Gov. Evers takes walking tour of historic Garden Homes neighborhood, discusses improvements to public safety

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Milwaukee leaders led Governor Tony Evers on a walk through the city's historic Garden Homes neighborhood on Wednesday. 

Starting at The New Hope Missionary Baptist Church and ending at Engine House 36, Evers stopped at parks, homes and businesses along the route where leaders and community members pointed out the parts of the neighborhood that thrive and the parts that struggle.

"There's a lot to be achieved right here in this neighborhood," Ald. Ashanti Hamilton said. "This is a place where you have all of the ingredients for improving your neighborhood. Great churches, great institutions, but there are challenges."

Challenges that business owners and community members see firsthand every day and hope city and state leaders will prioritize.

"We would sit on that park (bench), and you know, just dream about what we could do in this neighborhood," one woman told Evers.

The purpose of the walk was to talk about public safety and investing in violence prevention.

Evers has directed more than $100 million to community safety efforts in Milwaukee since 2019.

"Quality of life is a really important piece of this," Evers said.

Local leaders said improvement to housing, health care, transportation and economic development will bring long-lasting change to the community, but said it's not something the city can tackle alone. 

Evers committed his support.

"A lot of people here are working hard to make this neighborhood a really special place again," Evers said. "The state of Wisconsin needs to be a part of that."

Evers said he plans to take what he learned on his walk back to the Capitol.