AFSCME District Council 48 Community Profile Dudzik

Workers
Serving
Milwaukee

Mr. Dudzik's Neighborhood

By Dominique Paul Noth

Editor's Note: After our profile appeared in the AFSCME 48 newspaper December 1, 2001, in the wake of the surprise resignation of Ald. Scherbert, Joseph Dudzik decided to run for Milwaukee 11th District Alderman. Dudzik, 43, joins a crowded field of candidates including Milwaukee police Capt. Susan Edman; real estate agent Ken Kraucunas, and property assessor James Haack.
It started fairly casually for Joe Dudzik, this involvement with neighborhood associations. Given the political acumen he gained in labor issues, and given his lifelong enthusiasm for the city of Milwaukee, it grew fairly quickly into more than that.

Joe Dudzik at Euclid Park

    At first it was sort of amusement when he moved into the Euclid Park area on the far southwest side. Here was a nice family area of about 1,500 people and an interesting mix of single family homes, many with young children and teens, apartments, condos catering to older residents, plus a full blown retirement community just across the street.
     "It cracked me up to realize at one point that I was about the youngest guy owning a house in the area," said Dudzik, who is in his early 40s. He was struck by how many families here moved in after World War II or the Korean War, and then he saw that a lot of older people who loved the area might need some help.
     The second thing was the small park itself and the memories of even the earliest families in the area of "promises by the county that it would be developed," Dudzik said. One neighbor showed him an ad from back in the 1940s promising a swimming pool and other amenities in the park.
     Well, it's a nice park and there's probably not much interest today in a swimming pool. But it still has only a playground and a concrete basketball area. Meanwhile, Oklahoma Avenue on its north has grown into a very busy thoroughfare, making it hard for residents around Euclid Park to send children or the elderly across two dangerous and far-flung intersections to get to other facilities.
     "So I kind of felt the county had dropped the ball on this one," Dudzik said. "I also thought it would be great if there were opportunities for the families on both sides of this age spectrum to work together."
     All this started Dudzik talking to his neighbors and out of this, about a year and a half ago, suddenly there was the Euclid Park Neighborhood Association. And Halloween parties. And ways of connecting older families who needed snow shoveling with teens willing to do it. And changing some bad business ideas in the area to better ones. And creating a united front on issues of neighborhood concern - all of which, Dudzik says, came not from his agenda but from providing opportunities for neighbors to talk about theirs.
     Chair of the neighborhood association, Dudzik is also vice president of Local 47 (Milwaukee Department of Public Works inspectors, foremen and supervisors) and has served as a trustee of the local and a member of the joint bargaining committee. He has also run for the pension board. He and his wife, Lynn, who have two teenage sons, are active in the St. Matthias Parish and he has been involved in many community projects.
     "I think what I brought to the Euclid Park neighborhood group was some fortitude in working the system," he said, but he names a lot of neighbors who helped. His networking in the neighborhood concept expanded.

    Interested in starting a neighborhood association? Dudzik and others involved offer some simple advice:
     Think beyond an initial neighborhood crisis. "Neighborhood groups come and go," Dudzik said, "particularly if they form around an incident, the incident passes and people lose interest, only to find another problem cropping up."
     Use your local elected official, supervisor or alderman. For instance, to organize, get them to run a notice in their newsletter. Make them aware of the purpose of your efforts.
     Talk to other neighborhood group leaders to learn what problems they encountered and how to solve them. Look for groups that deal with the same sort of issues you would

     Dudzik became treasurer for the Milwaukee Sixth District Neighborhood Advisory Council (NAC), which provides neighborhood input on law enforcement issues. He also served as Ald. Annette E. Scherbert's representative to the NAC as well acting as her neighborhood coordinator (advising her on town meetings and other communications with neighborhood groups). When Scherbert suddenly announced her retirement in November, Dudzik was surprised and somewhat embarrassed when a local paper immediately bandied about his name as a replacement candidate. Note: In early December, he did decide to enter the race.
     The NAC, which meets 10 times a month and features strong involvement from Milwaukee Police Captain Raymond Sucik, is described as one of the last vestiges of the sort of neighborhood sharing mechanism with the police once envisioned for all Milwaukee districts.
    Clearly, Dudzik, who started as laborer with the DPW and rose to the rank of Inspector 2, is no stranger to the importance of stable neighborhoods, nor to unions and politics. (Those with memories back to Chief Breier's day may recall that Dudzik's father, Jerome, served a president of the police union.)
    He's also fascinated by the history of Milwaukee neighborhoods and how organization of neighborhoods may prove important in the future.
     It wasn't the case in Euclid Park, but most neighborhood associations are "incident-driven," Dudzik points out. Something happens - a crime, an unwelcome business development, a zoning issue, property concerns, traffic issues. Sometimes, when the incident passes, the group erodes. Dudzik thinks these groups work better when there is naturally a social and caring side, as well as political side, to the neighborhood organization.
     "I think this concept has to grow," he said. "I think it's the strength of so many neighborhoods, and neighbors looking out for each other, that make Milwaukee such an attractive place to live. I think if we look at the families who started a neighborhood, and then realize how many are still there, well, that's something special."
    "Besides, we're past the days where an individual can get action by picking up the phone and calling a supervisor or an alderman. But if 30 people show up at a meeting, or a caller represents a lot of families in an area, hearing improves."