Water, Parks, and Public Life

A healthy city is built through ordinary routines. Sometimes the useful work is simple: give people a reason to get moving together.

In 2018, Green Bay’s Move with the Mayor challenge was a month-long partnership that invited city employees and residents to walk for heart health. The National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention documents the program’s use to engage city employees in physical activity and health programming.

Make prevention easier to join

The effort put prevention into public view. A walk, a public invitation, and familiar places such as streets, river walks, and parks can make a healthy routine easier to begin.

That is practical public health: making it easier to take part in a healthier daily routine.

Green Bay established its Public Arts Commission in 2016 to promote, fund, install, and preserve public art with equal public access.

Public art is one of the quiet ways a city shows what it values. It turns ordinary public space into a place people can recognize, remember, and share.

The Zippin Pippin brought a family attraction to Bay Beach and became a visible part of the park.

Jim Schmitt was a major proponent of bringing it to Green Bay. At the ride’s tenth anniversary, he said it had helped increase both ridership and concession revenue.

The appeal was straightforward: give people another reason to visit Bay Beach. The ride is one documented part of the park’s larger story.

Some of the most important city work is invisible until it is neglected.

In its 2018 State of the City, Green Bay reported that it had replaced 479 lead service lines. The City said it was working toward eliminating the remaining lines by the end of 2021.

The work was funded with Lambeau Field sales-tax revenue and principal-forgiveness loans from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

No ribbon cutting. No sweeping promise. Just a specific public-health and infrastructure job, with documented progress and a plan to finish it.

Bay Beach is one of the places that makes Green Bay feel like Green Bay. It is a public destination for families, visitors, and the community that has grown up around it.

During Jim Schmitt’s administration, the City was working on more than the rides. Its 2018 State of the City identified work at the beach, boardwalk, wildlife pier, bathhouse, parking area, and pavilion.

That work also brought in outside support. In 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded Green Bay a $500,000 Great Lakes Shoreline Cities grant for green infrastructure at Bay Beach.

The work at Bay Beach reflects a long view: improve the amenities, bring in outside support, and keep investing in a public place Green Bay families use and value.