A mass shooting happened here last weekend. 5 girls/women were shot and one 15 year old boy died here. A block away on Concordia St. there are two memorials as well as a home where a 2 year old was accidentally shot and killed. Milwaukee needs more people to help. Milwaukee needs all of us...Read More

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

We tell stories to help us make sense of the world. These hundreds and thousands of stories we tell ourselves and each other make up our world view – how we process our tiny place within the world. Some stories are meant to inspire. Some stories are meant to teach us deep lessons about humanity....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

I’m not a macro-economist. I took one econ class in college. The professor was a parrot-head (someone that goes to Jimmy Buffet concerts). Besides telling us the basics of how a free market economy works, the main take away from that course was that he lost his car at a Jimmy Buffet concert at Alpine...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

Last night my 10 year old went to the neighborhood park with a few other girls from the block.  As she was gone I couldn’t stop listening for anything out of the ordinary and worrying about her in general.  Last week there was a drive by shooting spraying about 100 rounds for several blocks on...Read More