Milwaukee

From the article:

Ben & Jerry’s ice cream is readily available at grocery stores throughout the area, but Milwaukeeans will soon be able to order scoops of Cherry Garcia, The Tonight Dough and other famous flavors directly.

A franchisee for the Vermont-based company is planning to open the first Milwaukee-area “scoop shop” at 203 N. Broadway, in the Historic Third Ward. It would also be the first in Wisconsin.

The future Milwaukee ice cream shop will occupy approximately 1,000 square feet at ground level of the five-story InterLace Lofts building, located in the heart of the neighborhood.

Margaret Martin owns the building, as well as the property immediately to the north, which houses MOD GEN.

Although Ben & Jerry’s has become known for its chunky, colorful pints, the international brand had humble beginnings as an ice cream stand. It opened in 1978 by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. As of 2020, the ice cream producer now makes 194,164,352 pints per year in the US that are sold in 36 countries worldwide,

Through the years, Ben & Jerry’s has distinguished itself among other premium ice cream brands with its creative flavors and crowd-pleasing ratio of add-ins (fudge, brownie chunks, cookie dough, marshmallow ribbons and more) to rich, creamy ice cream.

For petty bourgeoise aspirationals and the ultra-wealthy, the NPIC provides the perfect platform for the co-optation of our mass movements. Protests become photo opportunities; elements of resistance and revolution are appropriated to market an individual's brand or NGO to philanthropists, funders, and sponsors. Brand recognition is key. Locally, we’ve witnessed executive directors and NGO boards claim police abolition, only to turn around and hire ex-police officers to perform union busting on their behalf. We’ve seen blatant misogynists and homophobes win the title of “Activist of the Year” throughout a near-endless stream of self-congratulatory awards ceremonies. Milwaukee suffers an ongoing plague of micro-celebrity activists, bolstered by an NPIC culture that actively blocks opportunities for effective, revolutionary organizing. Our point is simplistic, the conclusion feels trite, but it’s a message Milwaukeeans need to hear. If any real work is to get done, the NPIC and career/celebrity activism need to be abandoned or eventually destroyed.

Milwaukee County’s top transportation officials recently said there are no battery electric bus (BEB) manufacturers the county can do business with in the near term.

From the article:

The city of Milwaukee finished installing advisory bike lanes on an East Side street this weekend.

The bike lanes are on East Edgewood Avenue between Oakland Avenue and Lake Drive, the first advisory bike lanes ever installed in the Milwaukee area, according to the Milwaukee Department of Public Works. The new street layout leaves one center lane meant for traffic going both ways, causing confusion and concern for some neighbors.

"I'm definitely concerned because I bike this all the time," said cyclist Jeff Knitter. "But it was terrible before. So in a way it can't be any worse because the road is smooth."

He is concerned drivers will not understand the new traffic pattern.

The street used to have two lanes for parking and two lanes for traffic. Now, the street has two lanes for parking, two bike lanes with dotted lines, and one lane for traffic.

According to DPW, if a driver sees oncoming traffic, they are supposed to briefly merge into the bike lane to avoid the vehicle, and then merge back into the center lane.

"Every 15 minutes there's the bus. Plus the bikes, plus the parked cars. It's just a lot of traffic on one street," said Dana Grennier, who lives nearby.

From the article:

Back in February, the longtime owners of Lisa’s Pizza, Gary and Teresa Bongiorno, decided to put the restaurant up for sale.

The choice wasn’t an easy one for the couple, who have been involved in the business, 2961 N. Oakland Ave., since its 196o opening. Not just that, they also met while working there, and have celebrated many an anniversary while tossing pizzas for dinner service.

“It’s just so hard,” Gary told Urban Milwaukee in March. “Neither one of us really want to retire.”

But nine months later, the couple, who co-own the restaurant with Gary’s brother, Scott, are going forward with the sale, as evidenced by an online listing for the business and its building.

The restaurant, which faces Oakland Avenue, is being sold as a package deal along with a three-bedroom apartment located above the business. The sale would also include Lisa’s furniture, fixtures and equipment — including a Blodgett pizza oven — along with the Bongiorno family’s recipes for pizza, pasta, Italian sausage and other specialty items.

The latter is sure to be key for future owners, who will also inherit the restaurant’s title and — with any luck — a long list of regular customers.

A cold-case group believes it has evidence that Jimmy Hoffa's body was moved to Milwaukee County Stadium, the area of what is now Helfaer Field.

From the article:

Though it’s rarely ideal to do so, sometimes it’s just necessary to eat in your car. Maybe you’re scarfing down fast food between errands. Perhaps you’re famished partway through a long commute and need to shove something into your face. You might be brown bagging it at your job and want to get away from your workplace for a little while. Whether the result of sheer necessity under ever-intensifying capitalist constraints or plain old impatience, many Americans tend to squeeze in meals on the go.

Well, if you’re among the countless who consume in their car…and you happen to be driving near Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport when hunger strikes, we have just the place for you. Out on Layton Avenue—very close to south side stalwarts like Nite Owl and The Packing House, and in the vicinity of an abundance of fast food chains—is an unassuming parcel of pavement that’s bordered by barbwire fencing.

Though it doesn’t look like much from the road, this little lot grants motorists a front row view of takeoffs, landings, and other aviation-based happenings taking place at the airport. This otherwise average parking lot faces the airport’s runway, which sure beats trying not to make eye contact with a stranger parked beside you at Taco Bell.

From the article:

The Milwaukee Winter Farmers Market will return this weekend, kicking off its 15th season with a full slate of new and returning vendors, plus an expanded space featuring hot food, seating and community activities.

The MWFM will occur each Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. beginning Nov. 4 and continuing through April 13. That includes the weekends after Thanksgiving, before Christmas and before New Year’s Eve.

The market’s launch will also coincide with the opening of Milwaukee Food Journeys, a collaborative art exhibit that explores themes of food access, food justice and the ways in which Milwaukeeans engage with Wisconsin’s food system.

The exhibit, featuring artists from Latinas Unidas en las Artes (LUNA) and TRUE Skool, will remain through the end of the MWFM season.

Like last year, the market will be held at 5305 W. Capitol Dr. The building previously served as a church, but transitioned in 2022 into The Table, a ministry with “a strong focus on regenerative farming, food as spiritual nourishment, healthy food access, and entrepreneurship,” according to a news release.

Venice Williams leads The Table and is executive director of Fondy Food Center, which operates the MWFM. Glenna Holstein serves as board president of The Table.

From the article:

The popular downtown Starbucks at Red Arrow Park will end its long-term lease with Milwaukee County and close on Nov. 30, Starbucks corporate officials confirmed on Thursday.

Sam Jefferies, a spokesperson for the Seattle-based Starbucks company, said, “As a standard course of business, we continually evaluate our business to ensure a healthy store portfolio. After careful consideration, we have deemed it necessary to close our store at 920 N. Water Street in Milwaukee. We’ve enjoyed serving the community at this location and are committed to continuing to do so at our other stores in the area.”

Jefferies said that employees at the Starbucks Red Arrow Park location are being offered transfers to other stores.

It is the second Starbucks location the company has closed in downtown Milwaukee in recent years. Starbucks permanently closed its café in Milwaukee’s 3rd Ward neighborhood in April 2021.

The county opened up requests for proposals for the Red Arrow Park space on Thursday and “is open to a variety of options,” said Joe Mrozinski, assistant director of Recreation and Business Services for Milwaukee County Parks.

Starbucks originally leased the location in 2002 from Milwaukee County with a yearly rent of $30,000 until 2007, when it increased to $33,000. Under an extension established in 2014 with the county, Starbucks would pay the county $27,132 in annual rent payments until November 2018, when payments increased to $29,845 until 2023, Mrozinski confirmed.

"This is a prime downtown location, and we are looking forward to a new vendor moving into this space in spring 2024," Mrozinski said.

For the upcoming ice-skating season at the park, Mrozinski said the county plans to offer hot chocolate, coffee and bottled beverages for skaters to purchase.

Red Arrow Park attracts more than 45,000 skaters each season during its Slice of Ice activities in the winter, according to the county, and is open for other activities year-round. The county noted in a press release that the space is directly across from the Marcus Center for Performing Arts and the Saint Kate - The Arts Hotel. County officials added the park is “at the center of activity” with local events by Milwaukee Downtown BID 21 that include Jack-O-Lantern Jubilee, Downtown Ice-CAPE-ade and Summer Spinz.

It looks like the following changes will be made:

• Add L-Line on Sundays as a preview
• Monday through Thursday, 8 PM to 10 PM will now be every 20 minutes instead of every 15 minutes
• Saturday, 11 AM to 7 PM will now be every 15 minutes instead of every 20 minutes

I am okay with this. Saturday has desperately needed 15 minute headways.

Much like the county at large, the transit system has a structural deficit: the annual cost of MCTS is more than the annual revenue it receives. The majority of the transit system’s operating revenue comes from the state’s annual allocation of “mass transit operating assistance.” This funding assistance from the state has remained stagnant for more than a decade while operating costs increase annually with inflation.

This funding, called “mass transit operating assistance,” is the largest single source of funding for MCTS each year and covers approximately 50% of the cost of operating the system.