“Mayfair a cultural crossroads - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel” plus 1 more |
| Mayfair a cultural crossroads - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Posted: 08 Jan 2011 08:52 PM PST | Wauwatosa — From the beginning, Mayfair Mall mattered. Built at a pivotal crossroads, easily accessed by public and private transportation, stuffed with luxurious stores and goods, the shopping center conjured up a symbol of mid-20th century wealth. "Mayfair is a reflection of the new way we live," said the advertisement heralding the shopping center's grand opening, Oct. 9, 1958. "It is suburban and informal, elegant in a town-and-country way . . . blending the spacious grandeur of the country with that special excitement of the city." They sure got that right. Mayfair sits at the corner of aspiration and reality in the Milwaukee metropolitan area. It is the region's great gathering place, Milwaukee's main street. When things go right at the upscale mall, which is most of the time, the food court is jammed and store registers hum. Up to 16 million people annually trek to the state's busiest shopping mall, which opens as early as 6 a.m. to accommodate exercise walkers and shuts down around midnight when the last movie ends. But, on the occasion when things go wrong, as happened a week ago when scores of disruptive teens raced through the mall, Mayfair becomes an unwitting symbol of a fractured society. "We don't have turnstiles. We don't have a checkpoint. You don't buy a ticket to come here," said Steve Smith, the mall's senior general manager. "We are Milwaukee's melting pot," Smith added. In many ways, Mayfair is the demographic heart of the region, the pinpoint where black and white, rich and poor, young and old, mix on equal terms. And in this area that can be a rare occurrence. Milwaukee remains one of the most racially segregated large metropolitan areas in the country, according to a recent Brookings Institution study of America's neighborhoods. Five years ago, local attorney Dennis R. McBride weighed in on the issues at Mayfair in the Journal Sentinel and wrote: "Mayfair Road has become the crossroads of a metropolitan area that is paying the price for a history of institutionalized racism and for a breakdown in personal responsibility. "Obviously, some people, of all races, don't know how to behave. The rest of us, of all races, don't want to be their victims." McBride, now a Wauwatosa alderman, said the incident of Jan. 2 - a Sunday - doesn't strike him as the type that has bedeviled the mall in the past. In 2007, the mall instituted a parental guidance required (PGR) policy for teens. Those under 17 must be accompanied by a parent or a supervising adult over age 21 on Fridays, Saturdays and now Sundays after 3 p.m."Goodness and badness don't come in colors - they come in packages called human beings," McBride told a reporter. "We need to look at the fact that these kids are not being well-supervised by their parents. There was a breakdown in personal responsibility and parental responsibility. Too often, shopping malls have been asked to be baby sitters. Shopping malls are not baby sitters - they're in the business to sell things." McBride said Mayfair Mall remains well-run and is a vital asset to Wauwatosa and the wider metropolitan area. Westward developmentMayfair's location in the heart of the metropolitan area didn't happen by accident. It was the result of careful planning by the shopping center's developers, who initiated $75,000 in surveys before turning a shovelful of dirt, transforming an area known mostly for an old lover's lane into a bustling commercial precinct. At Highway 100 and W. North Ave., Mayfair was at the center of the change that was to transform Milwaukee, as people and businesses pushed west into the suburbs. "It was a crossroads right then," said Phil Akwa, a civil engineer who shepherded the construction project from July 1956 to the October 1958 opening. "They were building the freeways out there." Akwa, now retired and living in California, said the original open-air Mayfair shopping center had a few unique design ingredients, including a service tunnel for store deliveries and central heat and air conditioning. The project cost around $20 million, or $20 a square foot. "People said, 'You're crazy, you'll go broke,' " Akwa said. "Now, you can't build a strip mall for $20 a square foot." Akwa, who as kid delivered newspapers inside Plankinton Arcade in Milwaukee, said he and others didn't realize the full impact suburban shopping centers would have on older, downtown shopping areas. "I don't think anyone had an inkling what was going to happen," he said. Milwaukee's busiest shopping district ended up at Mayfair, nearly 10 miles northwest of the central city. In many ways, that's why what happens at Mayfair takes on extraordinary importance in the wider metropolitan area - everyone ends up having a stake in the health of a village square. Friday afternoon, all was right with the world at Mayfair. The parking lots were full, the shops busy, mood music providing pleasant background noise as people carrying shopping bags paced the mall walkways. "Mayfair is a great mall," said Lisa Grant, a Milwaukee resident. "I think they're doing a good job with security. As long as they keep tight security on everything, it will all go well." Angela Fortune, also of Milwaukee, said blame for the most recent incident lies with the kids. "I think it's crazy, uncalled for," she said. "You don't want to shop somewhere if it's not safe." Adam Williams and his fiancée, Ashley Walz, both from Watertown, were out on a shopping date and strolling through the mall. "I've never been here for one of the incidents," Williams said. "It's hard to relate. Of course, every time it happens, they tighten up security and then they don't have an incident for five years. Brian Kescenovitz of Pewaukee and his 4-year-old daughter, Teresa, were at the mall to pick up a present. Kescenovitz worries that negative perceptions about Mayfair could affect the mall's future. "If they can't change the perception that there are problems here, people will go elsewhere," he said. "I don't think there is danger." But Kescenovitz said he remembers what happened to Northridge, a mall he frequented as a kid but which later shut down. "It killed me when Northridge died," he said. "There is still that skeleton sitting there." Joan Metz, a longtime Wauwatosa resident, said Mayfair remains vital, friendly and safe. "It's here, it's pleasant, it's clean," she said. Mayfair is her mall and she's not about to give it up. "Nothing will keep me from here," she said. "When you start to be afraid to go anywhere, that's when you give up." 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| Posted: 06 Jan 2011 06:28 AM PST
sns-ap-eu-france-michael-caine PARIS (AP) — Michael Caine, already a British knight, is now a French commander too. France's culture minister made the 77-year-old actor a commander of Arts and Letters, the highest rank in the French cultural order, in a ceremony Thursday. Caine told The Associated Press in a mix of French and English that he fell in love with France in his youth and getting this award was like being recognized by his "fiancee." Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand called Caine "a giant" of the acting profession. Caine has been one of Britain's most popular and accomplished actors for decades. He won best supporting actor Oscars in 2000 for "The Cider House Rules" and in 1987 for "Hannah and Her Sisters." He received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 2000. Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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