How really proud is US Bank of the US Bank Championship in Milwaukee?

The Golf Channel scenes of Milwaukee downtown and the lakefront were excellent, but I found it interesting that the scenes I saw didn’t include the US Bank building, even though it’s on the lakefront and the tallest building in the city. I would assume that because US Bank was the tournament’s sponsor it would have asked The Golf Channel to include its Wisconsin headquarters in the scenes. But apparently it didn’t, which begs the question, is US Bank embarrassed about its Milwaukee building or at least of the cheesy signage atop the building, signage you won’t find in any other city in which US Bank has a significant presence, including Nashville, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, or Minneapolis?

There was a promo for the tournament done with Richard K. Davis, president & CEO of US Bancorp, saying something to the effect that US Bank is proud to be hosting "the tournament here in Milwaukee." The background was a golf course, but it certainly didn’t look like Brown Deer Park Golf Course to me. Perhaps US Bank was proud, but not proud enough to do the promo in Milwaukee or at least use footage of the right golf course as background

Milwaukee, put a Band-Aid on it

Milwaukee leaders are fond of publicly poking fun at Detroit, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh by condescendingly asking the question, Does Milwaukee really want to be like these cities? Obviously these so-called leaders are extremely insecure about promoting Milwaukee and consequently they feel the need to resort to such classless rhetoric. My advice to them is to knock it off because all it does is embarrass the city – and themselves – even more.

The latest edition of US News & World Report (7/23-30, 2007) ranked America’s best hospitals on a number of criteria. Guess what? Milwaukee can’t hold a scalpel to Detroit, Cleveland, or Pittsburgh. With Milwaukee having some of the highest health care costs in the country – $2,653 annually vs. $2,496 annually nationwide from 2003-2004, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics – one would think the city has a surplus of great hospitals providing great health care. That might be true, but certainly not compared to these other cities.

The magazine ranked hospitals in 17 disciplines. Milwaukee hospitals showed up a disappointing total of four times in four categories. Pittsburgh hospitals, however, showed up 15 times in 15 categories; Detroit hospitals 17 times in nine categories; and Cleveland hospitals a heart-stopping 24 times in all 17 categories.

The highest rank a Milwaukee hospital reached was 24th (out of 50) in “endocrinology.” The best a Cleveland hospital did was 1st (out of 50) in “heart & heart surgery.” In fact, Cleveland hospitals were in the top 10 in 13 categories. The highest rank a Detroit hospital reached was 12th in “heart & heart surgery,” but it also had five hospitals that made the list in “neurology & neurosurgery.” The best a Pittsburgh hospital achieved was 3rd (out of 50) in “ear, nose & throat.”

Milwaukee likes to tout its children’s hospital, but it was no where to be seen other than in a paid ad in the magazine. On the other hand, Cleveland had two hospitals ranked (4th and 20th out of 26) in pediatrics, while Pittsburgh’s children’s hospital was 11th.

Instead of cutting on other cities, Milwaukee’s leaders should put a Band-Aid on it and focus on making our city healthy in every sense of that word.

Milwaukee: The city that time always seems to forget

An article in the most recent Business Week magazine (7/23/07) noted that despite the slowdown in housing development, there is a continuing explosion in office and hotel building nationwide. In May, according to the article, nonresidential outlays jumped 2.5%, with office space spending up 1.6%. CB Richard Ellis Group, the commercial real estate services company, was cited in the article as saying that U.S. office-space vacancy rates fell to 12.6%, from 13.7% a year ago, despite a 21.5% yearly increase in new office space during the second quarter. Would someone tell me where all the office and hotel building is taking place in Milwaukee, specifically downtown? Other than the small Staybridge Suites development on Water & Juneau, there is nothing under way. And all of those pie-in-the-sky proposals for the Park East are just that, a bunch of dreams that will never come true. Once again, Milwaukee is left behind.

Park East: Good for a few laughs

Normally, I’m not a told-you-so guy, but this one is too good to pass up. While the media and all of elected officialdom were running around crowing about Robert Ruvin’s big plans for the Park East, including an office building to house the advertising firm of Cramer-Krasselt (C-K), I was telling anyone who would listen (or wouldn’t listen), including a couple people from C-K, that Ruvin’s plans were as fleeting as all his hot air. Well, the story finally came out the other day that C-K is pulling out of the development because, well, they apparently finally also realized that there is no development, which doesn’t say much for the management of C-K that it took this long to reach that conclusion. C-K has to be out of its present digs by the fall of 2008.

Here’s a guy, Rob Ruvin, whose only development experience was converting a few apartments to condos in the Blatz building, all of a sudden putting up a 30-story opulent tower and a 10-story office building (to house C-K) in the Park East. What really convinced me that this guy was a joke was a meeting I attended where Ruvin talked about his plans. His whole presentation was about a building in Dallas that he wanted to duplicate here in Milwaukee. No one but me questioned him about the fact that everything he showed was of the building in Dallas. He had no drawings of his Milwaukee tower, yet he said he would be breaking ground soon. How soon, I asked. He wasn’t really sure. Never mind that I don't believe he even owned the land – and still doesn’t –where his developments were going to be built. I then went to the Web sites of all the nationally and internationally-known architects, hoteliers, and developers he said he was partnering with and not one mentioned anything about Milwaukee or Ruvin. Yet ground breaking was imminent. But the media (which could have gone to these Web site as well, but apparently didn’t think to do so) and everyone else kept lapping up everything he was peddling.

So Ruvin’s house of cards is crumbling. My question now is what’s going to happen to the "historic" Gipfel brewery that he moved to the proposed site of his 30-story tower in the Park East? How many years do you think that eyesore will sit propped up on pilings next to the even bigger eyesore, the former Sydney Hih building that also was going to be incorporated into the tower project?

Oh look, it's a bus!

Milwaukee philanthropist Michael Cudahy recently whisked Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker on his private jet to Portland, Oregon and Denver to take a look at those cities’ transit systems. That’s nice, but how many times do these guys have to travel elsewhere to see what a bus, streetcar, or light-rail car looks like? How will seeing yet another bus or streetcar help them make a decision on whether to use or give back the $91 million in federal money that Milwaukee has been dithering about for the past 10 years?

I can just hear the deep, thought-provoking conversation during this latest junket: “Hey Scott, I think I see an electric streetcar coming now.” “Really Tom, where? Are you sure that’s not a bus?” “Wow, that really would be fun to ride in Milwaukee.”

Here’s a thought: Instead of traveling to other cities, why don’t these two stay in Milwaukee and actually do something here. On second thought, maybe it might help them to see how real cities do things.

Park benched

The new island state park just off the Summerfest grounds is a wonderful addition to Milwaukee’s lakefront. The bridge connecting the island to the mainland is stunning, the walkways ringing the perimeter are wide and lighted for evening strolls, there are boat slips, the views of Milwaukee’s albeit lame skyline are the best you’re going to find, and when the prairie grass grows in it will be an even more attractive setting. Unfortunately, one amenity* that should have been a no-brainer is missing: benches. Once you’re on the island, it’s probably a 30-60 minute walk to make the complete tour, depending upon your age and/or pace. And there are no trees to provide relief from the sun. So if you feel the need to take a breather or just sit and ponder, you’re out of luck.

I don’t know what it is about this community’s disdain of benches. Leaders brag about the beautiful downtown and lakefront, yet there are few public benches to sit and take it all in. The art museum has a few, but they’re useless, especially for older folks. While looking nice and artsy, they’re just big slabs of masonry. So forget about sitting back and relaxing. But perhaps those in charge don’t want people to sit and think. It could be dangerous, after all, if people were allowed to ponder how little they really get for the high taxes they pay.

*Restrooms are missing also so you’d better hope Mother Nature doesn’t suddenly come a-knockin’.