a brief history of Johnso's Park and the Lindsay heights area

Lindsay Heights was named after Bernice Lindsay the “Mother of the Black community.” Bernice Lindsay was an early African American rights activist in the Milwaukee area. The area is on the south side of Milwaukee between west Center, Walnut Way, N 20th and Hwy 43. The area started as a working class neighborhood but changed when many homes were demolished to make way for the freeways. Many of the prospective freeways were never built in the area leaving behind many empty lots. After the 60’s many residents and businesses in the area began to move out; the neighborhood began to deteriorate and succumb to drugs and crime.
In 1997 WHEDA (Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority) started the Lindsay Heights Initiative, which set a goal to make 60 new houses in the area. They sold the empty lots left by the unfinished freeways to people looking to move into the area. The lots were sold for $1 and the residents of the area were also eligible for mortgage help and tax breaks. By 2007 WHEDA had put 9 million dollars into the area and more than doubled their goal of creating 60 houses. They built 165 new houses and rehabilitated another 221. In 2008 the mortgages in the area are now market driven and the WHEDA is no longer treating the area as a special project area.
The success of this project caught the attention of the Zilber Family Foundation. Mr. Zilber grew up in the area as a kid and now wants to help in its revitalization. He plans on giving over $1 million to the area allowing the residents to decide what to do with the money, he believes in a bottom up program that allows residents to put the money toward what they feel needs it most. Despite all of the rebuilding in the area not all is perfect. According to U.S. census data 48% of the areas residents are below the poverty level, 25% are unemployed, 45% have never earned a High School degree, and less than 5% of the residents in the Lindsay Heights area have a college degree.