Tripou Park, The Neighborhood That’s Not

Residents on the Milwaukee side of W. Calumet Rd., a quiet residential street bordering the Village of Brown Deer, recently received a flyer from a neighbor inviting them to join Nextdoor.com, the international website “where communities come together to greet newcomers, exchange recommendations, and read the latest local news.” Nearly one in three U.S. households are linked to Nextdoor, the San Francisco-based firm says.

The flyer asked those who live in the one-quarter square-mile area wedged between the University Club Country Club, the Brown Deer Park Golf Course, Good Hope Rd. and Calumet Rd. to join “Nextdoor Tripou Park“, one of the 239 Milwaukee neighborhood sites on Nextdoor. “There are already over 800 posts on Next Door Tripou Park … Join today so you don’t miss out!” the flyer urged.

A resident who received the invitation was bemused that his neighborhood of decades had been given a fanciful and meaningless name. But where did it come from?

The resident surmised the “Founding Member” who filled out the neighborhood’s Nextdoor site application mistyped the “LI” at the end of “TRIPOLI PARK,” (the neighborhood’s officially designated name) as a “U”, giving us “TRIPOU PARK.”

A reasonable guess, were it only that simple, it turns out. The creator of the account used the neighborhood name corresponding to their residence on the map that appears on the Nextdoor site and spelled it as found. (Nextdoor says it is willing to correct the spelling if Tripou Park’s “Founding Member” would request such a change.)

This led me to Google, the source of the Nextdoor map and many others, and apparently the origin as well of the misspelling that gave birth to the mythical Tripou Park — Milwaukee’s Shangri-La, its Brigadoon, its Camelot!

Google’s Error to Fix (or Not?)

Google.com revolutionized cartography by photographing and mapping public places worldwide, adding multiple levels of functionality including travel times, directions, transit options and even warnings of road closures, bus delays and vehicular collisions in real time. Its maps are used on many platforms in addition to Nextdoor. Likewise, its errors, like “Tripou Park” multiply across those platforms, with no easy path to correct them, I have learned.

Our phantom neighborhood also appears in such popular websites as Walkscore.com, (“Tripou Park is the 122nd most walkable neighborhood in Milwaukee with 1,225 residents.”); Redfin.com (the owner of Walkscore); Realtor.com, (“Tripou Park is a popular neighborhood for home buyers who can afford to buy a home in the median price range of $200K.”); Movoto.com, (“Tripou Park, Milwaukee, WI Insights: 12% with College Degree 88% with High School Diploma”); Apartments.com (“No rentals found in Tripou Park”); and the commercial real estate site, Loopnet.com (“The Tripou Park Retail Property at 7311-7321 N Teutonia Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53209 is currently available.”)

All of these sites use Google Maps as their source.  As “Mariam” of Walk Score Customer Support wrote me:

After taking a closer look into the issue our team has concluded that our spelling of Tripou park comes from Google’s data. Unfortunately, this spelling will remain on Walk Score as “Tripou Park”. You may try reporting this issue to Google since they are distributing this information to other websites.

That I had already done, to no avail, after navigating the Google Map support system. There I found directions on how to “add or fix a road,” “add or fix addresses,” or “add a missing place,” such as a new retail establishment that might want to advertise on Google. Although I could “report incorrect gas prices,” I could not readily report an incorrect neighborhood name, even though the error was Google’s. My only recourse was the “send feedback” button on Google Maps. I hit it and wrote:

You list this neighborhood erroneously as “TRIPOU PARK.” There is no such place. It is Tripoli Park according to the official City of Milwaukee website. Somebody misread “TRIPOLI” as “TRIPOU” and the error has spread to many other websites. The link below to the official site should serve as proof. Note that the University Club to the west was formerly Tripoli Country Club.

Will Google give the neighborhood its name back? I have yet to receive a response.

“Tripoli Park” Itself an Outdated Name

In the 1990s the City of Milwaukee Department of City Development named, and established boundaries for, 158 neighborhoods. (You’ll find the map here.) “These boundaries were defined to create mutually exclusive neighborhood districts for the entire city.” Google Maps has adopted all of them. All are spelled correctly — except Tripoli Park, although another’s name, changed last year, has not been updated.

The “Tripoli Park” neighborhood is one of over 30 in the city with “Park” in its name. Most refer to actual parks like Sherman Park, Merrill Park, Metcalfe Park, Lincoln Park, Wilson Park and Washington Park, to name a few. “Tripoli Park” appears to be a mashup, combining the then-name of Tripoli Country Club, in the Village of Brown Deer, which forms its western border, and Brown Deer Park, in the City of Milwaukee, which borders it to the east.

But Tripoli Country Club, established in 1921, merged with the University Club of Milwaukee in 2016, adopting the downtown club’s name at the time. If the original neighborhood-naming protocol were to be followed today, the neighborhood could plausibly be renamed “University Park,” — rather high-toned for a neighborhood with only 12% of its residents being college graduates. Yet that is certainly a higher percentage than the number of residents who are University Club members. Perhaps the Nextdoor Tripou Park neighbors might come up with a better name.

Three Decades Later, Only One Neighborhood Renamed. Google Still Gets it Wrong

In 2021, the “Park West” neighborhood (another “Park” mashup) was changed to “Amani” to honor Amani United, a resident-led neighborhood group sponsored by the Dominican Sisters.

Google Maps still calls the neighborhood “Park West.”

After three decades, is it time to update Milwaukee’s neighborhood names?

According to Jonathan Fera of the Department of City Development, there are no legal or legislative stumbling blocks to doing so. “Since the City does not use the neighborhood map for any official purposes, there is not a process to request updates.  Developing an updated version could be an interesting future project for a UWM geography class.”

If new neighborhood names are adopted, let’s hope Google shows them on its maps, spelled correctly, and responds constructively when errors are brought to the global giant’s attention.

Still Can’t Quite Place It?

W. Calumet Rd., the northern boundary of the neighborhood, is bookended by The Thirsty Fox Tavern, 7586 N. Teutonia Ave., Milwaukee [See: Bar Exam: Thirsty Fox is for Golfers, August 2015] and, on the northeast corner of its intersection at N. 43rd St., the Brown Deer Water Tower, a 2-million-gallon standpipe which at 165 feet, dominates the skyline here.

Hungry for Tripou?

The Tripou Park neighborhood, to use its Google-imposed nomenclature, is the home to only three restaurants — Crispy Kitchen, Mama Nana’s Pick-Mar and a Subway sandwich shop. Regrettably, or perhaps providentially, none serve “Tripou” (pl.”Tripoux“) a dish with its origins among the peasants of Aveyron, France. This savory crowd-pleaser is “made with small bundles of sheep tripe, usually stuffed with sheep’s feet, sweetbreads (‘found in the throat, gullet, or neck or pancreas of calves, lambs and young cattle and also called stomach, belly or gut sweetbread’) and various herbs and garden vegetables.” Some prefer it composed of veal tripe stuffed into a sheep’s caul — the possibilities are endless.

The Rundown

Walk Score Tripou Park:

41 out of 100; Car-Dependent “Most errands require a car.” City of Milwaukee Average: 62 out of 100

Transit Score Tripou Park:

40 out of 100; Some Transit “A few nearby public transportation options.” City of Milwaukee Average: 49 out of 100. The #12 bus line runs on the eastern border. The #30 nears its western border, terminating a thousand meters or so south.

Bike Score Tripou Park:

56 out of 100; Bikeable “Some bike infrastructure.” City of Milwaukee Average: 58 out of 100. A bit above par for a neighborhood between two golf courses. The Interurban Bike Trail runs along the eastern border, right behind the Thirsty Fox.