In February, the Common Council voted to rename six blocks of Old World 3rd Street in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King. The renaming ceremony is set for Monday, Jan. 17.
The event will be held at King Drive and Wisconsin Avenue that same day at noon.
A reception will follow at 310W, 310 W. Wisconsin Ave.
In 1984, 3rd Street north of McKinley Avenue was named in honor of King, but business owners and others lobbied to rename the street from McKinley south to the then-relatively new Grand Avenue Mall in recognition of the area's German heritage and atmosphere.
Thus was Old World 3rd Street born.
The motion to rename the street passed the Common Council with a unanimous 15-0 vote and Mayor Tom Barrett signed it into law.
The renaming ceremony takes place on the official observance day of King's birthday. King was born Jan. 15, 1929.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
