With news that the 50-year-old "Streets of Old Milwaukee" – one of the most beloved experiences for people of all ages in Milwaukee – will close briefly at the end of summer for a update, we started to think about what we'd like to see in the streets.
So, with tongue sometimes firmly in cheek, we suggest:
Invite Milwaukee Film Festival to program the theater
The cinema is a woefully under-utilized feature of "The Streets of Old Milwaukee," so why not let the experts in to program its offerings?
Usinger's sausage
Swing open the sausage shop doors and offer some pre-made sandwiches with Usinger's cold cuts.
Promote literacy
There's a pharmacy, a doctor's office, a carpenter's shop, a candy store, a toy store ... lots of things for old Milwaukeeans to buy. But there's no school for the old Milwaukee kids. You know something like that wouldn't escape my gaze.
Open the Schlitz tavern
You can step inside the candy store and purchase real candy, so why not swing open the doors of the tied house in the exhibit and let the suds flow, though perhaps in shorties and with a limit of one or two. We don't want the wax policeman to have to pick up drunks out of the gutter of old Milwaukee.
High tea at the Watts Tea Room
After all, tea-totalers require refreshement, too.
Expand the range
I know space is at a premium, but now that it's 50 years later, expand the exhibition's reach to include the 1920s and boost its ethnic diversity. By the end of that decade there were more than 4,000 Mexicans living in the city and Bronzeville was in full flower.
And, finally, three words: Night soil men
Look it up. After all, late 19th century/early 20th century Milwaukee wasn't all yummy candy, talented woodworkers and creepy old ladies rocking in chairs on their porches.
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.
