City Beat – Urban Milwaukee

The Milwaukee Anthology

What does it take to create a book that looks at every corner of the city? A diverse set of authors with diverse backgrounds and perspectives. But one voice is required to bring all of them together, and that’s where Justin Kern comes in.

The journalist-turned-communications-professional edited The Milwaukee Anthology. The book, published in April by non-profit Belt Publishing, features a collection of essays, poems and drawings that examine Milwaukee’s highs and lows. How does N. Holton St. exemplify Milwaukee’s segregation issues? What’s life like at the Milwaukee Brewers‘ opening day? What is the future of Sherman Park and the 53206 zip code? Who was crazy enough to create Milwaukee Day? What can we all learn from the tragic shooting at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek? The book features short, easy-to-digest pieces that examine each of the issues and a whole lot more.

Kern joins City Beat to discuss where the idea from the book came from, what went in to making it actually happen and what he hopes people take away from the book.

Want your own copy of The Milwaukee Anthology? Buy it today.

Justin’s underrated restaurant or bar? A two-fer, Guanajuato Restaurant in Bay View and Mamie’s Bar and Grill in Silver City.

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The Domes. Photo courtesy of the Park People of Milwaukee.

Why should you care about historic preservation?

Milwaukee Preservation Alliance board president Peter Zanghi joins City Beat to discuss what the advocacy organization is up to. He discusses the future of the nationally-recognized Soldiers’ Home complex, what’s next for the Mitchell Park Domes and how historic preservation tax credits are saving downtrodden buildings.

Zanghi also discusses the upcoming Rust Belt Takeover event, happening May 10th through 12th in Milwaukee.

Learn more about the organization, or sign up for events involved in the Rust Belt Takeover weekend.

Peter’s underrated restaurant or bar? Damascus Gate

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Jane Jacobs. Photo is in the Public Domain.

Jane Jacobs dramatically transformed the way we think about cities with the publication of “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” in 1961.

Jacobs, a resident of New York and later Toronto, presented a clear vision on what it takes to make a vibrant, safe city. Using her East Village neighborhood as a guidepost, she explored how bottom-up planning by citizens could result in cities that are safe for all ages, alive at all times of the day and enjoyable for all residents.

And while her seminal book and a number of subsequent works are now decades old, the ideas continue to be discussed today. Starting in 2007, citizens in Toronto began hosting annual Jane’s Walks to celebrate city life and the idea has spread to over 200 cities and 40 countries.

Organizer’s of Milwaukee’s fourth annual effort, Dominic Inouye and Jessie Moffat, join the City Beat podcast to discuss the event and what to expect. A kickoff event is planned for May 1st.

Jane’s Walk Milwaukee website

Dominic’s underrated restaurant or bar? Coffee Makes You Black

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Justin Bielinski. Photo courtesy of Justin Bielinski.

We’re less than a year away from the 2020 election for Mayor, County Executive, Common Council and County Board. And with that, a number of candidates are mobilizing boots on the grounds efforts. We’ll be talking to as many of them as possible in the lead up to the February 2020 primary election.

First up is Justin Bielinski, an organizer, political strategist and former para-professional for Milwaukee Public Schools. Bielinski is running to replace retiring Alderman Robert Donovan on the Common Council.

The 8th District, represented by Donovan since 2000, is bordered by W. Forest Home Blvd. on the south, S. 20th St. on the east, Interstate 94 on the north and a zig-zagging line centered on S. 39th St. on the west. According to a 2011 report on the city’s redistricting effort, the district has 39,580 residents. From those residents, 25.7 percent identify as Caucasian, 6.8 percent as Black, 62 percent as Hispanic and 3.5 percent as Asian.

Bielinski, who lost to Donovan by only 161 votes in 2016, is running against state assembly representative JoCasta Zamarripa, pastor Eduardo Loera and potentially others this time.

He joins the City Beat podcast to discuss his vision for the district, what the biggest issues are for residents, the role of food trucks and what he learned running Mandela Barnes‘ successful campaign for lieutenant governor.

Follow Justin’s campaign on Facebook or visit his campaign website.

Justin’s underrated restaurant or bar? Thai Bar-B-Que

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Are you a candidate interested in coming on the show to discuss your vision for the city? The door is open, the mic is on. Contact us.

Only a few walls remain of the Newhall House. Photo courtesy of Jeff Beutner.

Author and historian Matthew Prigge joins City Beat, Urban Milwaukee’s weekly podcast, to discuss his new book, Damn the Old Tinderbox: Milwaukee’s Palace of the West and the Fire that Defined an Era. The book is a comprehensive account of the Newhall House hotel fire, at the time the most tragic in American history.

We also discuss what drew him to research incidents in Milwaukee’s history that cast the city in a darker light. His past book, Milwaukee Mayhem, chronicles many such disasters, deaths and strange occurrences.

Prigge’s passion for history might only be matched by his love of baseball and the Milwaukee Brewers. Prigge shares his expectations for 2019 and who is favorite Brewer of all time is.

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Matthew’s underrated restaurant or bar? Champion’s Pub

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Sarah Greenberg. Photo courtesy of Forward Community Investments.

Sarah Greenberg, Forward Community Investments’ regional director for southeast Wisconsin, joins City Beat to discuss how the community development financial institution (CDFI) works to address disparities throughout Wisconsin. The organization makes strategic investments, loans and grants to address social, economic and racial disparities across Wisconsin, and we learn about some of the recent loans the organization has made.

For those of us not well versed in what a CDFI is or does, Greenberg also explains the role that federally-designated CDFI’s play in Milwaukee.

Greenberg also discusses her work with Historic Milwaukee and TEMPO Milwaukee.

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Sarah’s underrated restaurant pick? Ma Fischer’s.

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From the Emerald Isle to the Cream City by Carl Baehr

Milwaukee’s history is commonly associated with German immigrants, but Irish immigrants played a creating the Cream City.

Historian Carl Baehr, author of Urban Milwaukee’s City Streets column, joins the podcast to discuss his latest book, From the Emerald Isle to the Cream City, and what inspires him to dig into the city’s history. For aspiring historians, Baehr also shares how his research process works.

We discuss major events in Milwaukee’s history, including the Newhall House fire (more on that soon), sinking of the Lady Elgin and 1892 Historic Third Ward fire, and how they impacted Milwaukee’s Irish history.

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Carl’s underrated restaurant pick? The Swingin’ Door Exchange in the Mackie Building.

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The Hop, Milwaukee’s streetcar system, on N. Broadway. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Engineering firm HNTB announced it was moving its 90-person Milwaukee office Downtown in late February. The move, which will place the company in the middle of a number of projects it has worked on, is yet another sign of the city’s growth. What better person to talk about that than Milwaukee booster and HNTB’s own Great Lakes Transit Leader Ashley Booth?

Booth, a Brewers Hill resident, explains what value consultants bring to public works projects, including The Hop and Fiserv Forum, as well as why he’s excited about the Democratic National Convention coming to Milwaukee.

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Ashley’s underrated restaurant pick? It’s a two-fer with Urban Harvest Brewery Co. and EE-Sane.

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This rendering of S. 2nd Street includes a variety of features of a “Complete Street.” Many, such as wider sidewalks, street trees and bike lanes, were incorporated in the streets reconstruction in 2010. Rendering by Kieran Sweeney.

This week on the podcast we discuss a plan to increase how pedestrian friendly Milwaukee is. City of Milwaukee multi-modal transportation manager Michael Amsden and pedestrian and bicycle coordinator James Hannig join the show to discuss the draft plan.

The plan, available online in draft form, lays out a series of easy-to-implement interventions that need only paint and planters. It also suggests bigger ways to redesign streets to increase safety, improve neighborhoods and develop a more vibrant city. Amsden and Hannig answer host Jeramey Jannene‘s questions about what the plan involves, where it will be used and where the city has already made successful improvements.

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Open House

March 5th

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Carnival Milwaukee. Photo from UEDA.

UEDA. It’s a name that shows up a lot in non-profit circles and civic efforts, but what is it? Executive Director Kristi Luzar joins the show to discuss everything the non-profit Urban Economic Development Association of Wisconsin is up to. We learn about the organization’s efforts at fighting evictions, expanding access to banking and building capacity for area non-profits. Luzar also discusses the growing Take Root Milwaukee program, designed to support those looking to purchase a home in Milwaukee and prevent foreclosure.

Most deliciously, Luzar previews the organization’s annual fundraiser Carnival Milwaukee. The event takes place Saturday, February 23rd at the Renaissance Place (1451 N. Prospect Ave.). Walk up tickets are available for the event.

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