FRI AM News: Madison’s Trek Travel expands into week-long hiking trips; WisBusiness: the Podcast with Peggy Williams-Smith, Visit Milwaukee

July 19, 2024

— When Tania Burke was growing up in Pewaukee, she often hiked with her family at Devil’s Lake State Park near Baraboo.

“I loved it,” said Burke, president of Madison-based Trek Travel, which has been leading bicycle tours around the globe for more than two decades.

Starting this fall, though, Trek Travel will embrace hiking and walking by offering weeklong trips in Scotland, Ireland, Portugal and Italy. Come 2025, Trek Travel’s jaunts will expand to more challenging terrain in the Italian Dolomites and French Alps, Burke said.

In high school, she traveled with her contractor father to Arizona’s Grand Canyon and California’s Joshua Tree, rambling on trails while he did projects for the National Park Service. Later, while guiding bike tours for Backroads, she also led walking trips.

And when she lived for a time in Aspen, Colo., she hiked to the top of five of the state’s “Fourteeners,” peaks that tower above 14,000 feet. She also trekked to the top of several volcanoes in Chile.

“So yes, I’ve long been passionate about hiking,” she said.

“And when we started Trek Travel back in 2002, hiking was included as a possibility,” she said.

But with its close ties to Waterloo-based Trek Bicycles — where her husband, John, is president — the company focused on cycling adventures.

Though walking, sea kayaking and whitewater rafting are offered as single-day options on some bike tours, hiking-only trips remained on the back burner as the company continued to grow, Burke said.

See the full story at WisBusiness.com.

— This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with Peggy Williams-Smith, president and CEO of Visit Milwaukee.

She discusses the impact of the Republican National Convention, which wrapped up last night after four days of political speeches, delegate parties, business meetings, protests and more.

“It is something to see,” she said. “People are here, they’re loving the city, they’re experiencing the city … after the convention lets out, people just flood the streets. And we’ve heard so many great comments about Milwaukee.”

Williams-Smith said local hotels have been busy as the city accommodates tens of thousands of visitors, and touted the flurry of business activity she observed after a bit of slow start on Monday.

“Obviously, we all know what happened this past weekend,” she said, referring to the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. “And it made the convention a little different, because people were anticipating that maybe President Trump would show up, so no one left the convention show floor on Monday … but last night, everywhere I went when I walked back from Fiserv Forum to the Pfister was jamming.”

She touted the work of the Visit Milwaukee team, which has been directing visitors at nearby hotels to spend their money at local bars, restaurants and retailers.

The interview also touches on the influence of the heightened security presence at the RNC following Saturday’s shooting in Pennylvania.

“It became a different ballgame, and I don’t think any of us could have anticipated that would have happened literally one day before the convention kicked off,” she said. “So you know, it’s ongoing. There’s challenges at times with getting people in and out of the perimeter, and vehicle checks, but it’s to be expected.”

She also says the opportunity presented by the convention is “so much more than an economic impact number.”

“We have so many people who have never seen this city, and they are able to see us at our best,” she said. “And that may change minds and perceptions, it may make someone choose to move here, to live here, to move a business here. All of which goes way beyond the four days of the convention.”

Listen to the podcast and see the full list of WisBusiness.com podcasts.

See RNC coverage at the WisPolitics Convention Corridor.

— While new housing permits in Wisconsin have recovered from the years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, they remain far below the levels seen in the mid-2000s.

That’s according to the latest Wisconsin Policy Forum report, which explores housing affordability concerns amid relatively low levels of permitting in the state.

The report shows average multi-family housing permits from 2021 to 2023 are up 61.3% compared to 2017-2019, while single-family housing permits rose 21.7% over the same period.

“Housing permit activity during the last three years remained far below the state’s 21st century peak for new housing, however, which occurred between 2002 and 2004,” report authors wrote.

When adjusted for population change, the average rate of multi-family housing permits for the last three years was 7.1% lower than the average seen during that period. More dramatically, single-family permitting was 53.6% lower, WPF found.

Authors note the higher pace of multi-family construction is “welcome news for renters,” but may be too low to meet the demand created by population growth and household growth in certain parts of the state.

“For prospective homebuyers, meanwhile, the state’s sluggish pace of single-family home permitting suggests that — absent other major changes in housing markets — there may be little relief in store from rising prices,” they wrote.

Metropolitan Milwaukee, the state’s largest housing market, saw its multi-family housing construction rate decline in the last three years compared to 2017-2019 while its single-family construction rate “held flat.”

Though the city’s lack of population growth may be playing a role, these trends are “a concern due to other factors” such as households getting smaller, more households overall and the region’s aging housing stock, WPF says.

“Home and rent prices have soared in metro Milwaukee since the pandemic, and the lack of permitting suggests there is little new housing in the pipeline to help ease the supply crunch and control price increases,” authors wrote.

In contrast, the Madison area has seen multi-family permits increase 77.8% from 2017-2019 to 2021-2023. But at the same time, single-family permitting in the metro area fell 4.3%, “offering little hope of relief for prospective buyers.”

See the release and report.

— Wisconsin’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 2.9% in June as the state set a new record for total employment.

State officials yesterday announced 3,048,600 people were employed in Wisconsin last month, 600 more than the previous record announced for May. Meanwhile, private sector jobs added 6,700 over the month to also reach a record high of 2,639,000 jobs.

The state’s unemployment rate remained below the national level of 4.1% in June, and the labor force participation rate was 65.5%, above the national rate of 62.5%.

Department of Workforce Development Chief Economist Dennis Winters said these figures represent “more of the same.”

“Things are looking good, things are on the rise,” he said yesterday during an online briefing. “We continue to expect that to happen in the months ahead.”

See the release.

— The health of women in Wisconsin has been ranked 11th in the nation, says a new report from the Commonwealth Fund.

The private foundation today rolled out its 2024 State Scorecard on Women’s Health and Reproductive Care, which places Wisconsin in the No. 1 spot for the Great Lakes region.

The report ranked the state 4th for health care quality and prevention. The measure captures the low-risk cesarean birth rate, preventive care use, pre- and postpartum care and mental health screening.

Wisconsin was ranked 16th for insurance coverage, provider access and care affordability, and 23rd for health and reproductive care outcomes. The latter ranking includes maternal and women’s mortality from all causes as well as infant mortality.

The state had the best ratings for women being up to date on screening for breast and colon cancer, but was ranked much lower for self-reported mental health, HIV and AIDS testing and access to abortion clinics.

Along with ranking states on dozens of measures, the report also includes a snapshot of women’s health nationally. Authors say the health of U.S. women is “in a perilous place” as deaths from preventable causes are rising and “deep inequities” are driving racial disparities in maternal mortality and cancer deaths.

“Despite a small rebound in women’s life expectancy in 2022, it remains at its lowest since 2006,” report authors wrote.

See the full report.

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TOPICS

AGRIBUSINESS

– Manure spill reported in Outagamie, Brown counties

ECONOMY

– Wisconsin added 6,700 private sector jobs in June

EDUCATION

– WCTC, Waukesha YMCA launch $30M capital campaign for new facility on Pewaukee campus

FOOD & BEVERAGE

– RNC attendees are discovering just how good the food scene is in Milwaukee