In a response to ever-escalating violence at Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa, city officials and mall management have worked together to create a new bus voucher system that will encourage riders of the Milwaukee County Transit System to frequent other malls located along major routes.
"We welcome all people in our mall," said one mall representative, "but we’d like to diversify our customer base and free our money-spending patrons from having the living daylights scared out of them, so we’re offering these vouchers that allow bus riders to ride the bus anywhere but here at a deep discount."
The vouchers are good for $.25 rides on routes that travel to other malls in Metropolitan Milwaukee, mostly from the central city. These routes include the 10 and the 76, which travel to Brookfield Square, Bayshore, and Southridge. “We think that some of our patrons do not realize that Bayshore Mall has recently been renovated, and we’re sure they’ll appreciate the pseudo-downtown created there. And everybody loves Brookfield Square,” said the representative. He added that South 76th Street has recently undergone major renovations, and Southridge has always been a very nice mall.
The vouchers will be passed out at MPS schools, as well as (ironically perhaps) voucher schools, as well as at MPS basketball games. Funding from the voucher program will come from mall store owners, mall management, and the city of Wauwatosa. Wauwatosa has said it would use money earmarked for riot-training of its police force to help pay for the vouchers.
If the program is able to decrease crime at the mall, the vouchers may be extended to pay for charter buses to the planned mall in Oconomowoc, as well as to the Johnson’s Creek Outlet Mall. When asked if race played any role in the decision to offer vouchers, officials said that vouchers offer choice, and that’s what will help all malls—the choice to go to any mall on a bus, especially if it’s not Mayfair.
No comments:
Post a Comment