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    In Milwaukee Buzz
    The 100 ugliest things in Milwaukee
    According to the North American Vexillological Association, Milwaukee's flag is one of the five worst in the nation.
    By OnMilwaukee.com Staff Writers

    Published Aug. 28, 2008 at 5:53 a.m.
    Tags: ugliest things, 100 things, bronze fonz, blight, prospect mall, zubas, kohl's

    As much as we love Milwaukee, it's true, there are a few less than stunning sights. After careful consideration, we've compiled a list of places, ideas and events (in no particular order) that certainly create a "Milwaukee style" but perhaps could use slight improvement.

    Note there aren't any people on this list; all in all, we think the citizens of this city are exactly what make it great. Milwaukee may be bringing sexy back, but we took a look at our architecture, style and development -- and found a mild makeover may be in order.

    We expect a few of our choices to fall under collective agreement, but realize just like beauty, ugly is in the eye of the beholder (Mark di Suvero's Downtown orange sculpture "The Calling" is one of our favorites), and so surely the list is up for debate.

    Finally, yes, we're kidding a little, too, so don't take this list too seriously. But do feel free to chime in with your affirmations or objections using the Talkback feature below.

    1. Abandoned Tower Automotive site
    2. Increasingly decrepit and vacant Prospect Mall
    3. Hillside Housing Project
    4. Flat tire-inducing unfilled potholes
    5. Vince Condella's hats
    6. The 20 blocks of vacant buildings on west North Avenue
    7. Our inferiority complex with Chicago
    8. The funk smell in Fuel before it went non-smoking
    9. The 100 E. Wisconsin Avenue building
    10. Acapulco Restaurant's rubble
    11. Beer guts
    12. Racial segregation
    13. The "America's Drunkest City" stereotype
    14. Bronze Fonz (we love it, but it's ugly)
    15. Jones Island MMSD
    16. The Pfister Hotel tower
    17. The heavy Wisconsin accent
    18. MacArthur Square
    19. The smells rising from Wisconsin Paperboard
    20. WISN-12 headquarters (the building, not the news product)
    21. General Mitchell International Airport
    22. That parking garage near MATC
    23. 770 N. Jefferson St. (but it's getting better)
    24. The algae on Lake Michigan
    25. Sloppy, illegible graffiti tagging
    26. The Greek Annunciation Church
    27. John Marshall High School
    28. The outdated blue, swirly "M" on DPW trucks
    29. Just about every building at State Fair
    30. The Marcus Amphitheater
    31. The City of Milwaukee's flag
    32. Plaza-Plaza strip mall on Brown Deer Road
    33. Timmermann Field
    34. The increasing crime in and around UWM
    35. Zubaz in public (especially in Packers colors)
    36. The stench wafting from the Zoo's penguin exhibit
    37. The Rave's acoustics
    38. Mustaches (including ironic ones)
    39. Garbage perpetually rolling down Holton Street
    40. Bernie's condo at Miller Park
    41. The rust stain on Miller Park's retractable roof
    42. The abandoned grain hopper on National Avenue
    43. Colorful "art sculpture" in the median along East Capitol Drive
    44. The "cheese grater" Bay View Terrace tower in Bay View
    45. Downtown's Main Post Office
    46. FOX 6 anchor Brad Hicks' ties
    47. Mark Belling's and Mike McGee, Sr.'s arrogance on-air
    48. The Summerfest administration building
    49. The former and still too vacant Pabst Brewing complex
    50. Some of the Milwaukee Riverwalk art
    51. The Milwaukee River
    52. The 9 p.m. cut-off time for buying liquor
    53. The Shops of Grand Avenue
    54. The UWM Union
    55. Old Kohl's food stores
    56. The cylindrical "senior silo" apartments on Locust Street
    57. Dead alewives on the beach
    58. Jalisco's Mexican Cantina
    59. The scads of surface parking lots Downtown
    60. The empty dirt lots in Park East Corridor (can we at least get some grass?)
    61. Curtin Hall at UWM
    62. The empty MKE newspaper boxes still on street corners
    63. The abandoned grain silos near Summerfest grounds
    64. The exterior scoreboard outside Miller Park
    65. Scott Walker vs. the County Board
    66. Visible "back boobs" at festivals
    67. Reuss Federal Building
    68. Journal Sentinel building
    69. New "Bruegger's building" on Prospect and North
    70. The "burnt toast" smell wafting from Alterra when roasting
    71. The smell at Grede Foundry
    72. Opposition to modern transporation and rail systems
    73. The Bradley Center (exterior)
    74. DMV emission testing centers
    75. The Landmark's bathrooms at 2:30 a.m.
    76. Mullets
    77. Excessive parking tickets
    78. Inability to read LUKE, the new parking meters, on a sunny day
    79. Traffic on I-94 when the Cubs play the Brewers
    80. The huge salt pile below the Hoan Bridge
    81. Our high rate of drinking and driving
    82. The price of a movie at the IPic Theater
    83. View of the new Marquette Interchange from below
    84. The brutal winter of 2007-'08
    85. Our connection to Jeffrey Dahmer
    86. The Hyatt Regency Milwaukee (although a remodel is happening)
    87. UWM students vs. area neighbors
    88. The sight of "a floater" in one of the county pools
    89. Your wallet after filling up the tank with gasoline
    90. The new development on Downer Avenue
    91. The Midwest Airlines Center
    92. The continuous Bon Jovi covers at State Fair
    93. The 40-mph speed limit on Lincoln Memorial Parkway
    94. Zebra mussels in the lake
    95. Most of the houses in Riverwest
    96. Sunday morning puke on Water Street
    97. The boarded up, once beautiful Grand and Avalon Theaters.
    98. Many basements after the June rainstorms
    99. "The Ladybug building" at 618 N. Water St.
    100. "The OnMilwaukee.com building" (yes, it is a little too '60s)

    35 comments about this article.
    Post a comment / write a review.

    Recent Talkbacks ...

    Posted by bdsace42 on April 5, 2009 at 1:17 p.m. (report)

    I left Milwaukee for good in 1984....as most people do, I retain only the fond memories of the City on the Lake. Thank you for helping me remember why I left. The dark grey sky of the Milwaukee horizon looking east down Good Hope Road still gives me chills. Maybe I'm photophilic, but how do you live without the sun?

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    Posted by cynthadeltorro on Feb. 9, 2009 at 4:38 p.m. (report)

    Some of this seems a little snarky. But then I'm overweight, probably have sported "back boobs" and my boyfriend has a mustache. Maybe there's another online magazine for the not-so-beautiful people of Milwaukee?

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    Posted by i900witch on Oct. 22, 2008 at 6:20 p.m. (report)

    And what about the Mitchell Domes? I did not get the chance to read all of the comments so I may be a bit redundant by the post. And the last thing I would have considered to be among the ugliest this is the cobble stone street on old world 3rd street, It may be "old world" but it is not great on the shock absorbers....

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    Posted by zcmack on Aug. 29, 2008 at 2:43 p.m. (report)

    the comment about the landmark's bathroom is spot on! love the bars. hate the bathroom.

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    Posted by johnnyhep on Aug. 29, 2008 at 1:04 p.m. (report)

    Some of the items on the list are just cheep shots (mullets, beer guts, Wisconsin accent). It takes all kinds, and not everyone lives a downtown metro/urban lifestyle.

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    Show me the other 30 Talkbacks


    Reader Poll
    Would you rather suffer through a December of sub-zero temperatures and blizzards or a first-round playoff loss at the hands of Brett Favre?
    I'll take the Ice Age and a Packers win.
    I'd rather see the Packers lose to Favre so I can stay warm.
    This is like choosing the least painful way to die.

    Results after 30 votes.

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