I read in Saturday's paper that Southeastern Wisconsin is on the hook for yet another sports palace, built to satisfy the seemingly insatiable greed of the super-rich. Frankly, I don't care if Herb Kohl puts in 95%--replacing the perfectly good Bradley Center is an obscene waste of money. Businesses who fled the county long ago want a facility to entertain business clients. Let them pay for it and put it in Waukesha. Or let them move the franchise. Frankly, I'm still getting used to the Bradley. I prefer the U.S. Cellular Arena!
I think it would be wonderful if the current political and economic environment would lead the community to refuse the cycle of extortion this time around. What value would a replacement for the Bradley Center add to Downtown? The Bradley is never open to the public without a ticket, as far as I know. As much as I've seen firsthand of Sen. Kohl, he doesn't throw away perfectly good clothes just because they're 25 years old. He should pretend the Bradley Center is his personal property.
As Kohl knows, Milwaukee-area residents get fleeced from many sides. The cost of housing is artificially high, as is the cost of groceries. The inability of government and policymakers to do anything effective about central city crime and poverty ends up being a huge tax in its own right on county residents. Someone in the public sphere really needs to start calling this stuff out for what it is.
