First, it’s important to examine what Target typically does in the Milwaukee area, as this should present a good indication of what they would likely do downtown if there were no restrictions.  The three Target’s nearest to downtown are on Miller Park Way, South 27th Street, and Chase Avenue. None are urban in form, in their locations they’re the standard suburban big box retail. The parking lots are the same size of the stores themselves, clearly not something fit for downtown.

South 27th Street, Miller Park Way, and Chase Avenue Targets.

Next, it’s worth looking at what Target has done in other urban locations to give an indication of what the Target-loving urbanist might aspire for Target to build in Milwaukee. To-date Target has always focused on building stores that were at least 125,000 square feet in size, but they recently unveiled the “CityTarget” concept of slightly smaller stores (60,000 to 100,000 square feet) for urban neighborhoods. Unfortunately no detailed plans are available for review of any of the proposed CityTarget’s. But it is worth looking at what has been built though, including stores in Chicago, Seattle, Stamford, Minneapolis, and St. Louis.

Chicago has an urban target located in the South Loop neighborhood. It is blocks from two rapid transit stops, on a bus line, walkable by design, surrounded by develop-able land, and contains no surface parking. It appears remarkably urban given that much of the land around is underdeveloped to-date. It is well-located for the future as the blank walls on the back of the building abut the railroad tracks.

Seattle has a Target located across the street from Northgate Mall. It is connected with a Best Buy and shares a parking garage with the electronics store. It is more walkable, but is surrounded by surface parking on an adjacent parking lot. Other retail spaces are part of the two buildings, making the facility a larger demand generator. UrbanReviewSTL has a good write-up on the development.The space appears more attractive at street-level.

Target built an urban store in Stamford, CT. It is in a multi-story, pedestrian-friendly building that includes an attached parking deck. It is connected to a number of other retail outlets. The building is big and box like, but delivers a far more urban big box store than Target typically builds.

The Target in this aerial view is the building with the round corner. It is walkable, incredibly urban and transit acessible, and located in the core of downtown Minneapolis. It is an outlier though because it is connected to the Target headquarters.

This is a new Target in St. Louis. It is a couple miles from downtown, and located in the heart of a residential neighborhood. It is more urban than the Schucks supermarket across the street, but is still quite suburban in nature. It is setback from the street quite a distant, and features a fair amount of surface parking. It's better than any Target currently in Milwaukee, but not urban enough in design to fit within the character of downtown Milwaukee.

Given a choice between all of the presented targets, it seems clear that the downtown Minneapolis best integrates with the urban fabric it occupies. Would Target build that urban of a store in Milwaukee though? It seems unlikely at this point. If Milwaukee is to land a Target, it would seem best to aspire for the Chicago and Seattle examples, while avoiding the not-quite-suburban-or-urban nature of the new St. Louis Target.

Landing a mixed-use Target with a housing or office component would be the holy grail of urban big-box development, and could theoretically be placed on any vacant parcel as a long-term demand generator. The mix of uses would prevent the building from becoming a black hole in the urban fabric at its off-hours.

For a Target to locate in the Park East, as Bruce Westling has proposed, it would need to be a pedestrian-friendly, multi-story building to comply with the Park East Redevelopment Plan. A Target in the Park East is an idea worth supporting, but only if it is a mixed-use building and works to eliminate the blank walls that plague big box stores. While the Park East Redevelopment Plan is about to be amended for the creation of the MSOE Parking Structure, it would be foolish to further amend it to allow a big-box store to be constructed adjacent to proposed parking structure that did not comply with the design guidelines of the plan.

A mixed-use Target faces an uphill battle though because of the currently diminished strength of Milwaukee’s downtown condominium, office, and retail markets. Furthermore there are a number of vacant parcels available for development. Putting together a mixed-use building for Target is going to be complex, and it seems unlikely that any developer would go through with it if they didn’t have to. RSC & Associates had discussions with Target about locating in a mixed-use development in their Park East parcel, but their parcel remains closer to an urban farm than a mixed-use building (with no public indications of that changing anytime soon). A proposal by Ghazi Company for 4th and Wisconsin could have included a large retail anchor as well, but that was a victim of the economic downturn.

If Milwaukee gets a Target downtown in the near future, it’s likely going to come in the form of a single-use building.

Where would a single-use Target fit well? Given that it would likely have a number of blank walls, and not-be a 24 hour demand generator it makes the most since to put it on the fringe of downtown where it would abut another blank wall. It would work even better if it could take advantage of existing parking assets. Given those constraints, a single-use building to house Target (or even Wal-Mart which is rolling out smaller urban stores itself) would best fit near Interstate 794 in Westown.

If Target were to locate on any of the surface lots near Interstate 794, it could be connected to Grand Avenue to breathe new life into the facility and share the parking garage.

The potential store should still be designed in a pedestrian-friendly nature for the sides of the building away from the Interstate or an alley, but allowing the building to have a few largely blank walls would reduce design costs and constraints making it more likely to actually happen should Target or another big-box retailer decide to open here.

A Target would be a welcome addition to downtown Milwaukee, but only in the right-form or location.

Parking meter privatization has failed to deliver value to-date

It’s hard to argue that the Daley administration bargained for a good deal in exchange for giving up control of 36,000 Chicago parking meters for 75 years. The December 2008 deal netted the city a lump sum payment of $1.15 billion, but in exchange the vendor (Morgan Stanley, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Allianz Capital Partners) is budgeting to earning a profit of $9.58 billion. While a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow, this deal appears to have short-changed future citizens. Worse yet is the flexibility Chicago gave up, the deal is nearly impossible to cancel, and although the concept of street parking is likely to last 75 years, it’s likely that Chicago is going to want to reconfigure or remove a number of the metered stalls along the way. However, each time a stall is removed the vendor must be financially compensated, a move that will make future public space changes for the city a  bit more costly. Chicago is undoubtedly a strong enough city to overcome a lopsided lease of its parking meters, especially given that they came out as winners in other deals. As Aaron Renn noted in his article “Parking Meters and the Perils of Privatization“, the Daley administration has had a number of successes with privatization, including earning a $100 million for a failed deal involving Midway Airport, but the parking deal wasn’t a winner for the city.

But I think it’s fair to say that it’s likely Morgan Stanley got a very good deal on these meters. They closed this deal about the same time the Midway one fell apart. The fact that financing was readily available in tight market for the parking meters while it was impossible for Midway tells you everything you need to know about the relative merits of those deals financially.But even if Chicago didn’t extract the last penny of value out of the parking meters, so what? It’s highly unlikely you are going to win huge in every deal. In fact, the more of them you do – and Chicago has done several – the more likely you’ll encounter a loser. Chicago got massively overpaid for the Skyway and Midway, and on a portfolio basis I feel confident the city is still a net winner from privatization on a cash basis even if it theoretically could have gotten more for the meters.

If one assumed the proposed deal for Indianapolis must be a much more balanced deal, knowing that Chicago got short-changed on their deal, they would be wrong. Aaron Renn, a former resident of Indianapolis, has broken down the proposed deal with 10 key findings in his article “Indy’s “Son of Chicago” Parking Meter Lease to Be a Disaster for City“.

This is the Chicago parking meter lease

The city has no right to terminate the agreement

Penalties are often higher than the actual meter value

The vendor gets the rights to collect parking ticket revenue and sell advertising and naming rights

Residential permit parking is coming to Broad Ripple

The vendor even gets revenue from tickets written by IPD or other city agents

The vendor automatically gets the right to any new meters, but the city has to pay to remove any meters

Temporary closure policies are worse than Chicago’s

Will festival and events organizers see new fees?

Even the city has to pay to use the spots

While the 3,650 stall Indianapolis deal would be 50 years, instead of 75, it’s still long enough to be debilitating. What does Indianapolis get in exchange for giving up its parking meters? The city would collect $400 million over 50 years (including $35 million up-front), while the contractor (Xerox-subsidiary ACS) will collect between $724 million and $1.2 billion.

To quote Renn one last time…

The deal Indy is signing with its vendor (ACS) is so bad and so one-sided, it almost defies comprehension.

There has yet to be a large city that has struck a good deal by privatizing its meters. And that’s understandably so, returning value for giving up control of meters is an undoubtedly tough thing to accomplish. When it comes to the public realm that is the street, parking meters are everywhere. A parking meter lease is essentially a massive land lease that, as the Chicago and Indianapolis deals show, makes it prohibitively expensive to adapt what is currently flexible space to other uses.

If such a lease was put into place in Milwaukee events like Jazz in the Park, Brady Street Festival, the East Town Farmer’s Market and Al’s Run would become prohibitively expensive to pull off as temporarily closing the meters would necessitate a cash payment to the vendor. Likewise, construction projects that utilize metered spaces as staging areas would increase in cost, all for the profit of the vendor. The recent conversion to two-way traffic on East State Street would have been complicated, as the daily peak-time closure of meters would have necessitated daily payments to a vendor.

If the Chicago and Indianapolis deals show what the market will pay for meter revenues, there is no reason Milwaukee should even consider a privatized deal for parking. The Mayor and Common Council have shown the political courage to raise rates and install new electronic meters (something apparently lacking in Indianapolis and Chicago), moves that have generated revenue for the city without compromising flexibility.

If cities are concerned about generating the most money possible from their parking resources they should look not to privatization, but to the market-based policies proposed by Donald Shoup.

Chicago's newest piece of large-scale public art.

For a city that’s displayed to the world a giant bean, 25-foot tall American Gothic statue, and a massive Picasso statue, a three-story tall eyeball should really come as no surprise. Upon a viewer’s first impression the detail of the piece  seem almost overwhelming. The EYE appears quite realistic with red veins on all sides. From across the street, or when attempting to push the piece over, the EYE appears incredibly lifelike. Thankfully it does not blink.

Unveiled July 7th, the EYE was designed by Tony Tasset and fabricated in Sparta, Wisconsin. As is par for the course with public art, someone must dismiss it by claiming it’s barely art. In this case it’s urbanist author James Howard Kunstler, who has named it his Eyesore of the Month for August 2010. The EYE will keep a watch on State Street shoppers until October. After that it’s fate is unknown, but given Illinois’s track record it might be wise to use it to keep track of the Governor’s office.

Large pieces of public art like the EYE are a breath of fresh air in large cities. They’re often capable of evoking a sense of place on their own. When the right location is selected, a piece of public art redefines the space it occupies. In this case Pritzker Park, a fairly sizable pocket park within the Loop, has been transformed into a destination.

When it comes to large-scale public art, Chicago does it right. Big pieces of art, many of which invite controversy, encourage people by the thousands to go see them. Even if they’re critically-panned, Chicago’s public art installations create a sense of place and make you want to go see them.

Milwaukee has made some inroads on using public art. The controversial orange sculpture The Calling helps define the eastern edge of Wisconsin Avenue and serves as a gateway O’Donnell Park and Milwaukee Art Museum (which makes plenty of a statement on its own). Without the large sculpture, O’Donnell Park is nearly a surface parking lot, a massive piece of concrete. With the orange sunburst it’s at least a defined place, a mildly inviting pedestrian pass-through to the lakefront from downtown.

Coming in 2011 (and almost not at all), Janet Zweig’s Pedestrian Drama flip-sign animation kiosks coming to Milwaukee’s Wisconsin Avenue  will certainly make Wisconsin Avenue a bit more intriguing to walk down. The Milwaukee Riverwalk is adorned with jewelry and the Bronze Fonz (which despite criticism sees a steady stream of tourists).

Milwaukee would be wise to look to take advantage of large-scale public art with some of its urban parks. There are two well-located urban parks that would likely benefit the most, Cathedral Square and Pere Marquette.

Pere Marquette has the permanent gazebo, which functions well as a band shell and wedding photo opportunity spot. Beyond that though, the gazebo doesn’t draw many people into the park.

Cathedral Square has a great location, well-defined street wall surrounding it, and a layout that doesn’t make any sense at all based on park use. During the summer the park’s fountain is entirely covered by a stage for the well-attended Jazz in the Park. During the winter the fountain is turned off as the park is covered in snow and holiday lights. The holiday lights make the park a well-lit destination in the winter, but in the summer the park doesn’t encourage anyone to walk through it with the exception of one week. That one is Bastille Days, where MSOE’s miniature Eiffel Tower introduces a welcoming north anchor to the park and the roads are closed to traffic all around the park. Switching the stage location to the north end of the park would allow the fountain to return to summer operation, encourage more pedestrian activity, and open up the south end of the park for temporary art installations that invite more people into the area.

To take full advantage of public art, Milwaukee needs to start thinking bigger.

Our third profile is of Chicago, and is written by Aaron Renn who authors the excellent blog Urbanophile.

Aaron M. Renn is an opinion-leading urban analyst, consultant, speaker, and writer on a mission to help America’s cities thrive and find sustainable success in the 21st century.

Chicago

Chicago from the Signature Room

Chicago is a summer city.  I never understood the desire of some Chicagoans to have a country home or lake home for the summer.  A Florida condo in the winter perhaps, but why leave Chicago on the weekends during the short time of the year the weather is nice?  Of course, if you’re in Milwaukee, you already get this.

Entertainment

Summer is festival season in Chicago.  There are events literally every weekend, from the large scale to the neighborhood.  Most of these are frankly not that much different from what you can find in your own town, but a standout is the Pitchfork Music Festival (July 16-18)

The summer is the traditional vacation period for the arts, but a few things are going on.  One is the Grant Park Music Festival, which features one of the only free municipal orchestras in the US.  The Grant Park Symphony performs in the magnificent Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park, designed by Frank Gehry.  Perhaps you can take in a concert after visiting Millennium Park and checking out the new Renzo Piano designed Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago.  While famous for its Impressionist collection, the Art Institute also has the best modern art collection in the US after MoMA’s.

Of course summer is baseball season, and if you’ve never been, a visit to the friendly confines of Wrigley Field to see those perennial losers the Cubs is a must (Red Line to Addison St.)

I mentioned Pitchfork earlier. Chicago is deservedly well known for its music scene and has some of the best indie rock clubs in America.  Among them are Schubas at Belmont and Southport (Red Line to Belmont, then walk or use #77-Belmont west).  Further west on Belmont at Hoyne is the Beat Kitchen, which features punk and other acts, including many all ages shows (be sure to check listings first).  Newcomer Lincoln Hall (Red Line to Fullerton), from the folks behind Schubas, is just a few doors down on Lincoln from where the storied Lounge Ax used to rule Chicago’s musical roost.

For a full listing of the best events happening when you plan to visit, check out Flavorpill Chicago.  In particular, be on the lookout for what will be showing at the Gene Siskel Film Center downtown on State St.

Architecture

Chicago is known for its architecture, and that is the highlight of nearly any visit.  The first place to stop is the Chicago Architectural Foundation at 224 S. Michigan. They have a wealth of information about Chicago, and offer many, many guided tours.  The famous boat tour is a must, and in the summer advance ticket purchase is highly recommended.

One highlight is the campus at the Illinois Institute of Technology (Green Line to 35^th St./IIT).  The campus itself was largely designed by Mies van der Rohe, but there is also a student center by Rem Koolhaas and a dormitory building designed by Helmut Jahn.

Millennium Park contains not just the previously mentioned Pritzker Pavilion, but may other artistic and architectural gems, including Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate sculpture (aka, “the bean”).  Nearby is Studio Gang’s new Aqua Building at 200 N. Columbus, which is possibly the best contemporary skyscraper in the city.

And if you haven’t been in a while, it might be time to revisit the Skydeck in the Sears Tower.  It has been upgraded with “the ledge”, a glass enclosure that is cantilevered off the side of the building. Freaky.

Food

Chicago has more good restaurants than anyone could possibly hope to sample in a lifetime.  Chicago style pizza is of course a calling card, and my favorite is the stuffed spinach and mushroom at Bacino’s Lincoln Park, at Lincoln and Webster (#11-Lincoln or taxi).

In the greater downtown area, Avec on Randolph St. in the West Loop combines amazing décor with fabulous small plates and incredible value priced wines (no reservations).  It’s the sibling of next door Blackbird, which is also excellent if a bit higher end. Sushi Wabi is another favorite on the Randolph St. strip.  To the north is The Drawing Room at Le Passage on Rush just south of Oak St.  Amazing (and deadly) pre-Prohibition cocktails made from only the finest ingredients, with excellent food in swank surroundings.

Wicker Park has tons of places to choose from. Rodan is a sleek restaurant/lounge on Milwaukee (Blue Line to Damen). Tuesday nights at 10:30, a who’s who of Chicago’s most amazing jazz musicians plays, including people like Jeff Parker and John Herndon. A bit west in Humboldt Park is Bonsoiree (best reached by taxi), a small BYOB with five star tasting menus that just might be the best price/performance restaurant in the city, albeit still not cheap.

Shopping

The economy has done fearsome damage to Chicago’s retail scene, with many of its best boutiques biting the dust. So I’m hesitant to recommend any specific places lest I jinx them, but State St., Michigan Ave, and Oak St. will no doubt have many places happy to take your money.  Design aficionados may want to check out the high end furniture retailers along the greater Franklin St. corridor in the River North area. Even the ground floor stores in the Merchandise Mart are now mostly open to the public, though the upper floors are still to the trade only.

Accommodations

Since I sleep in my own bed, I’m perhaps not the best source of hotel info. But as a fan of architecture in a city known for it, I’ll suggest three ideas for you. The first is the Wit Hotel at the corner of State and Lake. This brand new tower features a signature zig-zagging streak of yellow glass projecting from its front facade and is also home to one of Chicago’s hottest rooftop bars. Hilton point collectors will be happy to know this is a DoubleTree property.

Just down the street at Washington and State is the Hotel Burnham, which inhabits Burnham’s fabled 1894 Reliance Building, one of the first high rises to feature large windows made possible by steel frame construction.  The facade is a terra cotta delight.  And at 230 N. Michigan Ave is the Hard Rock Hotel Chicago, housed in the imposing Carbide and Carbon Building, a black granite art deco gem.

Getting There

One word: Amtrak

Thanks again to Aaron for putting our Chicago guide together. Make sure to check out Urbanophile.

The Chicago River at night

Other Guides

• Chicago Urban Tour Guide
• Columbus Under Tour Guide
• Indianapolis Urban Tour Guide
• Pittsburgh Urban Tour Guide

As the likely operator for the Milwaukee to Madison extension of the Chicago to Milwaukee Amtrak Hiawatha Service, Amtrak is the likely brand for high-speed rail in the Midwest. If Amtrak is to be the brand for Midwest high-speed rail, it’s going to bring with it a lot of baggage, both good and bad.

What does the Amtrak brand represent?

• Cross-country, slow travel on the rails.
• Inter-city commuter service on routes similar to the soon-to-be upgraded runs between Milwaukee and Chicago and Chicago and St. Louis.
• A money pit
• An essential piece of the transportation infrastructure to others.
• A dying, legacy system that barely anyone rides.
• A growing system that if it were an airline would be the 8th largest in terms of passengers.

Clearly, investing over a billion dollars in high-speed rail in the Midwest is worthy of having a brand absent of past baggage.

Thankfully, there is an established precedent for how to utilize Amtrak as the operator of a branded service. In the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak operates a multitude of services with the high-speed component being known exclusively as “Acela“. In the Northeast Corridor there isn’t brand confusion, there isn’t service confusion, Acela is high-speed rail, and high-speed rail is Acela.

The Midwest needs its own high-speed brand, and it needs one soon. Chicago is set to become a hub for two high-speed rail lines as soon as 2013, and it’s time for a brand to organize around. Grants have been awarded to implement 110mph high-speed rail service between Madison and Milwaukee as an extension of existing 79mph Hiawatha Service between Milwaukee and Chicago and to upgrade Lincoln Service from 79mph to 110mph between Chicago and St. Louis. If more grants are awarded, as the Obama administration indicates they may be, it’s very likely that one of those grants for another high-speed corridor would go to a route out of Chicago.

Keep the Hiawatha and Lincoln branding for individual routes, but it’s time to give an overreaching brand for high-speed rail based out of Chicago.

The most informative part of the book is not the part that deals with the details of the actual plan and what was implemented, but rather the part that details how the plan originated, what wasn’t included, and what ideas failed to be implemented. It’s enlightening to know that Burnham’s drafts included sections on social policy for everyday citizens including school locations and hospital quality, something that critics often chide Burnham for overlooking. Knowing historic Chicago figures only by the businesses they left behind or roads that utilize their name, it was eye-opening to learn that Montgomery Ward was the leader in the fight to keep the lakefront a public space, who Wacker Drive is named after (and why), and how John Shedd and Marshall Field played into the plan’s development and implementation.

Having known only a limited amount about the plan in advance of reading the book I found reading the book certainly more valuable than I would have found reading the plan itself.   Smith concludes the book by introducing other books readers might find valuable on the topic, and I’m certainly convinced to check out at least one or two more. It’s also apparent to me that by the time I finished reading the book I was never going to look at Chicago in quite the same way. Despite having spent a lot of time in The Loop, for a resident of Milwaukee, I now have a completely new appreciation for the city and a much greater sense of place.

The fact that it’s a quick read with plenty of photos certainly makes it much more consumable for those only loosely familiar with Chicago. If you’re at all interested in urban planning, the history and formation of cities, or Chicago you’ll find this book enjoyable.

We did not hear back from Megabus on a rational for the cut, but it would appear the buses are likely being used to run the route between Indianapolis and Chicago that was expanded in March. A route that for the time being probably is more profitable due to the lack of Amtrak service between the two cities more than once a day in each direction.

The Milwaukee stop is now exclusively part of a larger route to Minneapolis so departure and arrival times are based around end-points on the route, not Milwaukee. The convenient leaving times are now a thing of the past, as no bus currently originates it’s journey in Milwaukee.

What’s left of the service between Milwaukee and Chicago?

Milwaukee to Chicago (runs that were eliminated highlighted in red)

• 6:30 AM (arrive 8:30)
• 8:30 AM (arrive 10:25)
• 1:00 PM (arrive 3:00)
• 2:30 PM (arrive 4:25)
• 7:00 PM (arrive 8:55)
• 9:45 PM (arrive 11:45)
• 11:30 PM (arrive 1:15) – new service
  

Chicago to Milwaukee (runs that were eliminated highlighted in red)

• 6:30 AM (arrive 8:25) – new service
• 7:00 AM (arrive 8:55)
• 9:30 AM (arrive 11:05)
• 11:30 AM (arrive 1:25)
• 3:00 PM (arrive 4:55)
• 5:30 PM (arrive 7:25)
• 9:30 PM (arrive 11:25)

Effective Megabus and Amtrak Schedule – Milwaukee to Chicago (as of December 1st, 2009)

• 6:15 AM (arrive 7:57) – Amtrak – Monday through Saturday
• 8:00 AM (arrive 9:29) – Amtrak
• 11:00 AM (arrive 12:29) – Amtrak
• 1:00 PM (arrive 2:29) – Amtrak
• 1:00 PM (arrive 3:00) – Megabus
• 3:00 PM (arrive 4:29) – Amtrak
• 5:45 PM (arrive 7:14) – Amtrak
• 7:35 PM (arrive (9:04) – Amtrak
• 11:30 PM (arrive 1:15) – Megabus

Effective Megabus and Amtrak Schedule – Chicago to Milwaukee (as of December 1st, 2009)

• 6:00 AM (arrive 7:29) – Amtrak – Monday through Saturday
• 6:30 AM (arrive 8:25) – Megabus
• 8:25 AM (arrive 9:54) – Amtrak
• 10:20 AM (arrive 11:49) – Amtrak
• 1:05 PM (arrive 2:34) – Amtrak
• 3:00 PM (arrive 4:55) – Megabus
• 3:15 PM (arrive 4:44) – Amtrak
• 5:08 PM (arrive 6:45) – Amtrak
• 8:05 PM (arrive 9:34) – Amtrak

Service quality also seems to be a growing issue, as Megabus appears to frequently leave riders in the cold as to how long a delay will be (despite having a text messaging system in place that has never once been used in a delay I have been part of). Chicago Now blogger Glenn McBridge has a great breakdown of his experiences, which have been remarkably similar to mine it appears, noting that Megabus is great 50% of the time and that you get what you pay for.

We’ll let you know when and if Megabus adds more service out of Milwaukee again.

It’s all about Chicago, the capital of the Midwest. It always has been. The $823 million in federal funds isn’t about building a connection between Milwaukee and Madison, it’s about growing the link between those two cities and Chicago. There will be plenty of riders between Milwaukee and Madison, but viewing the line as simply a system for that is extremely misguided. Trains that originate in Madison will terminate in Chicago and vice versa.

What does that mean for residents of Waukesha County? A simple drive to a suburban rail station with free parking. Jump on a train with seats far more comfortable and spacious than what Midwest Airlines formerly offered. Pop open that laptop, hop on the wifi network, and enjoy a stress-free ride into The Loop in Chicago. Riders will be able to rack up billable hours, get caught up on email, read a book, or sleep. All options that are nearly impossible when driving. Get off the train and head to your destination in the heart of Chicago, by foot, cab, or another transit option.

Residents of Waukesha County have been able to accomplish this by driving to downtown Milwaukee and getting on the train at the Milwaukee Intermodal Station. That’s worked exceptionally well to-date, with ridership doubling on the Hiawatha over the past 10 years. The Madison high-speed line will extend the existing Hiawatha line through Waukesha County with a stop in Brookfield and Oconomowoc, making the trip shorter and more convenient, with increased service frequency. What’s not to like about a frequent, first-class train line with a stop close to your house with free parking?

If that’s not enough, the next planned extension to Minneapolis/St. Paul through Madison with potential stops in Wisconsin Dells, La Crosse, and Eau Claire will help increase the utility of the line.

Megabus buses loading and unloading in Chicago

It’s hard to fault Megabus for dropping the routes if they’re losing money.  The service survives without any direct public subsidy. To that end, Megabus has always been tuning service, whether it was dropping service to Pittsburgh and Louisville, adding service to Madison and Champaign, eliminating the entire West Coast operation, or installing wifi and power outlets on every bus. Sad as it is to see service cuts, the service appears to continue to thrive because of the constant eye placed on the bottom line.

Thankfully with the more-expensive, but quicker Amtrak Hiawatha in the mix there are still are numerous options to go from the Milwaukee Intermodal Station to Chicago Union Station.  The only true lacking in service options is a real late night train to be able to come back from events such as concerts, games, and festivals in either city.  Hopefully the KRM/Metra commuter rail service is one day able to bridge that gap.

Here’s to hoping that instead of getting reduced, service continues to improve between Milwaukee and Chicago. New Talgo passenger cars are on the way for Amtrak, and Megabus has wifi and power outlets on-board now. The technology is looking up, hopefully the service offerings follow.

Milwaukee to Chicago (runs that were eliminated highlighted in red)

• 6:30 AM (arrive 8:30)
• 8:30 AM (arrive 10:25)
• 1:00 PM (arrive 3:00)
• 2:30 PM (arrive 4:25)
• 7:00 PM (arrive 8:55)
• 9:45 PM (arrive 11:45)

Chicago to Milwaukee (runs that were eliminated highlighted in red)

• 7:00 AM (arrive 8:55)
• 9:30 AM (arrive 11:05)
• 11:30 AM (arrive 1:25)
• 3:00 PM (arrive 4:55)
• 5:30 PM (arrive 7:25)
• 9:30 PM (arrive 11:25)

Effective Megabus and Amtrak Schedule – Milwaukee to Chicago (as of December 1st, 2009)

• 6:15 AM (arrive 7:57) – Amtrak – Monday through Saturday
• 8:00 AM (arrive 9:29) – Amtrak
• 8:30 AM (arrive 10:25) – Megabus
• 11:00 AM (arrive 12:29) – Amtrak
• 1:00 PM (arrive 2:29) – Amtrak
• 1:00 PM (arrive 3:00) – Megabus
• 2:30 PM (arrive 4:25) – Megabus
• 3:00 PM (arrive 4:29) – Amtrak
• 5:45 PM (arrive 7:14) – Amtrak
• 7:35 PM (arrive (9:04) – Amtrak
• 9:45 PM (arrive 11:45) – Megabus

Effective Megabus and Amtrak Schedule – Chicago to Milwaukee (as of December 1st, 2009)

• 6:00 AM (arrive 7:29) – Amtrak – Monday through Saturday
• 7:00 AM (arrive 8:55) – Megabus
• 8:25 AM (arrive 9:54) – Amtrak
• 10:20 AM (arrive 11:49) – Amtrak
• 11:30 AM (arrive 1:25) – Megabus
• 1:05 PM (arrive 2:34) – Amtrak
• 3:00 PM (arrive 4:55) – Megabus
• 3:15 PM (arrive 4:44) – Amtrak
• 5:08 PM (arrive 6:45) – Amtrak
• 5:30 PM (arrive 7:25) – Megabus
• 8:05 PM (arrive 9:34) – Amtrak

The site selected for the solar power plant is a heavily contaminated brownfield on Chicago’s south side.  The site has been unused for 30 years, and even after remediation wouldn’t be suitable for recreational use.  Judging from other reports, all that stands between the plan and its implementation is the approval of a $48 million stimulus loan from the U.S Department of Energy Loan Guarantee Program Office to cover up to 80% of the project costs.

This 10-megawatt solar photovoltaic (PV) facility, featuring 32,800 solar panels that will produce enough clean energy to fulfill the annual requirements of 1,200 to 1,500 homes, will displace approximately 31.2 million pounds of greenhouse emissions annually (the equivalent of taking more than 2,500 cars off the road or planting more than 3,200 acres of forest).

View Chicago Solar Power Plant in a larger map

Also of interest, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Thomas Content has a good rundown of what progress has been made regarding wind power in Wisconsin, and what obstacles are holding its development.  From a high level things appear pretty good…

By many accounts it was a banner year for the state. Record development of wind power took place, with the opening of four large wind-power projects by companies including We Energies, Invenergy and Wisconsin Power & Light Co.

Eight times as much wind power is being generated today as there was a little more than a year ago. But electricity from the wind still accounts for only about 5% of the state’s power supply.

But there are significant challenges.  A couple key takeaways from the article…

• State Senator Jeff Plale (D-Milwaukee) and State Representative Jim Soletski (D-Green Bay) are lead sponsors of a bill to set up uniform siting standards for all wind farms that would be built in the state.  To put things in perspective, the last project that was approved by a local government happened in March of 2007.
• The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has been difficult to work with in order to obtain permits to move the parts throughout Wisconsin.  According to Port of Milwaukee marketing director Betty Nowak this has led to an direct decrease in the volume of wind-power parts coming through the port.  These issues have since been resolved. I would guess this is why WisDOT has been so feverishly expanding freeways around Milwaukee ( for the Zoo Interchange, and for I-94 to the state line), but judging by how Bucryus and Joy Global continue to produce massive mining equipment in Milwaukee, this can’t be the case.
• Wisconsin is behind marketing itself to wind power companies.

How does all of this affect Milwaukee? Besides the obvious change to a more sustainable of source of power, which will result in cleaner air for Milwaukee residents, there are numerous other pieces to this puzzle.  One already mentioned is the use of the port, a higher port utilization means more jobs.  On top of that, Wisconsin has for a long-time been involved in the manufacturing supply chain.  Despite that an incredible number of those jobs are gone for one reason or another, the capacity for such production still exists.  With the size and timing of such projects creating a rather large incentive to make the parts locally, Wisconsin and Milwaukee in particularly could benefit from the increased use of wind turbines for power.

The development of an urban solar power plant is something to also watch closely.  If it works on a Chicago brownfield, I can imagine it would work equally as well on a Milwaukee brownfield (or factory rooftop).

The most well know piece of public art work in Chicago’s Millennium Park is surely Cloud Gate, which is more commonly referred to as “The Bean.”  The way it distorts the view, creating a seamless connection between reflection and reality has adults acting like kids, and kids well being kids.  It fascinates people of all ages, it brings a little joy to people, and by doing so, it sets a tone.  By creating this fun and creative tone it encourages people to stop and enjoy, the work, the park, and the city.

Another intriguing work in Millennium Park, The Crown Fountain, is the large waterfalls with the video images that occasionally spout water.  These clearly draw and entertain a crowd, but what statement, purpose, or meaning beyond entertainment they have isn’t immediately apparent.  Nor does the work strike you as especially “high-tech” or even complicated.  But the work draws you in, gathers a crowd, spurs laughter, and creates a fun environment for all ages.  See this work isn’t the most famous draw to Millennium Park, or even the most creative but it adds another twist to Chicago.

Janet Zweig’s work might not standout physically like either of these works, but the point remains the same.  To entertain, to draw people in, and to add a touch of enjoyment to the environment.  This encourages people to linger a little longer, to take a picture of our city, to stop and grab a coffee, to get a brat from a street vendor, or just say something positive about Milwaukee.  Each of these are again minor and might seem insignificant but as the little benefits add up they in totality create a uniquely vibrant place.  Quite simply, public art is one of the the unique twists that help make a city, a city.  Hopefully Zweig’s, all be it small, project will be given the opportunity to add a new twist to Milwaukee.

If you haven’t seen Chicago’s Cloud Gate or The Crown Fountain I’ve added a gallery below:

Of course that’s not always the case, with the Quadracci Pavilion being the best example.  You of course know that building better for the world renown architect that designed it, Santiago Calatrava.

There is something else in downtown Milwaukee that we beat Chicago to, the riverwalk.  Chicago has really only been building out a riverwalk system since just before the turn of the millenium, while Milwaukee has been working on such a system since the 1980s.

Chicago is working to expand their system this year, hoping to complete portions near Michigan Avenue by June.

Things aren’t finished in Milwaukee either, this year we should finally see the construction of the segment connecting the Brewer’s Point Apartments with Lakefront Brewery and Trostel Square and a segment with the new construction of The Edge.  The Aloft Hotel will include an accompanying RiverWalk segment as the building rises. With time, we’ll also see a large expansion of the RiverWalk as The North End “Neighborhood by Design” comes together.

Now let’s just get rid of this cold weather, so we can get back to using the RiverWalk.