County Looking To Add Bike Racks To Buses

milw_city_bus Originally uploaded by mechanikat Despite Scott Walker‘s consistent insistence that the Milwaukee County Transit System is just a step short of going completely broke, Milwaukee County is proposing to add bicycle racks to the front of the bus fleet. The announcement comes in wake of a proposed settlement for releasing asbestos during the destruction of the Courthouse Annex (the beautiful building over Interstate 43). One bad for one good. I’m all for the addition of bike racks as it increases an individuals mobility without a car, if this is the route that things have to go to get the racks, sure I’ll take it. This goes further to help people than the county paying a fine to the state. On the flip side, the county seems to think they can get federal grants and private funds to pay for a lot of the cost.  So they’re clearly doing this to try to kill two birds with one stone. As long as it happens, I’m a happy biker.

Pfister & Vogel Concrete Crushing

Building Rubble Originally uploaded by compujeramey The remains of the concrete from the Pfister & Vogel Tannery are being ground up over the next month. The resulting rubble will be reused and recycled to build the foundation for the North End development on the site. To accomplish the task the Mandel Group has brought in a 13-foot tall, 72-ton quarry grade crusher that will chew through 1,500 tons of concrete a day. Awesome.

Broadway vs Broadway Street

View From My Room Originally uploaded by compujeramey OnMilwaukee.com’s Bobby Tanzilo took a peak at the story behind the naming of Broadway. The street, which a long long time ago used to be known as Main Street, technically has no suffix. Broadway, one of downtown Milwaukee’s main arteries, is not legally followed by Street, Avenue, or Boulevard, it is simply Broadway. Someone in the city marketing department could spend an entire day trying to correct errors on the web where it’s incorrectly listed, but is it worth it? Maybe, maybe not. The fact that the name Broadway stands alone is something that once you know, you don’t forget, and that you aren’t any better or worse off for actually knowing. Consider this my public service announcement of the month, use your new knowledge to impress your friends or seduce your spouse.

Public Works Committee Holds Water Deal

Jeffrey Mantes the Commissioner of Public Works presented the progress of the City Hall Restoration Project. He pointed out that after two and a half years the project is meeting or exceeding the EBE, RPP and apprenticeship goals laid out for the project. Additionally he indicated that the project is targeted to be substantially complete by Thanksgiving 2008. Representatives from SEWRPC presented A Regional Broadband Telecommunications Plan which indicated SEWRPC’s belief that universal high speed broadband in necessary for continued growth within Southeast Wisconsin. SEWRPC set a goal of developing 20 megabit universal access throughout the region and discussed a wireless demonstration project that Kenosha is currently testing. The well presented need and existence of the demonstration project prompted Alderman Robert Bauman to ask the SEWRPC representatives to “march right down to the mayor’s office and set up an appointment”. Two resolutions regarding water sales to neighboring communities pointed out what regional cooperation does and doesn’t look like. First up was resolution 071313 which would of renewed a contract between the City of Milwaukee and the Village of Menomonee Falls for the purchase of water. During the discussion of this contract renewal it was pointed out by Alderman Robert Bauman that an amendment allowing the Village of Menomonee Falls to remove a legal constraint on selling water to neighboring communities without the City of Milwaukee Water Works approval was “giving a benefit for no consideration”. Despite contract terms limiting the amount of water the Village of Menomonee Falls can acquire from the City of Milwaukee Water Works, this amendment would of been a first step in opening the door for the Village of Menomonee Falls to begin selling water to communities outside of the basin. The committee held this resolution as it appeared that this small change in the contract had the potential impact of encouraging sprawl and further decentralizing the region. The second resolution, 071314, was a request by the Village of Elm Grove for the City of Milwaukee Water Works to explore the possibility of selling water to the Village of Elm Grove. Neil Palmer the Village of Elm Grove President suggested they would purchase water at wholesale or even at retail prices. Further he made it clear he would support the City of Milwaukee in a variety regional issue including improved mass transit within the region. This resolution was enthusiastically approved by the committee and will move on to the full Common Council for approval.

Thank You For Shoveling

Kit Hodge emailed me to let me know about a new service called Thank You For Shoveling. As Kit explained to me… As you well know, snow both adds to the charm and creates a lot of frustration in Milwaukee. And by snow, I mean snow removal. Now that it’s the snow season, your readers might be interested in our new, free “Thank you for shoveling” cards, designed to encourage your neighbors to shovel the sidewalks during the winter. It’s easy to curse your neighbors when it takes you ten extra minutes to get to work in the morning because you have to wade through snow or jump over slush. We’re making it easy for people to do something constructive and neighborly about keeping their block shoveled this winter. We’ll send you cards, and all you have to do is drop them in the mailbox of your neighbors who shovel. A little positive reinforcement goes a long way towards making a snow-free and friendlier block. This definitely won’t work for people living in larger buildings controlled by a management company but in mid- and low-rise areas with more homeowners it’s a good solution to the eternal neighborhood problem of sidewalks blocked by snow.

What’s Going On In The Third Ward?

OnMilwaukee.com’s Julie Lawrence has a good review of some of the retail and tavern activity in the Third Ward.

It’s Official, Fonz Funding Complete

Milwaukee is the talk of the internet today, as the major news outlets announce the Fonz statue to the world.  Visit Milwaukee has officially raised the $85,000 needed to build the statue. I’ve been in support of the statue since I first learned of it because it encourages visitors (who come to Milwaukee for completely unrelated reasons) to stay downtown, walk downtown, and spend their money downtown. One more thing for Milwaukee visitors to do. Mary Louise Schumacher is still opposed to the statue because it’s too trivial. The Associated Press has an article that sums up what is happening, and even mentions Brenner leaving town. The best part of the entire thing is that Henry Winkler and company held a press conference to announce the completed funding in front of the Culver’s at the Shops of Grand Avenue. Couldn’t they find a slightly better location?

Smart Cars Hitting The Street

The Smart Car fortwo, arguably the smallest car on the market at 8-feet-long (the Prius is 14.6-feet-long), has hit the US market for the first time this month.  Streetsblog has a shot of one parked sideways amongst the rest of the cars on the street in NYC. While I’m in no way in favor of cars, Milwaukee is far from ready to be a car-free paradise.  Sure certain neighborhoods are far better than others, but without a car certain people would struggle to get around, especially in the winter.  We, as those who want to live a low cost, environmentally-friendly car-free lifestyle, need to walk before we run and getting smaller, quieter, and more fuel-efficient is one component of that. In to the picture steps the low-cost Smart Car, finally available on the US market.  While not more fuel-efficient than the Toyota Prius, it’s smaller and cheaper.  For urbanites that need a car infrequently the Smart Car might be the perfect match.  It’s easy to park, quiet (neighborhood friendly), and gets pretty good gas mileage at nearly 40 miles a gallon.  The car has a suggested retail price of just under $12,000. An electric model is on the way, which is more attractive from an environmental standpoint, but will contain a $35,000 price, which might be too much for the average consumer to stomach. As far as space goes inside the vehicle, I road in one in Germany and found it plenty comfortable, more so than say climbing in and out of a small pickup truck. I won’t complain if all my neighbors replace their cars with Smart Cars.  Just think of the asphalt we could save.  More bike lanes anyone?

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.