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Posted inFurther Down Stream

February 2003

by Editor

Local union dispute – COA receives anti-drug grant – Murgia named influential LGBT Latina – Colon to run for mayor – Help local food pantries – Winter parking rules enforced – Register bikes online for free – District 5 crime reduction meeting report – Ald. Johnson-Odom sponsors ordinance requiring local businesses to acquire annual licenses or one-time permits from the city to host “shows or exhibitions.” – WWMLKJD? Feingold and Norquist support affirmative action but blast war, suburban sprawl at YMCA breakfast.

Posted inEditorials

A Place for You

by Editor

One year ago we published the first issue of the Riverwest Currents. It had 12 pages, some black and white photos, and a group of folks dedicated to the vision of a paper focused on our community. Our cover story was on the Reservoir on North Avenue. I have lost count of how many people were surprised by the fact that the hill they were so familiar with for so many years was filled with water. Likewise, it is gratifying that so many are so interested in the characters that fill our homes and businesses. Their inner stories comprise a vital ingredient of our mission. Our niche is in and around our neighborhoods. Our audience is the 12-year-old and the 20-, 30-, 40-, 50-, 60-, 70-, 80-, and up-year-old black, white, and brown people who live, work, and play here. We are not “glam” and we are not “square” either. There is a place for you here in our neighborhood and in our paper.

Posted inEditorials

This is the Place

by Editor

A new year is a good time to take stock of what’s good and what’s bad in your life. For many people, one thing that’s good is this place we’re all in together. It’s where we live. It’s our neighborhood. So we’re devoting some space this issue to reflecting on the past year — in photos and writings — and on this place we live in together. Just what is it that makes a place a neighborhood? You may think it’s something as simple as location and boundaries, but even that can be complicated, as Dan asks in “Where is Riverwest?” Boundaries are fluid and changing; we decide what they are. You may think it’s the people that make a neighborhood, and that is mostly right. People have everything to do with a neighborhood’s character, which is why Riverwest has so much character. We live in one of the few diverse neighborhoods in one of the most segregated cities in the nation. But we still have a ways to go, as Tanya talks about in this month’s View from Here.

Posted inUncategorized

Our History Begins With the River

by Editor

by Tom Tolan – Part 1 of 6

You could argue that it was the Milwaukee River, threading its way between glacial ridges, that determined the future character of the Riverwest neighborhood. By digging a deep valley, it created steep banks that would be attractive to the wealthy families who built summer homes here in the 1880s, to the operators of private parks and resorts, and to the middle class families who settled in the area permanently. By carving a wide crescent as the neighborhood’s eastern border, the river ensured that the Green Bay trail — today’s King Drive and Green Bay Avenue — would be the main route north from the early village of Milwaukee, cutting straight across the crescent. You could argue that land values dropped sharply between the road and the river, putting the eastern fringe within the financial reach of the poor Polish immigrants who settled here in the 1880s and 1890s. . . .