These five things took me a long time to understand and accept:
1) The grid for Milwaukee is wrong. The numbered streets run east/west in Chicago, but here they run north/south. It took me a long time to get used to this.
2) One Chicago block equals two Milwaukee blocks. This took some time to figure out. In Chicago, driving from 16th Street to 79th Street would take forever. I can drive from 13th Street to 76th Street in less than 10 minutes. Chicago does the crazy thing of double numbering their streets: 95th Street, 95th Place, 94th Street, 94th Place. That was always confusing. Maybe Milwaukee has it right…
3) U-turns are commonplace and legal. One of my favorite things about Milwaukee is that the city and suburbs are full of boulevards. A boulevard is a wide street divided by a median usually featuring landscaping. (I provide this definition for those of you who, like me, were not aware that the term boulevard is more than a fancy name for a road.) These wonderful, scenic boulevards are found throughout the Milwaukee area and necessitate u-turns in order to reach one’s destination.
4) Much of the Lakefront is poorly utilized. When I last lived in Chicago, I was on Loyola’s campus in Rogers Park, right on the Lake where Sheridan curves west. After that, we lived in Lake Forest, just a five-minute walk to the Lake. I was accustomed to the Lake being a reliable source of beauty and recreation. When we started exploring Milwaukee and Oak Creek, we were very disappointed in how inaccessible the Lake was. Much of the lakefront on the southside is used for industrial or utility purposes. Driving over the Hoan Bridge, as I did today, the view of the distance of the lake is breathtaking, but the sight of the lakeshore itself is…notsomuch. Fortunately, the Lakefront is inviting and beautiful the further north you travel, so all is not lost.
5) The general community does not embrace public transportation. I think Chicagoans take their excellent public transportation system for granted. I know I didn’t appreciate it as much until we moved to Milwaukee. There is a bus system…and Amtrak. My husband rode the freeway flyer bus to the courthouse downtown for the first few years we lived here. People thought he was either eccentric or had his driver’s license revoked. Why else would anyone CHOOSE to take the bus? There are two rail options to get to Chicago, Amtrak or the Metra from Kenosha. Neither is desirable. This topic sparks some heated debate in Wisconsin political and business communities, so I’ll just leave it that my family strongly supports light rail in southeast Wisconsin.
1) The grid for Milwaukee is wrong. The numbered streets run east/west in Chicago, but here they run north/south. It took me a long time to get used to this.
2) One Chicago block equals two Milwaukee blocks. This took some time to figure out. In Chicago, driving from 16th Street to 79th Street would take forever. I can drive from 13th Street to 76th Street in less than 10 minutes. Chicago does the crazy thing of double numbering their streets: 95th Street, 95th Place, 94th Street, 94th Place. That was always confusing. Maybe Milwaukee has it right…
3) U-turns are commonplace and legal. One of my favorite things about Milwaukee is that the city and suburbs are full of boulevards. A boulevard is a wide street divided by a median usually featuring landscaping. (I provide this definition for those of you who, like me, were not aware that the term boulevard is more than a fancy name for a road.) These wonderful, scenic boulevards are found throughout the Milwaukee area and necessitate u-turns in order to reach one’s destination.
4) Much of the Lakefront is poorly utilized. When I last lived in Chicago, I was on Loyola’s campus in Rogers Park, right on the Lake where Sheridan curves west. After that, we lived in Lake Forest, just a five-minute walk to the Lake. I was accustomed to the Lake being a reliable source of beauty and recreation. When we started exploring Milwaukee and Oak Creek, we were very disappointed in how inaccessible the Lake was. Much of the lakefront on the southside is used for industrial or utility purposes. Driving over the Hoan Bridge, as I did today, the view of the distance of the lake is breathtaking, but the sight of the lakeshore itself is…notsomuch. Fortunately, the Lakefront is inviting and beautiful the further north you travel, so all is not lost.
5) The general community does not embrace public transportation. I think Chicagoans take their excellent public transportation system for granted. I know I didn’t appreciate it as much until we moved to Milwaukee. There is a bus system…and Amtrak. My husband rode the freeway flyer bus to the courthouse downtown for the first few years we lived here. People thought he was either eccentric or had his driver’s license revoked. Why else would anyone CHOOSE to take the bus? There are two rail options to get to Chicago, Amtrak or the Metra from Kenosha. Neither is desirable. This topic sparks some heated debate in Wisconsin political and business communities, so I’ll just leave it that my family strongly supports light rail in southeast Wisconsin.
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I totally agree: anyone who has ever lived in a major city knows how convenient a subway system is, both for work and for going downtown for fun. Ride the subway in Boston, Washington DC, New York, Chicago: you will see all ages manuevering with ease. It is ridiculous to have to own a car to get to museums, restaurants, sporting events...wish Milwaukee had it!
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