Kenosha Mayor Antaramian reflects on the unrest of 2020 and the positive efforts being done to move forward today | Government and Politics

Does the unrest of August 2020 seem like a long time ago to you?

Two years is not a long time. It was an issue that happened and the city now is doing a lot to improve what’s going on in the community, working a great deal trying to put programs together for young people to make sure they have opportunities. That’s where we need to focus a lot of the efforts. How do we make sure that young people see an opportunity for the future instead of seeing what occurred.

Are you happy with the progress being made to rebuild Uptown and some of the other areas damaged during the unrest?

Yes. It’s actually been moving very rapidly when you look at our community. …

Kenosha has always been a community that when we’ve had difficulties we’ve always stepped up and move forward.

I’m very proud of all the people who have worked together to accomplish where we’re going and what we’re going to become.

When you travel to conferences and chat with folks from other parts of the nation, do they still associate Kenosha with the unrest?

No so much anymore. I think initially they did.

But I think a lot of the times people find it fascinating when you talk about the things we’re doing. At the U.S. Conference of Mayors one of the presentations I gave was on the KIN (Kenosha Innovation Neighborhood) and the Brown Bank building and what we’re doing. That was something that a number of mayors were very, very interested in about how we did it and how we’re putting it together.

Are you proud of how the Kenosha Police Department has responded to different communities over the last couple of years?

Absolutely. They have done a very, very good job with reaching out to the community. They’ve done a very good job of being seen and talking to individuals and making sure that the public is comfortable with individual officers. They get to know the officers.

The interim chief (Eric Larson) is very, very good at getting out and talking to folks. He’s done a great job.

Have you been able to process what happened?

You never stop knowing and thinking about what occurred, but it’s a question about where we’re going. We’re moving forward.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I think people need to look at the community coming together, not just government but organizations and people working together to get things accomplished. I believe they’re going to see some wonderful opportunities coming forward in the next couple of years as we work to improve the Uptown neighborhood and work on the KIN neighborhood, and the programming to improve our parks. …

It goes to a lot of peoples’ credit that this is happening. …

I think that when people look at Kenosha and the situation we had two years ago and then look at other communities that have had similar situations, we have moved very rapidly. The credit goes to the community and all the people who work hard to move us forward.