Common Ground

Quality of life is often enhanced by food and nostalgia. Years back upon moving here, I found out that a pizzeria that was named the same as one I remembered in Milwaukee had moved out here as many of it’s customers relocated to Waukesha.

There are a couple food specialties that I wish would also come from Milwaukee to Waukesha. One is Real Chili. Some long time residents may remember a Mexican fast food shop on the east end of Main street, I think it was, that actually served Real Chili brand of chili. For whatever reason, that wasn’t enough to carry the business and they closed.

Before Pat and I got married in the early 70’s and I was going to UW Milwaukee, Suburpia Submarine sandwiches developed a cult following. I don’t want to be a free advertisement but after some years of not being in business, one opened up in Wauwatosa. Baby boomers that went to college in the late 60’s and 70’s were ecstatic and flocked to the location.

Here in Waukesha, the Grandview Mall hasn’t been finished all that long and several food shops opened specializing in unique offerings along with traditional Chinese food and choices of traditional fast food. One day while driving past the mall, my eye caught a sign that gave me a start. Yes, Suburpia had opened in western Waukesha. Soon my cell phone was calling my wife Pat who also attended UW and enjoyed a Miles Standish more than once.

It was like finding an old friend. Pat decided that Thursday nights were Suburpia for supper night. I’ll miss that tonight because I will be driving home from a business trip in Nashville where I am typing this bit of nostalgia now, within sight of a Waffle House and a Jack-In-The-Box. No, I did not dine at either. Instead, several associates and I traveled to The Stock Yard, which I understand was owned by Al Gore Sr. I don’t know if Jr. owns it now, but while the food was excellent, it is by no means priced for the common man! More for the oil barons.

So, for Pat and I, the quality of life here in Waukesha went up a notch by the appearance of one of our good memories from Milwaukee. Let me know if anything like this has followed you out here. I’d love to read your story and maybe share it with the readers.

As president of the Waukesha Dog Parks Organization, I try to keep myself and our board of directors up to date on related news in the county and surrounding areas. Unknown to me, our neighboring city of Whitewater is opening a new 18 acre dog park this weekend. Congratulations! Kanook and I will mush on out there and help them celebrate.

Our City's Department of Parks, Recreation and Forestry has been working along these lines too. Presently there are no city parks where dogs are allowed, much less welcomed. Sometimes events will be held at Frame Park and participants bring their furry family member only to find out they are in violation of local ordinance.

Ron Grall of the Parks Department, himself a dog owner, has been working in committee to try and change this so not only can dogs be walked on leash in select areas of certain parks, but has also proposed Hillcrest and Woodfield parks develop fenced in off-leash dog exercise areas. Presently there are nearly 500 off-leash dog parks in the country. Nationally, 39% of all households own a dog. Most of these dog owners are not aware of the dog park concept. When the city creates the two proposed dog parks, that ranking in quality of life should go up several notches! More information about what is available in our city and the county can be found at this website.

Part 2 about quality of life will have to wait. I'm a bit too worked up today to consider my original topic more than trivial compared to the news of the day about probable tampering of the state elections board by the Doyle re-election committee.

When the board voted that gubernatorial candidate Mark Green had to return a portion of campaign money, I thought something wasn't right. The money transfer to his campaign was made before the rules were changed. I'm not a lawyer, but I think there is some legal term for enforcing a new law on things that were legal and done before the law changed. No mater, it didn't seem right. Then the news came that Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett did the same thing during his unsuccessful campaign for governor and the election board was all fine with that. So what is the difference? Barrett is a democrat, Green is a republican and the present board is dominated by Doyle appointees. The kicker is the news of the day that Doyle's attorney told the board what, how and when to make this rule change. Further it is suspect that some of these so called citizen groups screaming that Green refuses to obey the law, that are by law, required to not be associated with any campaign, appear to be groups controlled or answerable to Doyle's re-election committee, judging by wording of emails from Doyle's attorney to an elections board member. The timing all too suspect.

There are many questions to be answered about this. True, Jim Doyle may have had no knowledge of all of this just like he had no knowledge of the Adelman Travel scandal. I won't be surprise if someone falls on the sword again for the governor.

I wrote a week ago that voting should be treated with reverence. All of this negative campaigning makes me ill. That includes Green's "Tax Hiking Man" campaign on the radio.

I further mentioned how easy it would be to vote fraudulently. I won't say what I think is the real issue why the democrats are fighting against photo ID's for voting. If they were sincere in making sure that people are not "disenfranchised", they would have a drive to get these people set up with the photo ID.

When I walk into Hawthorne Elementary School in November, I want my vote to count and not be cancelled out by fraud elsewhere. I hope all of you feel the same way. Oh, and don't think about doing the husband vote one way and wife vote the other so you don't have to go to vote. We need 100% voter turn out. In Milwaukee that could be 200% if they don't get the voting machines fixed!

Quality of life in an area often is thought of as recreational and cultural opportunities. Sometimes we overlook the simpler things that makes Waukesha one of the best cities to live in. I'd like to share some of the things many may think as insignificant and are taken for granted. You are encouraged to offer your observations and thoughts via email to me. I'll pass them along to the readers of my blog. Following is something that is certainly not insignificant.

I've lived in Waukesha for twenty years now. I come from the north side of Milwaukee. Pat and I bought a house there, near where I did the most of my growing up around Sherman Blvd and Hampton Ave. We were raising our young family and struggling to make the paycheck meet the needs.

Across the street was a house that was rented out to people that made their living selling illegal drugs. I'll make many stories short by saying when standing up for the neighborhood and they threatened to kill me, I decided it was time to move. The police showed no interest.

So, lesson #1 is to live in an area where drug houses are not tolerated. Curt Otto's recent blog reaffirmed that Waukesha won't tolerate such. Over the years, having worked for many of my 20 years here, near downtown on St. Paul Ave, the area has cleaned up impressively.

Next, I'll write about a seemingly trivial issue here in Waukesha, but has gotten out of control in Milwaukee.

In the middle of the road at the intersection of Northview and Glenwall is a small pile of oil absorbent which is the only sign remaining of a collision that happened there today. With the construction on Grandview, there has been an increase in traffic coming up Bel Ayr which turns into Rushmore and then Glenwall and finally intersects with Northview. I've driven this route going to work for many years but with the increase in traffic, long lines develop. There is great difficulty turning west onto Northview in the morning and in the afternoon turning from west on Northview onto Glenwall is equally dangerous and seems to be how today's accident happened.

Sometime next month, I believe Grandview is due to reopen. I've not checked the progress other than occasional visits to Bob's Barber Shop. I don't know how well the pavement is going to be repaired. I suppose the better it is done, the quicker it will be ripped back up to make it a four lane to handle the already heavy traffic during rush hour that spreads out at Summit. Perhaps the planners hope that should the Merrill Hills bypass ever be built, it will reduce the traffic load on Grandview.

In the mean time, Grandview can't reopen soon enough. Any delays and temporary traffic lights, if such exist, would be a good thing to place at Glenwall. You see, I ride a motorcycle. When I see a accident, I think to myself, "There but for the Grace of God...."

For some reason, the space given for voting at the 4th Ward's Hawthorne School has gone from the easily accessible and spacious school gym to a walk down a hallway and into the school library. From several voting machines to a single machine. And that one machine is blocked from inserting the finished ballot by the line of people coming in the library to check in. No verification of identity was required. I could have used any name and address plucked from the phone book.

Voting is a precious right. I believe it is also an obligation to vote and to educate one's self on who you are voting for. I also believe that all campaigning should be done hooked up to a lie detector!

Providing a good environment for voting should be high priority. The taxpayers and voters paying for such things as a spacious fire house downtown and a spacious bus terminal, should be given voting accommodations better than a crowded closet! I wonder what's happening at other wards?

Summit and University roads has received attention lately. There has been a steady increase in accidents and some believe it is time to control that intersection where the right of way is on Summit and by golly, most people on it insist on that right!

The usual solution for such increase in cross traffic is either a four way stop or stop lights. Four way stops force everyone to stop regardless if there is any other traffic. When people want to squeeze the most miles per gallon from their vehicles, stop and go is not the way to go. Stop signs are cheap but traffic lights are a better solution. Unfortunately, you may wait an even longer time stopped while there is no traffic to stop for. Worse, these lights will likely be set for flashing yellow or red at night as they do downtown. Then driving though them becomes a game of chicken, having to guess if the cross traffic has a red or yellow flashing light.

It has been proposed that the intersection be made into a roundabout. Anyone who has watched movies through the years have probably seen them in movies on location in London, Paris and elsewhere. It solves several problems. Little if any stopping (good for the fuel economy) and any accidents are minor compared to conventional intersections. No worry about power going out and maintenance is reduced.

Roundabouts were proposed in Brookfield at intersections where I often drive. Voters, afraid of change, caused the conventional answer, four way stop signs. Unfortunate. The only drawback I see from roundabouts is that the intersection must be reconstructed and the more traffic, the larger it must be to allow moving traffic to merge and cross over. There is also the land within the roundabout. I suspect that is for the boulevard people to handle. Just don't plant anything obstructing the view of traffic!

I hope the neighbors in the area give the proposal good consideration. It is worth looking into.

Since the boys have grown up and moved out, I've had more time for local affairs, both government and recreational. You'll soon see that I am a dog lover. My wife, Pat, has quite a bit of volunteer activity through the years, once being the Children's Diabetes Association Volunteer of the Year. My service, while not as noble as diabetes service, has to do with pursuing improved and new dog parks.

One of my duties is to keep fellow dog park people apprised of events. Last night while surfing the city's website, I came across the Parks, Forestry and Recreation Department's meeting agenda. It said there was a meeting including discussion of the Dogs In Parks committee proposals, to be held on the 7th. Realizing that was tomorrow, I hastily emailed my fellow dog park supporters about it.

Rushing home to eat a quick supper and write out a brief statement for the public comment period, I re-read the agenda and noticed the meeting was 8/7. That would be last month. A day late and a dollar short, so to speak. An email of apology to the supporters was sent. Then Kanook (my Siberian Husky) and I went to the Parks Dept building to greet and apologize to any supporter that may have come to the non-existent meeting.

The one winner in the whole matter was Kanook. He ended up getting his daily visit to the dog park!