Jim Gaffigan, renowned comedian and native Milwaukeean by marriage, does a routine about how much easier life is for beautiful people. “Think about it,” he says, “If a stranger smiles at you and they’re attractive, you think, ‘Oh, they’re nice,’ but if a stranger’s ugly, you’re like, ‘What do they want? Get away from me, weirdo!’”

Over the past couple of years, there have been a number of public art crises in Milwaukee. This has included the city removing a TRUE Skool mural, the arts community coming forward to save the Janet Zweig project for Wisconsin Avenue, and County Executive Chris Abele recently pulling the funding for a Milwaukee County Public Art Committee percent for art sculpture.

The Milwaukee Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative together with the Greater Milwaukee Foundation and the City of Milwaukee have developed the Milwaukee Makeover Project. As covered earlier by UrbanMilwaukee.com, the Milwaukee Makeover Project brings homeowners in the nine Healthy Neighborhoods together with architects to create quality exterior improvements on their homes.

Imagine bringing together a group of talented architects and designers with Milwaukee homeowners from “middle-market” neighborhoods to explore how the look of their basic homes can be transformed through quality design. That’s the idea behind the Milwaukee Makeover Project.

Colorado Railcar Manufacturing, the company slated to provide the train sets for the potential Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee (KRM) commuter rail line, has closed its doors due to a liquidity problem. The company was the only supplier of diesel multiple unit (DMU) trains that met FRA standards to operate on the same tracks as freight trains. So the battle over a recently released (and highly-flawed in our opinion) cost report might have to be tabled at this point.

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.