It’s never a popular notion in Madison to suggest that the city should take note from Milwaukee. Yet, despite all the promise, tradition and hog-headed civic pride pervading our little isthmus, it all pales in comparison to the story of the Cream City.

Perhaps then it’s no oddity that with concerns arising over the possible economic impacts of the Overture Center on State Street, this is something Milwaukee has experienced before.

As Madison’s new performing arts complex, a $205 million gift from local business owner Jerry Frautschi, opened last Saturday to a standing ovation, small business owners along the commercial stretch let out a collective sigh.

For years, State Street residents have witnessed a constant increase in rent along the corridor. Now with the arrival of the Overture Center, that trend looks queued for liftoff. Regardless, the economic wellbeing of downtown Madison may require the ever-dynamic façade of Wisconsin’s most famous road to change once more.

It’s still only the beginning, but downtown is ultimately coming toward campus. Madison need only look to Milwaukee’s past to answer the proponents of stagnation and secure its economic future.

Lesson one: When it comes to catalyst projects, you can’t beat free.

With this generous gift to urban Wisconsin’s cultural and fiscal wealth, Frautschi joins some lofty company.

In Feb. 1895, Milwaukee beer baron Fredrick Pabst was enjoying his vacation when news came over the wire that his Stadt-Theater had gone up in flames. The Captain immediately ordered for it to be rebuilt. Nine months later, Milwaukee elite gathered for the grand opening of the finest theatre in the country.

While it’s not $205 million, for the time the $200,000 price tag was staggering. Coupled with the construction of the current city hall, also in that year, the development helped shift the growth of downtown north along Water Street.

“In the building of this beautiful new theatre, Capt. Pabst has again shown himself to be a patriotic citizen of Milwaukee,” The Milwaukee Journal declared on the theater’s opening day.

Madison will eventually prove equally grateful to Frautschi, if it isn’t already.

Lesson two: Build for the future, not the present.

While many of the Overture Center’s feature events come at a steep price, the staff has taken care to offer a variety of performances for cheap or free. On day two of the opening celebration, the center offered an exhibition of the UW Varsity Band with tickets selling for just $15.

In addition to sending the message that the arts aren’t just for the rich, the local performance companies can hedge their bets while Madison hopefully grows into the new cultural digs.

In recent years, while residents have witnessed Wisconsin population growth almost flat-line, the Madison area continues to expand. The census bureau recently estimated the Dane County growth rate at 5.2 percent since the last tally, more than double the rest of the state.

Madison today has a population larger than Milwaukee did when the city underwent many of its greatest civic projects — although, at the time, Milwaukee had an astronomical growth rate of 76.9 percent. In fact, for a while many envisioned another metropolis on the shores of Lake Michigan as turn of the century experts predicted the population to reach 750,000 by 1940.

Unfortunately, the progressive spirit eventually evaporated, leaving traditionalist (and sometimes populist) policymakers behind.

Sixty-four years after the target date, not only has Milwaukee never claimed three quarters of a million residents, but it’s also moving in the opposite direction.

Lesson three: Arts foster the right type of growth.

The importance of a little culture can never be overestimated. Milwaukee’s Third Ward, directly south of downtown, remained the city’s warehouse district for a century until an emergence of sordid parlors turned on the red light. Seeking low rents close to downtown, artists and musicians first began to fill the expansive flats thirty years ago. Eventually the area began to turn.

In the 1990s, crime rates plummeted and rents skyrocketed. After a while the bohemians who ushered in the prosperity were forced out, as stockroom-turned-studios became law offices and riverfront bistros.

A collective $100 million in public and private investment ensued and the total real estate value of the Third Ward escalated from $40 million to over $286 million in less than 10 years. An unfortunate twist of fate for those first pioneering souls but fortuitous for the city — and it’s difficult to argue with those numbers.

Along State Street, the massive Overture Center joins a host of specialty shops, thematic restaurants, two art galleries, an art museum, six bookstores and a curbside atmosphere known the Midwest-over. With the area already primed culturally, exponential increases in property value appear a foregone conclusion.

In the process, the face of State Street will change to promote a better consumer environment. It won’t be the same scene as before, but think of it as growing up.

Patrick Klemz ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in journalism.