Governor Doyle's convenient memory lapse

Several days ago during an event honoring local government put on by the Milwaukee-based Public Policy Forum, Wisconsin Governor Doyle pointed to Ireland as a model for the state to emulate in reinvigorating and strengthening its economy. After several recent trips to the Emerald Isle to help get a fix on why the country now has Europe’s second strongest economy, he cited its emphasis on universal educational opportunities and on some wishy-washy concept about everyone taking a step up together. Well, the one thing, perhaps the biggest reason in Ireland’s rather quick economic surge, which the governor overlooked, is the reduction in the corporate tax rate for all companies to about 15%. It’s easy to see why he conveniently ignored such a “small” point when his current budget includes hundreds of millions of dollars in tax and fee increases.

Milwaukee Hyatt's sale has to make chain happy

With the downtown Hyatt hotel now up for sale by its current owner, Milwaukee MECCA Partners headed by Milwaukee construction executive Gary Grunau, perhaps there is still hope for the property … and for Milwaukee’s downtown hotel business.

Until recently, when new carpeting was installed in its public areas apparently in anticipation of making the property more saleable, not much has been done to improve the 27-year-old, 483-room hotel. Even the Hyatt signage on the building’s exterior is several iterations behind the chain’s current brand identity. Compare Milwaukee’s Hyatt with any other downtown Hyatt and you’ll see how outdated it is. But as with most locally based downtown property owners, the key word is cheap. Do things as cheaply as possible in the hope of making the most money. That same mind-set is evident in the new Manpower headquarters being built downtown, also by Grunau.

You’d think that as Milwaukee gets left further and further behind in the dust of other similar-size cities, these local owners and developers would realize that attitude no longer cuts it. Perhaps with an outside investor, the Hyatt might finally be brought up to the high standards usually identified with the Hyatt name.

Midwest flies on wing and a prayer

It’s no longer a question of “if” Midwest Airlines will be sold to AirTran Airways. It’s only a question of when. AirTran now has three “friendlies” on Midwest’s nine-member board and AirTran says the majority of Midwest stock will be tendered in response to its offer. My guess is that by September of this year, if not sooner, Midwest will have flown into the sunset.

While for many of us, including myself, it will be a sad and fond farewell to another Milwaukee-based success story which has done so much to raise the image of the city, it certainly isn’t the end of the runway for those who fly to and from Milwaukee.

AirTran – which has a very small market share here now – isn’t buying Midwest so it can shut it down. That simply wouldn’t make sense, much less business sense. Rather, it’s buying the airline so it can expand its presence here. Milwaukeeans should be happy about that for several reasons. It will mean a busier airport with service to more destinations. That translates into more airline jobs, more interest in other businesses locating here, and more energy for the city – a buzz that maybe something good is happening here for once. And it will mean a greater presence on the national scene for Milwaukee, something it so desperately needs in its effort to get noticed. When was the last time a high-profile, national company like AirTran wanted to invest in Milwaukee because it thought the city had a bright future? Few, if any, examples come to mind.

For those who mourn the loss of chocolate-chip cookies or slightly wider seats, you need to get a grip on reality. I fly to get from point A to point B as quickly, safely, and inexpensively as possible. I don’t do it for the food, the cookies, or the furniture. I recently flew 7-1/2 hours to Ireland and 7 hours back in your standard narrow airline seat. Guess what? I’m none the worse for wear and no one in our party said, “The trip was wonderful except for those narrow seats.” (Oh, and the food was pretty good.) The longest segment on the Midwest system is 3-1/2 hours to the West Coast. If someone can’t put up with a narrow seat for that amount of time, then their problems go far beyond narrow seats.

Life will go on after Midwest. In fact, life may take several new directions, or routes, with an expanded AirTran presence in Milwaukee.

The bridge on the River Milwaukee . . . and other foibles

It’s now been more than two years since the State Street bridge over the Milwaukee River has been under construction. And the roughly 120-foot span still has a ways to go. It took 4-1/2 years back in the 1930s to complete the 1.7- mile-long Golden Gate Bridge over the shark-infested San Francisco Bay. But this is 2007 and we’re only talking about 120 feet over a smelly, tire-infested river! Had the city of Milwaukee had been involved in the building of the Golden Gate, people would still be taking a ferry between San Francisco and Sausalito.

It would be one thing if when completed the State Street bridge would be some marvelous tourist attraction or an engineering marvel, but it’s just your everyday, garden-variety bascule bridge that occasionally goes up and down. With such bungling on the part of the city, can anyone be surprised that the Park East Corridor will remain one big surface parking lot for years to come, or that a prime piece of real estate directly across from the convention center and owned by the city of Milwaukee has remained a blighted surface parking lot for more than 25 years, or that $91 million in federal transit money has been sitting for 10 years because the city can’t develop a consensus on what should be done with it?

Welcome to Milwaukee, city of lost opportunities.

No truth to entrapment

Locally, we’re going to see the word entrapment used quite often during the next few weeks and months as the trial of Michael McGee, Jr. gets underway. It’s already been lobbed out there several times. Nationally, we’re going to see it used also as the trial of Rep. William Jefferson (D-Louisiana) begins. Jefferson’s the guy who gave new meaning to cold, hard cash when $90,000 was found by the FBI in his freezer, presumably a portion of the bribes he received for using his office to arrange business deals in Africa. (Isn’t that where all law-abiding people put their legal tender, in the freezer?)

My question is how does a person of integrity and high ethical and moral standards ever become entrapped? If a person possesses these qualities, then no matter how conniving or enticing the would-be entrappers are, the person will see the offer for what it is – illegal or wrong – and consequently turn it down. If, on the other hand, a person is devoid of values or a moral compass, illegal or wrong behavior is simply the usual or typical behavior of such a person and thus there can be no entrapment.

No, entrapment is just another weasel word conjured up by liberals and eaten up by the media to once again characterize people of little or no moral standards as victims. By using it, people simply attempt to take the focus and responsibility off of themselves and put it somewhere else, usually on “the man” or “society” or, in the case of McGee, on “whitey.”

When even McDonald's avoids downtown Milwaukee

I can think of only one big American city that doesn’t have at least one McDonald’s restaurant in its downtown. Milwaukee. While McDonald’s fare is not my cup of tea, it is a ubiquitous American icon and a well-run company. Perhaps McDonald’s thinks downtown Milwaukee is such a haven for the fit and trim that it wouldn’t fit in. Sure and maybe the moon is made of cheese. More likely, McDonald’s – like most other national brands – just doesn’t think too much of downtown Milwaukee. While this may sound humorous and many will say good riddance, what does it say about downtown? And before you say Milwaukee’s too good for McDonald’s, don’t forget that such highly regarded downtowns as midtown Manhattan, Chicago’s Loop, Minneapolis, Dallas, Atlanta, Denver, Boston, Seattle, Indianapolis and on and on and on all are lovin’ it.

Milwaukee's inferiority complex

Invariably, whenever one of Milwaukee’s leaders - usually the mayor or the head of the Greater Milwaukee Committee or the chamber - makes a speech about the city’s wonderful assets and great future, they include a statement comparing Milwaukee to another city. They’ll say something like, “The last thing Milwaukee wants to be is another ….” Oftentimes, the blank is filled in with Detroit, but I’ve also heard Des Moines and Cleveland.

I’ve wondered why these leaders feel the need to take swipes at other cities if Milwaukee is so great. I remember my parents telling me when I was small that people who tear down other people only do so because they want to make themselves look better. That certainly appears to be the case regarding Milwaukee.

The latest issue (June 2007) of Inc. magazine ran a list of the country’s fastest-growing inner city companies. Guess what? Detroit has six such companies, all of them technology or manufacturing based, while Milwaukee has one, a janitorial service. Moreover, the day after I received Inc., The Wall Street Journal ran a front-page story about a Cleveland developer, John Ferchill, who is turning the former Book-Cadillac hotel building in downtown Detroit into a 455-room Westin hotel and 67 condos, all of which already are sold. Ferchill has assumed more than $80 million in loans and other debt for the project because he sees a bright future for downtown Detroit. When was the last time a big-time outside developer saw a bright future for Milwaukee?

Indeed, the city of Milwaukee has owned a prime piece of real estate along Wisconsin Avenue directly across from the convention center for more 25 years because it can’t find anyone who wants to develop it. So it remains a blighted surface parking lot.

If I were one of Milwaukee’s leaders I’d be a bit more careful about poking fun at other cities to make Milwaukee seem better than it really is. They’re only making themselves look foolish in the process.

No such thing as a "stray bullet"

Stray bullet?

Why do the media call the bullet from the gun of some thug that doesn’t hit the intended target a stray bullet? The implication is that if the intended target would have been hit, everything would have been fine and dandy. It also feeds the victim mentality that advocacy groups like to propagate. The thug was simply a victim of a bullet that somehow went astray. As if no one’s responsible for what happened. After all, it was the bullet’s fault for not finding the target.

Instead of headlines like, “Stray bullet strikes 13-year-old girl” or “Stray bullet kills 4-year-old girl,” how about something like, “Young girl gunned down while jumping rope” or “Police hunt for murderer of young girl.” Such headlines might bruise the sensibilities of those who think responsibility for one’s actions is passé, but they give a more accurate picture of what really happened. Plus, they’re honest journalism. They rightly imply that the perpetrator wasn’t some well-meaning person who simply couldn’t shoot straight.

Stray bullets are what happen on shooting ranges and during hunting accidents among professionals or trained individuals, when the intention is not to harm anyone and when a real honest-to-goodness accident can and sometimes does take place.