Every week on Urban Spelunking , Radio Milwaukee’s Nate Imig and OnMilwaukee’s Bobby Tanzilo dig into the buildings and architectural features that help retain the city’s sense of history while it builds for the future.
This week’s episode is a bit different. Normally we “spelunk” buildings or places, but this week we talk all about streets. Not the oldest or the longest. The shortest. More specifically, where are the shortest streets in Milwaukee?
Bobby had been quietly working a solo mission to answer this question definitively. But when he decided to move ahead and publish a story, he turned to a certified expert: City of Milwaukee Central Drafting and Records Manager Yance Marti.
In this episode, Bobby tells me about his collaborative research with Marti, the assumptions that proved to be untrue, the specific criteria they used and what exactly constitutes a street (hint: alleys don’t count, and it needs a sign).
The shortest one on the list measures only 48 feet, with No. 10 coming in at a whopping 212 feet by comparison. Learn a little about them by listening to the podcast below. Then, when you’re ready for a longer (ha) read, visit OnMilwaukee for more pictures and history.
