ocono.com

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of Ocono.com’s predictions for 2009.

There will be no new mall in Pabst Farms in 2009.

The caliber of anchor for the alleged Mall at Pabst Farms has dropped ever toward the mundane as economic times get tighter.

Oconomowoc leaders will face hard realities  regarding the “Shoppes at Pabst Farms” in 2009. They’ve given Developer Peter Bell the legal standing and ability to pretty much drop whatever big box he wants to at the development’s south end, so don’t be surprised when your new mall is anchored by a Kohl’s Department Store and surrounded by a Shopko and a new Taco Bell. With any luck, Oconomowoc will also get a beeper pawn shop and a check-into-cash store. Congratulations, Oconomowoc, your $24 million has bought Beaver Dam in the 1990’s and a gold sign. Good spending.  We’re guessing the 1000-friends of Wisconsin’s proposed Pabst Farms Arboretum doesn’t seem so ridiculous to you all anymore.

That being said, we’re not sure that Oconomowoc really needed the kind of  upper-class hoorahhrahh that was promised by Pabst Developers with tax-payer-funded golden dollar signs in their eyes. We love Oconomowoc, and would hate to see it become one of those uber-plastic shrines to consumerism that so-called upscale shopping centers become. We don’t really need our own “Rain Forest Cafe” in Oconomowoc do we?

Join us tomorrow when we consider what’s in store for Downtown in 2009.

Have you seen Twitter? It’s this weird site that is a cross between a message board, and instant messaging, and something else.

Anyway, Oconomowoc gets mentioned sometimes, like in the “tweet” below (yes, the messages are called “tweets” isn’t that adorable?)

elainepain, we hope this mention on ocono.com is a good substitute for being a track star…

You might think of Brownberry as being this small town, local, home-grown bakery, but it will soon be owned by a Mexican firm named Grupo Bimbo.

According to the Business Journal, the Mexican firm is buying Brownberry bakery:

The baker of Brownberry – and Arnold-brand breads in Oconomowoc will be sold to Mexican bakery giant Grupo Bimbo.

The Oconomowoc bakery’s Toronto-based owner, George Weston Limited, announced Wednesday that its subsidiary, Dunedin Holdings S.à.r.l., has agreed to sell its fresh bread and baked goods business in the United States to Grupo Bimbo for gross and net cash proceeds of approximately $2.5 billion.

These sorts of things happen all the time… so we’ll just hope for the best, that good old Brownberry doesn’t undergo any changes that would affect Oconomowoc in a negative manner.

It’s that time again…. What time? It’s time for another OconomoPhotoWalk!

What the heck is that? Let’s look back a year to the first OconomoPhotoWalk for more info…

What is a Photowalk? “Photowalking is the act of walking with a camera for the main purpose of taking pictures of things you may find interesting.”

This one will take place Sunday November 30, 2008 at 1:00pm. We’ll meet at the Gazebo behind City Hall (plenty of free parking!) And yes, this is a free event, just show up with a camera, meet some new people, and take some photos…

(You can also follow the discussion on Flickr.)

Jane Wiedlin is back in Wisconsin, no, not in Oconomowoc, but a bit west, in Madison…

We’re sure you know, that it’s no secret that we love Jane, and she loves Star Wars, but we’re excited to see she has come back home to Wisconsin. From the article Go-Go’s guitarist and Wisconsin native Jane Wiedlin falls in love, buys a house and whips up a Madison band:

Isthmus: I understand you were born in Oconomowoc. Were you raised there?
Jane Wiedlin: No. We lived in West Allis, and then when I was 6, my dad was an oral surgeon and he got a job at the VA Hospital in Los Angeles, and he packed the whole family and we moved to L.A.

Do you remember a lot about your early years in Wisconsin?
I remember the cold. I remember my brothers and sisters asking me if I wanted to be the princess, and I said, “yes, I want to be the princess!” So they took me outside and they built a chair out of snow and then they put snow on my head, and they said, “You’re the snow princess!” And I think I started crying.

Do you see yourself moving back to L.A., at least part time?
My whole life and my whole career I’ve always felt a little bit different than the people around me, and I never could understand what it was. And now I think it’s because I’m from the Midwest, and I think that makes you different. People here have certain innate values and ways of being that are different from people in other places. I really want to be here now.

Read the whole article, and learn about her new love, and her new band, Lady Robotika. (Personally, I think they should have called the band “Snow Princess” but maybe they can use that for the album title…)

Ok, seriously. Is the coast clear? We haven’t given up, we just don’t want to attract the ire of the local legacy media. We understand the desire to cramp down the innovators when you’re in the throws of a protracted fade into obscurity. It’s cool. We get it. Do you guys know what a “chilling effect” is? You’re soaking in it. Or rather, you were.

So, we pulled our head out of the sand just in time to see that, lo, Trick-or-Treat had snuck up on us! Dang yo!

Oconomowoc’s trick or treat, in case you were wondering, was held with great pomp and circumstance on Sunday, October. 26. Sorry about that. To be fair, it was on the upcoming links on the sidebar.

So how did we celebrate Trick or Treat in Oconomowoc this year?

The publishers of Ocono.com got togther and stood around on the street corner with their families and debated the future of this blog. More on that later this week. Until then, we’ll remind you guys, we love flickr, and if you have pictures of the Oconomowoc Trick or Treat Parade, be sure to submit them to the Oconomowoc Pool.

Showing their continued commitment to the people of Oconomowoc, the Information Technologies Team Employed by the Publishers of the Oconomowoc Enterprise have requested that we take down images supporting a recent story here at Ocono.com.
Although we believe that we are within our fair-use rights to reproduce the article, we have, in the interest of being good neighbors, removed the images in question, both here and at the Flickr.com website where the image was hosted.
We do not believe we committed any wrong-doing, and suggest that by publicly archiving the article, we are, in fact, adding value to the Oconomowoc Enterprise. Additionally, given that at the time of this writing, the Oconomowoc Enterprise has no on-line accessible content, we’re actually doing a community service by preserving this article for future generations. However, we’re not lawyers. And this is a part-time thing for us. This isn’t the hill we want to die on. Frankly, we’re honored that the folks at the Enterprise think so highly of our work.

That’s all we’re going to say about the issue. We consider the situation closed.
We’d suggest that the folks at the Oconomowoc Enterprise might do well to purchase Ocono.com from us in its entirely. You know how to contact us when you’re ready to make an offer.

Congratulations should be given to Donna Frake and Matt Inda, as well as the rest of the Lake Country Publications staff for the hard work that I have no doubt went into producing the “Celebrating Oconomowoc Schools” special section in Aug. 26 edition of the Oconomowoc Focus.

Too often the excellence of our local journalists gets lost in the –albeit well deserved– pomp and circumstance surrounding the news itself. While the opening of the Oconomowoc School District’s new buildings is, in and of itself, a big deal for this community, I know it’s also a big deal on a personal level for Ms. Frake and Mr. Inda. Please congratulate them on a job well done.

Rather than just spooning out another mindless back to school section (something this author is ashamed to admit he’s been guilty of in the past) Lake Country Publications produced a -fantastic- chronicle and keepsake of a very special time in the community’s development. Run out and pick up a copy of this paper while you still can and put it in your cedar chest. It’s a keeper.

A snarky aside: I’d love to link you to the section or the pages, at the Focus’ Website, but I can’t thanks to the Lake Country Publication’s arcane and self-defeating approach to the intertoobs.

Hey Guys! There is some kind of a Festival this weekend. We don’t know anything about that. Honest, we thought oconomowocarts.com was some kind of an awesome go-cart league. We’re sure the Festival is important to Oconomowoc Art Lovers, but for at least one member of the Ocono.com staff, it’s simply a reason to stay as far away from Fowler Park as he can for the weekend.

However, the big news of the week is this clipping from Oconomowoc Enterprise. Not one, not two, but three weasels were removed from some guy’s car engine?!? That’s crazy man. Those weasels have no respect.

Also, you’ve got to love the paraphrase in the second ‘graph of the news story: “Santos said he has never seen anything like it in his 11 years at the dealership.” Talk about understatement. Tell us that if three hell-spawn weasels came screaming out of the crankshaft you just opened you wouldn’t swear a blue streak.

Or maybe we just think that the word Weasel is funny. Weasel. Weasel. Weasel.
Regardless, enjoy the Festival, Friends. We’re getting out of town before we get trapped on the roundabout.

Time to freak out about the roundabout…

Patrick McIlheran of the Journal Sentinel expands in a blog post titled Why they don’t like roundabouts which is a followup to his previous story Details foul a decent idea .

In the post, we hear from Lissa Eske of Oconomowoc, about the new roundabout in progress here:

The intersection in question is one of the busiest pedestrian intersections in Oconomowoc. Many children have to cross it to go to school, it is the main route to parks, shopping, and recreation, including the popular ‘around the lake’ walk. Young children on bicycles, woman with strollers, etc. cross there all the time. In order for a pedestrian to cross at this roundabout they have to walk 14 feet out of the way and back and dodge 4 lanes of traffic that do not stop.

Others have differing opinions… be sure to read the comments to see what people think.