My stay in Milwaukee was with Nathaniel and Sean in the Riverwest neighborhood. Great couchsurfing hosts, as well as amazing artists! The other person is the picture is Stephanie (Stefanie, Stephany, spelling???).
The Riverwest neighborhood is great with a food coop, a local bike shop, a local handmade clothing store, good restaurants, etc. I wandered part of the neighborhood with Nathaniel. They were having Power Down Week, where they thought about and lessened their consumption and held various workshops and events. I only made it to the end of the week party where I saw and helped cook in the earthen oven they built and met a bunch of great people.
They have this great race, Riverwest24, a 24-hour bicycle race, with solo riders, tandems and teams. I felt like there was a sense of community there.
Aside from that I met up with Paula (one of the warmshowers hosts from Racine) at the Historic Downer Ave bicycle race and learned about road racing. I really wished that I could have gotten a massage like those bicycle racers.
I volunteered at Growing Power, one of the most well-known urban agriculture projects in the US. It is composed of primarily greenhouses (They are so hot!) with aquaponics, a combination of hydroponics and aquaculture (raising fish). They raise mostly watercress and a bit of tomatoes in the hydroponics. Tilapia is the standard for aquaculture and they have a partnership with the Great Lakes Water Institute to raise lake perch, preserving the population and offering a product without the contaminants. Aside from aquaponics, they grow sunflower sprouts and wheatgrass to raise money for their education programs, and have lots of worm composting. They also have some chickens and turkeys in hoophouses and some goats in a pen. A number of beehives are at the corner of the property. This is all on 2 acres. 31 staff and at the time I visited 10 interns.
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