Stacy Dahl

Stacy

4/30/14

The other day, I went to investigate a few of my favorite places in the city. Not many people know about Government Pier, but it is my escape spot in Milwaukee. I feel like not many people know about it, because it's located in the McKinley Marina. If I'm ever in a bad mood and just need to get away, I bike here. Being able to hear the water rush against the rocks with a view of the skyline really brings you back down to earth.

Another little gem Milwaukee has to offer is Lakeshore State Park, located behind the Summerfest grounds. Yet another sneak spot I like to go to clear my head. Also, once a year there is a festival held here with live music and vendors!

I am definitely not finished with my idea of documenting billboards. These are only a fraction of what I managed to capture on the Midwest Field Reporters trip to the Wisconsin Dells. I'm excited to see where this goes. I don't feel that I will be done with this investigation until I can come to some sort of conclusion about a pattern that I'm witnessing. It could be realized through witnessing a pattern between investigations of different regions, or simply how I choose to present and organize this information.

4/28/14

I just found out as of last night, that google has indexed all of its files since they started google maps in 2007, and are now allowing users to go back in time! I can already tell this is going to lead me in a very interesting direction with my practice. I'll update this post with more up to date photos at these sites soon, this is just what google had to offer late at night! For example, two summers ago, Kadish Park broke ground and built an amphitheater at the site I documented via google maps. And I'd like to include a picture of my old house on Courtland back when I used to still live there.

East Capitol Drive Development/ Riverbrook - Shorewood, WI

Kadish Park - Riverwest, Milwaukee, WI

Second Childhood Home - Whitefish Bay, WI

Current Home - Riverwest, Milwaukee, WI

MIAD - Milwaukee, WI

First Childhood Home - Shorewood, WI

 Riverbrook - Shorewood, WI

4/22/14

a

I made an awesome discovery the other day on my bike ride to school! "They" are slowly taking down the barbed wire fence that surrounds the vacant lot near my house. Later that night when I biked past again, the rolls of chain link were gone, and the day after that, they had taken the barbed wire off of the posts. Something big is going down! Now it's time to figure out what.

3/5/14

The Vegas of Wisconsin is the Dells. Such a strange touristy place with continuous billboards lining the strip. Motel after motel after little dinky chachki shop. Chain restaurant after attractions trying to seduce you in and lure you to give them money. Come see Tommy Bartlett! Ride the Wisconsin Ducks! I haven't been here for years, so my perception of what I thought has entirely flipped.

It's weird how nearly an entire town can be vacated on the Off Season. Many of the motels we approached were closed up due to winters chill. That means they make enough money from the influx of people during the summer months in order to stay closed when there is a lack of tourist activity. Pools become drained, and parking lots go unplowed. It's as if the majority of the town is on vacation when Jack Frost takes over. I can't even count the amount of motels we passed, and the amount of weird tourist marketing that goes on in this town. How do you attract people to come to your motel when there are plenty of large water parks around? “Well that one has a unicorn, dear,” “That one has dolphin slides and rocking horses for the kids, Martha,” “But that one has a carousel AND swimming pool.” How do you manage to stand out from the crowd when everything is brightly colored and targeted towards people spending money? When the going gets tough, the going gets weird.

This time is the vacation for the people who provide vacation spots for everyone else during summer.

2/26/14

As per our trip this weekend, I have no expectations. Trying to maximize on experience due to time constraints, I am without a location to call attention to. I'm going to use this next trip to focus on landmarks along highways. As much as possible, I'd like to document many strange billboards and find patterns within them as we move further away from Milwaukee, because they always remain a focal point of every road trip I've been on. I've been a firm believer in focusing on the journey and not the destination, and depending on what we visit and the amount of interest the sites conjure up within me, this sentiment will remain the same. Regardless, I'm excited to get out of this city and gain some new experiences.  

2/23/14

Last night went incredibly well. I can't believe how much people bought and donated to us! I can't wait to see how the Midwest Field Reporters will develop over these next few months. I'm stoked! We've only been a group for a little over a month, but the past year has gone into forming these relationships pre and post Altered Landscapes. Seeing what we can achieve with a group mentality is more than impressive. With a little over a month of planning, filling out independent study forms and proving to people that we can indeed work successfully in a group this large, and a little over a month of actually planning trips, doing research and getting together, we've already achieved so much. I'm proud of how far we've come since returning from the Southwest. Documenting the strange and historical has received so much great feedback from others. When the weather starts getting better, I'm going to be posting more and more about interesting landmarks around the city. This weather isn't necessarily conducive to the amount of exploring outdoors that is required from the places I long to document. On my mental list I have a log of places I've encountered throughout my lifetime of living in Milwaukee. The bridge to nowhere, the tree portal, that weird concrete cavern the homeless reside in across the river from my house, Government Pier, Lakeshore State Park, The Summerfest grounds/ Henry Maier festival grounds, Jones Island, the Estabrook dam... The list goes on endlessly.

A find a strange niche in my interest in abandoned and foreclosed places. So much land goes unused that could be better occupied, and for some reason this really resonates with me.

When I was younger, I would frequently go to Riverbrook with family and friends to get hot dogs. Particularly, my friend Beulah and I would go there all of the time when we were in 8^th grade. Getting vienna beef hot dogs and a Pepsi, every time. Right before my family's house was foreclosed on in Whitefish Bay 9 years ago, Riverbrook closed. For a while, the building stood as an empty barrier between the commercial district of Capitol drive past the bridge, and Shorewood's residential community before the bridge. I always wanted to go inside the boarded up building and see what it looked like on the inside without any people sitting down to eat, or people serving customers. After quite some time, a company bought the land and had plans to build a senior living complex overlooking the river. Well, as many development plans seem to have gone in the past, this plan also fizzled and died. The building was torn down, and currently sits as a vacant lot that the Shorewood Police Department will park in to patrol for speeders, or that fisherman will park in while they wade in the Milwaukee river. The only landmark on the spot now is this sign.

I always hear my dad tell stories about what buildings or land plots used to be in the past, and while Riverbrook is long gone, I'll always remember the weird occasions when Beulah and I would sit in the drive through part of the restaurant, eating along side of construction workers. It seems like a lifetime ago, those days. So when will this plot get a chance to see new life? The border entering Shorewood feels like such a dead space. The village should turn it into a community garden or park, but that's just my opinion for most empty plots so they can be returned back into a natural environment for people to enjoy.

2/16/14

Today I scoped out a few interesting spots Milwaukee has to offer. First off, there is this strange chunk of land in Riverwest I've been curious about since I moved to this neighborhood 9 years ago. It's located between Concordia and Auer, as well as in between Bremen and Weil. The plot of land takes up nearly a full block, minus a small slice near Auer that has homes on it. It's fenced in with barbed wire. Needless to say, I have an endless supply of questions about it. What is this land used for? What is underneath that is being protected? What are those things sticking out of the ground? Another few that came up when looking at Google Maps; why does the grass get mowed, and who does the mowing? Who owns it? I'm perplexed. It feels like a plot of land that could be going to better use, like a community garden, but obviously it's there for a reason. What do the neighbors see? Why this spot in Riverwest? I just asked my friend Elena if she's seen the place, and she said she's fairly certain it's some kind of chemical waste site that needs to be blocked off from the public due to hazards, as told to her by her father.

Well, any potential assumptions I had made about a secret government operation in my neighborhood has been thwarted after some easy research. The land is owned by Johnson Controls, and is a “brownfield.” The 2.8 acre vacant lot used to be home to a battery factory, and the ground is still contaminated. Now this would explain why the land is surrounded by a 10 foot tall barbed wire fence, as well as what the “strange things” sticking out of the ground are. They happen to be groundwater monitoring wells. And just when I was getting excited about the potential covert operation, most of my questions have been answered. There have been plans to build “green” homes there, which apparently fizzled and died.

http://riverwestcurrents.org/2004/12/fed-approves-funds-for-johnson-controls-site.html

(JSOnline)

And as of January of 2013, there were rumors of wanting to turn it into a dog park, but there hasn't been any news about it, or action taking place (as far as my research has lead me). I wonder what the hold up is? Is it due to lack of funding on Johnson Controls part?

http://urbanmilwaukee.com/2013/01/14/riverwests-new-dog-park/

The other site that I happened upon was the Bronze Fonz. If you don't know who the Fonz is, you definitely need to catch up, and watch some Happy Days. Surprisingly, this was my first encounter with the bronze statue. He looked happy to have a visitor on this freezing Sunday, but I suppose he always looks happy, considering he's a cast inanimate statue. The fonz is located right on the riverwalk off Wells, next to a Chinese restaurant.

1/25/14
Milwaukee, “The Good Land,” “Brew City,” “Chillwaukee.” Whatever you call it, Milwaukee has been notorious for beer since the 1800’s. And with numerous micro-breweries and brewpubs alike in this city, it’s no wonder we’ve kept the nickname Brew City long after the beer barons have passed, and after many of the major breweries have moved their headquarters elsewhere. One of my relatives from “way back when” is even in the Library of Congress for designing the Schlitz around the world logo. I’ve got to do more research on the matter to figure out his name exactly, but regardless, beer has made a lasting impression on Milwaukee’s history, as well as economy for that matter. 

Lakefront Brewery. You’ve probably heard of it, and if you have, there’s a huge chance you’ve tasted some of their delicious brews. I myself have had the luxury of getting a tour of their location in my own neighborhood of Riverwest. (It only costs $7, so unless you’re underage, or don’t partake, you don’t really have an excuse to avoid this tour!) Their current location has been along the Milwaukee river on Commerce, since they bought the site of the old Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company’s coal run power plant in 1998. Previously, the brewery was more so in the heart of Riverwest, on 818 East Chambers. Even before that, the president of the brewery, Russ Klisch and his brother were competing over home brews. But, I think it’s best we leave the rest of the background a surprise, for the folks among us who have not yet gone on the tour.