Milwaukee builds on Bucks' future
MILWAUKEE -- There's a new brew on tap in Milwaukee. Chinese import Yi Jianlian has become a rookie starter for the Milwaukee Bucks. He is the NBA's second Chinese sensation after Yao Ming.
Since Yi's arrival, Bucks games are being broadcast in China. The Bucks Web site, www.nba.com/bucks, features an all-Chinese page. Eight to 10 reporters from China cover the Bucks on a regular basis.
The 7-foot-6-inch Yi (pronounced ee) hasn't yet figured out his favorite Chinese restaurant in Milwaukee. (He should check out the Volcano Chicken served with a big fire at Thai Lotus, 3800 W. National Ave.) His influence, however, is helping bring change to downtown.
A block away from the Bucks' downtown Bradley Center visitors can choose between the 106-year-old Mader's German restaurant, 1041 N. Old World Third St., and the newer Asian Mart, 1125 N. Old World Third St.
The old world is becoming the new world.
Next year construction will begin on the downtown Milwaukee International Trade Center, a component of the Brewery development at the former Pabst Brewery site. The two-story trade center will offer space to as many as 80 Asian businesses. Think of it as a Merchandise
MILWAUKEE -- One of my favorite things about Milwaukee is its complete lack of pretense.
The Milwaukee Brewers baseball team is the only professional sports franchise named after booze. Locals were drinking Pabst and Schlitz long before they were ironic.
And now the city is planning to erect a downtown statue of Fonzie.
After all, Chicago has a Bob Newhart statue on Navy Pier.
The bronze Fonz will be erected this summer along the downtown River Walk to commemorate Milwaukee as the location for the hit televsion series "Happy Days."
Actor Henry Winkler, who portrayed "the Fonz," visited Milwaukee last month after the $85,000 private fund-raising effort for the bronze statue was completed. He approved of the statue design. In the pre-punk attitude of "the Fonz," he also told critics to chill. "Artists at their core are rebels," Winkler told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal. "And if they don't like the statue, I hope they enjoy a great bowl of pasta."
Dave Fantle, vice president of public relations at VISIT Milwaukee, won't give away many details.
"Suffice to say it will be a classic Fonzie thumbs-up pose with the classic leather jacket. It will be a photo op. The point of it is to get more people walking and circulating downtown. It's a foolproof fun attraction."
What's next? A Penny Marshall statue for the Milwaukee-based TV comedy "Laverne and Shirley"?
"People are talking about it," Fantle said. "Let's get this one dedicated first."
Dave Hoekstra