Job Openings at Miller Park

When new stadiums are built we hear rumors of all these jobs they’re going to bring to a community.  Often enough it’s hard to tell if those jobs are actually created. On Friday afternoon, you’ll be able to actually apply for those jobs in a job fair at Miller Park from 4 – 7.  They’ll be doing it again on Saturday morning.  And if you can’t make either of those days, it looks like the Brewers will allow you to apply online.  OnMilwaukee.com has all the details.

Fonz Wins, Brenner Leaving Town

Lake Michigan Under Fire

Our beloved Lake Michigan is in trouble.  In the last year alone “the small fish” that sustain the big salmon and trout had their numbers cut in half.  Thanks to a growing number of mussels that are able to live at deep depths and rob the water of energy (the plankton), the ecosystem is under fire. But fear not, Jim Doyle is coming to the rescue (how about that for a change).  The state of Wisconsin will spend $6 million to build an experimental ballast water treatment system for the state’s Great Lakes ports, most importantly Milwaukee.  As you hopefully know, most of the invasive species in Lake Michigan today enter through the discharged ballast water of ships.  Wisconsin and the United States have been slow to pass legislation regulating this discharging, which can be largely prevented by discharging the ballast water in the open ocean. This system will hopefully serve as the catalyst for a movement by all Great Lakes ports to finally do something about allowing ballast water to be discharged.

Three Unrelated Persons Per Residence

One of the often-overlooked rules for residences in Milwaukee is that no more than three unrelated persons may live together. I’ve never heard a good reason for why the rule is in place or how one can get around the rule (outside of simply ignoring it like many landlords do). DailyReporter.com finally gave me an answer to all of my questions.  It turns out that it’s mainly a financial issue for keeping the rule on the books.  Reducing the number of occupants per residence limits the potential income of a landlord and helps slow any burning desires they have to buy up the entire block with the income from packing 5 people (probably students) into a house, and turning the neighborhood into a slum lord’s paradise. This rule has the greatest affect in the areas surrounding universities in the city, primarily UW-Milwaukee. There is of course always the factor that 4 or 5 college students together in one residence can cause trouble, but the prevailing reason for the rule seems to be the financial factor. To get around the rule you can simply claim someone you’re living with is your cousin, but Alderman D’Amato is leading the charge to tighten that loophole by requiring residents be first cousins, and not simply cousins to get around the requirement.

2008 Downtown Planning Process Begins

The Department of City Development recently held a Downtown Plan Update Kick-Off event introducing the upcoming planning process that will set the stage for Downtown Milwaukee’s development for the next ten years. As part of the kickoff DCD released the Downtown Plan Update Report which pointed out the successes of the 1999 Downtown Plan such as the revamped Intermodal Station, the removing of the Park East Freeway, the Riverwalk expansion and the Milwaukee Public Market. The report also pointed out ongoing issues that still need to be addressed such as the abundance of surface lots, the lack of affordable rental and condominium units, and the need for further pedestrian improvements. The 1999 Downtown Plan proved how effective this process is in improving the City but the time has come to update it for the next ten years. Continuing on these efforts the City is beginning work on the 2008 Downtown Plan. As part of this planning process the city is conducting an online survey asking residents for their input into the process. If you have thoughts on what will help Downtown Milwaukee’s continued growth you can participate in the survey by completing the Downtown Plan Community Survey.

Clearing the Air

A proposed ban on smoking in all workplaces in Wisconsin is stalled in the state legislature and that’s too bad. There’s no doubt that secondhand smoke is dangerous so it seems to me a no-brainer that no employee should be subjected to toxic air on the job. More than twenty states including New York, California, Illinois and Minnesota have passed smoke-free workplace measures and, as Gov. Doyle has pointed out, Wisconsin is in danger of becoming the ashtray of the Midwest. Even tobacco-addled countries like Ireland, Italy and France have enacted smoking bans, for heaven’s sake. Gov. Doyle reiterated his support for a ban on smoking in the workplace during last night’s State of the State address but it is unlikely to get very far this year. The Senate Public Health Committee passed a version of the ban earlier this month but Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker appears unwilling to bring the measure to a vote. He has called for supporters and opponents to work out a compromise which basically amounts to sweeping the bill under the rug. It’s a disappointing position for Decker to take since his rise to his leadership role was largely tied to his support for the Healthy Wisconsin proposal. Apparently, he wants Wisconsin residents to have access to health care as well as making sure they get exposed to air that can cause lung cancer, emphysema and other diseases so they need the coverage. I’d call that the “Full Employment for Healthcare Workers” platform. Most people recognize that the key stumbling block on this issue boils down to whether an exception should be allowed for bars and taverns. Opponents argue that the owners of places where people go to drink should be able to decide whether to permit smoking or not. Their customers, it is said, choose to spend their money there and are free to go elsewhere if they don’t like it. On the other hand, of course, bars and taverns are also workplaces and their employees are as entitled to clean air as everyone else. The bill passed by the Senate committee would give bars and taverns an extra year to comply with the ban but opponents apparently aren’t satisfied with that. The idea that waiters, waitresses and bartenders know that exposure to secondhand smoke comes with the job and could work elsewhere if they wanted to is bogus. I had a boss once who held meetings in his office where he smoked. They rest of us hated inhaling the smoke and we knew it wasn’t good for us. But it’s not that easy to find work or to tell a job supervisor you’d like them to be more sensitive to your needs. Newsrooms used to be as smoke-filled as any bar and that just doesn’t make it right. Interestingly, there appears to be widespread agreement on this issue. A variety of polls shows that more than two-thirds of people favor a ban on smoking in workplaces, including bars and taverns, and even […]

True West

Sam Shepard’s True West is a cleverly dark comedy that would be all too easy to overdo in all the wrong places. A less than shrewd production could miss the finesse of the original script, but the Spiral Theatre, in a tiny space on National Avenue, brings the right immediacy and intimacy to capture Shepard’s somewhat sinister humor with strikingly vivid form. In a testament to its growing prominence in local theatre, Spiral Theatre nearly sold out its 30+ capacity studio theatre on one of the coldest nights of the year. Spiral’s show is impressive, and while not all of the finer points of Shepard’s script are perfectly intact, the company manages to deliver an exceedingly enjoyable trip to the theatre. Len Macki stars as Austin, a struggling screenwriter who is looking after his mother’s place while she is away in Alaska. He’s managed to secure a meeting at her place with an important Hollywood producer (Josh Wetzel) to pitch an idea for a love story. The only problem: his brash older brother (Terry Gavin) is staying with him and threatens to blow Austin’s one chance at getting the producer’s green light. Things begin to unravel when Austin’s brother convinces the producer that it would be a good idea for Austin to write a Western instead. (Okay: Shepard’s plot is a lot better than it sounds in a few sentences. And if it’s not staged correctly, it’s every bit as cheesy as it sounds.) Len Macki, comfortably at the center of the production, holds much of the production together. (He’s not prominent locally, but he’s been active elsewhere, most notably Madison.) He dynamically renders Austin’s emotional development over the course of the play, moving from one intricately realized moment to the next. When Austin loses composure and takes to drinking, his emotional collapse is palpable. When he’s clearly dropping pieces of toast into toasters that aren’t plugged in, it makes sense even, though the illusion isn’t complete. Everything that happens around Austin makes sense, even when the production doesn’t make anything clear, and for that, Macki is truly remarkable. Gavin and Wetzel competently hold up their ends of the play. Gavin plays the seedy older brother with a subtle hint of a greater depth. Wetzel plays a Hollywood producer with a nice-guy charisma you wouldn’t expect from a man in his position. This contrast makes for an interesting performance; Wetzel seems almost guileless in a job one would expect to be played like a politician. Rounding out the cast is Sandra Stark in the role of the mother – again (during the holidays she appeared in Boulevard Theatre‘s production of Indian Blood). Seeing Stark play mother twice in three months would be strange if she weren’t so good at it. She speaks the lines. She doesn’t really need to do much more than that. She’s a natural for this kind of role, and here she’s a clever bookend to the production. Spiral Theatre’s production of True West runs through February […]

Old World 3rd Street Getting New Facelift

Old World 3rd St just west of the Milwaukee River is going to be home to a new restaurant or two and another tavern.  I’ll break them down location by location. Robert Ruvin, who has yet to start construction on any of his nearby developments, will have a new high-end restaurant opening in his Third Street Pier building in March. Kincaid’s Fish, Chip and Steak House will occupy the space previously occupied by the Third Street Pier restaurant and give you everything the title indicates for a pretty penny. A development that is drawing opposition from other businesses on the street is Bootleggers.  A sister tavern of another two-story tavern in downtown Minneapolis, the place will feature live bands, a dance floor, and an outdoor patio.  Other tavern owners on the street voiced their concern through their lawyer who said that Bootleggers will bring “price wars, cheap liquor and bad behavior on the street.”  Alderman Bob Bauman supported giving Bootleggers a liquor license, but has expressed concern about the establishment’s potential to be disorderly.  Coming to the aid of Bootleggers, the Minneapolis Police Department submitted a letter of recommendation.  Both a dance and tavern license were ultimately issued at the January 15th Common Council meeting, meaning the tavern’s opening is all but for-sure. Bootleggers hopes to be open by June. The most interesting of the developments is the Milwaukee Brat House.  Led by entrepreneur Jack Schaefer, the Brat House will be an old-world German tavern and hopes to be open by March.  The tavern will serve food at both lunch and dinner. Why is this so interesting?  Because it continues the trend of turning West Town into Little Munich.  A place where Germans can come to and feel right at home, and where Wisconsinites can go to celebrate their heritage.  To start things off right on Old World 3rd Street is the Old German Beer Hall and Mader’s Restaurant.  Over at The Brewery (the Pabst Brewery redevelopment project) there is the proposed Hofbrauhaus Milwaukee in the old Blue Ribbon Hall. Another reason to be excited about the Milwaukee Brat House is that finally you’ll have a place to take your family and friends to enjoy a delicious bratwurst.  Sure, you can get a brat at a lot of places around Milwaukee, but the brat is just an after thought on the menu.  I don’t want to go to a big fancy restaurant to get a bratwurst, I want to go sit at a table somewhere and look at a menu that is dominated by the notion of the bratwurst.  Plain and simple, feed me delicious meat. I can’t wait to try out the new places on Old World Third Street, some before others as my wallet allows.

Bowling Congress Leaving Milwaukee

The United States Bowling Congress (USBC) is leaving Greendale for Texas, so that it can be next to the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America (BPAA). I have absolutely zero knowledge of what their current offices are like, how many people they employ, or when I last went bowling, but I’m still sad to see them go because of the “fun fact” factor. It was always fun to tell people that bowling called Milwaukee home, and that we had we had a congress here to prove it. Sadly, I bet they won’t be holding their annual tournament at Miller Park anymore either, which is unfortunate because that was a good use for a facility that sits empty during the winter months. Anyway, back to news about urban Milwaukee.

Our responsibility for the lying Bush

Romancing the seed?

Seed Cycles: Works by Sally Kuzma Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum 2220 N. Terrace Avenue January 23 – April 6, 2008 Artist’s Talk: Sunday, February 24, 2 p.m. One would guess that the majority of visitors to the Royal Botanic Gardens, in Kew (near London), likely have little scientific interest in The Millennium Seed Bank Project (MSBP), entrenched on 300 acres. The venerable Botanic Gardens are no doubt gardens of earthly delights, but the Seed Bank Project is decidedly unromantic, in that its vision is to conserve seeds from the world’s wild plant species by the end of the decade. So far they’ve banked 10% of the rarest, “most threatened and most useful species known to man.” They are also scanning their massive herb collection with something called the HerbCat. Nearer to home, at the Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum, an elaborate Italianate showplace on a high bluff overlooking Lake Michigan, Milwaukee-based artist Sally Kuzma exhibits Seed Cycles, January 23-April 6. Her work is rooted in direct experiences with the natural world, specifically in the five years she spent in Iowa before moving to Milwaukee. The ongoing series (images of plant specimens scanned onto her computer and variously altered) is said to explore “the relationships people have with the natural world.” A preview is available at the artist’s website. As I write, I can’t help but thinking of photographer Tom Bamberger’s magnificent works which opened the gallery in the Inova/Kenilworth building, most particularly “Spring Corn,” a bleached-out, drained-of-emotion digitally altered photograph. As a former Iowan, I initially ogled the work through nostalgic eyes, even though the stark image was taken near Mequon. Coldly elegant and impersonal, the result was uncontrived, and it’s my guess that it took some doing to make it so. Frankly, I often need to remind myself that “nature is uncaring.” Of course Homo sapiens has forever altered the natural world, and artists of that species also alter it to fit their personal needs (and the demands of curators and text-panel writers), but beyond that, I think the “relationship” slant is a big ball of nothing. When I visit the Milwaukee Art Museum and stand before a painting by the 19th-century American landscape painter Thomas Moran (who is also represented in the collection of the Charles Allis Museum, a partner of Villa Terrace), I know I’m in a romantic space with romantic paintings, but what do they really reveal about the relationship between people and the natural world? To drive the point home, go online and take a look at New Orleans After The Flood, a series of photographs by Robert Polidori, stunning images about the Big Easy right after Katrina. Does nature give a hoot about “relationships?” I don’t think so. Kuzma somewhat clarified the relationship boondoggle in an email: “I don’t know if I’d claim to investigate the relationship people have with the natural world. The scanner and the computer are just a way to get a closer look at them. Like a scientist, I’m […]

Questions for Aldermanic Questions

Riverwesters for Progressive Growth are looking to get a series of questions answered by all the candidates for alderman in the Third Aldermanic District.  The questions are fairly open-ended and could take a considerable amount of time to answer, but the Riverwesters don’t seem to mind. Should be interesting to see what answers they get.