“Neighborhood Project”: One Last Time From Johnsons Park

Listen: Over the last two months, I’ve had a chance to hone my one-minute explanation of the Neighborhood Project. I’d start, “Milwaukee is a city of neighborhoods…” and continue, “… many of these neighborhoods fly under the typical media radar…” and finally, with understated bravado, I’d crescendo “…  we’re attempting to tell the stories of solved [...]

“Neighborhood Project”: Week Five, A Troublesome Corner Store in Johnsons Park

    
Listen:  Somehow, a corner store in Johnsons Park had become a destination, a magnet for suspicious business. Perhaps it was the neighborhood’s past — eight years ago, this kind of corner store would hardly be a surprise. But for a burgeoning neighborhood whose residents had invested more than just their life savings, this was not acceptable. 
Tony [...]

“Neighborhood Project”: Week Four, Johnsons Park; Really, A Regular Neighborhood

Listen: You know those big, beautiful houses on 17th Street? The first time I biked by, I nearly crashed — I couldn’t stop staring. While there’s no shortage of amazing old houses in Milwaukee, to see house after house of new construction was a shock. A number of questions came to mind (many of which have [...]

“Neighborhood Project”: Week Three, Protecting Johnsons Park

 

Listen: I sat down in Mrs. Arlene Otis’ living room, unprepared for what was coming. She’s been in Johnsons Park for 51 years and seen the neighborhood come full circle. With little prompting, she launched into story after story about the neighborhood, each better than the last. The struggles and the triumphs, all told with vivid detail. [...]

“Neighborhood Project”: Week Two, Old and New in Johnsons Park

Listen: In many ways, Johnsons Park is a new neighborhood — so many new houses, gardens, residents, and plans for the neighborhood. However, many of the families who live there today have been been dug into Johnsons Park for years, having witnessed the neighborhood’s immense transformation throughout the years. In this piece, we get to [...]

“Neighborhood Project”: Johnsons Park Audio Tour

Listen: If you skydived into the city of Milwaukee blindfolded and happened to land in the Johnsons Park neighborhood, after you took off the blindfold you’d probably spend a couple minutes figuring out in which suburb you were standing. The number of new houses, the landscaping, the unMilwaukee-like lack of potholes… But after you noticed the [...]