The blessing and the curse of representing the politically engaged 3rd District is that, well, it’s so politically engaged. But we think that Alderman Nik Kovac has handled the issues of the East Side and UW-Milwaukee community well. He asks for his constituents’ input on development projects, which can sometimes get messy but ultimately leads to better results. And Kovac scored a big win this spring when he successfully shepherded the long-in-the-works environmental protections for the Milwaukee River corridor through the Common Council. Now, thanks to the efforts of Kovac, his fellow aldermen and the Milwaukee River Work Group, 800 acres of urban greenway are protected from developmental encroachment.