Friday, September 11, 2009

Recovery? Maybe Not Yet

Spent a bit of time Downtown recently.

Parked in the structure just south of 4th/Kilbourn. It's undergoing some sort of repair, so about half the structure was vacant. Actually, MORE than half--there was plenty of parking available in the building. On exiting, the attendant admitted that "it's slow."

Understatement.

Hoofed it from parking lot to Water Street. It was around opening hour for business, but there was not a lot of foot-traffic (nor auto traffic, for that matter.)

A couple of hours later, hoofed from Water back to West-of-River on Wisconsin Ave. "Dead" isn't the right word, but "not many people" covers it. Certainly different from the scene pre-Grand Avenue. Even the reconstruction of Wisconsin Ave. between 4th/the River didn't create a traffic problem.

Lunch near the parking lot. Very good food, excellent service, moderately-priced (about $10./head), but the place was 1/3rd full.

Was reminded of being in the same area when the NRA convention was in town.....

And that the NRA Convention in Phoenix drew 64,000 this summer.

It's a contrast, for sure.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I've given up on downtown Milwaukee. Parking hassles and costs alone are enough to make me stay away.

As for NRA...they should be happy a wise prosecutor in Kenosha quickly sided with the shopkeeper who shot and wounded a would-be robber. The decision was made within 48 hours of the event...not days and weeks later...and came down on the right side.

Maybe some Milwaukee DA's need to visit Kenosha to see what it's like to take up the cause of victims legitimately defending themselves.