A Milwaukee Icon bites the dust.

As residents of a city, sometimes we get attached to silly, outdated, and 'useless' icons of the past.

When I first moved to Milwaukee, I couldn't help notice the abundance of steeples and smokestacks that dotted the skyline. Both of these high reaching structures are icons of Milwaukee's past of a traditional industrial city. Over the past several years, I have noticed many of the smokestacks are coming down in the name of progress and safety.

The first one I noticed being razed was the giant Blatz smokestack that towered above the former brewery. When I first saw the workers at the Blatz, I thought they were repairing the structure, but was surprised to see it was soon gone. Recently, I saw a crane apparatus erected next to the Pabst smokestack. I knew what this meant-another Milwaukee icon will be gone forever. To his credit, the developer of the Pabst tried to save the smokestack and the structure below it, but it was too unstable and would have been too expensive. Next, watch for the demise of the smokestack above the Pfister and Vogel tannery, which is slated for demolition this month.

While I understand the reasons for removing smokestacks, it is still upsetting to me. Fortunately, we still have some wonderful examples of city smokestacks including the salvaged smokestacks from the Milwaukee Road Shop in the Menominee Valley, and the strange smokestack on the Pfister Hotel.