LEADING BY EXAMPLE

By Jordan Dechambre | Photography By Eric Halverson

Milwaukee Business Improvement District #2 Chair Ron San Felippo has helped write more than a few chapters of the Historic Third Ward’s story.

In fact, he practically wrote the book.

Here, this longtime neighborhood advocate, visionary and passionate civic leader shares his thoughts on the Ward’s past, present — and very bright future.

Q. I understand your family has a long history in the Third Ward. Tell me about it.

A. My dad was born in the Third Ward in 1910. Growing up we’d hear all the stories of the old “Sicilian Ward.” My grandmother lived here for 50 years and never learned English. Everything she needed was in the neighborhood.

My grandfather worked for the city, and my dad was a “fortunate accident.” All of his brothers were born in Sicily. My grandfather was able to bring everybody over. I don’t think they were planning on having more kids, but it was good for me that they did.

Q. You’ve served on dozens of boards and held numerous positions in government, hospitality, education and more since 1967, including as president of the Milwaukee School Board, the Fire and Police Commission and now as the VP of the Harbor Commission. What ignited that early — and lifelong — love of public service?

A. My dad worked in the breweries for 35 years and was very active in the union. My parents were a little older, and had gone through the Depression and the war. They were very solid supporters of FDR. Growing up hearing about that, I became very interested in politics.

I pretty much had the same attitude then that I do now: I have no idea what I want to be when I grow up. I’ve been in and out of government over the years, and that has always been fascinating for me.

Q. How did you get involved with Milwaukee Business Improvement District (BID) #2 and the Historic Third Ward Association (HTWA)?

A. Joan Zepecki was the executive director of the HTWA in 1992 and asked me to get involved in the strategic planning for the neighborhood. And I’ve never been able to get away from it … but it’s fun. When I first got involved, there were maybe 30 people living in the Ward. We’ve come a long way. It’s taken a lot of work by a lot of people over a long time, along with great support from city government.

Q. What is the importance of a BID to the community?

A. First, we are the only Milwaukee BID with operating businesses (our Third Ward parking ramps). We’ve kept the same tax revenue for 13 years. We generate five-sixths of our earned revenue, primarily from those two parking ramps. No other BID is doing that.

We also have the luxury of being able to have an independent association — the HTWA — and a BID. Many BIDs, except for Milwaukee Downtown BID #21, don’t have the resources we have to provide the services the people of the Third Ward receive. And I think that’s part of the reason the Ward has flourished.

Everything we were hoping to be able to do we have been very successful in pulling off. The key is continuing to maintain it — and not sitting on our butts thinking we can’t make it better.

Q. Tell me about the relationship between the BID and the HTWA.

A. The Association is the communications hub. In the early days, the HTWA didn’t pay attention to the residents — because there weren’t any! Today, residents are a major component of the HTWA’s activities. The BID has been doing the work physically — streetscaping and working with the city to develop more parkland, like Trestle Park and Erie Plaza. Now we are developing a whole block on the Milwaukee River across from the Milwaukee Public Market. The pickleball courts are wildly successful beyond our expectations, and we are currently reworking the southern half of that block. Our Riverwalk is key; we are continuing to add to that with the new Fromm dog park across the river. We will have the first block of Riverwalk on the west side.

It all goes back to the BID being the more operational, tangible element. That gives the HTWA the ability to be the communications hub, the resource, the “mini City Hall.” The relationship makes a ton of sense.

Q. To what do you attribute the success of the Milwaukee Public Market (which the BID owns and operates)?

A. When the BID took over running it, we changed the concept from “you should buy what we want to sell you” to “we will sell you what you want to buy.” We built a staff, rethought the layout and interior, and changed up a few of the vendors. We made it the gathering place it was intended to be for the city. Did we know it would become the third-highest attendance venue in Southeast Wisconsin with over 2 million visitors last year? No.

It was reasonably scary the first year if we could pull it off — but the basic concept was common sense, sense of humor and organized chaos. And that has been the slogan there for years. We want it clean; we don’t want it orderly. We want to change it up on a regular basis, so people feel like they’ll find something new. We’ve been able to pull off some fun things.

Q. What’s your greatest accomplishment, so far?

A. I feel very lucky I’ve had the opportunity to be involved in so many different things. And I feel really good about what has happened here in the Ward. We’ve been able to create a work-live-play-shop neighborhood, which is more than a slogan.

In addition, an advantage we have with the BID is if something comes up that’s unplanned — because we have been responsible with our money — we are able to respond to variables. Security is the biggest example of that. Everyone knows the challenges have gotten greater in the city of Milwaukee. This is a very, very safe neighborhood. But perception is critical for us in addition to reality; people have to feel safe in addition to being safe.

We’ve been able to respond to that in the last 18 months with a variety of techniques, adding 24-7 vehicles around the neighborhood. It’s a good example of being nimble and not getting stuck in the “we’ve always done it that way” mentality.

Q. Where do you see the Ward in 10 years?

A. The whole eastern part of the Ward has a lot of potential development. There is still a lot of land connected to the Italian Community Center (ICC), and the Gagliano companies have two full blocks.

And we currently have a lot of continued development. The portion of the ICC land that was recently sold will have 233 apartments; we have a 31-story tower going up on the corner of St. Paul and Water. And of course there’s the three-story, 28,000-square-foot Foxtown Landing — a taproom, distillery and restaurant planned for the land adjacent to the dog park. We are not done by any sense; the key is keeping up what we are doing.