In a stunning display of selective common sense, Milwaukee Alderman Robert Bauman and fellow city officials are now pushing to erect security perimeters around the city’s downtown entertainment districts, such as Water Street and Brady Street, complete with fencing, checkpoints, metal detectors, and weapons screenings. The reason? Skyrocketing violence, shootings, and disorder have made the area so unsafe that even liberal Democrats who run the city are desperate for the very thing they’ve spent years denouncing as “racist” and “ineffective”: walls.
The proposal, approved Wednesday by the city’s Public Works Committee, instructs several agencies to develop a formal plan for hard security perimeters in areas with a high concentration of bars. Bauman, who represents the downtown district, openly referenced the tall, dark fencing used during the 2024 Republican National Convention — the same barriers Democrats and left-wing activists once screamed were oppressive and ugly.
“Would it be eight-foot fences like the Republican convention? Those very nasty, evil-looking black heavy steel fences?” Bauman asked during the meeting. He added that he hopes not to use that exact look but acknowledged it’s on the table because “the trend we’re on with the violence on Water Street is very, very concerning.”
While officials are adopting physical barriers for public safety, they have also enacted new regulations affecting food trucks. Recently, the Milwaukee Common Council unanimously passed, and Mayor Cavalier Johnson signed, an ordinance requiring all downtown food trucks to close by 10 p.m., instead of the previous 1 a.m. City leaders state that the change addresses concerns about late-night loitering and crime. Alderman Bauman and the Water Street district are at the center of this crackdown, with city leaders claiming the trucks contribute to late-night loitering and crime.
Food truck owners, many small independent operators who rely on post-10 p.m. sales for 70 to 80 percent of their revenue, are furious. They say the new curfew will devastate their livelihoods, force some out of business, and punish law-abiding entrepreneurs while brick-and-mortar bars still serve alcohol and stay open later. One owner told reporters the rule means “we just have to close the business at this location.” Instead of targeting actual criminals, Milwaukee’s left-wing leadership is again choosing to regulate and restrict hardworking small businesses.
This isn’t subtle. The same political class that called Trump’s border wall “immoral” and a “vanity project” is now exploring fences around their bars because the perception of danger “will be very difficult to dislodge.” At the same time, they’re kneecapping mobile food vendors who actually serve late-night customers safely and legally. As President Trump has proven, walls and barriers work whether at the southern border to stop illegal crossings, drugs, and crime, or in high-crime urban zones to protect law-abiding citizens and legitimate businesses. Milwaukee’s left-wing officials are now proving the point in real time, even if they can’t quite bring themselves to say it out loud.
