Willy Street Blog @ “2”

Neighborhood blog to continue hyper-focus

What do you give the neighborhood that has everything? Well certainly not another person with an opinion. When you start a blog, its like any good essay, pick a few central themes and nurture them with attribution and reasoned analysis. But it is no small challenge to write about by far the most engaged, opinionated, funky, and cool neighborhood in the nation.

Willy Street Blog was born in March 2012, in the midst of the recall drive, but soon turned away from state politics as plenty of great voices were already speaking to the issue. In a city that features stupendous local reporting from numerous outlets, why should anyone bother to read some random blog?

The key is to really not care.

Continue reading

Overpass Light Brigade Epitomizes Recall Spirit

The Overpass Light Brigade pose with all the signs they brought to an overpass near Miller Park Saturday June 2, 2012. The various permutations were displayed to passing motorists. Photo by: Jenna Pope

Since Scott Walker and his allies picked a fight with the good citizens of Wisconsin, they have hit back with an immense avalanche of creative and innovative retorts and actions to register their displeasure with his policies. One such group is the Overpass Light Brigade whose activities have crescendoed in the last few weeks and may just be one of the differences in this election.

Enter Lane Hall, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and his wife Lisa Moline who are not necessarily activists but could not bear to sit on the sidelines for this fight. They started with simple letters using battery-powered LEDs that spelled out “Recall Walker” and made regular appearances on the Lincoln Drive overpass to the Milwaukee Art Museum along the lakefront.  Continue reading