Search Results for: black cat alley

Public transit plans for Milwaukee and cities nationwide at risk from Koch-funded activists

A political battle over transit plans in other cities by Koch-funded interests offers insight into methods used by critics of Milwaukee’s streetcar, and foreshadows the methods to hinder its planned expansions. The city of Phoenix dealt a decisive blow to a Koch Brothers-backed measure on August 27 when voters rejected a proposition that would have banned any expansion of the city’s light rail system. For years, Phoenix’s public transportation plans have included a network of light rail lines connecting downtown to the suburbs, cutting air pollution and carbon emissions in a city dubbed the least sustainable in the United...

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The State of American Values: A Border Patrol Agent shares experience of guarding migrant children

With the agency under fire for holding children in deplorable conditions and over racist and misogynistic Facebook posts, one agent speaks about what it is like to do his job. “Somewhere down the line people just accepted what’s going on as normal.” The Border Patrol agent, a veteran with 13 years on the job, had been assigned to the agency’s detention center in McAllen, Texas, for close to a month when the team of court-appointed lawyers and doctors showed up one day at the end of June. Taking in the squalor, the stench of unwashed bodies, and the poor...

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Dominic Inouye: A tale of three cities, or why I plan to love Milwaukee even more now

It’s so easy to visit another city and simultaneously fall in love with it while bemoaning the apparent shortcomings of one’s home city. I went to Paris, fell in love, and suddenly, in my mind, Milwaukee seemed to lack vibrant public places where the multitudes, both residents and tourists, would gather morning, noon and night. Where was the Jardin de Luxembourg where Milwaukeeans could picnic and nap, drink wine and canoodle, smoke and strum guitars? I visited NYC, came home, and Milwaukee didn’t have enough public benches or places to play chess in the parks. I traveled to Denver...

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Kids and Guns: When tragedy strikes next door and Milwaukee neighbors join in support

Yesterday, on Tuesday, June 18, a tragedy struck at the home of one of my neighbors. A precious 5 year-old boy had found a gun and accidentally killed himself. It was a shock to my system. I had seen the child a few times, but did not really know the family because they live across the alley on the next street over. I posted something about the tragedy on Facebook before knowing the details of what happened for sure. Later in the day, once the police left the scene, the hard part started. The extended family members were allowed...

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Remembering when Harry Weese helped Milwaukee envision its urbanist future

The Marcus Center’s architect left one of America’s most varied and far-reaching legacies, including blueprints for thriving urbanism. If visionary architect Harry Weese had never worked in Milwaukee, Downtown would not boast three imaginative buildings. Each was distinctly different from the others: the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts on Water Street, the 30-story tower and atrium called 411 East Wisconsin Center, and the former IBM building at 611 East Wisconsin, recently sold to Foxconn for $15 million. And yet, despite having built striking and well-used buildings, Harry Weese’s name seems little known in the Cream City. If Harry...

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From Red Hats to Red Guards: How America’s Social Crisis Parallels Mao’s Cultural Revolution

In the mid-1960s, a wave of anger and violence plunged China into chaos for years, during which many of the country’s cultural and historical artifacts were removed or destroyed. The racial tension in the United States since Trump was elected president has left many Chinese wondering if a country once known as the world’s “Melting Pot” is undergoing its own Cultural Revolution, and they are perplexed over how such an eerily similar event could unfold in America. The chaos in America has been deeply troubling. The “American cultural revolution,” as it has been termed in some Chinese media, presents...

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