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God has a funny sense of humor. When we bought our house and moved in, two men that I didn’t know were living in the flat below us. I remember Mr. Roberts’ son coming upstairs to ask me for video game cheat codes.  He was a bit intimidating at 6’5” but a gentle man who...Read More

How is your neighborhood’s self esteem?  Mine isn’t great.  When people talk about my neighborhood, most of the time it isn’t because something great happened there.  People think bad about my neighborhood. When you think bad about a neighborhood, do you also think bad of the people who live there? What if people thought more...Read More

Like in many inner cities, the neighborhoods in 53206 experience traumatic events at a predictably higher rate than other places outside of our cities. On this episode of the 53206 Cast, Meg and Alex sit down and talk trauma and how traumatic events can impact children’s ability to be successful in school.  Resources: Electrical fires...Read More

Of course it would be like this. I find myself saying this to myself a lot lately. I’m not the first person to think this and I’ll undoubtedly not be the last. But this statement has become a mantra for me lately. Of course version 3 of 10 would look like this or of course...Read More

When I was working in a school we had a saying, self awareness, plus perspective yields empathy. Empathy was the goal, because you begin every interaction seeking to understand what would be in the best interest of the person you were serving. If I’m deciding what the next course of action should be for a...Read More

I told myself if I could get halfway through the bike, I would be ok. I haven’t always been the type of person that exercises. I’d never paid to participate in a race. I’ve run two marathons, but the course was either designed by my sister or just made up as we ran. One year...Read More

In the early 2000’s I spent a lot of time going to church. Church means different things for different people at different times of their lives. For little Alex Bruzan, it meant evangelical, structured services with singing to start, singing to end, with a half hour talk in the middle, and a couple of prayers...Read More

“Do you have a flashlight or candle I can have?” A woman walking down the street stopped me and asked me this question.  I thought this was a weird request so asked why.  She said that the power and water was shut off in her home so a flashlight would be helpful in getting through...Read More

I’m standing in the downstairs kitchen at Charlie’s house getting ready to put up a coat of mud in the living room. When I come here, I can’t help but think about him. We were neighbors for about a dozen years. When we first moved into 53206, I had a fear that the people who...Read More

I know when most people think of retirement they assume they won’t be doing much. I wrote last week that I was so focused on achieving the goal of early retirement also known as FIRE (financial independence retire early) I rarely spent time visualizing what it might be like to not have to work anymore....Read More

“When you pay rent somewhere, you pay to feel safe, not to worry about if your house is going to catch on fire.”  That’s a quote from the article linkedRead More

I was reminded today about a principle in design that is easy to overlook, but is so critical to accomplishing long term goals. It’s particularly useful when the goal is arbitrary or currently unbounded. I have the goal of designing educational systems and structures which minimize the predictability of student success along racial and socio-economic...Read More

We can do anything we want but we can’t do everything we want. I’ve heard a friend of mine say that a couple dozen times over the years. It’s usually in reference to school budgets. Sure we can do whatever we want to do, but there’s always constraints. I’ve been expecting to retire early for...Read More

A large part of my formative years were shaped by religious teaching, mostly from the Christian point of view. I worked 3rd shift in my late teens and early twenties which meant my schedule was inherently different than most of my friends. When they were asleep, I was working and when they worked or were...Read More

I’m sure I could come up with a list longer than 5, but I’ve got to start somewhere. Barring injury or some other, what now seems unlikely, set of circumstances, on December 31st, 2021 I will have ran for at least 3 miles every day for 5 straight years. If you told me starting today...Read More

A 16 year old died a few weeks ago because he crashed a car he stole. His life was valuable. All lives are valuable, but I wonder if he didn’t see the value in his life.   We all have made some dumb decisions, but his dumb decisions shouldn’t equate to him loosing his life....Read More

What would happen if those that needed the most got the most? This is my neighborhood playground. It’s been missing these stairs for at least a year, the bigger slide was burned down before my kids were born and this big panel is missing on it. It’s not nice at all and I rarely see...Read More

I used to worry that I was going to say something wrong when I talked about race.  I used to worry I was going to offend someone when talking about injustices and the poor.  I used to worry that I didn’t know what I was talking about since I am a white privileged woman.   The...Read More

For 15 years Alex and Meg have lived in the 53206 zip code – the poorest zip code in Wisconsin. Naively, the thought they were moving in to change the world. Predictably, that didn’t happen, but the desire to create lasting change in their neighborhood never left the two. On this episode of the 53206...Read More

I go for a run a lot and I never think about getting shot.  That isn’t the reality for many people that don’t look like me.  A year ago today, Ahmaud Arbery went for a run. His run ended with him being gunned down because he “looked like a thief” due to his skin color.  ...Read More

Alex and I have been doing a podcast about living in the inner-city of Milwaukee since this summer.  I don’t post much on it because I never want to force things on people.  I used to just think that some people care about some things and others just don’t and that was fine.  Now, I...Read More

Our kids are still doing virtual school so most of our lunch time is trying to get some of their energy out. The other day we went sledding at a good hill over by Riverside High School and were on our way home when there was a car with a chair hanging out the back...Read More

Meg and Alex are back talking about a couple of quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. and some of the parallels from the early 1960’s and life in a poor almost all black neighborhood today. While a lot has changed in the last almost 60 years, there are still steps needed to put things back...Read More

Two-thirds of the children in 53206 zip code live in poverty! Though a gift isn’t going to fix poverty, it will make the holidays a little brighter. We Got This community is doing a holiday drive for those in need. As COVID hit, many hourly workers have been hit hard with their income. If you...Read More

Alex and I put out a podcast asking the question if our neighborhood was violent and crime ridden on the same day Mae and I rode our bikes by a new memorial of another death in our neighborhood. There were balloons on a tree and candles below them which symbolizes that someone most likely was...Read More

Meg and Alex are back starting a new series around how perceptions about the inner city rarely match reality. In this episode the duo takes in the idea that 53206 and inner cities in general are violent, crime ridden places.    iTunes link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/53206/id1526303091 Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/show/7dJ9rlJW6v1NMG0CMe1SEZ  Read More

Meg and Alex are back in the sitting room reflecting on the recent passing of Lucille Bridges. 60 years ago Lucille brought her daughter Ruby Bridges to school. While that is normal for us today, it was anything but that in Louisiana in 1960.    iTunes link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/53206/id1526303091 Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/show/7dJ9rlJW6v1NMG0CMe1SEZ  Read More

Alex and I have been talking about how people ask us if we are afraid of getting shot where we live on the 53206 Podcast and the truth is that before I moved into the inner city of Milwaukee, I was afraid of getting shot even driving through the area.  But then I moved into my...Read More

In this episode of the 53206 cast, Meg asks Alex what the most surprising thing about living in the inner city is.    iTunes link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/53206/id1526303091 Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/show/7dJ9rlJW6v1NMG0CMe1SEZ  Read More

When I was in high school I didn’t know a person who didn’t graduate high school.  I always thought kids who dropped out of high school chose to drop out.  The fact that Milwaukee Public Schools graduates 2/3 of Black students just seems very off.  In Wisconsin 94% of white students graduate high school and...Read More

There are few times when someone says something and it penetrates me.  This was one of those times.  On Saturday, there was a celebration of life at the We Got This garden for 4 boys who died.  A woman started speaking on the stage and I was immediately drawn into her words.  She talked about...Read More

In this episode of the 53206 Cast, Meg and Alex talk housing and the weird dynamic in the inner city where you might live next to a house that can’t be given away, yet there is always someone trying to buy your house.    iTunes link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/53206/id1526303091 Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/show/7dJ9rlJW6v1NMG0CMe1SEZ  Read More

In 2015 we were getting frustrated with the people that lived behind us.  There was trash everywhere around their house and they weren’t being respectful of the neighbors and neighborhood.  We talked with the home owner a few times and it became clear that she didn’t have the capacity to handle the home or be...Read More

Meg and Alex continue their Sunday morning conversation and talk politics, well sort of. The two discuss some fears they have about the upcoming election, but attempt to do so as neutrally as possible to not take away from the the larger narrative around racial reconciliation.    iTunes link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/53206/id1526303091 Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/show/7dJ9rlJW6v1NMG0CMe1SEZ  Read More

Meg and Alex sit down to talk about a startling realization that in the course of 9 blocks, one could walk or drive from the location of a recent murder, past two other murder scenes, past their own house and arrive at the location of the fourth murder all of which took place over the...Read More

Hearing gunshots in the 53206 zip code isn’t something all that uncommon. Hearing 50 of them at 8 o’clock on a Wednesday night is. Meg and Alex sit down in the sitting room to talk about hearing that many gunshots on an otherwise beautiful night.    iTunes link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/53206/id1526303091  Read More

Meg and Alex answer a listener question about what happens when they return home to the inner city. Then Meg tells a crazy story about police chases and watching someone get before the duo starts to explain the statistics behind Milwaukee being considered one of, if not, the most segregated city in America.  Cited content:...Read More

  Meg and Alex pick up where the conversation in episode 21 left off around suspension rates in Wisconsin schools. The two give some thoughts around whether this is an individual problem, a school problem, or a system problem.  Statistics mentioned in this episode: Wisconsin school enrollment: White: 588,000 Black: 77,000 Economically Disadvantaged: 362,000 Not...Read More

  Meg and Alex finish up their Sunday Morning conversation around two quotes: 1. Equity is about reducing the predictability of who succeeds and who fails. and 2. The neighborhood gave up on me so I gave up on myself.  The We Got This Garden was mentioned a couple of times and is linked here. ...Read More

  Meg and Alex are back in the sitting room to talk about the design thinking process and how to take all of the information learned while empathizing with our neighbors and use it to begin to define one of many problems that exist in 53206 – educational outcomes. Show Notes: Measuring Success – Riding...Read More

Meg and Alex talk about the eye opening and heart breaking experience of walking through their first rental property. iTunes link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/53206/id1526303091Read More

Meg and Alex share some tips and tricks for your next visit to the inner city. iTunes link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/53206/id1526303091Read More

Meg and Alex share some big news about Ms. Maggie’s house and give another example of why life is more exciting if you have an alley. iTunes link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/53206/id1526303091Read More

Are some neighborhoods designed to fail the people that live in them?  My neighborhood produces many excellent people but it also produces a lot of people the world would call failures.  People who are in jail, people who don’t graduate high school, people who don’t make above the poverty threshold.  Who’s responsibility is it that...Read More

  Historically, 53206 has gotten a bit of a bad rap. In part 1, Meg and Alex talked about how their neighborhood not only isn’t that bad, but actually really great. That was the first of three rebuttals the two have to offer when someone thinks of where they live as a bad neighborhood. In...Read More

Meg and Alex talk about about the first of three rebuttals to someone thinking their neighborhood is “bad” – defending it. 53206 doesn’t have a lot of cheerleaders and the two have a conversation around what they have seen and why their neighborhood not only isn’t bad, but is actually really good. iTunes link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/53206/id1526303091Read More

When we are around someone doing something wild or dangerous, a typical response is to be angry or afraid. Meg and Alex talk about crazy driving in the inner city of Milwaukee and offer another way of looking it – as a cry for help. iTunes link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/53206/id1526303091Read More

  Meg and Alex talk about some of the conversations they have had with their 7 and 9 year old children. Disclaimer: This isn’t a how to talk to your kids about police brutality podcast. It’s more of a what did we talk to our kids about police brutality podcast.Read More

A rather unfortunate automotive predicament leads Alex and Meg into a discussion on how the same situation can be an inconvenience for one person and a life changing event for another.Read More

Our car broke this weekend.  The wheel was bent in a crazy direction and it reminded me of  seeing this same thing on 8th Street to many cars that just happened to be driving by and hit an unfortunate bump in the road. Many of those cars were stranded for hours, with kids just sitting...Read More

Meg and Alex give an update on how virtual school is going for their kids in Milwaukee Public Schools and talk about how/why some of the people from the neighborhood won’t be able to engage with learning in at the same level as their own kids.Read More

I looked out my window to see a group of protestors on the bridge across from our house today.   I felt a little sad when I realized that the protesters weren’t out there for Black Lives Matter (they were protesting abortion).  I don’t want to discuss their protest, that isn’t the point here.  I...Read More

Meg asks Alex, an experienced educator, about some things parents can do to ensure their child receives a high quality education during virtual learning and the two talk about how virtual learning can inadvertently create further inequities in education. Plus the two share some signs of change – positive things from our inner city neighborhood.Read More

I am sure there is bound to be a lot of work done in the very near future around equity and the promotion of equity. Our organization has been spending a portion of the summer working reading, talking, and reflecting in small groups around how to best promote equity. We know that it starts with...Read More

In a round about way it is roughly ten miles from one of the poorest neighborhoods in Metro Milwaukee to one of the wealthiest. I didn’t intend on doing this, but recently I rode from my house on the edge of Milwaukee’s 53206 zip code to the lakefront in Fox Point. I was trying to...Read More

In the car this morning Dex asked me if it was legal for someone to sleep in their cars.  I told him I was not totally sure but I thought it was illegal.  I then I went on to tell him a few months ago we had someone in front of our house that slept...Read More

What does it mean to fail in the real world? I only came close to failing one class throughout my 20-ish years in school. I was newly married and working full time and, honestly, found whatever else I was doing with my time a lot more interesting. This particular class was some high level math...Read More

We have many neighbors that have liven on 8th Street for decades and it is always sad when they leave.  Recently, a neighbor of ours lived who lived her home for over 50 years recently got sick and moved into elder care.  Her family helped her decide that the home should go up for sale...Read More

Yeah, that’s a Phish reference. Most people’s knowledge of Phish is that it’s some weird hippy thing. Did you know there are still hippies around? I see them at Phish shows. We call them wooks now because by the end of the tour after following the band around for weeks you end up looking kind...Read More

Oh man, I hope I don’t dump a bunch of episodes worth of content into the second one and leave nothing to talk about. I already started two more longer posts, but was getting stuck on them, partially because they all had to do with access. A conversation on access doesn’t make a ton of...Read More

Dex and I biked to a coffee shop last night that is about a mile away.  We were stopped at the traffic light on Holton St.  I told him this street is one of the dividers of the good and bad area of Milwaukee, he tuned to me and said, the white and the black...Read More

As I dropped my kids off at camp this morning, I asked them if they are trying to find friends at camp that don’t look like them.  My daughter, who can be a little smart a– said, “Mom, everyone looks different from me.” So, I went full into giving them a lecture on how people...Read More

I went by a house on my street that burnt down last night.  I stopped to see if everyone was OK and the man who owned the home started telling me his story.  He said everyone was fine thanks to his dog who barked to wake him up.  When I asked if he had insurance...Read More

This is Charlie’s pear tree. Charlie was the neighbor outside cutting his front grass with a scissors so it was perfect.  He was the type of person when I walked by, that would invite me into his backyard to show me a new plant or how the pears were doing on his tree.  He was such...Read More

Segregation is the most commonly accepted and perpetuated form of racism that still exists in America. As an upper middle class white person living in 53206, the poorest zip code in Wisconsin, which happens to be 0.8% white, for the last 14 years, my family and I have witnessed the effects of people repeatedly separating...Read More

I wrote this in January 2020 with no hope that anyone would ever interact with it in a positive, reflective way. In July 2020 I have renewed hope that at some point in the future enough people will hear this message and buy into the idea that we all participate in segregation without even thinking...Read More

I just wrapped up listening to the audio book version of White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo. The book is her attempt to define the term white fragility. In a rough paraphrase, white fragility is the concept or response that white people often have to their discomfort when talking about race or receiving feedback that they...Read More

I am reading the book, When They Call You a Terrorist, written by the founder of Black Lives Matter and she keeps coming back to this main point of people feeling that their lives lives are dispensable.  The definition of dispensable: able to be replaced or done without.  She said she first started feeling that her...Read More

In August 2005 I quit the diner to work at the church. I had been attending and volunteering for a few years at that point and it seemed like a natural move to make at the time. When you have the mindset that what you do matters and that everyone has value, working at a...Read More

I was on a run yesterday and heard a huge explosion on 9th St and saw a ton of smoke.  I thought a house or car exploded.  I went over and saw a neighbor outside and asked him about it.  He said it was 1/4 of a stick of dynamite.  He went on to say...Read More

This if my first ever crossposted blog post. The motivation to start moving on writing our own blog came from working on blog posts for my job as a school leader. We talk a lot about equity through deeper learning, but I don’t have a words to describe what that actually means. There are three...Read More

A 16 year old was found shot dead on my block last night.  I don’t usually let people know about this type of thing as I don’t like to share bad news about my neighborhood as it has enough bad connotations.  But I feel during the Black Lives Matter movement, now is a time that...Read More

I’ve written before about the confused looks on people’s faces when I tell them where we live. Usually I have to physically describe the location in order for someone that lives in Milwaukee to totally get it. Once it sinks in, if the conversation hasn’t ended immediately (which happens more often than not) I am...Read More

We just got back from vacation. I would rather get up early than get home late. The only problem with that is it means if we want to leave at 5:00 am I have to get up at 4:00, or even earlier, to go for a run, which is what I did the day we...Read More

Some of the strangest people you will ever meet show up at diners in the middle of the night, especially cheap diners. Also, some of the drunkest people you will ever meet show up at diners in the middle of the night. I worked 3rd shift at one of these diners for three years in...Read More

One of the questions I’m asked about living in the inner city is if I feel safe. I don’t like this question. It makes me think of my 90 year old neighbor and if it’s ok if she lives in a place that’s not considered safe. Or of my neighbor that’s a single mom of...Read More

Most mornings, while walking my dog, I would pass by Charlie’s house. He would invite me into his backyard to let me see his pears growing on the tree or a new flower he just planted. He loved his yard and I loved seeing his passion for it. I always thought his backyard was like...Read More

I clearly remember the first time I knew I was using my white privilege. It was summertime and the community garden program just let out. There were usually 50 boys who worked in the morning and got $20 for their efforts, leaving happily across the bridge and around my block. I loved going outside to...Read More

Alright, so something new happened to me today. I was on a Zoom call and someone said they were rethinking where they lived, because of racial inequity. They were thinking of moving out of their neighborhood into one that as more diverse. That’s a new thing. I might have heard someone say that before and...Read More

There is a feeling I have that I don’t know how to describe. Now that we are one month out from George Floyd’s murder, I think it might be safe to say “this thing is going to stick”. It seams to me that the general, American consciousness has been woken up to the idea that...Read More

I recently found out that my daughter was saying unkind things to one of her friends. I was embarrassed that she didn’t know better but started talking to Mae about the situation. I try to be a good parent and realize that I’m only a good parent when I’m around my kids and present. I...Read More

I have the privilege of starting work on Charlies house. I did a little work already, tearing down drop ceilings and starting to empty leftover furniture and random things left in the house. I was anxious to start the project but cautions, because I wanted to make sure I captured the story of Charlie and...Read More

I had a running injury a few weeks ago so this was the first I started running again. Today I was running in a different are than usual so I couldn’t keep track of my mileage as I usually can. It was a hard run, like really hard and I got done and thought I...Read More

One if the reasons we live in the inner city is because of the trips we led to Jackson, MS. They were the first to show us a way of racial reconciliation that really resonated with Alex and I. We would go down there and gut/revamp houses and learn from community members about living in...Read More

This is a follow up from the post called Fireworks. You might want to read that one first, but if you don’t want to, that’s ok too. We really do have a lot to talk about. Living here means we never run out of things to ponder and reflect on. Meg and I can always...Read More

It’s crazy how easy it is to find things to write about. We just have to pay attention to what is going on around us and even then all we have to do is be here because its impossible not to pay attention. Last night I was lighting the grill. We don’t have anything fancy,...Read More

Last night there was a bunch of boys (ages around 12-14ish) that were hanging out in my neighbors yard.  I hadn’t seen them so I asked what they were up to.  They said nothing and got up and kept walking.  It struck me that they really have nothing to do in the inner city.  It...Read More

Disclaimer: Keep in mind that myself and my family are white and live in an all black neighborhood. In many ways, even to this day, we are still learning about what it means to be white or black or rich or poor. My hope is that any confessions of my ignorance are in some small...Read More

Committing to write a blog post (or some other similar content) a day means that you actually have to do it. The circumstances of my day, and the fact that we are getting ready to go on vacation means that I probably should have had something written yesterday, so I could post it today. That...Read More

When we are thinking about moving toward a more equitable society, we should consider ease access to leveling up. You can read more about the idea here. I was talking to my friend Alan yesterday about a bunch of things that we both agreed with, but hadn’t talked much about ever. We talked about the...Read More

I was on a walk yesterday and I noticed a woman weeding her yard right next to the alley.  To be honest, I have a fairly nice yard and I don’t always care about the weeds by the alley so I was impressed by her immaculate clean yard.  The home had anything a house in Tosa...Read More

On a walk around our block yesterday, Mae asked me why there are loafs of bread hanging on the fence on 9th Street.  I told her it’s because some people who live around here don’t have enough food to eat so people drop off donations.  She knew the bread wasn’t for us and scootered off....Read More

At the end of today, we will be halfway done with June. Meg and I made it a priority to write or produce some type of content every day during the month of June. We needed to jumpstart our blog site and this seemed like one way to accomplish that. 15 days in and we...Read More

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of helping Jabria plant her first garden. One of my passions is teaching kids about gardening. The first reason is because kids will try any veggie from the garden which expands what they like. The second is that we live in a food desert which means people in the 53206...Read More

As of June 14, 2020, my sister Ashley might be the only person that reads anything we post on this site. For now, I’m ok with that. We’re still figuring out what our message is or what we are actually trying to accomplish by writing something every day. We’ll get there eventually. In the mean...Read More

The other night we went up north camping. It was really nice to get out of the city and be in nature. The stars were incredible at night. My kids were able to run and bike around freely (which they can’t do in our neighborhood) and there was a sense of ease that we all...Read More

Ok, so this is going to probably be one of those posts that I have to come back to later. Because of that, I am going to keep it simple to start. Maybe I’ll just lay out the situation. Big decisions are never easy for me. I guess they aren’t for any one. For some...Read More

It took about 10 seconds to find an article depicting some of the negative characteristics of my zip code. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/wisconsin/2018/12/07/53206-facts-milwaukees-troubled-zip-code/2237529002/ Below is an excerpt from the article linked above. In red are a couple of comments about the statistics mentioned. — Here are five fast facts about 53206: 1. A 2013 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee study found it...Read More

We went by the new mural on Holton to memorialize George Floyd yesterday. We stopped and talked about why it was done. It is a beautiful mural and I would encourage you to go and see it. I was struck by Dex saying someone put down flowers and not trash. I was struck by that...Read More

I struggled to write the last blog post. It was easy to write part three, but part 4 didn’t seem natural. I wanted to put empathy first, but I couldn’t figure out how to write about it. Then it hit me after I finished writing Part 4. There are two types of empathy, at least...Read More

Last night we ran into one of our old neighbors.  We have known her family for the entire time we lived in our home (14 years) so I have known this woman since she was in middle school and have seen her grow up.  She got pregnant when she was 20 years old and while...Read More

The other day, I was speaking to Mae about hanging out with kids in the neighborhood.  I told her if I ever say anything that she feels is racist or insensitive to the kids, I would like her to point it out to me.  While I was telling her this, she said, “but mom you...Read More

A friend of mine, who is a big Bucks fan, suggested we go down to the protest that was starting at the Fiserv Forum earlier yesterday. I had a bunch of stuff on a list of things to do which would normally mean I would make up a reason not to go. I offered to...Read More

Mae (our 9 year old daughter) and I were on a 3 hour car ride yesterday. We started out listening to a kids podcast on Injustice and Anger. We kept stopping it at points and had all sorts of really great conversations. We talked about how Travon Martin and Ahmaud Arbery were murdered.  She thought...Read More

There was a picture of a white women in her twenties holding up a sign that said “use your white privilege to disrupt the system”. The woman was protesting in an affluent almost all white suburb of Milwaukee. Normally that would have annoyed me. I’ve been aware of the term white privilege for at least...Read More

While sitting and eating ice cream on the patio we asked my 9 year old daughter what she liked about living in our neighborhood. Here are a couple of her thoughts: She likes our back yard and our fruit trees. She likes that we have a community garden a few houses down. She liked that...Read More

We have 3 nine year old girls on our block.  My daughter Mae is one of them.  I have a hard time letting her out of my sight in our neighborhood.  I have let my kids ride their bikes around the block just few times but for the majority of the time, I am with...Read More

When the pandemic started, I thought I am going to be the best freaking home schooler mom ever.  I also run a small business so not sure where I thought I would have time to do this.  But in the beginning I gathered all the resources, information, kid webinars and had these amazing schedules printed...Read More

The shooting off of fireworks in my neighborhood isn’t something new. The week before and the week after the fourth of July it gets pretty loud. That isn’t to say that fireworks are not shot off at other times of the year. If they are, it is probably literally a handful of them brought out...Read More

How do we show that something matters. When the Black Lives Matter movement started, I remember thinking it was a little basic. I mean all you want is recognition that your life matters? It seemed like such a low bar to shoot for. I have a hard time seeing how not wanting to be killed...Read More

My daughter loves knowledge. She seeks out knowledge as if her life depends on it. I hate reading books with her because she will stop and go look up things to make sure she understands every little thing in the book. It is exhausting. But if we want to learn how something got to be...Read More

I didn’t get a chance to watch the news or check the Journal Sentinel online much during the start of the weekend. My dad and I spent most of Friday and Saturday working on fixing the exhaust on my truck and the sewer drainage problem we were having with our house. The house is about...Read More

I am not just angry over George Floyd’s death, these types of injustices have been happening all over the US for years. White people are now realizing this is happening to people of color and that should be the outrage. The outrage should be that we are now “seeing” this, that we now feel uncomfortable....Read More

I never heard someone actually ask that. But, that might be because up until a few years ago our house was the only one on the block that had any recycling carts. The city provides them if you order them through the Department of Neighborhood Services for free. If you don’t tell them that you...Read More

In 2006 we were stupid kids. We bought a house we couldn’t afford. I was 22 and my wife, Meg, was 24. I hadn’t graduated college yet. Meg had, but hadn’t found much in terms of a career. We were both working as interns at a church outside of Milwaukee and increasing in restlessness as...Read More

Within three months of taking that trip to Jackson we moved into our house on Milwaukee’s northside. For some reason our lease in the first apartment we rented was only seven months long, which meant that even though we moved in to the place in January we were able to move near the start of...Read More

There was a long time where I skirted around the questions where do you live. Because of this, I can kind of tell now when someone is going to bring it up. We will be chatting about some restaurant or a place on the east side that we both go to and the person I...Read More

I am really into reading on Reddit and by really into it I mean reading posts about Phish and Milwaukee. I should really branch out into something else, but never really do. While on vacation last week I saw about post asking for people’s feedback on what they love and hate about Milwaukee.  (https://www.reddit.com/r/milwaukee/comments/ci6lm7/people_of_milwaukee_what_do_you_love_andor_hate/).  At...Read More