OnMilwaukee.com is celebrating its 15th birthday all September, and Milwaukee has changed a lot over since 1998, when OnMilwaukee.com first glowed bright on computer screens around town.
Here are some numbers comparing Milwaukee during the year OnMilwaukee.com was born with Milwaukee 2013.
| 1998 | 2013 | |
| Population city: | 610,654 | 598,916 (U.S. census 2012 est.) |
| Population county: | 957,058 | 955,205 (U.S. census 2012 est.) |
| Population state: | 5,234,350 | 5,726,398 (U.S. census 2012 est.) |
| Refuse collection | 281,000 tons | 299,906 tons (2011) |
| Total city streets | 1,430 miles | 1,450.5 miles |
| City of Milwaukee budget | $964,256,894 | $1,501,978,320 |
| Value of taxable assessed property | $16,072,114,035 | $27,045,019,320 |
| Registered voters | 336,032 | 312,480 |
| Voting wards | 335 | 327 |
| Ballots cast | 160,816 | 288,549 (2012) |
| City owned harbor area | 470 acres | 470, acres |
| Lake commerce (est. net tons) | 2,896,577 | 2,700,00 |
| Overseas commerce (est. net tons) | 422,220 | 150,000-200,00 |
| Taverns | 1082 | 922 |
| No. of county parks | 140 | 155 |
| Acreage of county parks | 14,759.3 acres | 15,262 acres |
| Materials in MPL collection | 2,773,189 | 2,315,982 (2012) |
| MPL cardholders | 337,502 | 313,604 (2012) |
| MPL circulation | 3,145,569 | 2,847,543 (2012) |
| MPL visits | 2,423,634 | 2,387,030 |
| MPS enrollment | 100,525 | 77,359 (projected) |
| MPS total schools | 159 | 165 |
| MPS charter schools | 1 | 30 (15 instrumentality; 15 non-instrumentality) |
| MFD employees | 1,121 | 907 |
| Firestations (incl. fireboat) | 36 | 34 |
| Fire fighting force | 971 | 821 |
| Fires | 9,903 | 1,707 (through Aug. 31) |
| MPD employees | 2,935 | 2,458 |
| MPD civilian personnel | 668 | 610 |
| Sworn police officers | 2,094 | 1,848 |
| Works in MAM collection | 20,500 | 30,000+ |
| MAM visitors | 200,000 (est.) | 390,000 (FY2013) |
| Brewers | 74-88 | 74-88 |
| Packers | 11-5 | 11-5 (2012) |
| Bucks | 28-22 (1998-99) | 38-44 |
| Admirals | 38-28-0-16 (1998-99) | 41-28-4-3 |
| Wave | 25-15 (1998-99) | 21-5 |
| Badgers football | 11-1 | 8-6 (2012) |
| Badgers men's basketball | 22-10 (1998-99) | 23-12 |
| MU men's basketball | 14-15 (1998-99) | 26-9 |
| UWM men's basketball | 8-19 (1998-99) | 8/24/2013 |
| Number of articles at OnMilwaukee.com | 50 | 34,147 (as of Sept. 11, 2013) |
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.
