Some of the most lucid economic development words I’ve read in weeks came to me today while I was skimming Milwaukee Magazine (12Mar06):
“We need to stop defending things that we aren’t and instead get out there and manifest more of the things we are. I’m 5-foot-10. It’s like somebody who’s 6-foot coming up to me and saying, ‘You’re shorter than I am.’ Well, I can either stand on my toes and say, ‘No, I’m not,’ or I can say ‘Yes, that’s a fact. I’m also younger than you are, I have more hair than you do, I can do the two-step.’ And that’s what we need to do in Milwaukee. We need to be telling people all the things we are rather than defending all the things people think we’re not.”
Who said this? Peter Mortenson, concierge at the Pfister Hotel. He went on to say, “We’re sitting here in what was, a hundred years ago, referred to as the machine shop of the world - it was the equivalent of Silicon Valley. But Milwaukee was also known as the Athens of the West because of the cultural life here. I think on some level, we have ourselves to blame for not nurturing that sense of self.”
Peter, here’s to you. I hope you run for Mayor someday.
