Now that's how you do away with a batch of the mid-winter, early-March, I-don't-like-Mondays Monday.
In a matter of a few morning hours, we found out we're getting a) the area's first Wahlburger's restaurant, set to open in the Third Ward by the end of the year, a place where those so inclined can get lunch with a side-order of reflected movie-star fame. We also found out we've landed b) the Thunderbirds for this summer's Air & Water Show, formally known as the U-S Air Force Squadron Demonstration team.Â
Oh, then came that other thing: the 2020 Democratic National Convention will happen in Milwaukee with Fiserv Forum serving as the main stage and the rest of the city as the program's staging area, sleep quarters, cafeteria and diversion.
Did the timing of this morning's announcement hit anyone else as strange, what with Mayor/chief convention cheerleader Tom Barrett having just left that very arena's microphone, the final syllables of his 2019 State of the City address still echoing in the building's rafters when his cellphone rang, DNC head Tom Perez on the line to say Milwaukee had made the Democratic cut. Really, Mr. Chairman? You didn't know the good news when you got up this morning? Did Sunday's spring-forward toss you off by an hour, keeping you from making that call a tad sooner so Barrett could've folded the good news into his speech?
No matter.Â
Turns out we're apparently as fancy as Miami, as capable as Houston, and less hurricane-prone than both. We're also hoping July 2020 doesn't pack the kind of heat and humidity the other two towns regularly experience Monday-thru-Sunday in the summertime. That's a worry, as our town's climate has an historically chronic case of the contrary's: when you want it to be warm, it's cold. When you need it to be dry, it pours. And, there's almost ALWAYS a threat of snow. Opening Day seldom serves up baseball weather. Christmas is white only about half the time. Easter can be for bonnets or the kind of headware fancied by Art Kumbalek.
For all the primping, priming and prepping, we won't know if we truly were able to pull of this kind of bash until the last balloon tumbles from the Forum's ceiling the night the nominee is crowned. Were we able to come up with enough hotels in general and five-star digs in particular? Can did we have the restaurants needed to serve the gourmand tastes of party sophisticates? Will Milwaukee still be able to function while a national political drama plays out downtown? How far will the economic waves ripple? We expect downtown restaurant spots to be at a premium, but what then of my buds at the Bosch in Hales Corners or the folks with fine grub in Lake Mills? The pitch was always Milwaukee-centric but certainly those in outlying areas will be hoping to get their beaks wet, too.
Milwaukee's done “big” before–Harley Anniversaries (plural), World Series (not nearly as often as we wanted), Northwestern Mutual's annual bash and of course, the American Legion convention of 1941.
What, you don't still have the t-shirt?
The Journal at the time hailed it as “the largest single gathering of individuals in the United States each year,” one that promised to bring 100,000 folks to town that September. Then as now, our pitch was years in the making, with a lack of hotels the connective tissue between events almost eight decades removed. There were pranks (Legionnaires de-pantsed a cop at the intersection of Plankinton and Wisconsin and a 12 hour long parade downtown that drew as many as 900,000. And there were celebrities, among them Bob Hope who did a brief radio broadcast from Mayor Carl Zeidler's City Hall office. Maybe Rob Reiner or Martin Sheen will reprise the role of Hope in 2020. Don't think the Dems are big on parades the way the Legion was before The Big One. The pants of local cops are probably safe.
All other bets are probably off.Â
Get set for 16 months of stories about how the locals are prepping–if someone from a major network, cable show or even modestly popular podcast doesn't put a mike in your face and ask you silly questions well then, you just aren't trying hard enough. Ballrooms and bars will become makeshift studios and satellite dishes will sprout like mushroom cops across “the good land” as more than one talking head will remind viewers/listeners that Milwaukee elected not one but THREE Socialist mayors, serving the Republicans a ginormous morsel of trivia sure to make the heads of Fox News hosts spin at 78 rpm's.Â
The town's never seen a day like today. Seriously. Wahlburgers, the return of the Thunderbirds and for the first time ever, a major political party puts an “X” on the map, making us the home of their 2020 Convention. For some, it'll be an opportunity. For others, it may serve as an inconvenience. As the Legion was leaving town all those years ago one of the group's commanders told the Journal what he liked the most about Milwaukee.. “The fun around town…made the biggest hit with me,” he said. “The reason is that Milwaukee people are so congenial. At no national convention that I have attended before have the natives joined in with so much spirit. Your food is good, and the prices are not too high, but the people are best of all.”
Beers back then didn't cost $12 a pop like they do now at Fiserv but we still have lots of those congenial folks (someone keep an eye on Blue's Egg guy for us, okay?) who love joining a good party with lots of spirit. Our food is still good, and our people remain the best of all.Â
As we've said in this space many times, many ways, things aren't always red or blue. They're more often than not green. Regardless of your political tilt, the cash will flow 16 months from now and for that alone, we should all be glad.Â
Race you to Wahlburgers?
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