Carrollville Neighborhood Spotlighted in Brownfield Investigation

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism spotlights Oak Creek's Carrollville neighborhood in an in-depth piece on Wisconsin's brownfields — sites that are abandoned or underused because of contamination or the threat of it.

Carrollville, on the eastern end of Oak Creek, was once a bustling area home to several factories along the Lake Michigan shoreline. That ended a long time ago, but many homes still remain and efforts to redevelop the vacant 250 acres on which the factories once stood have been slow.

The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism was one of five nonprofit news organizations probing federal and state agencies' handling of brownfields. The investigation found that brownfield cleanups have been hampered by limited funds, a lack of federal oversight and long bureaucratic processes.

This has made it tough for poor and sparsely-populated neighborhoods to compete against larger and middle-class communities, according to the report.

Read the entire report here.