After a recent weekend trip to take in three Milwaukee Brewers games in St. Louis versus the rival St. Louis Cardinals, I spent a significant time reflecting on the differences (and similarities) between the stadiums each team calls home.  Miller Park is located 3.2 miles from Milwaukee City Hall, while Busch Stadium is located 1/5th (0.2) of a mile from the iconic Arch.  Miller Park has the roof, Busch Stadium has the view.  Busch Stadium has the proposed Ballpark Village, Miller Park has its own sales tax.  Miller Park has gameday bus service, Busch Stadium is located on a light rail line.  And least important for the sake of this analysis, they each have their namesake beer.  With all of that considered, which stadium does more for the city?

Market Size

The comparison is worthwhile to make as the size of the St. Louis and Milwaukee markets are quite similar.   Greater St. Louis has a 2007 estimated population of 2,871,421.  Greater Milwaukee has a 2007 estimated population of 1,739,497.  Missouri has an estimated population of approximately 5,900,000, and is home to the Kansas City Royals as well. The population of Wisconsin is estimated near 5,600,000.  The markets are extremely similar in size when taking the state population into consideration.  Furthermore, both stadiums are located in Midwest, making them subject to colder starts and finishes to the season than say the Houston Astros.

Stadium Location

Busch Stadium is located in downtown St. Louis.  Almost every seat in the stadium has a view of a part of the skyline and the Gateway Arch.  The stadium is currently bordered by a few surface parking lots, garages, and hotels.  A few of those surface parking lots will become buildings as the mixed-use Ballpark Village is developed.  There are numerous hotels within walking distance of the stadium, many closer than the surface lots of Miller Park.  The St. Louis light rail system, Metrolink, runs right by the stadium with a stop conveniently labeled “Station” within a stones throw.  I-64 is immediately adjacent to the stadium.

Easily visible from almost every seat in the stadium.

Miller Park is located three miles west of downtown Milwaukee along I-94.  The stadium is surrounding on literally every side by surface parking lots, some stretching as far as a half mile from the stadium.  If the roof is open, and you’re in the top level of the stadium, there is a chance you could catch a glimpse of the US Bank Center, the tallest building in Wisconsin.  The nearest attraction is the Potawatami Casino, and there isn’t a hotel within walking distance.  The 90 bus line runs from Downtown starting two hours before the game, but must contend with traffic waiting to park once it leaves Wisconsin Avenue.

The amount of parking Miller Park requires because of the use of surface lots is really quite amazing.

Both stadiums are not the first iteration at their given location.  County Stadium preceded Miller Park, and Busch Memorial Stadium preceded Busch Stadium.

Cost and Ownership

Busch Stadium had a final cost of $365 million when it opened in 2006.  Of that cost, $45 million (12%) came from a long-term loan from St. Louis County.  Private financing came in the tune of $90.1 million in cash from the Cardinals, $200.5 in bonds paid by the team, and $9.2 million in interest earned on the construction fund the Cardinals held. The stadium has a seating capacity of 46,861 and is owned by the St. Louis Cardinals.  The stadium does not have a roof, or its own named expressway.  I was unable to determine who paid for the cost overruns of $20.2 million.

Miller Park had a final cost of $400 million when it opened in 2001.  The Brewers owners (led by the Seligs at the time) paid for 22.5 percent ($90 million).  The taxpayers of Milwaukee, Racine, Waukesha, Washington, and Ozaukee Counties are still paying (with a 2014 estimated ending date) a 0.1% sales tax to cover 77.5% of the costs ($310 million).  The stadium has a seating capacity of 43,000 and is owned in a partnership between the Southeastern Wisconsin Professional Baseball District (64 percent) and the Milwaukee Brewers (36 percent).  The stadium features a fan-shaped retractable roof.  The location of the stadium necessitates the construction and maintenance of Miller Park Way and the interchange with I-94, an expense I’m not sure is fully internalized in the cost of the stadium.

The most obvious difference between the two ballparks is the percentage of public financing.  Busch Stadium was 12% taxpayer funded, Miller Park was 77.5%.  Why was this?  The biggest aspect appears to be the team’s ability to pay.  The Cardinals had been banking money for years for a new stadium, while the Brewers, led by Bud Selig, did not have nearly the ability to pay what the Cardinals did.  Ironically, the Brewers were able to obtain the retractable roof, despite having less money to start with than the Cardinals.  The second most important factor in the funding for Milwaukee’s stadium appears to be the elected leaders, who were willing to go along with the Brewers plan (ultimately leading to a recall election and defeat for Senator George Petak of Racine).

A downtown stadium without a roof could have shaved at least $80 million from the sales tax burden, as the city could have offered TIF financing at least near $30 million and the retractable roof’s cost of $50 million would have been eliminated.

Busch Stadium has an open atmosphere that should work well with the neighborhood that develops around it.

Accessibility via Transit

As mentioned, Busch Stadium is next door to the Stadium Metrolink light-rail station, with connections to the airport, Illinois, and western St. Louis.  The station platform is packed after games, but I was unable to find ridership figures or estimates for gameday traffic.  The system itself handles about 60,000 riders a day.  The station is located along a standard route, encouraging familiarity and predictability with taking public transit to the stadium.  Unfortunately, a bus wasn’t anywhere to be found during my stay in St. Louis as a referendum was voted down in November and as a result bus service was reduced by nearly a third.

A sign announcing the cancellation of service to a downtown St. Louis bus stop. A frequent sight unfortunately.

In Milwaukee, the MCTS’s 90 bus route serves the bus starting two hours before the game.  Having ridden both after a game, there are significantly more people waiting to take the Metro.  The 90 bus only serves riders from downtown Milwaukee and along Wisconsin Avenue, unlike the St. Louis Metrolink line.  The gameday-only nature of the 90 bus also is rather confusing to many riders who aren’t familiar with the route.  The ride into the stadium is also far from smooth, as the bus must compete with stop and go traffic, from automobiles waiting to get into Miller Park parking lots, once the bus leaves Wisconsin Avenue.  There are many times where getting out of the bus and walking from the edge of the parking lots would be much faster than waiting to get dropped off at the front doors.

Edge to St. Louis and Busch Stadium for frequency of service, quality of service, areas for rides to originate, off-bus ticketing (a problem on buses for visitors), and predictability/reliability of service.

Accessibility via Car

Both stadiums are readily accessible by car.  Milwaukee is clearly more accessible by motor vehicle by virtue of the fact that there is nothing around it, making it ease for riders to find the one interstate exit to the stadium (conveniently labeled Miller Park Way).  Busch Stadium is served by multiple exits, but the large number of one-way streets in downtown St. Louis seem to induce rush hour congestion where none needs to be.  Overall, the traffic flow near Busch Stadium, despite the massive amount of pedestrian traffic, seems to flow just fine.

Ballpark Village will be built at the top of this image, just north of the stadium. Despite the presence of the interstate immediately next to the stadium, Busch Stadium seems less car-orientated than Miller Park.

Spillover Effect

What does each do for businesses, both nearby and far away?

Busch Stadium provides obviously a large boost for the hotels in the surrounding area, perhaps more measurable than Miller Park because of the immediate proximity.  There are also numerous vendors selling goods outside the stadium, something you don’t see at Miller Park.  On the flip side, grocery stores across the state of Wisconsin benefit marginally from the food sales generated by tailgating.

Numerous Brewer fans end up on Water Street and Bluemound Road after games, but not in the numbers that Cardinals fans show up in Laclede’s Landing to drink their In-Bev beers.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of Busch Stadium was the lack of restaurants near the stadium.  There were a couple, but not in the number I would expect an urban stadium to bring.  Nothing like what is visible at Wrigley and Fenway.  Ballpark Village will hopefully ignite a process that brings a large amount of street level retail to the area.

Parking is the biggest difference between the two.  At Miller Park almost every parking stall by the stadium is controlled by the Brewers and your money goes directly into their coffers.  In St. Louis, a wide diversity of ownership is present near the stadium.  The result?  A diversity of pricing options, and light competition that works to keep prices down somewhat.  Similar to how things are with the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.

The real upside to Busch Stadium’s parking setup is that the stalls can be used for more than one purpose.  At Miller Park the surface parking lots are exclusively for stadium activities.  At Busch Stadium, the parking can be used for many purposes.

Ballpark Village will be a nice addition to the area around the stadium.

Tailgateability

Coining a new term specifically for this article, “tailgateability” is the measure of the ease of eating out of the back of your car an area provides.  Miller Park wins, but really not by a lot.  At Miller Park, you can fire up your grill at any parking stall, in St. Louis this is possible for a lot of the spots, but far from all of them.

This brings up an important point though, is tailgating possible at urban stadiums?  Certainly it is.  There is no reason why the roofs of parking garages and select surface lots couldn’t be sold at a small premium to tailgaters.  In Milwaukee shuttles could run between numerous areas like the lakefront parking lots and Summerfest lots to accommodate even more tailgaters.  Also, grills could be installed and public plazas could be constructed (or actually used) that would accommodate tailgaters.

Fans take to the streets after games in St. Louis as the street grid distributes them across the city. Cars are more confined to a lot of one way streets.

Conclusion

Each stadium has features that make it an enjoyable place to watch baseball.  The roof at Miller Park is nice, but was the $50+ million price tag worth it?  You could argue each way.

The location of Busch Stadium is much more enviable than that of Miller Park and leads to a number of efficiencies.  It’s underdeveloped at this point though, Ballpark Village’s development is a must.  St. Louis has a great asset in the stadium, and a fair number of buildings nearby that work well with it.  Adding more mixed-use buildings nearby will greatly improve the downtown and build a true 24-hour neighborhood.

The fact that so little of Busch Stadium was paid for with taxpayer dollars is a plus.  Having a winning culture that sold tickets and a slightly bigger fan base helped put the team in that position though.  Consequently though, it did appear that every piece of food at the stadium cost a dollar more.  Pick your poison, although I’m sure most would choose the private funding.

Building Miller Park in downtown Milwaukee was studied (drawings included below), but there was likely a hidden cost to that.  Would Milwaukee have been to eliminate the Park East Freeway if the stadium was to be near the end of the freeway stub?  Probably not.  Suburban opposition to such a proposal would have been a lot stronger.

At the end of the day, not building the new stadium in downtown Milwaukee was certainly a missed opportunity.  The only beneficiary of its current location is the Brewers themselves.  But was it something that downtown Milwaukee needed desperately?  No, it’s pretty clear it wasn’t.  Milwaukee did miss out on a chance to accelerate all the good things going on in or near downtown though.

Miller Park Downtown

From Thursday Architects…

This project was commissioned by the City of Milwaukee as a background study in hopes of persuading the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers to locate his new publicly funded ballpark downtown rather than on the suburban fringe of the city. Promoted without success by a New Urbanist Mayor, the City proposed the demolition of a freeway spur on the north side of downtown, and the location of a new ballpark along the edge of the Milwaukee River as part of new neighborhood development at the northern edge of downtown. Parking was to be accommodated by new and existing lots and garages dispersed throughout the downtown area and immediate environs. The Brewers’ owner wasn’t buying it; and the $500M “Miller Field” will open this season in a 20,000-car parking lot west of Milwaukee.

Rendering includes Grace Lutheran Church and Blatz Condos.

Looking south down Water Street.

The Milwaukee Brewers, in an attempt to fight back against the Chicago Cubs fans and their Wrigley Field North signs and shirts, are offering a promotion to send Brewer fans to Wrigley Field in September via Amtrak in hopes of turning it into Miller Park South.

The first 100 fans to arrive at Miller Park on February 20th with a ticket in hand to the September 17th Brewers vs Cubs game at Wrigley Field will receive a free round-trip ticket to and from Chicago on the day of the game and a Wrigley Field South t-shirt.  The next 1,500 will receive just the shirt.

Now the exciting part of the promotion isn’t the Wrigley Field South aspect, there are simply too many Cubs fans that invade Miller Park every year (like the coauthor of this site) to make it seem like Brewer fans are legitimately fighting back.

The exciting part is that positive brand association Amtrak receives.  They currently advertise at Miller Park, but it’s not the kind of ad that makes you want to take any action at all.  This offer seems to be the exact opposite, promoting the passenger railroad as a great way to get to Chicago.  No one can doubt the strength of the Brewers’ brand at this point, and the association with Amtrak should help improve the image of the Hiawatha line between Chicago and Milwaukee.

Hopefully this is just the first of a yearly promotion.  Every little bit of positive recognition Amtrak can get, especially in areas that are potential future destinations (Madison, Green Bay), will help the railroad.

Today’s opening of the Harley-Davidson Museum is a truly great day for the City of Milwaukee. The $75 million, 130,000 square foot complex, which was designed by James Biber of Pentagram Architects, celebrates the 105 year history of Harley-Davidson. The complex references both Milwaukee’s industrial past and Harley-Davidson’s motorcycle style by mixing modern elements and simple lines with an exposed I-Beam skeleton.

The grounds consist of three buildings situated on a urban street grid which allows the facility to support bike rallys and outdoor entertainment. The streets include a strip of orange concrete running down the middle which draws a direct connection to the rallys of Sturgis, South Dakota by indicating this area is for motorcycle parking. The riverwalk has two green pathways that act as an oasis among the heavy iron and roaring engines. The final section of the riverwalk gives you access to view along Canal St. that takes your vision past the bronze statue of a hill climbing motorcyclist through the museum complex into the Menomonee Valley. The years of planning and working towards the opening of this museum show through in its success at showcasing the history of an American icon and Milwaukee institution.

For more information on the Harley-Davidson Museum, Pentagram Architects has a good article on it here.

Oconomowoc-based Pabst Farms, yet another development named after what the bulldozers destroy, is not limiting itself to simply encouraging commercial and residential sprawl anymore. In a move that I can only interpret as desperation (in the face of the growing trend of industrial firms relocating to the Menomonee Valley), Pabst Farms developers Developers Diversified Realty Corp of Cleveland is set to begin the construction on the first of three speculative industrial buildings. The only tenant so-far (and you think they would be rumoring them if there were others) is Fastenal Corp building a distribution that will occupy almost 25% of a 30,000 square-feet building.

Speculative industrial buildings being built in what is supposed to be a “high-end” mixed-use development? The developers behind Pabst Farms are looking like they simply wish to make a quick buck with no-thought to the long-term viability of the neighborhood with more buildings surrounded by parking lots.

Logically, pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use neighborhood design is extremely efficient because it requires fewer roads and parking stalls, requires residents to use less gas, leaves more true “green space” (untouched forests and fields, not mowed grass), and allows space to be more rapidly and creatively redeveloped in the wake of a business closing because of its proximity to other businesses and people (it’s easier to open a restaurant on a busy street, etc). It’s good for business and good for residents.

Pabst Farms seems to wish to fight this logic, take what used to be a space of large undeveloped land, claim…

Our philosophy is to build to the land, not on the land, carrying on the spirit of conservation begun by Fred Pabst back in 1906″

… and then build parking-lot-centric developments. To give you an idea of their thinking, examine this photo of their “Commerce Centre.” Judging by the developments in place already, the area has yet to become a commerce center and is simply a distribution center. A distribution center gives you images of 18-wheelers rolling in-and-out at all hours of the day though, and that’s certainly not as attractive as the wealth-generation implied by the word “commerce.”

Now picture three more buildings that will be smaller (in square-footage), but similar to the Roundy’s Distribution Center. Even more attractive, right?

Is this your vision of high-end? Certainly not mine.

That’s the industrial space. How about the commercial development?

Again, clearly designed around the automobile, not conservation.

The Staybridge Suites that will begin construction shortly at Pabst Farms will certainly more closely resemble the Hilton Garden Inn pictured above, than it will the mixed-use, parking-lot-free (uses a hidden garage) Staybridge Suites nearing completion in downtown Milwaukee. Pabst Farms adds a parking lot, downtown Milwaukee builds over one, and hides one inside the building. Not to mention that long-term construction in the Park East area will further diminish the need for parking garages, while building parking lots only encourages more parking lots in the future.

Residential space? Largely the same story.

Again, all this is done under the name of conservation and high-end development.

Interestingly enough, as Pabst Farms positions itself as a new neighborhood on former farm/green space land, a similar “Neighborhood by Design” development is going on in downtown Milwaukee. The Mandel Group is developing The North End on what used to be an abandoned factory in downtown Milwaukee. The Mandel development will include condos, apartments, retail, and office space.

The difference between the two? The Pabst Farms development decreases the amount of green space and encourages driving through natural assets. The North End encourages public, pedestrian access to natural assets and actually increases the amount of green space. Not to mention extending the phenomenally successful Milwaukee Riverwalk yet further north.

Unlike the photos above, that show parking lot and after parking lot, The North End places buildings close together, and makes them multi-level. It also mixes uses within a building, instead of across main traffic arteries.

Thankfully for the Pabst Farms development, there is still time to turn things around. If the developers choose to do so, they can build a legitimate mixed-use community, instead of building sprawling, parking lot encircled buildings that are single-use and only next to buildings used for the same purpose.

There isn’t anything wrong with the idea of Pabst Farms on paper. It’s proposed as “the conveniences and amenities of an urban area in a breathtaking Lake Country setting. Pabst Farms offers a complete living experience by integrating residential, retail, and commercial environments into one thoughtfully developed master-planned community.” The unfortunate thing is that this isn’t how it’s being built to-date. Industrial, commercial, and residential land is separated, pedestrian access within even the different single-use areas is discouraged by using long, winding roads instead of short, interconnected streets that make pedestrian travel easy, and the beauty of Lake Country is turning into the beauty of grass yards.

Thanks to our friends at Ocono.com who asked for our input on the latest news at Pabst Farms. Here’s to hoping they get it right in the future.

Resolution 080183 was brought forward to authorize a land sale of approximately 7.8 acres in the Menomonee Valley to Charter Wire for their future relocation. Charter Wire which has been located in the Third Ward for the past seventy-two years made the decision to move to the Menomonee Valley because their lease expires in 2009 and the Menomonee Valley offers a better opportunity for expansion. Charter Wire intends to build a 160,000 square feet facility that could grow to over 200,000 square feet. Not only does this re-location further the rebirth of the Menomonee Valley but it opens up a significant area of the Third Ward to re-development. This resolution was approved and will now go before the full Common Council.

The title of this post is purely fiction at this point, but is what this writer believes should happen.

Undoubtedly you’ve heard by now that the General Motors factory in my hometown of Janesville is closing. What many (politicians and residents alike) are not considering is the massive trickle down effect this is going to have on the rest of Janesville as a large source literally abandons the city. Sure the UAW has ensured that many of the employees at General Motors are not going to feel any financial pain for a long-time, but thousands of others are not as fortunate. Employees of Janesville-based GM part suppliers (of which there are many) are going to receive next to nothing as they lose their jobs in coming years.  And that’s just the start

This massive unemployment will have the effect of putting the hurt on numerous other local companies and institutions. The School District of Janesville will be faced to downsize in the face of falling property tax values (despite just having passed the largest referendum in Wisconsin history). Mercy Health System will certainly feel some pain as the number of patients remains largely steady, but their ability to pay diminishes. Oh, and the massive number of chain food choices (both fast and sit-down) that exist along Milton Avenue, look for their numbers to greatly diminish.

Assuming nothing drastic happens (read: no large employers opens shop in town or there is no mass migration from the city) Janesville residents are largely looking at a future of under-and-un-employment. Many of the GM employees will be offered jobs at other plants, but that doesn’t include suppliers and those who relied on serving them (the service industry the city seems to want to tout now).

To make matters worse, long-time Janesville employer Gilman (now split into two companies ThyssenKrupp Krause Inc. and ThyssenKrupp Drauz Nothelfer) announced they were closing and eliminating all 140 jobs. This was a local employer that at one time not too long ago employed nearly 500 people in Janesville, my father included.

Politicians, including Janesville-natives Senator Russ Feingold and Representative Paul Ryan, are already calling for aid packages or more money to be sunk into the city to encourage new employers in Janesville. Most of the companies that have recently opened (or considered opening) shop in Janesville are in the warehousing and distribution industry, an industry highly susceptible to losses from rising fuel costs (much like the SUV’s made in Janesville are). Spending money on tax breaks and credits to attract industry to Janesville seems like a losing battle does it not? Especially since they did just that a few years ago, and now are asking General Motors to pay the state back.

The fact is that companies will either consistently search for the best tax deal (leading to a long-term losing game for cities) or for the best existing environment. Beloit largely has Janesville beat on location in the wake of soaring fuel costs. Beloit is located at the intersection of Interstate’s 43 and 39/90 and is closer to Milwaukee, Rockford, and Chicago. Why would the state look to continue to pour money into Janesville then? Good question.

The state should instead take a radical approach. Jim Doyle and company should largely encourage the unemployed in Janesville to move to Milwaukee (or Madison). Why? There are more jobs in the Milwaukee area, and Milwaukee certainly has the capacity to create more jobs (look no further than the redevelopment occurring Menomonee Valley and soon the 30th Street Corridor). The old adage of “it takes money to make money” holds true in the globalization era. The big cities like Chicago are getting bigger and stronger, while the stagnant towns like Janesville and many other manufacturing towns are getting smaller.

The ironic fact is that a migration of residents to Milwaukee could actually reduce the unemployment in Milwaukee. Creating a larger base of skilled/trained individuals for jobs should only attract more companies to the region, or to expand operations in the case of existing ones.

How do we achieve this migration? Create marketing plans for Milwaukee, bring in relocation specialists to help the unemployed find work in Milwaukee, and offer tax incentives for relocating families.

While Wisconsin politicians for obvious reasons can not advocate residents to move to Chicago, the Windy City offers a substantial number of opportunities, arguably more than Milwaukee.

How do we preserve home values in Janesville and help Janesville adjust structurally? Implement an aggressive urban growth boundary that prevents building outside of designated areas to preserve the value of existing homes. This will not only limit of the dilution of home values, but encourage urban infill (through the redevelopment of existing properties) and encourage Janesville to kick to structurally kick its oil habit through reduced drive distances.

The City Council of Janesville must also actively seek to make opening businesses in Janesville as easy a process as possible. They should also seek to improve the efficiency of existing employers.

Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Department of Highways (formerly Transportation) should also implement a legitimate mass-transit from Janesville to Milwaukee. While Van Galder/Coach USA provides a route to Madison, and Chicago, there is not a mass-transit to Milwaukee. In fact when I go to visit my parent’s house, I must first take a bus to Madison, then transfer to another to Janesville.

Janesville has a substantial agricultural base on which it can seek to orient itself around in the “ethanol era” where food prices currently only go up.

The most difficult thing that must be done in Janesville is to redevelop the Delevan Drive Industrial Corridor, for as it turns out Gilman and General Motors were not only in the same city, but next-door neighbors. This will likely mean dividing those properties into smaller units so businesses can locate there.

Wisconsin needs to do everything in its power to avoid Janesville becoming like Flint and so many other towns that have lost their largest employer. That starts with not pouring money into Janesville to give residents false hope.

In one of the worst kept secrets surrounding the future of downtown Milwaukee, an announcement finally arrived today that the out-of-place and severely dated United States Post Office located on St. Paul Ave, next to the brand spanking new, gorgeous Milwaukee Intermodal Station, is moving south to be closer to the airport in a new, more efficient facility.

This is a huge win-win for both areas. First, this should increase commerce surrounding the airport by adding a labor-intensive business near a large retail stretch. Second, it’s obviously going to be a boost for efficiency for moving mail in-and-out of Milwaukee. With a significant amount of mail moving through the air, this should get it sorted and on-and-off planes faster and reduce costs for USPS.

In regards to downtown Milwaukee, the Third Ward, and the Menomonee Valley, this is the start of a huge boost that has been a long time coming. The new Milwaukee Intermodal Station that is quickly becoming a well-known gateway to Milwaukee is in a terribly misused and underused area. Eliminating the Post Office and replacing it with nearly any mixed-use building would be a huge boost for the area and trigger development in underused buildings and surface parking lots across the street.

The land that Milwaukee’s Central Processing Facility for USPS currently occupies is not only in a great location because of the proximity to the train station, but it sits on the Menomonee River immediately adjacent to where it merges with the Milwaukee River. Any development on the site will certainly seek to reconnect the neighborhood with the river and further foster urban Milwaukee’s image as an area that is increasingly connected with its natural capital.

If you want to consider the kind of visual impact replacing the Post Office will have, consider the Harley Museum set to open soon just across the river. Not only has that development triggered another development in the Iron Horse Hotel, but it’s taken a long underused property and made it a legitimate piece of the city again. Replacing the Post Office will not only trigger development north across St. Paul Ave, but will increase the value of the Harley Museum and all of the land along that stretch of the rivers.

When new stadiums are built we hear rumors of all these jobs they’re going to bring to a community.  Often enough it’s hard to tell if those jobs are actually created.

On Friday afternoon, you’ll be able to actually apply for those jobs in a job fair at Miller Park from 4 - 7.  They’ll be doing it again on Saturday morning.  And if you can’t make either of those days, it looks like the Brewers will allow you to apply online.  OnMilwaukee.com has all the details.

The United States Bowling Congress (USBC) is leaving Greendale for Texas, so that it can be next to the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America (BPAA).

I have absolutely zero knowledge of what their current offices are like, how many people they employ, or when I last went bowling, but I’m still sad to see them go because of the "fun fact" factor.

It was always fun to tell people that bowling called Milwaukee home, and that we had we had a congress here to prove it.

Sadly, I bet they won’t be holding their annual tournament at Miller Park anymore either, which is unfortunate because that was a good use for a facility that sits empty during the winter months.

Anyway, back to news about urban Milwaukee.

Kinnickinnic River Spillway
Originally uploaded by Retinal Fetish

Julie Lawrence at OnMilwaukee.com drew my attention to this excellent community development taking place along the Kinnickinnic River on the south side of urban Milwaukee, the Kinnickinnic River Trail. The trail is in the early stages of development and will have a southern terminus at the river and 6th Street (near its intersection with Cleveland St) and at Water St and 1st Street on the northern end.

The trail, while still in its infancy, will hopefully include a restoration of the river to a more natural state with the removal of the concrete channeling.

Like many other developments occurring in Milwaukee (the Riverwalk, Menomonee Valley restoration, and the Beerline neighborhood come to mind), the KK River Trail is just one of many ways in which Milwaukee is learning to embrace its natural assets. The developments are all the more special because they’re actual functional ways to move around the city without a car, which is due in large part to the dense development surrounding the rivers.

Groundwork Milwaukee has provided a PDF with all you could ever want to know about what was discussed in planning for the trail.

I’ll try to learn more over the next few days as to what the actual status of the trail is (it’s a little bit hard to figure out with the information online).

I took the map out of the PDF and put it online as a JPG image in case you wanted to see the proposed route.