Last fall, we took a trip to Cudahy and went on a high-concept and ultimately ill-advised third-shift bar crawl. The experiment proved to be just as dispiriting as you’d expect, but also strangely enlightening. Sure, Cudahy may be “Milwaukee’s punching bag,” but there’s plenty to like: good people, cheap food, and a small-but-thriving nightlife scene. Trolling bars from 6 a.m. until noon may not be the best way to experience them, but they exist. We walked away with a newfound soft spot for the city Community creator and Greenfield native Dan Harmon once claimed was filled with “assholes, failures, and scapegoats.”
That’s more than we can say for the folks responsible for “West Allis, Wisconsin: Portrait Of A City In Time And Space,” a short video we did not make that seems to find absolutely no redeeming values in Milwaukee’s neighbor to the west. Posted to the Milwaukee subreddit yesterday, the clip is ironically set to the driving disco beat of the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive,” and features an endless parade of low blows and depressing footage. “A city of industry!” chimes the narrator—cut to shots of abandoned factories and empty lots. “Entertainment!”—cut to shots of strip clubs. “A place to grow old!”—cut to shots of wheelchair-bound senior citizens puttering around in the cold. You get the idea. Also, we did not make this video.
So yeah, the ’Stallis video, which we did not make and think is lame and only wrote about because it was already blowing up on Reddit, is far from classy and anything but subtle. In fact, it’s pretty awful. About the only thing that makes it worth watching is the whip-pan from a bunch of children playing in a school playground to a shooting supply store directly across the street. You’re not the “Worst City in the Universe,” West Allis (per some graffiti featured in the video), but that’s kind of fucked up.
Watch it here, or watch a different one below.