Cathedral Square Park

Five Reasons to Look Forward to Summer in Milwaukee

What did I miss?

Milwaukee’s War on Fun

It was just a few years ago when Milwaukee was named the #2 Party City in America, and although that might seem like a funny or insignificant title it was actually a well deserved and beneficial honor.

East Town Shoots Itself In The Foot

We had originally speculated about the origins of the ban on carry-ins at Jazz in the Park. Our speculation was that it was really a money issue, but that we thought the East Town Association had the right to and should attempt to generate money from the event. Today we received just about all we needed to confirm our suspicions, a couple of great quotes from the Milwaukee Chief of Police Edward Flynn courtesy of the Journal Sentinel article Jazz in the Park fans have a whine and cheese party.

Jazz in the Park Carry-In Ban Update

The East Town Association has posted a question and answer response to their recent policy change banning carry-ins. Check it out, and let us know what you think.

Jazz in the Park To Ban Carry-Ins

In a stunning announcement today, OMC reports that Jazz in the Park will no longer allow carry-ins of alcohol.

Portland To Have “Sunday Parkways”, Can Milwaukee Join The Party?

Powells Originally uploaded by compujeramey Portland, Oregon is getting on-board with a program I would love to see Milwaukee jump on in the near future. Slated to happen on June 22 (in conjunction with the International Carfree Conference), Sunday Parkways will offer Portlanders a chance to stroll, pedal, and play on a six-mile loop of streets that will be closed to motor vehicle traffic from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm…. reports BikePortland.org They’re linking the route up with parks and live entertainers, to offer a little more than a unique place to ride your bike. As far as Milwaukee goes, it would be amazing to have a loop available on a Saturday or Sunday during the summer for people to just play in the absence of dangerous cars everywhere. Linking up with parks for entertainment value I think is huge, along with having a view of the lake. A potential route starting at Cathedral Square Park might include heading north on Van Buren Street, east on Brady Street, south on Prospect Ave, and west on Wells or Kilbourn to come back to the starting point. This is really a tool the Third Ward, East Town and West Association’s could use to market their neighborhoods as safe places for both fun and work by drawing people in from other areas who are otherwise intimidated by the speed and noise of the cars on city streets. I would imagine businesses would be behind this and traffic on Saturday or Sunday mornings is next to nonexistent anyway, so it would bring business in, not chase it away. The only thing that I can think of that compares on a scale basis is the Bastille Days Run through downtown with Jazz in the Park going on afterward. Milwaukee needs to convert that to an open day-time event for everyone to enjoy in a non-competitive environment. Any thoughts? Support? Yays or nays? Special thanks to the Streetsblog for pointping the Portland event out to me. I can’t find anything, but I think they have something like this in Manhattan too.

Cream City November Photowalk A Success

Federal Building Photographers Originally uploaded by compujeramey I attended my first Cream City Photowalk this past Saturday with a bunch of other members of the Cream City (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) photo group on Flickr. If there a measure of photowalking success, where when photos get taken things are a success and when photos don’t it’s not, this event was a success. We walked from John Hawk’s Pub in the 100 East Wisconsin building to the Milwaukee Federal Building, down to Cathedral Square and then back. The cold and the slight drizzle were only to keep some of us back. My photos from the walk are tagged with “creamcityphotowalk2007november“

Broadband News – Thanks for Nothing

Access to the Wi-Fi zones requires a $19.95 per month membership in SBC DSL.

The Governor and the Empire Builder