DNC visitors should get out & walk before they leave

I had posted here in March of 2019 some Milwaukee images and a bit of history for anyone beginning to plan a visit for the now-diminished Democratic National Convention, so I'll touch up the item a bit and will repost it in the hope that there are still folks curious about the city who will get out on their socially-distanced own so they don't miss everything.

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Democrats National Convention will make Milwaukee Glow

Winning the 2020 Democratic National Convention is a coup for Milwaukee, Mayor Tom Barrett and a host of allies.

And for a downtown river revival rooted in former Mayor John Norquist's New Urbanism which correctly predicted that people wanted to live and work near water, and get where they needed to by bike, rail, or on their own two feet.

The Riverwalk system Norquist championed now extends north of the city and all the way south through the downtown to the Milwaukee River's outlet in Lake Michigan.

(Full disclosure: I worked for Mayor Norquist for about six years.)

And this is why the city rail isn't as extensive as it could have been - 

One of Milwaukee's new streetcars was on a 2018 demonstration run through the downtown's Cathedral Square and the annual Bastille Days music and cultural festival. The convention site is just a few blocks to the west, while the lakefront is a few blocks forward to the east.

- but that's what happens when suburban interests are hostile to the very cities which boost and define their regions and the state's culture and economy.

I assume that Republicans, from Donald Trump and all the way down to Wisconsin's defeated Gov. Scott Walker, will by the summer of 2020 still be rabidly red-baiting on right-wing talk radio and social media about the evils of socialism, as they choose to define, distort and demonize it.

Convention visitors, however, if they do a little Googling, can learn that Milwaukee had socialist mayors until the 1960's who left behind publicly-spirited legacies - - from clean government, to beautiful parks 

One of several trails connecting Lake Park to the lakefront

to miles of unspoiled open space 

Milwaukee's Bradford Beach on Lake Michigan

within walking distance of many amenities near the Lake Michigan shoreline which already has its own, special glow.

Milwaukee even has a state park at the south edge of downtown with trails that loop past a lagoon and through restored prairie grasses, and connects with museums and festival grounds.

Welcome, visitors.

The Calatrava addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum on Milwaukee's Lake Michigan shoreline at sunset. An easy walk from downtown.