North Avenue. Just saying the name of this major artery opens a rush to memory and sometimes judgment.
Mayfair was the only Tosa place on North Avenue
Barbara Miner mentioned in last week's Journal Sentinel article "Heading West," a bus ride from poverty to affluence.
The article spawned lots of politically polarized responses, some of which appear in today's opinion letter page. Most were of the
Patrick McIlhern "make yourself middle-class and relentlessly affluent" variety.
But how to do that? Minus the "relentless" part, which may be a problem, not a solution.
"Fixing" North Avenue is a major concern for Wauwatosa's future, one that will be addressed in the comprehensive planning process. You still have a chance to weigh in next Tuesday, September 25, 6:30-9:00, at the Muellner Building in Hart Park.
When I was a kid, North Avenue was a place of prosperous small businesses. My dad drove there from Glendale in search of incredible German bakery and to have his blueprints developed. And small business still seems to be the way to go there.
Some prosper on North Avenue now, many in Tosa. My favorite hang out, McBob's, is in the dreaded "east of 60th Street" area, and across the street is the best place around to buy cheap vegetables and rice, a Vietnamese grocery store.
Even in an area that gives most of us Tosans pause, there's the venerable Jake's Deli.
And
Damon Dorsey's converting a crack house into an upscale custard stand, Scoopz. "Until we move to a culture of entrepreneurialism, Milwaukee will be an uncompetitive city where people are sitting around, waiting for something to happen," he said.
My guess, the same is true of Tosa.
At last week's comprehensive planning meeting for Tosa's east side, there was much consensus around doing something to shore up the small business there and improve safety, but few specific suggestions. Neighbors with houses near the street don't much like the idea of buildings even as large as the Locker's building on 92nd and North. They'd rather keep the scale small and low, so as not to be dwarfed.
I wonder if more flexibility and entrepreneurialism might not be called for. Could we accommodate places that make the far eastern part of the avenue thrive? Places like Cush, a "swank, upscale cocktail lounge specializing in martinis"? That means more liquor licenses, traffic and noise.
And maybe prosperity.
I don't have the answers. If you do, make sure you weigh in with them Tuesday!
