Breaking up the lots seems like an amazing opportunity to create a new “neighborhood” in Milwaukee (as opposed to giant apartment structures or hotels that will be only slightly more interesting than the dirt, gravel, weeds, and broken down chain link fences currently existing in the Park East… Actually, I’ve been living far from Milwaukee for the last year, but assume little has changed in the Park East).

Also, Darrin, I like what you have to say. I want to move back to Milwaukee in October and probably buy a place in the city. I recently compared the taxes I will have to pay to the taxes on comparable homes in other metro areas and was shocked… Can someone please explain why the taxes on a condo in Milwaukee are twice that of a similar unit in Chicago.

You’re incorrect that Milwaukee, the city, doesn’t want smaller buildings. The County wants the bigger buildings, to make the bigger one-time land sales. The City would gladly settle for anything that complies with the compact guidelines.

But I suspect Milwaukee will continue its track record of boosting assessments, for example jacking me $50,000 when I put on a new coat of paint. This city deserves everything that is coming to it: more slumlords, more non-permitted work , more crime, ballooning taxes due to bloated city payrolls and ultimately bankruptcy. Honestly, chimpanzees could run this place better than the current management.

The great cities of the world didn’t develop as mega-blocks devoid of scale or diversity. They developed incrementally over time. The streets we love in Milwaukee — Brady Street, Milwaukee Street, Broadway in the Third Ward, etc., all had this piecemeal growth strategy.

What the Park East represents is an opportunity to think big about place-making by developing a plan that understands how to shape great public space. The buildings that define that space needn’t be mega-block monsters.