to folks as they evaluate West Allis. What are some of the things that really stand out — that you love about your community and that represent that sense of working with what you have, making good use of scarce resources, and building on community assets?
West Allis's namesake is Allis-Chalmers — it was an older industrial town. In the mid-'80s, Allis-Chalmers unfortunately went away, and it left the city with a loss of population. We lost about 10,000 residents, and it shifted the tax burden from industrial to residential. Fortunately, with the support of the Common Council and our Community Development Authority, there was real investment in thinking about the future and rebuilding — grow or die, more or less.
The city is very resilient, and one thing I really like about it is the support we get from our City Council, Planning Commission, and CDA — but also the people, the residents of this community, are fantastic. We've got great amenities to work with: sidewalks throughout most of the community, a grid network of streets, public transportation, a farmers market. Things are walkable within the city — a very high walk score. We're really trying to build upon those amenities and overcome some of the stigma from the past as an inner-ring industrial suburb.
We have a bright future, and we're really trying to take advantage of that through the branding and strategic planning we're doing.
Patrick, I'm sure you agree with everything Steve just said — but what would you add?
We're 11 square miles, landlocked. Everything we do has to be grown from within. We are at the 50-yard line of the metro Milwaukee area. One of the best things this year was getting ranked number one as one of the most business-friendly communities in the metro Milwaukee area. That says a lot — especially because we're landlocked. Working with businesses and making sure we have a progressive, business-friendly environment where small businesses can find opportunity is really our bread and butter.
It's about finding the connections, building great neighborhoods where someone can find an opportunity to open a new business or a new eatery. Through data we collect — we have a subscription to Placer AI — we can see how our projects are doing, where we've made investments, and whether we're attracting new people and new demographics to our city. Building on the marketing, building on connections, and then growing through redevelopment has really been our story.
Is some of that redevelopment work also happening on the housing side, where existing neighborhoods are subject to change — but not subject to radical change?
A lot of it has been brownfield redevelopment — taking large old factory sites that have gone into disrepair. It's been a decade-long change. We're still working on some of the old Allis-Chalmers area, trying to make investments there, addressing legacy issues, and bringing in new multifamily development
where we can. We're also doing new missing-middle-type housing with some new townhomes in various areas of the city. Since COVID, we've added close to 800 new housing units, and we have a 1.8% vacancy rate.
We also started working with Habitat for Humanity to build new affordable family housing on some old deteriorated commercial spaces — constantly growing from within where we can.
Steve, can you describe what the Main Street environment is like, and how it fosters a sense of place and a sense of passion — where people can take that first step of owning a business or participating in one, and others come along saying, "I want to support this and see more of it"?
There's been quite a surge in recent years. Our historic downtown area is along Greenfield Avenue — about a six-block stretch with buildings very close together, zero setback, and all sorts of shops and eateries. There's definitely been an uptick in restaurants and third spaces within the city. That's really contributed to the success, because housing and those third spaces work in concert with one another. The proximity of newer housing, as well as existing housing stock, to our downtown area really supports it.
The city also has more than just one main street. Greenfield Avenue is the primary one, but there are new things happening on National Avenue and Beecher Street as well — quite an entrepreneurial spirit on some stretches of those streets that has helped
spread the excitement of the city to those other thoroughfares. It's the true authenticity of our community. Freeze Candy Shop — 1928.
We have a grandfather clock store in our downtown. Those true, authentic types of stores make a community unique. The West Allis Cheese Shop, Beecher's Meats, the Bake Sale, Archie's Burgers — and then we have Grebe's Bakery, which is in its fourth generation and has a famous donut called a crawler. Not a night crawler — a crawler donut. I always say West Allis is in good hands through Freezies and Grebes.
We can bring in larger developments, but people want those nearby third spaces too — a Lake Effect Coffee, a K&K Barista, a new Puerto Rican coffee shop. When we see those new places open, business people can walk there and maybe head to Flower Girl and a Flame Pizza,
Chef Paz's Peruvian restaurant. There's a little bit of diversity and different things to try along the way. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Oak Brewery, Layman Brewery, and Perspective Brewery. We have two breweries that opened right after COVID, and they're going into their fourth year and growing.
We actually didn't lose much during COVID — we gained new businesses, which is really cool.
At Strong Towns, we talk about how the work of building a strong community is less like tinkering with a machine and more like getting the elements of an ecosystem right. We need the skills of a conservation biologist. Hearing you list off all of these indicator species — indicators that the ecosystem is growing in health, seeing more of that vibrancy — and it's not just a single species that dominates. There's that readiness to say there are a lot of different opportunities, and it's those early inklings of life and activity that give rise to more mature businesses over time. Breweries that manage to stay open — which is no insignificant feat given investment cycles and challenges.
Tell me a little bit about Make Music Day and Art on the Plaza, and some of those efforts to use existing assets and just make more of them.
Make Music Day was the inspiration of one of our community engagement coordinators, Suzanne Singh. She's a newer employee who came into the city with a fresh perspective, thinking about how the city can engage a little differently, collaborate, tap into residents and what people want, and basically how to have some fun in the process.
Make Music Day consisted of coordinating and curating different artists and musicians at several parks throughout the city, each with a certain time slot. It was advertised, and people could walk, bike, or travel by some means to get to those places, listen to some music, hang out for a bit, and just enjoy the day. It worked quite well, and it's something we want to continue into the future.
As for Art on the Plaza, it's another organic effort with one of our businesses here — Inspiration Studios, which does a number of plays and is very artistic in nature. It's about getting artists together to collaborate in front of City Hall, at the plaza, creating a destination in our downtown to bring people together, enjoy art, and just talk and connect. That's a celebration of a growing little cluster called the West Allis Arts Coalition.
It's a private group working to foster more art throughout our community. Even though we've done great work with murals, poems, and different artistic elements throughout the city, this group is trying to get more citizen engagement to bring more art to the community.
Another way you were engaging citizens was through the Transportation Academy. Was that a project specific to West Allis, or is it something other communities have also learned from or are looking to do? It seems to me that combination of deepening our understanding of our transportation needs and challenges — and then beginning to talk about the trade-offs when we try to address things in ways that have knock-on consequences — has really helped the community have mature conversations about transportation options. Can you share how that's worked?
The Transportation Academy is put on by 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, a nonprofit that does somewhat of a road show around the state with this Academy, among other things. One of our city planners, Emily Wagner, went to a conference where they were presenting, approached them, and brought them to West Allis. We hosted the Academy here for about nine or ten weeks. Citizens who were interested got involved, and it's more or less about putting yourself
into a bit of a different comfort zone. Maybe you're not typically a public transportation user — well, as part of the Academy, we're riding the bus. How does it all work? How does the little bike rack on the front of the bus work? Let's cross a major thoroughfare — how does that make you feel? Just stepping out of your comfort zone, trying something new, and looking at things from a different perspective is eye-opening. It's something
city planners, economic development directors, elected officials, and people in general should try. A lot of people just take things for granted and say, "I just drive my car from here to there." Let's get out of that car. Let's walk across the street — how does that make you feel? Let's take a bike ride. Let's ride the bus. What do you like? What do you dislike? It's a really great
way to take a look at some of the issues, but also the opportunities to improve.
You mentioned the economic decline when Allis-Chalmers left — they built tractors and other types of machinery — and yet the community has rebounded, is stronger, and is trying to take advantage of new opportunities. That really stands out to me. What else would you highlight as you encourage people to do the right thing and vote for West Allis?
We do an annual business survey, and this last one showed that 94% of businesses said they would recommend West Allis as a place to open a business. That's a very good percentage, and we're very happy with that. Every community can strive to be 100%, but
that's sometimes a challenge in itself given everything that comes up through the approval process. But when you look at the top reasons people are deciding to open businesses here — it's the business community, the demographics, the diversity. A decade or two ago, community reputation wasn't there, and we've had to put a lot of investment into addressing brownfield sites, deteriorated properties, and trying to make things a little better for everyone.
Whether in all forms of housing, manufacturing development, cleaner development versus old foundries, adaptive reuse — looking at all those types of things.
It's a lot of work, and it's not easy. We've had to be innovative. We created a Community Development Entity called FIRE for New Market Tax Credits to help cover some costs — so we got a little entrepreneurial to help foster change. In partnership with Planning — Planning and Economic Development actually share the same office — you have to work together, you have to agree, and more planning considerations are coming into the economic discussion. You can't just drop a building on an old site and say, "That'll be great." You have to plan, make connections, think about how it fits into the neighborhood, and how it impacts the neighborhood. That's what companies want to see too — where are my employees going to go for lunch? I watch name tags when I go out because those people are coming into our community.
West Allis has also done some progressive things within our zoning ordinance — breaking out of parking minimums, moving to parking maximums, introducing and allowing accessory dwelling units. Density is not a dirty word. Density is a great word. As long as there's quality development and different housing types,
it's very important. We look at our zoning ordinance, design review guidelines, and comprehensive plan as a value proposition for the city — how do we want to see the city grow over the next 5, 10, 15 years? Keep what's working, and readjust what isn't. There's definitely opportunity for the future. We're also always looking for new ways to engage with our public — trying to get away from just surveys and mailers, and instead getting out in the community at farmers markets, neighborhood night outs, Food Truck Fridays, Concert Series events, just talking with people: what makes them tick, what do they like to see?
I love what a past winning community — Pensacola, Florida — one of their leaders said: "Our goal is to be the second community to every great idea." There's so much value in that. Some people pioneer really bad ideas, but if you can be second to every good idea, you're well ahead of the pack and making big strides together as a community.
With that, folks, head over to StrongestTown.com to vote for West Allis as one of the four finalists in our contest this year. Patrick and Steve, thanks so much for joining me on Bottom Up Shorts today.
Take note of the things in your community as you look around and identify the next incremental development, the next opportunity. What are the barriers — as the folks in West Allis are showing — that you can say, "How do we remove this to create more opportunity for everyone?" I hope you've been inspired by this portrait of West Allis today. Take care, and take care of your places.
Thank you.
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