Committtee Votes to Freeze Funds for WestPointe Commons

The final two appointees to Business Improvement District #41 (Downer Ave.) were approved by committee today. Andie Zacher and Brett Grasse were added to the newly expanded board bring the total to seven members. Brett Grass from Lighthouse Development expressed that he has a “vested interest in the shopping district staying vibrant” and that his experience at Lighthouse Development should be of value to the board.. These appointments were approved and will now go before the full Common Council. Also of note was the appointed of first term Alderman Nik Kovac to the Arts Board. He expressed his desire to sit on the Arts Board by saying “I look forward to helping the arts and helping the city at the same time. He conveyed a strong belief that the arts are not only beneficial to the quality of life within the city but also to the economic development of the city. This appointment was approved and will now go before the full Common Council. The last item on the agenda was resolution 080293 which saw a vigorous discussion over the problematic development effort at 27th and Wells St. known as WestPointe Commons. First funded in November 2001 the project has yet to be completed and has spent almost $1 million in public funds. The motion before the committee was to freeze access to public funds until an audit was completed which would determine what went wrong and if the project should go forward. Former Alderman Paul Henningsen spoke on behalf of the project making a passionate appeal to allow the project to continue. He argued that despite its past issues, it is now close to completion and in combination with other projects in the area it could have a catalytic effect. In the end the committee voted to approve the resolution, essentially freezing public funds, which will now go before the full Common Council.

Weekly Bookmarks – Monday, 23. June 2008

This Sunday, it’s no cars allowed in North Portland- OregonLive.com JS Online: Developer late on bills Milwaukee may create TIF district northwest of downtown for housing – Small Business Times The case for regional cooperation – Small Business Times Milwaukee aldermen will ask county to withdraw from SEWRPC – Small Business Times OnMilwaukee.com Bars and Clubs: Bar 360 adds new dimension to Potawatomi Casino DRS to spend $10.8M on Milwaukee plant – The Business Journal of Milwaukee: Kuester to lead $50M Zilber initiative – The Business Journal of Milwaukee: JS Online: Half-cent sales tax sought to fund parks JS Online: Leaders named for initiative to improve inner city JS Online: State to host Great Lakes hearings JS Online: County faces $33.5 million ’09 budget shortfall JS Online: Boost service, cut fares to save county transit system, consultant says JS Online: Eyes to sky for transit aid

Now in 3D!

You might not think Hillary Clinton and Alanis Morissette have much in common, but somehow, Broadminded’s rendition of Hillary’s concession speech as the spoken lyrics of “You Oughta Know” sheds new light on the current presidential campaign season as well as the media coverage consuming it: exactly what the four women of Broadminded are aiming for in their newest multi-media sketch show, Broadminded: Now in 3-D. Each sketch targets an aspect of modern media and exposes the skewed, the superficial and the downright ridiculous. The four women of Broadminded – Stacy Babl, Anne Graff LaDisa, Melissa Kingston and Megan McGee – got together two years ago after taking classes and performing at ComedySportz. All four collaborate in the writing, direction and production of each sketch. They are ego-less in their synergy, producing light comedy with a serious underlying point, like the ultra-conservative news pundit who insists the answer to controlling illegal drugs is right there in the second amendment, or the sober BBC anchor interviewing girls she believes to be Chinese exchange students, but are really just Americans who want a few bucks on a promised prepaid Master Card. The show incorporates video sketches with the live performance, spoofing a Dateline exploration of “Prodigious Progeny.” The most notable chronicles the nurturing that goes into raising a daughter believed to be the anti-Christ. After all, the number six can look an awful lot like the letter “G” if not practiced over and over with strict parental guidance. LaDisa is eerily charming as the hoped-for anti-Christ. Broadminded: Now in 3-D is the group’s first attempt at a completely thematic show. Each sketch spins satirical on aspects of the media and entertainment, including television, radio, news and advertising. It’s smugly satisfying to see a version of those yogurt commercials in which live-culture lovers admit they’re still hungry. And who knew there’s now a prescription drug called Urbanadrene, a cure to the disease Suburbanitis? Side effects include but are not limited to eating organic produce and using public transportation. The four women don’t just throw together a few funny ideas and hope for the best: research is an integral part of their creative process. Most will recognize syndicated radio host Delilah as an effortlessly bland surgeon of the heart, patching up relationships with generic pop songs of the past two decades. But Kingston’s phenomenal interpretation of an alcohol abuser lining up shot glasses on the sound board while producers try to break into her studio is based in truth, which makes it even better. Performers in comedy sketches have just a few seconds to establish personas for the audience. Broadminded uses body language, voice and very few props to convey character immediately. All four women completely invade their roles, and each sketch is crisp and distinctive. The video sketches provide time for make-up, hair and costume changes. Some of the physical comedy occasionally slides into stereotypes that Broadminded could have avoided, but despite this, the women never rely on an article of clothing or […]

Triptych

By Nicholas Grider Triptych sells itself as a cross-disciplinary experiment in the ways that three different media — visual arts, dance, and music — mesh and fail to mesh in a performance setting, and on those terms alone it’s a great success, despite the somewhat apologetic attitude of the piece’s creators. The result of both collaboration and independent (but side-by-side) work, Triptych presents the efforts of composer Christopher Burns, visual artist Leslie Vansen and choreographer Luc Vanier to explore how effectively their methods might be synthesized. The fact that the answer to this question is yes and no provides the audience with a rich, provocative experience of a work that already has multiple points of entry. And besides that, the work is a sheer pleasure to watch. Luc Vanier’s choreography, in particular, was a welcome shove away from traditional dance concert, with roots in the work of the Judson Dance Theater and Allan Kaprow’s early happenings (as well as a pretty direct nod to Goat Island). Vanier uses the various rooms of the performance as a means to break or ignore many of the conventions of traditional dance theatre. My favorite piece of inspired recklessness: the well-lit floor space where you expect the dancers to stay doesn’t represent any real boundaries at all, and often dancers would swing very close to the audience or move completely out of the light so matter-of-factly that the rooms themselves became sculptural spaces and light became as much of a participant as the music, choreography, or animations. (Also keep your eyes peeled for the play with gender roles in the duet in part two.) There were smaller signs of a tossed-aside rulebook, too – like the lack of presence or tension in the dancers’ arms during their more quotidian moves – but in the mashing-together of art, music, and dance, it is Vanier (and the uniformly excellent dancers) who does most of the heavy lifting. This is not to say that Burns and Vansen’s contributions aren’t just as engaging – just crowded out a little by the physical fact of bodies in motion. This is one discovery that Triptych makes, and even if it’s not new, it’s relevant: it’s awfully hard to balance very different modes of expression (as was the plan in part two of the triptych). Sometimes simply setting things alongside each other is more successful, as it was with Burns’ lead-off percussion solo in the first act (think Morton Feldman with the volume cranked) and the labyrinth of the triptych’s third part, in which Vansen’s drawings and animation appeared as projections through which dancers and audience members have to navigate, filling Vansen’s elegant abstractions with the narrative implications of both the dancers’ and spectators’ shadows. I still feel, here, as if I’m selling Triptych somewhat short, because what’s ultimately thrilling about it beyond its quality is that it’s openly and unrepentantly an experiment, a kind of willingness to raise the stakes that Milwaukee has rarely seen since Theatre X in its […]

Bergstrom Automotive Innovating

It is genuinely encouraging to see the Bergstrom Automotive Group deciding to stay in-tune with market trends (read: increasingly high fuel prices) and downsize their Hummer dealership into being part of an existing dealership, instead of a stand-alone unit. What are they replacing the highly-visible dealership with? A GM-certified user-car dealership.

City Plan Commission

809 North Broadway Milwaukee, WI 53202 1st Floor Boardroom Agenda

Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee

City Hall 200 East Wells Street Milwaukee, WI 53202 Room 301-B Agenda

Community & Economic Development Committee

City Hall 200 East Wells Street Milwaukee, WI 53202 Room 301-B Agenda

Committee Considers Wells Street Conversion

Resolution 080295, sponsored by Alderman Robert Bauman, is the next in a line of files where he has worked to improve the pedestrian experience within the City of Milwaukee. The resolution would complete the conversion of Wells Street to two-ways which he explained would improve the pedestrian environment by slowing traffic. Additionally he pointed out other benefits of two-way streets including that it will “help in connection with retail and commercial activity on the streets”. The portion had been left uncompleted due to property owner concerns as well as concerns over road configurations that would not of been ideal in connection with existing highway ramps. These ramps have since been removed during the Marquette Interchange reconstruction and are no longer a concern of the Department of Public Works. This file was held to allow for more details regarding cost but it appeared to have broad support on the committee. A second file sponsored by Alderman Bauman was file 080294 which proposed the re-striping of West Saint Paul Ave. to improve safety during winter conditions and access to the Intermodal Station. These changes became needed after West Saint Paul Ave. was recently converted to two-way access. This file was approved and will now go before the full Common Council.

Public Works Committee Holds Up Appointments

The reappointment of Jeff Mantes to the position of Commission of the Department of Public Works and the reappointment of Jeff Polenske to the position of City Engineer were held to the call of the chair to start off this meeting. As numerous reappointments have flown through as of late it appears this may be in response to friction the Common Council has had working with the Department of Public Works. Specifically the Common Council has expressed their concern with how DPW handled snow plowing, leaf removal, and various street improvements. File number 080238 is a grouping of numerous assessable public improvements that included items such as street and alley re-construction. Similar files have experienced an ongoing problem whereas approximately half of individual projects are deleted because property owners are unwilling to pay exorbitantly high assessments. This has lead to the slow crumbling of city streets and ever increasing maintenance costs. Alderman Bob Donovon expressed his displeasure at Mayor Tom Barrett‘s unwillingness to replace the current assessment system with a recently proposed vehicle registration fee, by stating “I am hoping that this administration and the alderman in this community have the guts to move forward and do the right thing in changing the way we pay for paving projects.” This file was approved with numerous deletions and will move on to the Common Council for approval. File number 080195 is an ordinance relating to storm water management regulations. Alderman Michael Murphy argued that this resolution is important to because the “leading cause of pollution to our water system is really through non-point water sources” and this resolution targets those sources. Those sources includes streets and parking lots and this resolution address ways to reduce the amount of paved area which improves the grounds ability to absorb storm water. This resolution was passed and will go before the City Plan Commission for approval.

Friday Photos Friday, 20. June 2008

Park Lafayette The Edge The North End The Breakwater DSC03866

Steady