New/Old Milwaukee
Some things, place & people become trendy about the time they stop being used by ordinary people. This is what has happened in some parts of Milwaukee and some old habits. I mentioned the decline or disappearance of Milwaukee industry. The old industrial park is now becoming trendy. All those old industrial buildings make wonderful, sun-filled loft condos. Old bars that used to serve beer and whiskey, now serve drinks with cute names along with an impressive array of beers … with cute names. I thought the "pedal tavern" above was cool. The drinkers have to propel themselves. Everybody seems to be having a good time.
Milwaukee is a pleasant place with a beautiful lakefront and one of the best system of county parks in the world. But it is not a crossroads place. It is not a prime industrial location. I grew up during Milwaukee’s industrial heyday and thought it was natural, as did many others. But it was really the end of an era, the last flash, the last hurrah, glorious but ephemeral. Those trendy places represent the future. People will live in the buildings where our fathers and grandfathers worked. Milwaukee can be a great, medium-sized city. But it never again be the industrial city it was. Those times are gone and will never return.
The new people will like the cleaner, more trendy city better and the old people are mostly gone. Below is our old house. They are putting on a new roof. My father had the roof put on in the late 1970s. The trees are interesting. The crimson Norway maple was planted in 1972. The silver maple was planted in 1967. The horse chestnut in the front I grew from a chestnut in 1966.
