The Recombobulation Area

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

This week, I had the opportunity to be the guest host for Connect MKE, the local news program at CW18 and My24 Milwaukee.

The episodes aired on Sept. 10 and 11, but if you missed them, you can check out the interviews here at The Recombobulation Area in podcast form. You can also watch the full episode linked below on YouTube.

This week’s episode featured a segment on the universal free school meals program that was implemented during the pandemic but is now ending for this school year. I talked to Erin Gretzinger, a reporter at Wisconsin Watch, who wrote an in-depth story on this topic.

And then for the next segment, I talked to former alderman and current budget director at the city of Milwaukee Nik Kovac. The first budget proposal from Mayor Cavalier Johnson will be presented to the Common Council on Sept. 20 and Kovac talked about the challenges the city is facing and took a look at what’s being proposed for the 2023 budget.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. His work was recently featured in The New York Times. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, Heartland Signal, Belt Magazine, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a six-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written and published by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

Thanks to everyone who joined The Recombobulation Area at Boone & Crockett for our event: “A Conversation with Cavalier Johnson”! It was a terrific event and we appreciate all of your support.

For those of you who subscribe and were unable to attend, you can listen to the full conversation here, in podcast form.

Topics discussed include: the city of Milwaukee’s relationship with the state of Wisconsin, rising violent crime in the city, and the future of the Stadium Freeway and infrastructure in Milwaukee. Plus: The mayor answered several questions from those of you who joined us at the event.

We’re planning to host more events in the not-too-distant future, so stay tuned, and we hope to see you soon!

The Recombobulation Area is a reader-supported publication. To help fund our work, consider becoming paid subscriber.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won 13 Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook and Instagram at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a weekly opinion column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The city of Milwaukee just held its first open mayoral primary since 2004. The results are in, and the two candidates receiving the most votes are Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson with about 42% of the vote and former alderman Bob Donovan with about 22% of the vote. They will go head-to-head for the April 5 general election.

Joining us to recombobulate after the election and talk about all of this is Jeramey Jannene from Urban Milwaukee. We talked about everything from Cavalier Johnson’s dominant primary performance to the overall turnout numbers to Bob Donovan’s likely vote total in the general election, and more.

We also referenced the following election results map by John D. Johnson, research fellow at the Marquette Law School Lubar Center, a number of times during the podcast, so take a closer look at that here.

See the full results from the primary via the Milwaukee County Clerk — who, as always, ran a safe, secure and efficient election, and should be thanked for their important work.

Lastly, be sure to vote on April 5. The future of your city depends on it.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s won ten Milwaukee Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a weekly opinion column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The City of Milwaukee is going to have an election for mayor. On February 15, we'll have a primary that could prove to be the most competitive mayoral primary in a generation. 

Here at The Recombobulation Area, we’re going to be covering that election and getting into the issues. As part of that coverage, we are interviewing the candidates. Paid subscribers will be able to listen to full audio of those interviews and read a full transcript of what each candidate had to say. 

Help fund our work and subscribe.

This is part of our interview series with the candidates for mayor of Milwaukee. Each candidate was asked the same series of questions on topics including local control, the covid-19 pandemic, segregation and racial disparities, economic development, population growth, immigration, transportation and infrastructure, reckless driving and vehicles thefts, public safety, and education. At the end of each interview, we had a “lightning round” with some more lighthearted, Milwaukee-specific questions.

Free subscribers will be able to read many of these answers in stories in the coming days. Paid subscribers will have access to the full interview as a podcast and as a transcript.

If you missed it, be sure to listen to our interviews with Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson, Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic, entrepreneur Michael Sampson, and community activist Ieshuh Griffin.

Stay tuned for more of our coverage on the race for mayor in Milwaukee.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a weekly opinion column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The City of Milwaukee is going to have an election for mayor. On February 15, we'll have a primary that could prove to be the most competitive mayoral primary in a generation. 

Here at The Recombobulation Area, we’re going to be covering that election and getting into the issues. As part of that coverage, we are interviewing the candidates. Paid subscribers will be able to listen to full audio of those interviews and read a full transcript of what each candidate had to say. 

Help fund our work and subscribe.

This is part of our interview series with the candidates for mayor of Milwaukee. Each candidate was asked the same series of questions on topics including local control, the covid-19 pandemic, segregation and racial disparities, economic development, population growth, immigration, transportation and infrastructure, reckless driving and vehicles thefts, public safety, and education. At the end of each interview, we had a “lightning round” with some more lighthearted, Milwaukee-specific questions.

Free subscribers will be able to read many of these answers in stories in the coming days. Paid subscribers will have access to the full interview as a podcast and as a transcript.

If you missed it, be sure to listen to our interviews with Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson, Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic and entrepreneur Michael Sampson.

Stay tuned for more of our coverage on the race for mayor in Milwaukee.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a weekly opinion column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The City of Milwaukee is going to have an election for mayor. On February 15, we'll have a primary that could prove to be the most competitive mayoral primary in a generation. 

Here at The Recombobulation Area, we’re going to be covering that election and getting into the issues. As part of that coverage, we are interviewing the candidates. Paid subscribers will be able to listen to full audio of those interviews and read a full transcript of what each candidate had to say. 

Help fund our work and subscribe.

This is part of our interview series with the candidates for mayor of Milwaukee. Each candidate was asked the same series of questions on topics including local control, the covid-19 pandemic, segregation and racial disparities, economic development, population growth, immigration, transportation and infrastructure, reckless driving and vehicles thefts, public safety, and education. At the end of each interview, we had a “lightning round” with some more lighthearted, Milwaukee-specific questions.

Free subscribers will be able to read many of these answers in stories in the coming days. Paid subscribers will have access to the full interview as a podcast and as a transcript.

If you missed it, be sure to listen to our interviews with Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson and Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic.

Stay tuned for more of our coverage on the race for mayor in Milwaukee.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a weekly opinion column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The City of Milwaukee is going to have an election for mayor. On February 15, we'll have a primary that could prove to be the most competitive mayoral primary in a generation. 

Here at The Recombobulation Area, we’re going to be covering that election and getting into the issues. As part of that coverage, we are interviewing the candidates. Paid subscribers will be able to listen to full audio of those interviews and read a full transcript of what each candidate had to say. 

Help fund our work and subscribe.

This is part of our interview series with the candidates for mayor of Milwaukee. Each candidate was asked the same series of questions on topics including local control, the covid-19 pandemic, segregation and racial disparities, economic development, population growth, immigration, transportation and infrastructure, reckless driving and vehicles thefts, public safety, and education. At the end of each interview, we had a “lightning round” with some more lighthearted, Milwaukee-specific questions.

Free subscribers will be able to read many of these answers in stories in the coming days. Paid subscribers will have access to the full interview as a podcast and as a transcript.

If you missed it, our first interview in this series is with Acting Mayor Cavalier Johnson. Listen here.

Stay tuned for more of our coverage on the race for mayor in Milwaukee.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is a weekly opinion column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

The City of Milwaukee is going to have an election for mayor. On February 15, we'll have a primary that could prove to be the most competitive mayoral primary in a generation. 

Here at The Recombobulation Area, we’re going to be covering that election and getting into the issues. As part of that coverage, we are interviewing the candidates. Paid subscribers will be able to listen to full audio of those interviews and read a full transcript of what each candidate had to say. 

Help fund our work and subscribe.

This is part of our interview series with the candidates for mayor of Milwaukee. Each candidate was asked the same series of questions on topics including local control, the covid-19 pandemic, segregation and racial disparities, economic development, population growth, immigration, transportation and infrastructure, reckless driving and vehicles thefts, public safety, and education. At the end of each interview, we had a “lightning round” with some more lighthearted, Milwaukee-specific questions.

Free subscribers will be able to read many of these answers in stories in the coming days. Paid subscribers will have access to the full interview as a podcast and as a transcript.

If you missed it, we published one story with quotes from this interview on Acting Mayor Johnson’s vision for growth-minded urbanism in Milwaukee. You can read it for free here.

Stay tuned for more of our coverage on the race for mayor in Milwaukee.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is an award-winning weekly opinion column written by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

It’s official: Milwaukee is going to have an election for mayor. In less than two months, we’ll have a primary, and on April 5, we will be electing a new mayor. 

Tom Barrett, the city’s mayor of more than 17 years, was unceremoniously confirmed as the Ambassador to Luxembourg on the evening of Dec. 16. Cavalier Johnson became the Acting Mayor on Dec. 22.

Since then, we’ve seen new policies and proposals from some of the top candidates, one candidate has left the race (State Rep. Daniel Riemer), other candidates are joining the race (State Sen. Lena Taylor, State Sen. Chris Larson), and this is all pretty discombobulating.

To help us recombobulate, we were joined by Jeramey Jannene, president and co-founder of Urban Milwaukee, who covers City Hall like no one else in the city.

We talked about the candidates, the issues, and the big picture for this race.

Listen through the above player, and if you want to add the podcast episode to the platform of your choosing, click “Listen in podcast app.”

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes the award-winning column, The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe

The Recombobulation Area is an award-winning weekly opinion column by veteran Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.

“Should I-94 Be Expanded?”

That was the question posed at the afternoon panel discussion at the Urban Spaceship Conference at Nō Studios in Milwaukee, on Tuesday, Nov. 9.

The larger event, a day-long national urbanism conference curated by NAIOP Wisconsin and NEWaukee, featured a variety of speakers and panel discussions exploring “the intersection of people and place,” doing a “deep dive on top trends, and future ideas in urbanism.”

Being the big topic that it is, the I-94 panel discussion drew a crowd, and panelists Cheryl Nenn of Milwaukee Riverkeeper, Michael Bradley of Urban Spaceship and Steve Baas, formerly of the MMAC, now of the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association, debated the issues, with yours truly moderating the discussion. 

What resulted was a lively — and occasionally contentious! — discussion on the billion-dollar mega-project. The full panel discussion is available here for you to listen to, only at The Recombobulation Area. 

Each of the panelists had been interviewed at length on this topic previously for The Recombobulation Area’s “Expanding the Divide” series. You can read the full series here. 

The panel was introduced by Jeremy Fojut, chief idea officer and co-founder of NEWaukee.

Dan Shafer is a journalist from Milwaukee who writes and publishes the award-winning column, The Recombobulation Area. He previously worked at Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Magazine, the Milwaukee Business Journal, Milwaukee Magazine, and BizTimes Milwaukee. He’s also written for The Daily Beast, WisPolitics, and Milwaukee Record. He’s on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

Subscribe to The Recombobulation Area newsletter here and follow us on Facebook at @therecombobulationarea.

Follow Dan Shafer on Twitter at @DanRShafer.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.therecombobulationarea.com/subscribe