New cafe breathing life into underserved neighborhood

For years, I've been driving past the building on Keefe Avenue in Milwaukee when I'm coming back from a story. For the longest time, it was a blighted property, and it hadn't seen any love in years. Then bit by bit, the building began to transform. I always wanted to know what they were building there. Finally, I got the chance to go inside.
The building is home to one of the newest cafes in Milwaukee, Kuumba Juice and Coffee. The shop opened Feb. 2nd. It's owned by three friends Ellie Jackson, Alexander Hagler, and Joe Ferch.
“I just believe in coffee shops as organizing spaces. I believe in coffee shops as spaces where people just organically run into each other and ideas just happen and prosper," Ellie Jackson said.
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[@oneanddonetzone3673]

Good luck

[@jeffthekillercriticremixer5968]

6 blocks from my house. Before that it was going to be a organic fruit market but that fell through

[@anncokafor]

My dream is to open up a café 😊 One day

[@scarecrow_9895]

Come back in a year and see if it is still there.

[@dcliffdraw]

Will it be affordable? Or overpriced coffee and food?

[@goatitisful]

It will be robbed by the neighborhood locals so many times, it will have to shut down

[@bgh8904]

gentrification

[@baller84milw]

Yeah, but most of the people who move out of these neighborhoods move into white areas on the northwest side and do the opposite. I grew up off appleton and hampton, growing up it was maybe 70% white but by the time I was in high school there weren't any white people left.

[@bgh8904]

@@baller84milw better gentrify than dystopian ghetto

[@only1jamesp]

Well I would rather have this building in the neighborhood serving healthy food and provides a study space as opposed that ugly old vacant or a big apartment only making investors pockets bigger

[@goatitisful]

It's "gentrification" if white people build in black communities, or move into black communities, and if white people move away from a black neighborhood, it's "white flight"... lol it makes zero sense

[@dski8097]

Do they do soy lattes to lower my testosterone?