Around 100 leaders from Oregon traveled to Milwaukee to meet with local leaders on key issues
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- A group of leaders from Portland, Oregon, made a trip to one of our hometowns Thursday, Oct. 5, to learn some do's and don'ts from the city of Milwaukee.
"Want to make sure that we build a city that is attractive for folks who have opportunities and will go anywhere potentially," said Mayor Cavalier Johnson at City Hall.
Around 100 leaders from Oregon gathered at City Hall to learn about what Milwaukee is doing successfully, and what the city needs to improve upon.
"We just heard from the mayor that you are one of the least unsheltered communities, we would be in the top rung of unsheltered communities and working to end chronic homelessness in the next eight years," said Lynn Peterson, Oregon metro council president.
Public safety, mental health, and crime are some of the issues both cities are attempting to tackle.
"A lot of the crimes that folks are talking about, the ones that really send people over the edge here, including myself, are issues around guns," said Mayor Johnson.
Johnson says gun violence is an issue the city deals with on a daily basis, and Wisconsin as a whole, needs to do better.
"We don't control gun law at the local level and so that's why we have to continue to work with our partners at the state to make sure there are more consequences for people who pull triggers and hurt people," Johnson added.
This hits a little too close to home for Wisconsin native Peterson.
"My family is a victim of gun violence in Wisconsin," Peterson told CBS 58 while in tears.
Bart and Krista Halderson were murdered in 2021, by their 23-year-old son who dismembered them and discarded the remains in Dane County.
"The hard part was that an individual from out of state gifted a gun to the murderer, who, in this case, was my cousin's son," Peterson said.
She hopes that as an elected official, she can help close some loopholes.
"Some of these problems that we are seeing now are so systematic that you have to pull the system apart to put it back together again," Peterson concluded.