Nicole Robbins’ first year as executive director of MLK EDC has been nothing short of exciting. In January, the neighborhood-based nonprofit development organization was selected to transform a 1-acre city-owned site in the Five Points neighborhood into a mixed-use development, with plans for ground-floor retail, 57 units of mixed-income housing and community event space. MLK EDC has also been finalizing its first single-family home rehabilitation project as part of its MLK Homes initiative.
Now, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide protests and unrest over long-standing racial disparities, investment in Milwaukee’s Harambee community and surrounding areas is especially relevant. In a recent interview with BizTimes Milwaukee reporter Maredithe Meyer, Robbins reflected on the current climate and how MLK EDC works to bring about change.
COVID-19 response
“We always have and will maintain having that commitment to the health of our local business community, particularly with our commercial tenants, just making sure that they’re able to stay in business and deal with any overhead that they may have. Some of these businesses were not considered essential, and so there have been issues recently where (operators) were not able to figure out exactly what they’d do.
“We made sure to inform everyone about every grant opportunity that we knew about and maintained communication with other organizations about different funding opportunities they have.”
A path forward
“My family has their original roots in Harambee — my mother grew up in Harambee as a little girl and she was there for years — so I have a vested interest in making sure that we keep the vitality of the neighborhood strong, and making sure we can close out the narrative on a positive note and show continued unity for the area.
“The community’s really strong right now, even the different groups that have come together to help protect the community and for those to peacefully protest their concerns about current race relations in Milwaukee and the county and the world, really. But I see it growing stronger than where it is now. I think when you have adversity like this, it makes people come together more and to be on the same page and to show a concerted front. Just like when there were riots back in the 1960s, and Harambee emerged from that, I see us growing stronger.”
Sign of hope
“It was very encouraging to see the Harambee cleanup event (after some businesses were damaged during recent protests). That’s probably the most diversity I’ve seen on (North King Drive) in a long time. There were obviously those who are residents and business owners in the area, too, so it just really showed Milwaukee coming together to make sure Harambee continues to stay strong.
