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