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Faces of the Lakefront: Milwaukee's Melting Pot

Sociologist and urban ethnographer Elijah Anderson calls places where cultures converge “cosmopolitan canopies.” Lake Effect’s Maayan Silver spent some time in one place that might fit the definition here in Milwaukee - the lakefront - and spoke with a variety of people about what the space means to them:

Credit Maayan Silver
Danielle Friends sits by the playground at McKinley Beach.

"You get different cultures down here. Everybody is just down doing their own thing, and everybody respects everybody, and I like that." --Danielle Friends

Credit Maayan Silver
Ammar Haq and Namrah Mirza Haq

"If you walk by someone, they'll smile at you and say hi. I think that's even a little different than the Chicago lakefront...because of the calm environment that kind of seeps into everyone's demeanor, and you can see that." --Namrah Mirza-Haq

"There's less a feeling of 'otherness.' Not being white, not being from Wisconsin, not being Christian, I feel just as welcome here as I would in Chicago." --Ammar Haq

Credit Maayan Silver
Brooklyn Stuart (L) and Kerby Fink (R) at McKinley Beach

"I definitely feel like everyone here is at least accepting of each other, and to me that's the first step of really being able to start talking to other people." --Brooklyn Stuart

Credit Maayan Silver
David Jefferson (L) and Rickie Davis II (R).

"It's like a wonderful, I guess you could say, rainbow in a way. Every culture, race, ethnicity. It's just a fun atmosphere to be around." --David Jefferson

Maayan is a WUWM news reporter.