Drive south along Lake Drive into the City of Milwaukee and you’ll probably drive right by the green "Milwaukee" sign with the population figure of 594,833. It’s old, unassuming and boring.
Drive north along Lake Drive into the near villages of Shorewood and Whitefish Bay and you cant’ help but notice the large, colorful signs that greet you as you cross into both North Shore communities. Fox Point, Bayside and other communities have similar signs.
Design matters, and while larger, more welcoming "Welcome to Milwaukee" signs like the ones near the Milwaukee Theatre in Downtown help foster more positive attitudes about Milwaukee, the outdated green city limits signs like the one on Lake Drive don’t.
Chances are that you may not even notice these signs, but little things matter and as Milwaukee continues to grow and shake its old images I say it’s time for some new signs.
A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.
He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.
Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.
He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.
He also thinks you should read OnMilwaukee each and every day.
