Spending a few days back in the “homeland” eating brie and sipping Chardonnay so pardon the absence.
Actually, drinking Molson and going to the Montreal/Boston NHL game tonight. It’s a great city even though it reminds me of how much of the French language I’ve come to forget.
Have a great weekend!
I’ve been watching more than my fair share of Bucks basketball this year.
The team has been playing very very well in the last couple months and they’re moving up in the standings and it’s looking like Milwaukee might be represented again in the NBA playoffs for the first time in six or seven years.
It’s not all good news however for the Bucks, as ann article on jsonline.com today points out. Ticket sales are down despite the Bucks playing some of the best basketball in the NBA. From the article:
Still, despite an announced attendance of 14,316 for Tuesday night’s victory over the Celtics, there were plenty of empty seats in the upper bowl. That comes despite a ticket promotion the Bucks made for the game, selling $61 seats for $30, and $29 upper-level seats for $14.
Now I’m sure I’m not the only one to realize this, but outside the occasional ticket promotion, NBA games are prohibitively expensive for an average family to attend! Second, it’s a school night so of course you’re not going to be selling out the house!
When I took Carter to his first Bucks game back in January, I commented on how expensive tickets were. I ended up paying $60 per ticket for the two seats we got in the first row of the upper deck. It was a special treat partially because it would be tough to cough up $120 just for tickets more than a few times a year, no matter how well the team is doing.
When the whole family went to a game about a month ago, we sat about seven rows from the top. The price per ticket was about $18 for a total of just under $80 to go to a basketball game that we could barely see.
My point is for all the Bucks executives out there, it takes more than the occasional ticket promotion to get people in the door. You may think $14 for a seat where you need oxygen tanks is a good deal, but for anyone bringing a family along, it’s just not. Doubly so for the lower deck, where a family of four can expect to shell out over $300 for a single game!
Get with it and stop feigning surprise when you’re surprised that the market segment you’re pricing out of your games fails to show up even when the team is doing well.
(All that said, I do enjoy watching Bucks games and am excited they’re making a run for the playoffs. Unfortunately, like most people, I have to enjoy watching on FS Wisconsin from my living room.)
In a surprise to no one, ridership is down on the Milwaukee County Transit bus routes. As the Journal Sentinel reports it, ridership is down 9% this year and is at a 35-year low.
While the usual suburban suspects on right wing talk radio will no doubt giggle with glee over the numbers, the fact is that a strong mass transit system is critical to any metropolitan area just as it has been for the last 100 years.
So what makes Milwaukee unique in this area when other mass transit systems are seeing increased usage because of the recession? It’s simple, we’re cutting routes and raising fares. That’s a damaging combination to any service provider.
If you take an example outside of mass transit, the same would hold true. If Midwest Airlines were to cut the number of routes it offers and raised it’s fares by 50%, it would also see a decrease in ridership and go out of business.
Meanwhile, a year and a half since voters in Milwaukee County approved a sales tax for transit (along with parks and EMS services) we still have a bunch of politicians in Madison debating the same tired talking points they’ve been at for years. While mass transit doesn’t affect how they get to work or school, it sure does to hundreds of thousands of people here in Milwaukee.
Those in charge should get to work on addressing mass transit funding so the rest of Milwaukee can too.
In keeping with my resolution to not only point out when politicians do something bad or wrong, it’s nice to be able to highlight another thing politicians got right.
Yesterday, Gov. Doyle signed a bill that bans the chemical BPA from products used by children like baby bottles and sippy cups. The bill had bi-partisan support throughout the legislature which was good to see as this is something that isn’t about “left” or “right” but about doing what’s best for our children.
That said, good job Wisconsin government for getting one right.
It’s come to my attention that there are plans circulating which would eliminate part of Veterans Memorial Park on Milwaukee’s lakefront in order to build a parking lot.
As unbelievable as it may seem I’ve been informed it’s being proposed and have a copy of a document being circulated that shows how the War Memorial wants to take over several acres of park land in Veterans Memorial Park and turn it into a parking lot.
For those who are wondering, there is currently a huge parking lot in the O’Donnell Park parking structure which is located about 200 feet from the War Memorial, so your guess is as good as mine as to why the War Memorial feels it needs to go out and decrease the amount of park land in order to provide parking spaces a whopping 50 feet closer.
Below are some overviews of the land in question, including an overlay of where the proposed parking lot would go.
I’ll have more information as I get it, but Milwaukee County elected officials and County Supervisors especially should be wary about considering this proposal if it gets to the point where they need to weigh in on it.
Yesterday 76 more people in Milwaukee County had to sit down at the kitchen table and tell their family something I can’t even begin to imagine: they’d been fired.
The Journal Sentinel has the breakdown, including a quote from the administration (though not the CE himself, he was apparently at a campaign rally in Racine yesterday when the news hit):
Those being laid off are 27 security guards at five major county buildings, 25 parks maintenance workers, nine Mitchell International Airport employees, five highway maintenance workers and 10 other Department of Transportation and Public Works staffers. They were given two weeks’ notice. – jsonline.com
My best goes out to all of them. I know a few who were maintenance workers for the parks and loved doing their jobs.
After this round of layoffs there will be no more “Parks Maintenance Worker I” positions anymore. There used to be 45 or so of these positions just a few years ago. Heading into spring, the impact on our parks will be immediate and noticeable. These are the people who, among other things, empty garbage cans, plow snow, fix swing sets and make sure parks are safe for families to enjoy.
There are now by my estimates fewer than 60 people now available to take care of the 15,000 acres of park land in 144 parks in our County. If you were planning on having a wedding reception at some place like South Shore Pavilion like Jenny and I did, you may literally be responsible for making sure the bathrooms have toilet paper for your guests and the trash has been emptied the day before. There just won’t be anyone left to do it anymore.
The move will save a less than impressive $1.8 million this year, and I’m left to wonder why those being asked to make the sacrifices and tighten their belts continue to be the blue collar workers who are more often than not the primary bread winners for their families?
If the administration in the County were serious about tackling the $10 million budget hole, why are they only going after blue collar workers? As I’ve pointed out several times, why does the County Executive have both a “Receptionist” and an “Executive secretary for scheduling“? Why both a “Director of Communications” and a “Deputy Director of Communications“? What is really the difference between the two positions (and handsome salaries that match) in the County Executive’s office for “Director of Community Relations” and “Constituent Services“?
If you’re going to get serious about fixing the budget deficit, why not start with your own office first? Surely, consolidating or eliminating some of those positions would put a dent in the $10 million deficit just as well as firing the people who keep the parks clean, right?
If you’re going to get serious about fixing the budget deficit, why not start with the boondoggle of a payroll system known as “Ceridian” that’s cost taxpayers over $20 million to develop and after five years still isn’t close to working? How about getting rid of the programs like Ceridian which are wasteful instead of the people who take out the waste?
I could go on, and a lot of people who know more than me about County Government could as well.
To those of you who had to have that gut wrenching conversation about “what do we do now?” with your wife or husband or children last night, my thoughts are with you.
I’ve been a bad blogger this week, but umm.. life happens! Thankfully, I have some of the best readers around. Like Keith M. who passed along this chart which shows polling data on what programs conservatives would like to see cut.
The point? Despite being against “BIG government” spending, conservatives don’t agree with reductions in government spending on particular programs. And by “particular” I mean ones that don’t benefit them, like welfare programs. (via Salon)
It seems that they can actually get something done once in a while!
WASHINGTON – The Senate has passed a bill aimed at boosting job growth by giving tax breaks to businesses that hire the unemployed.
The jobs legislation would also extend highway and mass transit programs through the end of the year and pump $20 billion into them in time for the construction season. Economists say the tax breaks could create perhaps 250,000 jobs.
It’s the first of several job-creation measures promised by Democrats, who also want to give cash-strapped states further help with their budgets and give subsidies to people who make their homes more energy efficient.
The measure passed by a bipartisan 70-28 and now goes back to the House, which passed a far more ambitious version in December.
Word has been trickling out for a few weeks now, so I thought I’d make an “official” announcement: Jenny and I are expecting our third child!
She’s just entering her second trimester and the due date is set for August 3rd. She’s doing well and everything looks to be on track so far. We sat down Emerson and Carter to share the news with them on Wednesday as Jenny’s growing belly was getting a bit hard to explain, and while Carter is still a bit young to process it (baby!), Emerson is in classic four year old sister mode and has declared that she’d like to have four baby sisters.
Ironically, that was one of the first things I asked the ultrasound tech when we went in for the first check up. “Tell me there are four limbs showing up on that monitor and not eight!” I asked, thinking it would be just my luck to go for one more child and end up with the two for one special instead!
We’ll find out gender in a few more weeks, but until then, the preparations have already started in the house. Thankfully, we’ve got almost everything we need in place, although a new stroller and car seat were warranted to replace the current ones which had served us for 4+ years but are in pretty bad shape.
Thanks for all the congratulations that have already been trickling in as word got out, I’ll make sure to post from time to time on the status of our new addition to the family!
Happy Thursday. Three days until catchers and pitchers report for the Brewers! Spring is slowing but surely on it’s way…
A year ago the stimulus bill was passed. Lots of talk today about how it was a complete failure, we’re still losing jobs, etc, etc. I stumbled across this nifty little chart that gives a graphic representation of the job picture over the past couple years. We’re making progress, but yes, there’s still a long way to go.
I live in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI with my wife Jen, our daughter Emerson, and son Carter.
I'm the President of The Park People of Milwaukee County, an elected official of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, a union leader, community organizer and transit advocate who is working to make Milwaukee great again. I've been writing this weblog for nearly ten years ... read more...
