Trek Assessment #3

One surprise I encountered on my second trek was very startling. I was out shooting some graffiti near Farwell and Brady and I witnessed a homeless man harassing and chasing customers as they left a Wallgreen’s nearby. I just stopped recording completely to watch the action unfold. I situated myself around a corner so as to not provoke the man myself. He seemed to be just screaming gibberish and I couldn’t understand it at all. Eventually an employee came outside to try and stop the man and asked him to leave. The man refused to left and even screamed at the employee. Eventually the employee threatened to call the police and then went inside and the man ran away. I will always remember that because I am a very passive person and to see that kind of conflict really made an impression on me. I recently moved here to Milwaukee and that incident made a bad impression for me.
Another thing that surprised me during my treks was a situation on my trek 2. I was exploring graffiti around Brady and Farwell. There was so much graffiti everywhere. I was surprised at the volume of graffiti just near that intersection, but I was more surprised at how much I enjoyed the graffiti. Some of it was clever and I think I appreciate it more as a form of expression and now I think of it much less as a crime and more as art.
I was also very surprised by the different neighborhoods I encountered during my trek. I started out at Farwell and Brady. It wasn’t a very good neighborhood. It’s the kind of neighborhood I wouldn’t want to be caught in at night. But then I made my way north towards Shorewood beach and found myself among multi-million dollar homes. I wondered how only a few blocks could separate these two neighborhoods. There is something wrong with that.