Recently, I attended an informative college newspaper event in Milwaukee that changed my opinion of the city forever.
When I received the invitation, I was a bit leery about traveling to the city for a newspaper event that I knew very little about. My overall opinion of the Milwaukee area prior to this was low, to say the least. I always thought of Milwaukee as kind of a ghetto, old rundown city with little to offer.
I was shocked to find out that Milwaukee had more to it than I expected. Did you know that Milwaukee has a full-time Ballet Company? Boston doesn’t even have a Ballet Company. Milwaukee also boasts seven of the top Fortune 500 Companies in the United States featured on the Hoover Fortune 500 list.
My stay in Milwaukee began with my arrival at the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Milwaukee. The Intercontinental is a five-star hotel that was recently remodeled to be a fabulous place to stay. I was very comfortable in my room, equipped with a plasma TV and king-size bed. This was a perfect example of how my weekend was to go.
The weekend got underway by meeting up with the representatives from five other UW Schools. The Guerilla Marketing Team that took us under their wing to show us what Milwaukee had to offer was very open and easy to talk with from the very start. Our tour guides wined and dined us poor college journalists through Milwaukee showing us what Milwaukee had to offer future college graduates. I started with a fabulous dinner at the Kil@wat Lounge in the Intercontinental Hotel, with members from the tour and some editors from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Small Business Times, both major publications from the Milwaukee area.
I was taken back by the cleanup and the architecture I saw popping up everywhere. I was most impressed while visiting the Milwaukee Art Museum and touring a condominium in Racine. The Milwaukee area is doing a fabulous job of making the transition from an industrialized, distribution-dominated city to an up-and-coming metropolis for young adults. Condominiums and high-rise apartments are being created through the renovation of old buildings with years of history. The buildings are now full of luxurious condos available for an affordable price. Some of the older buildings were fun to see too, like our stop at the Miller Brewing Co. for a tour and beer tasting.
I was impressed with the lifestyle and charisma of the area surrounding the city of Milwaukee. I toured a marketing firm called GMR in New Berlin, where I was exceptionally impressed with the laid back environment and creative atmosphere. They even had “Bring-Your-Dog-To-Work Friday” going on! We toured the SC Johnson Co., another fortune 500 company in the Milwaukee area, with a special look at a building that was designed by the magnificent architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Later, our tour took a fascinating stop at the Racine Art Museum to get a feel for the modern culture hidden in a rural city. After a dinner date with the Mayor of Racine, the tour was off to Milwaukee to check out the night life on downtown’s Water Street.
I had been out in Milwaukee before, but I was exceptionally pleased with the Chicago-like atmosphere at some of the new places downtown. The Zen Den in my hotel was nicely priced, with a resident DJ from the Chicago area who played a nice mix of dance and trance music. I did find, through some conversation with the overwhelmingly friendly staff, that some famous singers have been there and a fashion show was scheduled to take place in the future. Afterwards, I left the hotel and headed to a number of bars on Water Street that were decently priced with a number of college age patrons and specials that would rival any bar in Manitowoc.
My two short days in the city of Milwaukee have drastically changed my preconceived notions. Milwaukee offers things that many major cities cannot compete with. The traffic congestion and parking in cities like Chicago and New York is simply unbearable. In Milwaukee the traffic is very minimal at best, with parking more affordable. The Milwaukee area is a place where a young person can find great opportunities for success in the workplace, with a suitable environment for good times on the weekend. The city offers upscale nightlife for a person who wants to get dressed up and have a martini, as well as a laid back atmosphere where one could wear jeans and a t-shirt and go out for a beer.
I always looked at Milwaukee as a sub-par city with little to offer a young person. It was just a city I passed by on my way to Chicago. Now my eyes have been opened to a city that is on the rise to becoming a top place to live in the United States.
After learning more about Milwaukee, I would urge you to check the city out. Going there and hanging out with some friends from school for an evening just doesn’t do the city justice. If you do want to find out more about the Milwaukee area you can go to onmilwaukee.com or contact me and I can give you numerous places to go and get more information. I truly believe that Milwaukee is a city that is on the rise. The opportunities rival any major city you can compare it against.
Note from the editor: Jacob Ethridge is editor of The Free Press student newspaper at the University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc. He and several other student journalists from around the state recently were invited to learn more about Milwaukee by the Milwaukee 7 initiative, which organized tours of various businesses and attractions for the visiting students in the city. This article was reprinted by SBT with permission from The Free Press.
