Last weekend, I was headed to Cascio Interstate Music in New Berlin to check out guitars and my route took me through the mess that is the current zoo interchange, now into its fourth year of rebuilding.
Merging into bumper to bumper traffic thanks to more closed lanes – and pondering at least four more years of this – I thought, "there must be a better way."
As I entered the music store, an aging rocker with a shiny turquoise Strat resting atop his thigh plucked out the familiar harmonic intro to a famous Yes song, unwittingly providing the soundtrack to, and inspiration for, a solution.
The answer to the overcomplicated, overwrought zoo interchange rebuild is simple: a roundabout!
After all, when Milwaukee began introducing roundabouts around the city a few years ago, they were an instant hit. Roundabouts, like Marmite and blood pudding, are a United Kingdom invention that all Americans, particularly Milwaukeeans, love.
And it’s easy to see why. They’re totally intuitive, simple to navigate and, therefore, all drivers move through them with skill and with ease.
Just imagine the tens of thousands of cars during rush hours commutes edging up to the yield signs, their drivers looking around carefully and then effortlessly integrating into the sweet annular circulation as the traffic hums along, moving everyone efficiently to their destinations.
This would never happen ... right?
It’s a beautiful thought, isn’t it? It’s not too late to turn this project around ... around a roundabout.
Alderman Bob Donovan disapproves of the plan.
"Any which way you look at it, the streetcar and the Barrett Administration are taking us all for a ride," he said.
When reminded that the question was actually about the zoo interchange, which is a state project, not a city one, Donovan responded, "Any which way you look at it, the streetcar and the Barrett Administration are taking us all for a ride."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.