Bay View is a historic neighbourhood on Milwaukee's near south side, wrapped along the shore of Lake Michigan just south of downtown. Originally a 19th-century iron-mill company town settled by Polish and German immigrants — the old Milwaukee Iron Works once stood where Humboldt Park's lawns now slope toward the lake — it is now one of the city's most walkable and interesting neighbourhoods, with a lively strip of independent coffee shops, breweries, vintage stores and restaurants along Kinnickinnic Avenue ("KK" to locals).
The neighbourhood has reinvented itself several times — blue-collar mill town, Polish Catholic parish district, post-industrial hollow, and now one of Milwaukee's creative hubs — and the mix is exactly why it is worth half a day: Polish bakeries and tiki bars on the same block, old Lake Michigan beer halls next to new-wave breweries, and a long waterfront park with views back across the harbour to the downtown skyline.