This week on The Disclaimer, WMSE's weekly culture chat with Ryan Schleicher, Milwaukee Record co-founder Matt Wild and I, we're discussing conflicting visions for the city. Matt recently attended a MilMag Live! panel discussion that once again highlighted some alarming racial divides in the city. So why are the power players in the city so interested in "branding" Milwaukee and elevating its creative class when there are clearly such bigger problems? We also turn our attention to a very amusing Urban Milwaukee opinion piece about some very bad public art: NEWaukee's Postman's Plot project, which turned a tiny public park into a tiny public park cluttered with ugly blue lawn furniture. Why is it so hard to enforce a standard for public art? And finally, we give our thumbs up to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett's so-called "charm offensive," a long-overdue effort to push back against the notion that Milwaukee is somehow a drain on the state (it's not).
It's a good episode. Stream it below, and as always, feel free to weigh in on our sad little Facebook page and to subscribe to The Disclaimer on iTunes.
