An interesting debate was covered by the Journal-Sentinel the other day about why bus ridership in Milwaukee County was dropping.

Politics are at work, given the election season. Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker blames the economy and is downplaying his decision to raise fares over the past several years, and transit advocates are saying that the drop is due to large fare increases and service cuts (fewer routes).

Wednesday night the Greenwich Village Neighborhood Association held a meeting to discuss Mercy Housing Lakefront’s East Side apartment proposal. Alderman Kovac started the meeting out explaining that “the process begins now,” but if this meeting was any indication then it was the end as this project was voted down by the neighborhood group.

There’s often talk regarding whether UWM is a commuter campus or not, and although it still has numerous commuter students UWM has been evolving into a full blown campus environment for years. This change has stirred up East Side residents and put a greater demand on the neighborhood, but Milwaukee’s future is closely tied to UWM’s future so this evolution needs to be embraced, not challenged.

Mercy Housing Lakefront, Inc., intends to construct a 9-story apartment building with 75 apartments and eight townhouses on the existing 13,400 square foot city owned surface parking lot at the corner of N. Farwell Ave. and Thomas St. Additionally, it will have 85 garage spaces for residents and 30 garage spaces for use by US Bank and the public, which would replace most of the surface parking removed for this development.

Thou art thyself, though not Milwaukee. What’s Milwaukee? It is not block nor building, not park or plaza or any other part belonging to a city. Would a city by any other name have so much potential? So Milwaukee would, if not Milwaukee called, retain that dear structure which it owns without that title. What is in the name Milwaukee anyway? Fortuitously, the name is derived from the Algonquian word Millioke, which literally means “good/beautiful/pleasant land”.

Next Generation Real Estate Inc. recently proposed a $35 million 6-story mixed-use building with 130,000 square feet of class A office space, 270 parking spots, and 17,000 square feet of first floor retail at the southeast corner of Wisconsin Avenue and Broadway.

The residents of Waukesha County will love the Madison to Milwaukee high-speed rail line once it’s up and running, and not for any reason that readily jumps out at you. Certainly residents of Waukesha County will likely use the train to get to Madison, but that’s not a big sell to the residents. Taking a train from Brookfield or Oconomowoc to the Madison Airport just isn’t all that appealing because of the distance. What is appealing though? First-class comfort from Milwaukee’s western suburbs to the heart of Chicago.

It was recently reported that UWM is considering the Reed Street Yards as a potential site for the School of Freshwater Sciences. Although. I still think the lakefront site offers the most prominent location which would have played well with the re-branding of Milwaukee but, the Reed Street Yards site does have many positives that make it a suitable location. Simply put, if UWM were to build on the Reed Street Yards it could play a significant role in the revitalization of a neighborhood.

The Milwaukee Common Council recently passed a resolution creating a branding task force for Milwaukee, and certainly there is a place for creating a brand for Milwaukee, but the key to creating this brand isn’t a marketing campaign, catch phrase or tag line. It is putting action and investment behind the vision, because part of building any brand, is in fact the product.

Milwaukee has an unquestionably rich ethnic history that has been at the center of the cities identity ever since Juneau, Walker, and Kilbourn decided to merge their towns together in 1846. There is a festival and slice of history for everyone in Milwaukee. In the past ten years something has changed in Milwaukee. Spain has emerged to have a number of ties to the city.