By Bobby Tanzilo Senior Editor/Writer Published Sep 30, 2013 at 5:01 AM

OnMilwaukee.com is celebrating its 15th birthday all September, and Milwaukee has changed a lot over since 1998, when OnMilwaukee.com first glowed bright on computer screens around town.

Here are some numbers comparing Milwaukee during the year OnMilwaukee.com was born with Milwaukee 2013.

  1998 2013
Population city: 610,654 598,916 (U.S. census 2012 est.)
Population county: 957,058 955,205 (U.S. census 2012 est.)
Population state: 5,234,350 5,726,398 (U.S. census 2012 est.)
Refuse collection 281,000 tons 299,906 tons (2011)
Total city streets 1,430 miles 1,450.5 miles
City of Milwaukee budget $964,256,894 $1,501,978,320
Value of taxable assessed property $16,072,114,035 $27,045,019,320
Registered voters 336,032 312,480
Voting wards 335 327
Ballots cast 160,816 288,549 (2012)
City owned harbor area 470 acres 470, acres
Lake commerce (est. net tons) 2,896,577 2,700,00
Overseas commerce (est. net tons) 422,220 150,000-200,00
Taverns 1082 922
No. of county parks 140 155
Acreage of county parks 14,759.3 acres 15,262 acres
Materials in MPL collection 2,773,189 2,315,982 (2012)
MPL cardholders 337,502 313,604 (2012)
MPL circulation 3,145,569 2,847,543 (2012)
MPL visits 2,423,634 2,387,030
MPS enrollment 100,525 77,359 (projected)
MPS total schools 159 165
MPS charter schools 1 30 (15 instrumentality; 15 non-instrumentality)
MFD employees 1,121 907
Firestations (incl. fireboat) 36 34
Fire fighting force 971 821
Fires 9,903 1,707 (through Aug. 31)
MPD employees 2,935 2,458
MPD civilian personnel 668 610
Sworn police officers 2,094 1,848
Works in MAM collection 20,500 30,000+
MAM visitors 200,000 (est.) 390,000 (FY2013)
Brewers 74-88 74-88
Packers 11-5 11-5 (2012)
Bucks 28-22 (1998-99) 38-44
Admirals 38-28-0-16 (1998-99) 41-28-4-3
Wave 25-15 (1998-99) 21-5
Badgers football 11-1 8-6 (2012)
Badgers men's basketball 22-10 (1998-99) 23-12
MU men's basketball 14-15 (1998-99) 26-9
UWM men's basketball 8-19 (1998-99) 8/24/2013
Number of articles at OnMilwaukee.com 50 34,147 (as of Sept. 11, 2013)
Bobby Tanzilo Senior Editor/Writer

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.