David Boucher and the Amaranth Cafe and Bakery

Last Tuesday I went to a meeting about urban gardening that was supposed to be about Alice's Garden. The meeting was held at the Amaranth Bakery and Cafe on W. Lisbon. The cafe was on the corner of 34th and Lisbon, which is farther west than I have ever been in Milwaukee without being in Wauwatosa. Service Learning has gotten me to explore areas of the city where I would definitely think twice about going to. I was happy to find out that I wasn't the only person from the class there since Josh, Jackie and Kirsten were also there. The person that was supposed to be conducting the meeting wasn't able to make it that night so the urban gardening meeting was pretty much canceled. However, the owner of the cafe, David Boucher was more than willing to talk and answer questions about the neighborhood and the history of Milwaukee in general. David had lived in Milwaukee for the last 15 years. He was attending UWM to get his doctors in the Urban Studies program but became dissatisfied with the program and left UWM. He instead bought a pre-Civil War house on N. 34th Street with the intent to rehabilitating it. He also bought a bar on Lisbon which he fixed up and turned into the Amaranth Bakery and Cafe. The cafe and bakery offers healthier options for the diets of the community's residents than the average fast food restaurant would. Also on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the cafe offers soup at “pay what you can.” David has been an active member of the community since moving into the area. He told us about the history of the neighborhoods in Milwaukee and about how originally the area that the cafe was in was primarily a Polish and German neighborhood. Over time, people moved around and the demographics of the area changed dramatically. David also talked about how the city is crippled by its bureaucracy. At times, people have suggested that streets like Lisbon should be turned into a boulevard which would mean that the city would have to buy people's property in order to make the street wider. This idea is absolutely absurd and was made by people who knew nothing of the area and who knew nothing of the people that it would effect. Fortunately that initiative did not go into effect. David also discussed the area and how it has changed over the last 15 years. Much like JPNA in the Johnsons Park area, David is working to dissolve the crime in the area and keep it out. He has helped buy up properties that were known drug houses and houses that were linked to crime and violence. He was also dealing with much of the same problems that the JPNA deals with certain properties. The building right across the street from the bakery has been vacant for sometime. The community and the owner cannot come to terms of how the building would best serve the community.
Overall my experience at the cafe was very valuable to me mainly because I live in Milwaukee but have little knowledge of its history and especially the histories of the neighborhoods on the west side.

Photo taken from http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/imgs/hed/art2912nar.jpg

Johnson's Park Photos

These are the rest of the photos from my first photo shoot at Johnsons Park.

JPNA Neighborhood Meeting April 20, 2009

Last Monday I went to a meeting for the Johnsons Park Neighborhood. The meeting was held at the JOY Center on Walnut St which creates the southern border for the area. I had to take the bus to the meeting which caused some anxiety for myself because I thought that I was going to be late. It was pretty cold on Monday and it was raining, so that made me forget some of the streets and I got kind of lost before I got to the actual meeting. When I got to the JOY Center I found that Erica and Jackie were there already which made me feel a bit better about being there because I would have felt a little uncomfortable about being the only one from our class there.

The meeting started with Tony Gibson announcing that the Johnsons Park neighborhood was being featured on 88.9 Milwaukee in a feature about lesser-known neighborhoods in Milwaukee. A lot of neighborhoods in Milwaukee, especially on the west side, aren't getting the kind of recognition that they deserve and end up getting a lot negative connotations from the local media. Eighty-eight Nine's objective is to remove some of the stereotypes of these neighborhoods by showing how the neighborhoods are improving and evolving. Before the meeting, the representative from 88.9 interviewed Tony and recorded the beginning part of the meeting.

Something that I felt was a little unfortunate about the meeting was the low attendance, there were only about 6 or 7 people there with 3 of them being from Film 150. Because of this, Tony singled us out and asked us to introduce ourselves and talk about why we were at the meeting in the first place.

The topics that were covered in the meeting were about some key properties that were of interest and block safety. There is a corner store in the neighborhood that was shut down a couple years ago due to some illegal activities that were associated with the property. Since being shut down, nothing has happened with the store and the building has remained vacant. Tony had a long discussion with the owner of the building of what could be done with the building, but the ideas that Tony suggested where shut down and the ideas that the owner suggested seemed kind of random and illogical. If the building became another corner-store, it would probably bring crime back to the neighborhood. I found this pretty interesting because I never thought of corner stores as being linked to drugs and crime. Another property that was discussed at the meeting was a rental property that was still in the process of being rehabilitated. Something that was brought up about rental properties and apartment buildings was that they had a higher chance of being associated with crime but as I thought about it and I thought of some of the “sketchy” neighbors that I've had so far and it made more sense.

The meeting ended with some discussion about future meetings and events in the neighborhood included a summer bike camp and a neighborhood cleanup in May. What I mostly got out of the meeting was how hard Tony and other members of the community work to help their neighborhood. I find myself feeling guilty because I'm more active in the Johnson's Park neighborhood than Riverwest where I actually live. Every time I get a flyer for a block meeting, I usually just throw it away instead of actually taking part and trying to make changes to in my neighborhood for the better.

*Photo is from Frank's blog.

Photo Essay Artist Statement

The photos used in my photo essay were from my first visit to the Johnsons Park area of Milwaukee. Want I wanted to convey through the pictures were my first reactions of the neighborhood and also what I was also feeling at the time. For this trip I was limited to using a disposable camera and my photos rely heavily on the weather.
I took these pictures in the Johnsons park area on a Thursday morning. I took the bus from North Avenue and was surprised at what I found when I finally got to Johnsons park. The park itself is just a big open field with some trees around it and some hills at the north and south ends of it. There is also a playground at the south end. For some reason I was expecting more. I thought that it would be more like Gordon Park or Kern Park which are bigger and have more trees and vegetation. I was also surprised at how much garbage was in Alice's Garden. I know that it couldn't be kept up during the winter, but the neighborhood overall had a lot of litter in it. I captured that in one of my pictures for the essay because even though I don't live in one of the cleanest neighborhoods, things like that still leave an impression on me.
Another first reaction that I got from the area were the houses. The degree in difference between the houses in the neighborhood left such an impression on me that I choose to do my photo essay on that topic. First of all, I knew that they were rebuilding houses in the neighborhood but I had no idea that they were going to be that many, and that nice looking. Those houses looked like they would be in a suburb and not an urban neighborhood. I found that very interesting. Also, even though there were so many nice houses, the neighborhood was still what it was, there was still litter in the vacant lots and there were still boarded up businesses. The older houses left an impression on me as well. Because there are so many newer houses in the area, the older houses and buildings really stick out. The older houses are decrepit and are falling apart. Paint is chipping everywhere, there are support beams missing, fences are falling down, boards are broken...etc. I wanted to focus more on these older houses but I didn't want to take too much time in case the inhabitants of the houses caught me being too nosy. I also wanted to capture the change of “out with the old and in the the new.” I found a sign that advertises lots of sell in the neighborhood. I was able to take a picture of some men working on a house which directly represents the change of new life and livelihood added to the neighborhood.
When I took these pictures, I was cold and tired and hungry and hoped that somehow this would be reflected in my pictures. I think the weather played an important part in the feeling that these pictures give off. It wasn't very cold, but it wasn't too warm until I left the neighborhood. The sky is a very pale color, at the time it would go from cloudy to more clear. There are also a lot of pictures of empty lots also reflected what I was feeling at the time. I was there alone and I was tired and hungry.
This project is a visual interpretation of my first reactions to the Johnsons Park area. My ideas and opinions of the area may change over time, but this stands as what I was thinking and feeling at the time that I was introduced to the area. I felt that there were a lot of really nice houses, so I tried to capture them on film. I thought that older, run down houses really stood out so I tried to juxtapose them against the new houses. I thought that there was more trash in the neighborhood than I am used to so I got that on film as well. Also I was alone and hungry and tired and tried to capture that with pictures of barren lots and the pale sky.

Neighborhood Photos