Milwaukee, WI
Outside the RNC, small Milwaukee businesses and their regulars tried to salvage a sluggish week
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Jay Nelson was standing outside the convenience store he manages in downtown Milwaukee when one of his regular customers walked by on her daily stroll around the neighborhood.
“I’ve been telling people to come and buy even just a bottle of wine,” she said, stretching out her arms. “I hope it helps.”
Pulling her in for a hug, Nelson said they needed all the help they could get.
The store he has managed for nearly a decade, Downtown Market & Smoke Shop, was among the many businesses sealed off by tall metal fencing for the 2024 Republican National Convention, a sprawling footprint that shut down portions of the city’s downtown for more than a week.
For small businesses like Downtown Market, the RNC didn’t deliver a decisive victory, instead hindering sales despite earlier promises that it would bring an economic boost.
“I want you to take all your money to Milwaukee, spend it that week, and leave it in Milwaukee,” Mayor Cavalier Johnson said two years ago at the RNC’s summer meeting where it was announced that the city would host the GOP’s national convention.
But Samir Saddique, owner of Downtown Market and the neighboring Avenue Liquor, said the convention brought “a lot of nothing.” Traffic and sales took a nose dive soon after the fencing went up in front of the stores. By Thursday, the RNC’s final day, the liquor store had made just 10% of its usual sales, he said.
“We’re barricaded away from the rest of the world,” Saddique said.
Claire Koenig, a spokesperson for Visit Milwaukee, which promotes the city as a tourism destination, said economic impact reports will likely take three months to compile.
Across the Milwaukee River, which marked the eastern edge of the RNC secure zone, just one seat was taken at the bar inside Elwood’s Liquor & Tap during their Wednesday happy hour, which is usually a reliably busy night for the red-booth bar near Fiserv Forum where the convention’s main stage was housed.
“Everybody was promised that this was going to be a giant moneymaker for businesses,” bar manager Sam Chung, 30, said. “So it’s strange seeing how much it’s actually killed business for a lot of people outside the perimeter.”
Even their most loyal customers hadn’t stopped by this week, Chung said.
“They don’t even want to come down here because it’s obviously a mess to get here,” she said, adding that she thought “a big part of it is that a lot of our regulars are Democrats.”
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Milwaukee is the deepest blue city in Wisconsin, a key swing state.
Adam Buker, a 21-year-old barista at a coffee shop near one of the convention’s exits, which leads attendees onto a wide-open street, said that all week he had been playing music by queer artists as his own protest.
Yet the door kept swinging open at Canary Coffee Bar.
“It 100% has to do with our location,” Buker said Thursday as he packed espresso grounds for a cortado, with a Frank Ocean track playing in the background.
Though it was outside the secure zone, the cafe’s glass storefront and buttery yellow sidewalk seating weren’t obstructed by the fencing like Saddique’s liquor and convenience stores were. RNC attendees also didn’t have to cross the river to get to the coffee shop, unlike Elwood’s.
After closing this week, Buker said he had been spending his cash tips at some of the struggling bars around the convention’s perimeter.
“From one service worker to another,” he said. “Spread the love.”
As Buker’s final shift during RNC week was coming to an end Thursday evening, a last-minute party outside Saddique’s convenience store was just underway. Saddique and Nelson, the manager, hoped catered tacos and ice-cold green tea flowing from orange coolers would bring customers into the stores that have been open for 20-plus years, surviving a recession and a global pandemic.
Debra Lampe-Revolinski, who has lived in the building adjacent to Saddique’s businesses for 15 of those years, said she pitched the idea for the party earlier in the week, when she realized the expected boost in business would not materialize for her friends.
She knew Saddique and Nelson went to great lengths preparing for the RNC, having seen them hard at work for weeks while they remodeled parts of the stores, she said.
“And then there was just this deflation because the stores were blocked out by those tall metal fences,” she said. “It was so uninviting.”
By the time Trump took center stage Thursday to formally accept the GOP nomination, Lampe-Revolinski said the party, originally aimed at bringing in business, instead had turned into a celebration of surviving the week.
“If anything, this week strengthened our little community on this block to support its local businesses,” she said.
___
Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed from Madison, Wisconsin.
Milwaukee, WI
Judge sentences Milwaukee rapper to 40 years in crash that killed pregnant Shorewood woman
Kia Boyz YouTube video driving dangerously around Milwaukee goes viral
Milwaukee YouTuber “Tommy G” recorded a group known as the Kia Boyz while they engaged in reckless driving with stolen cars. This video contains excerpts from the original Kia Boyz YouTube video.
Lou Saldivar, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
A Milwaukee rapper is going to prison for 40 years in connection with a crash last year that killed a pregnant Shorewood woman.
Frank Mosley Jr.’s mother fainted in the courtroom as Circuit Court Judge David Swanson handed down the sentence against him on Thursday afternoon.
Mosley, 21, of Milwaukee, was convicted in September of multiple felonies in the Nov. 2, 2023, crash in Milwaukee that took the lives of Erin Mogensen and her unborn child.
Mogensen was two months pregnant at the time of the crash, which occurred on the day of her fourth wedding anniversary.
“All her dreams were about to come true until she crossed paths with evil,” her father Mark Hagen said, calling Mosley “an extreme danger to society.” “Her killer should have been in jail. He was the one who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, not Erin.”
Prosecutors said Mosley, a rapper known locally as Lil Frank, led police on a chase that began in Wauwatosa for not having a license plate. The fleeing vehicle at one point hit speeds of 116 mph before police called off the pursuit.
Moments later, the officer came upon a crash scene between the BMW and a Toyota at Capitol and North 100th Street in Milwaukee. Mogensen, 32, was at the wheel of the Toyota.
In court, Mosley apologized to Mogensen’s family, and took responsibility for the crash, but asserted it was an accident. Swanson said although Mosley didn’t intend to hit anyone, he made the choice to drive a car “at an absurdly high speed.”
“If you didn’t hit Mrs. Mogensen, you could have hit someone else,” the judge said.
Mosley also was ordered to serve 10 years of extended supervision when he is released from prison.
This is a developing story. Stay with jsonline.com for updates.
Drone view: Winter wonderland from the snow in the Milwaukee area
Check out a drone view of the winter wonderland from Thursday’s snow around the Milwaukee area.
As Milwaukee sees its first snowfall of the season Thursday morning, you should brace for some tricky road conditions on your morning commute.
Two to four inches of wet, heavy snow is possible in the Milwaukee area, making for a “messy morning commute,” the National Weather Service Milwaukee wrote on X. Motorists should drive slowly and with caution throughout the morning, NWS said.
Here’s what to plan ahead for if you’re commuting in Milwaukee on Thursday.
What are the road conditions in and around Milwaukee this morning?
As of 8:15 a.m. Thursday, all of Milwaukee and its surrounding areas — including Interstates 41, 43 and 94 — were seeing “slippery stretches,” according to 511 Wisconsin. Several highways are also seeing one or more lanes blocked due to crashes or stalled vehicles.
If you’re traveling on I-94 this morning, NWS wrote on X that conditions south of the I-94 corridor, especially between Milwaukee and Madison, would “quickly deteriorate” as snow continues.
In affected areas, drivers should plan for slushy snow accumulation and low visibility on the roads, NWS said.
Accidents reported in Milwaukee on Thursday morning
As of 8:15 a.m. Thursday, several crashes or incidents have been reported in Milwaukee that could affect traffic, 511 Wisconsin reported:
- 7:49 a.m. – I-794 West 1.3 miles beyond the ramp from Carferry Road. The center lane is blocked due to a crash.
- 7:44 a.m. – I-43 South at ramp from Wisconsin Avenue. The left shoulder is blocked due to a crash.
- 7:50 a.m. – Ramp from I-94 East to I-43/94 South. Shoulders are closed due to a disabled vehicle.
- 7:51 a.m. – I-794 West at Michigan Street. The right shoulder is blocked due to a disabled vehicle.
- 7:52 a.m. – I-43 South at I-794 East. The center lane is blocked due to a crash.
- 7:57 a.m. – I-43/94 North at Ramp from 6th and Mineral Street. The center lane is blocked due to a disabled vehicle.
Accidents reported in Milwaukee suburbs on Thursday morning
- 7:15 a.m. – Disabled vehicle on ramp from Burleigh Street to I-41/US 45 North.
- 7:22 a.m. – I-94 West 1.3 miles beyond the ramp from Highway 100. The right shoulder is blocked due to a crash.
- 7:23 a.m. – I-43 North at Hampton Avenue East. The left shoulder is blocked due to a crash.
- 7:37 a.m. – I-94 West at ramp from Moreland Boulevard East. The right shoulder is blocked due to a crash.
- 7:42 a.m. – Highway 38 South at Air Cargo Way (by the Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport). The right lane is closed due to a crash.
- 7:52 a.m. – I-41/894 South 0.3 miles beyond the ramp from National Avenue. The right shoulder is blocked due to a disabled vehicle.
- 7:54 a.m. – Ramp from I-94 West to I-41/US 45 North. The right shoulder is blocked due to a disabled vehicle.
- 8:05 a.m. – I-41/US 45 North at North Avenue. The 3 right lanes are blocked due to a disabled vehicle.
To look up road conditions on your morning commute, check out 511 Wisconsin’s live map.
Winter Weather Advisory
from THU 6:00 AM CST until THU 12:00 PM CST, Racine County, Sheboygan County, Dodge County, Ozaukee County, Washington County, Milwaukee County, Fond Du Lac County, Jefferson County, Waukesha County, Kenosha County, Walworth County
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