Cream City Farms in the 30th street corridor
NOTE: This site is not physically accessible via the app because it is closed to the public unless a tour is scheduled. During the pandemic response, no tours are expected. Be safe. Avoid this site.
Milwaukee journalist Jabril Faraj presents the story of Cream City Farms in part of a six-part mini-series created for Reflo Sustainable Water Solutions' Water Story MKE app, July 2017. Meet urban farmer David Johnson above or watch the entire 15-minute documentary below.
Cream City Farms, 2055 N. 30th St., occupies 1.25 acres on a reclaimed industrial brownfield site and is irrigated by stormwater that is collected in an underground cistern fed from two bioswales.
Discover the who, the how, and the why of this amazing story of transformation in the videos on this page and explore more with the Water Story MKE app, a citywide scavenger hunt where you discover Milwaukee's water stories hidden in plain sight.
Mission
Visit the Site and complete From Gray to Green to unlock Cream City Trivia. Complete Cream City Trivia to earn the Cream City Farms badge. Bonus Challenges include The Invisible Cistern and There Will Be Math!
Please note that the actual Cream City Farms site is not always unlocked for the public.
A cistern the size of two school buses is buried beneath the ground at Cream City Farms. This video clip from Justin Hegarty reveals the invisible cistern. Play Water Story MKE to find the cistern in real life. Check out the story of of the intense 2010 storms that flooded the city. The cistern is part of a larger effort to use green infrastructure to capture and reuse stormwater.
Milwaukee journalist Jabril Faraj shares the story of transformation in the 30th Street Corridor where residents, organizations, and businesses are using green infrastructure and urban farming to reclaim hope in an area of the city long beset by deindustrialization and flooding.
“We have to keep trying. There’s more love in the world than there is hate. Trust me.”
Bonus Trivia
Which of these major Milwaukee manufacturing companies once had a major presence in the 30th Street Corridor?
