I know I'm a grammar snob, but one word (which should be two), totally drives me crazy: when people who should know better spell "Bay View" as "Bayview."
I see it all the time: on the Actaea Works billboard on the corner of Oklahoma and Chase Avenues, on bumper stickers and on return addresses. Most disturbingly, it even graces the purple banners that hang from street lights in the neighborhood. Please tell whoever spell checked these things: Bay View is most definitely two words.
Come on. Is it too much to ask that you know how to spell the neighborhood in which you live? You don't see people splitting "River West," or mashing together "Elmgrove" or "Riverhills." Are people lazy or have they stopped caring all together?
Which brings up an even bigger pet peeve about my charming neighborhood, which I prefer to call "Milwaukee's Other East Side." Bay View isn't a city. That means addressing an envelope with "Bay View, WI 53207" is completely wrong. That's akin to writing your return address as "North Shore, WI 53217." Think about how snotty -- and ignorant -- that would look.
Bay View is a neighborhood, with rough and unofficial boundaries, in the City of Milwaukee. It used to be its own village, but was annexed by Milwaukee in 1887. I know Milwaukeeans don't like change, but I highly doubt even the most elderly business owners on Kinnickinnic Avenue, ordering business cards, are more than 120 years old.
I've heard a few reasons for people insisting that they live in "Bay View, Wis." and some seem innocuous enough. They cite neighborhood pride, and that's just fine, but then tell people you live in Bay View, but get your address right. You pay City of Milwaukee taxes, so you might as well know your correct mailing address.
The most nefarious excuse I've heard comes from people who don't want to associate their homes with the City of Milwaukee, because it's just a little too "urban." And if that's the case, it's just plain old racist and is simply despicable. Pretending you don't live in Milwaukee doesn't change anything, and truthfully, Bay View is one of the more diverse neighborhoods I've lived in (in Wisconsin, anyway).
So take pride, or don't -- that's up to you. But at least spell the name of your neighborhood correctly, Bay View. And don't forget that above and beyond all, this great community is part of the even greater City of Milwaukee.
Grammar snob or not, you owe it to yourself to know where you live.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
