Weekly Milwaukee Development Bookmarks

Articles from the past week covering development in Milwaukee. JS Online: No fizzle in this area housing boom MacArthur plan gets new building – The Business Journal of Milwaukee: Miller, Coors scout HQ sites in Dallas; Chicago high on list – The Business Journal of Milwaukee: JS Online: Despite fewer sales, home prices steady JS Online: City rejects settlement in condo tussle JS Online: Barrett seeks to boost minority contracting Barrett delivers State of the City Address – Small Business Times MillerCoors HQ might not be in Milwaukee or Denver – Small Business Times Zilber tweaks plans for Pabst parking garage – Small Business Times Ghazi Co.’s Charlotte project progresses – Small Business Times OnMilwaukee.com Politics: City reaches accord on Kilbourn Tower settlement Miller: Despite report, Milwaukee still in running for MillerCoors HQ – The Business Journal of Milwaukee: JS Online: Housing stays in decline WUWM: UWM Today – Chancellor’s Report on UWM’s Role in Economic Development DNR wants more control over lake water flow DailyReporter.com GMC moving forward on transit, work force issues – The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

Zoning Committee Responds to Court Ruling

This meeting of the Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee was quite unusual in that it was held in response to the court case Dawn McCarthy vs. The City of Milwaukee City. The case revolves around the city’s handling of a minor modification to the Detail Planned Development known has Downer Avenue Redevelopment Phase I. The court ruled that there were possible open meetings violations during some Historic Preservation Commission subcommittee meetings so to insure all information was publicly heard the judge ordered this meeting to be held. It is important to note the judge did not stop construction and didn’t expect the city to vote on the resolution in question. Peter Kovac, one of the Plaintiffs in the case, made comments indicating the city had re-opened the issue prompting Alderman Mike D’Amato to respond by saying “you seemed to of re-opened the whole issue”. Alderman Bob Bauman was heard saying “let him go on for two hours” expressing his frustration with the repetitive testimony and the proceeds. Despite Alderman Michael Murphy‘s concern over setting a precedent by passing a resolution in response to the direction of the court, the committee unanimously approved resolution 071365 reasserting the previously passed resolution.

The Gloves Come off

They say politics ain’t beanbag (confused? think hackey sack) so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the gloves have come off in the Democratic race for President. Hillary Clinton’s campaign is running ads here in Wisconsin attacking Barack Obama for not agreeing to debate and for falling short of promising universal health care coverage for all Americans. The interesting thing is that she is basically correct on the merits but it doesn’t seem to matter. Obama deftly dismisses her criticisms as old-style politics and calls attention to her past support for NAFTA and bankruptcy reform which were not in the best interests of the poor and middle class. His rhetorical jujitsu is something to behold. He is such a natural politician, combining a remarkable personal history with an outstanding command of policy and a riveting speaking style that people are falling victim to the Obama swoon. At one time, Bill Clinton was the reigning practitioner of this art. As recently as fall, 2006, the former President had the touch. He filled the Milwaukee Theatre at a rally in support of Gov. Jim Doyle’s bid for reelection and he was in fine form. The place rocked as Bill segued from praising Doyle to critiquing President Bush and the crowd loved him (the Clinton swoon was in the air). Interestingly, Barack Obama also addressed a crowd here in support of Doyle’s reelection at Pere Marquette Park and his eloquence and ability to inspire was apparent. Shift back to the present and the bloom seems off the Clinton rose; a development nobody could have predicted mere weeks ago. Obama is the rock star at this point in time and Bill Clinton seems like yesterday’s news. Obama drew 18,000 to the Kohl Center in Madison, and thousands more in Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, Green Bay and everywhere he goes. President Clinton, the most popular Democrat since John F. Kennedy, has only been drawing much smaller crowds including 2-300 here in Milwaukee on Thursday. Arguably, Bill Clinton has only himself to blame with comments about Obama like the “fairy tale” remark in New Hampshire and the comparison to Jesse Jackson in South Carolina. Here in Wisconsin he’s been more careful. He gave a fine speech Thursday but he comes across as a link to the past and that’s not a formula for success this year. Obama still needs to finish strong and I know better than to count out the Clintons but there’s an undeniable feeling in the air that this Obama thing is the real deal. The ad wars are nicely documented here by the New York Times. If you want to dig further and try to make sense of the differences on health care reform check out http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/theyve_got_you_covered.html. Finally, Doyle’s appearance on Hardball with Chris Matthews is worth watching. Wisconsin is the center of the political universe for a few days so enjoy the ride. Obama and Clinton are both scheduled to speak at tonight’s Democratic dinner at the Midwest Airlines Center. The […]

The delegate race- who matters?

Sydney Hih Square Development Launches Website

The Sydney Hih Square development has gone through, many iterations, public debate of TIF financing, the shuffle of lead developers, but now has taken a small step forward. This sign of progress is seen in the launching of The Residences at Hotel Palomar website. The site’s launch is in part preparation for pre-sales and fully with the intent of creating a buzz. The site announces the opening of a sales center in April 2008 and with this launch it may make it possible to see a ground breaking yet this year. The Residences at Hotel Palomar: http://www.milwaukeepalomar.com/

Public Works Committee Approves Water Deal

Resolution 071440, sponsored by Alderman Jim Bohl, requested an exception to city requirements that sidewalks be developed during the repaving of Good Hope Rd. It specifically requested that the area between 91st St. to 107th St. be excluded from the requirement because this area is more rural than urban. It was pointed out during the meeting that schools located on arterial roads without sidewalks require busing of students by law and therefore not installing the sidewalks will insure higher costs for Milwaukee Public Schools . Despite this Alderman Bohl’s Legislative Assistant Todd Peterson and Alderman Robert Puente argued that the people they represent don’t want sidewalks. The rest of the committee must of felt sidewalks are an important feature of an urban environment or considered the MPS issue significant as they placed the resolution on file. Resolution 071313 was the reintroduction of the contract agreeing to water sales between the City of Milwaukee and the Village of Menomonee Falls. During the last meeting the committee held the file because of amendments put forward by the Village of Menomonee Falls. Alderman Robert Bauman pointed out that the Village of Menomonee Falls would of been gaining new benefits but “they offered nothing in return”. Specifically the original resolution potentially could of allowed the Village on Menomonee Falls to sell some of their ground water across the divide by importing more Milwaukee water further encouraging suburban development by utilizing a City of Milwaukee resource. In response to these issues Alderman Bauman proposed the current resolution saying it has the “same terms and conditions” as well as the “same service area” as the existing contract. This resolution was approved by the committee and heads to the full Common Council for approval.

Facing modern truths

* The art form of the modern age is photography. In the same way various schools of painting defined ages previous, the modern age is defined by the camera, and using the camera as an art form came of age during the period between the two World Wars. Foto, now at the Milwaukee Art Museum (February 9 – May 4), explores this time period in photography and photojournalism in Central Europe. It’s a sweeping show that covers almost 30 years of photography as it became a popular and accessible form of expression. All manner of subjects are represented: from photo collage to portraiture, landscape to action photography. There are abstract pieces and images that look like they could have been torn from the pages National Geographic. The work is arranged thematically, and roughly chronologically, which gives the impression that the movements which took decades to take hold in the world of paint and canvas swept through photography like a wildfire. What is most striking about the photographs included in Foto is how contemporary they feel when you stand in front of them. This show celebrates the onset of modernity, yes, but that was 60, 70, even 80 years ago from today’s perspective. You’d never know to look at the offerings on display. Photo collages assembled by cutting and pasting, tricks of exposure and development, look as if they could have been created in Photoshop. They evoke the same notion of the absurd and the surreal and create the same sorts of statements that we make digitally today – and they are just as easy to decode, if you know the language. Sometimes the code is so personal to the artist that you can only guess, or create your own language to read the message imprinted on the paper with light and chemicals. Photographers in this period played with the same social statements that photographers today attempt to make. They created the idea of the “modern woman,” strong and capable and pretty to boot, at a time when women’s liberation was still a whisper of a dream. They photographed the downtrodden and made a political call; they photographed the detritus of urban life and turned it into art. They romanticized the past in scenes of pastoral life, strangely interrupted by the onset of modernity: barefoot peasants building a railway, set against sweeping landscapes. Perhaps it is hubris that makes us think we are reaching new horizons in the art of photography with all of our fancy gadgets; perhaps it is only ignorance. Either way, standing in the Milwaukee Art Museum and looking at these faces and places and dreamscapes from the past, one comes face to face with the fact we are not, in truth, the great innovators of the photographic age. We are merely doing what’s been done by those that came first. VS Foto runs at the Milwaukee Art Museum through May 4, 2008. For gallery hours, admission prices and a complete list of supplemental programs in connection with […]

The ultimate trip

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I’m half crazy, all for the love of you. (from “A Bicycle Built for Two”) Recently I watched Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) for the umpteenth time, and it’s as fascinating as it was 40 years ago — perhaps more so after the 2001 unveiling of the Calatrava addition at the Milwaukee Art Museum. It’s remarkable how the architect echoes the film’s images of whiteness, light, spiraling forms, tunnel-like views and vaulted spaces punctuating long narrow halls. Kubrick’s icon arrived in the age of space exploration when the young Spanish architect was seventeen and likely exploring his own version of space. On a cloudless day when the sun floods Windhover Hall, it creates a field of blinding white, but from the first day I stepped into the area, it seemed oddly familiar. I was drifting through the film. All of this pondering about an exceptional filmmaker and equally exceptional architect made me wonder if Sensory Overload (now – October 2009) would be better if installed in the addition’s marbled halls rather than in the severe contemporary galleries in the “old section.” Perhaps, though, all the light, motion, sound and optics would battle with the Calatrava; maybe overloaded art is best sensed where there are no additional distractions. As I write at my EV730 computer, the words of HAL, a 9000 computer, bother my head the way that Stanley Landsman’s “The Magic Theatre (Walk-in Infinity Chamber)” haunted me after I sat in it in 1968 when it was first exhibited at MAM. In 1967, Stephan Antonakos shaped “White Hanging Neon,” and a decade earlier, as the United States entered the space age, Josef Albers painted “Study – Homage to the Square (Lighted from Within).” It speaks of alienation, the expansion of time, and certainly the orange-brown square centering the painting (the source of “light”) suggests something beyond the sun as it must have seemed in the era when prehistoric man both wondered about sunrise and feared the dark. Fast forward to the evolution of the tool (where would artists be without it?) and future trips into space where gravity demands Homo sapiens must learn to walk again. I re-visited Sensory Overload on a marrow-freezing February 10, passing by “Alfred Leslie” (1970), a portrait of the artist looking like Neanderthal Man. He was holding a hammer. In order to thoroughly explore Sensory Overload, visitors may need to learn to walk again, if only to view “Sir-Ris, 1957” by op artist Victor Vasarely. Two globes, suspended in time (one black, one white) defy gravity and confuse the eye. Are we being tricked by the artist, sucked into a void that defies reason? Is man the “tool” rather than the force controlling the tool? Kubrick’s film emphasizes this dilemma, as do many great works of art incorporating a push-pull of tension, but where do we fit in a global culture that’s going to need more than a screwdriver to set it right? Open the pod […]

The debate debate

Northeast Side Area Plan Open House

Location: 2999 N Humboldt Blvd. Milwaukee, WI 53202 Flyer

Northeast Side Area Plan Open House

Location: 2999 N Humboldt Blvd. Milwaukee, WI 53202 Flyer

It Doesn’t Take a Weatherman

The deluge has begun. In case you haven’t noticed, Wisconsin’s primary is next Tuesday so our state is suddenly drawing attention from the candidates and the national media. On some levels the race for the Democratic nomination is too close to call and nobody expects either candidate to deliver a decisive blow for at least for a month or so until Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania have had their say. Those states, some say, are a firewall for Hillary Clinton and if she finishes strong she can still establish herself as the likely candidate prior to the convention in August. But that’s not how it looks from here in the dairy state on Valentines’ Day. The momentum of the Obama campaign is palpable in Wisconsin and the evidence that he will win here is everywhere. The crowds he is turning out across the state are amazing. The ads he is running are compelling. The money he is raising and the endorsements he is gathering are impressive. The groundswell of support for the first term senator from Illinois is dramatic and authentic. Clinton’s campaign is struggling to reinvent her as the underdog insurgent in this race. I like and respect Hillary but this is yet another sign that she is destined to finish second. Not only are the voters clamoring for change but, perhaps more significantly, they are seeking authenticity. Both candidates are incredibly bright, hardworking and accomplished but Clinton loses to Obama on the intangible of being in sync with the times. On Tuesday, Obama drew 18,000 to the Kohl Center in Madison with hundreds more in the Pavilion next door watching on two giant video screens. I drove from Milwaukee with my daughter and one of her friends and we ended up in the overflow. The two teenagers with me were impressed by Obama’s speech and were excited that we were able to squeeze into the main arena after he was finished so they could catch a glimpse of the politician. What better sign of his impact? He is truly the rock star candidate. Obama continued his march across the state on Wednesday with appearances in Janesville, Waukesha and Racine. I made it to the Waukesha Expo Center to see what effect he’d have on a smaller crowd in a largely Republican community. He delivered with flying colors. The nearly 2000 in the audience were treated to a tour d’ force speech combining detailed policy specifics with inspirational oratory. If people arrived with an open mind, the chances are good that he closed the deal. Former President Bill Clinton addressed a much smaller crowd this morning at Milwaukee’s Italian Community Center. I couldn’t stay away because I was curious to see what he would say and what impact he would have on his audience. Only part of the ballroom was filled, maybe two hundred. Many of those gathered appeared to be devoted supporters of Hillary Clinton and he gave a fine speech highlighting her accomplishments and pointing out her prescriptions […]