Trinitas Ventures’ request for a change in zoning, from Industrial Light 2 to Detail Plan Development, was recommended for denial by the City Plan Commission at the February 6th, 2012 meeting.

On Wednesday evening, the Beerline Trail celebrated it’s grand opening. The 4000-foot, paved trail connects the Beerline neighborhood, North Avenue Dam Pedestrian Bridge, Commerce Street, and Humboldt Avenue bridge through the river corridor to Gordon Park and much of Riverwest. The trail will facilitate a better connection for non-motorized travelers between the downtown area and Riverwest. The trail also turns a former railroad corridor into a welcoming and accessible way for visitors to interact with the Milwaukee River.

Normally we would greet you on Monday with an urban advocacy piece, but we were a little too busy enjoying all that urban Milwaukee had to offer this weekend. While normally just one of these events would pass as a big entertainment attraction across every other Wisconsin city, urban Milwaukee had at least eight organized and noteworthy events going on this weekend.

Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn has had his new police district boundaries approved by the Common Council Public Safety Committee. The new boundaries will have the most significant effects on the East and South sides of Milwaukee.

Over the past few years the Milwaukee River Work Group (“MRWG”) has pushed to create an overlay district to “protect” the Milwaukee River. This overlay district would create new building setback requirements, height limits, and introduce the concept of a viewshed for properties along the Milwaukee River.

To be honest, we don’t know exactly. But we do know that they’ve proposed 8 sites, and we’ll break down each one to determine which one we think might be the best.

On July 29th a meeting of 3rd district residents was held to discuss the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s (“UWM”) recent Request for Proposal (“RFP”) to build a new student dorm with 500 to 700 beds. Alderman Kovac attempted to set the tone by reminding the audience that “overall we’re lucky to have UWM as a neighbor”. He was also quick to point out that UWM hasn’t announced any specific sites yet and that he’d like the meeting to focus on general guidelines to lead the discussion with UWM.

The Riverwest Neighborhood Association is going to test Alderman Nik Kovac early in his term. Dan Knauss reports on the Riverwest Neighborhood Network website that Kovac may be getting asked to help advocate for the Anaba Tea Room being opened at Garden Park as a done deal before the RFP process to select the “highest and best use” begins.

What makes urban Milwaukee special?  One of those things is certainly committed local businesses.  Alterra Coffee Roasters is certainly one of those companies.
Recently the Small Business Times sat down with Alterra’s founders Ward Fowler, Paul Miller, Lincoln Fowler to discuss where the company is headed and how the new Riverwest location on Humboldt fits into [...]

My sources, namely Twitter, tell me that Mike Brenner and his Hotcakes Gallery will soon be a part of Milwaukee history.  The eccentric gallery owner promised to close his gallery and leave Milwaukee if the Fonz statue was fully funded.  Well I haven’t heard for sure that that has happened yet other than from Brenner, [...]