Bubbler Talk

Earlier this summer about a thousand Shorewood residents tried to protect a historic home from being torn down. Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele bought the Eschweiler mansion last year and maintained that it had to be razed because of poor conditions.

On the corner of Cambridge Avenue and Hampshire Avenue on Milwaukee’s east side, there’s a home that stands out.

If you’ve ever driven down South 27 Street in Franklin, Wis., you know there are a lot of motels there. El Rancho, the Knotty Pine, Sunrise, Modern 41, Embassy, the Oakwood and the list goes on and on. My count: 10 within a 2-mile drive, which takes about three minutes.

Like many cities, Milwaukee once was home to a number of "movie palaces" — places where the surroundings were nearly as much of a draw as what was playing on the screen.

Editor's note: This piece was originally published April 6, 2018.

Bay View resident Stacy Dent often drives over the Hoan Bridge, looks down at the Lake Express ferry, and wonders... who rides that?

Editor's note: This post was originally published Feb. 17, 2017.

Whether you’re driving or walking east on Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Milwaukee, as you approach the lake bluff, you'll see a bright orange sculpture. It’s hard to miss.

It's fitting that Fox Point resident Trish Mousseau reached out to Bubbler Talk — our series that answers your questions about Milwaukee and the region — with a question about bubblers.

In the file of "truth is stranger than fiction," the Milwaukee downtown library was once home to a lion cub. While it seems fantastical, he lived there back when the library shared a building with the Milwaukee Public Museum.

The Washington Highlands neighborhood consists of 375 beautiful, large houses arrayed over 133 acres on the eastern edge of Wauwatosa, between 68th and 60th Streets. If you're not familiar with the Highlands, I think we can – with impunity – call it the "high rent district."

The practice of designating green space, especially for dogs to romp freely, have become more and more popular. But one dog park in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood has some questioning the safety of the ground where their dogs frolic.

Editor's note: This piece was originally published June 24, 2016. As thousands of delegates, reporters and other visitors prepare to descend on Milwaukee for the 2020 Democratic National Convention, many might be intrigued by the city's interesting political history. The piece includes portions of an interview with Anita Zeidler, who has since passed away.

On one of the busiest intersections of Milwaukee's east side, sits a tiny food stand on the corner of a parking lot. The sign simply reads "The Drive-Thru."

One of Milwaukee's favorite treats is the cruller doughnut — or you may know it as a kruller or crawler, but we'll get into that in a bit. After getting a couple of questions from community members about the Milwaukee doughnut staple, we decided to dig into the history of crullers and explore a bakery known for them.

Our Bubbler Talk question this week is one after my own heart. Tim Brever in Oak Creek wrote to Bubbler Talk — our series that answers your questions about Milwaukee and the region:

Bubbler Talk — our series that answers your questions about Milwaukee and the region — gets a lot of questions about street numbering and street names. Not too long ago, Mike Zabel submitted a question about Lovers Lane Road on Milwaukee’s far northwest side.

You may have heard of one of the world's fastest-growing refugee crises: the Rohingya exodus out of Myanmar, the Southeast Asian country also known as Burma.

Have you ever had a question that just won't go away? Milwaukee-native Ross Kuesel has been dazzled by a Milwaukee home's looming presence his whole life. So, he reached out to Bubbler Talk — our series that answers your questions about Milwaukee and the region.

Milwaukee City Hall was completed in 1895. But if you've seen the building over the years, it may seem like it's been under constant construction. So, let's look at the work that's been done on City Hall and what's still in store.

When Milwaukeeans hear the name Solomon Juneau it likely rings a few bells. He was a founding father of Milwaukee and the city's first mayor. However, Juneau’s name also belongs to a tugboat docked year-round near the Michigan Street bridge downtown.

For this week’s Bubbler Talk — our series where you ask, we investigate and together we unveil the answers — we’re waiting for a sign, or rather reading signs.

Wisconsin boasts one of the largest German populations in the country, and in the early 1900s, Milwaukee was considered one of the most German cities in America. "Milwaukee was known as the Midwest Munich," Steve Schaffer says. "It was, ya know, a German town."

For this week’s Bubbler Talk — our series where you ask, we investigate and together we unveil the answers — we look at church festivals in Milwaukee and why we love them. This all started with a question from curious community member Miguel Rivera.

Northridge Mall was one of several large suburban malls built in the 1960s and '70s. It was at the far northwestern edge of Milwaukee — at 76th Street and Brown Deer Road. But the glory days didn’t last. The mall closed 15 years ago and has gone into extended limbo.