For some background into the phenomenon that was Lake Park last summer, there was a large concentration of Pokestops around Lake Park in a relatively small area. In Pokemon GO there are geographic boundaries that make up biomes in the game which determine which Pokemon to spawn, for instance if you're near a source of water there is a high chance you will encounter water Pokemon. Lake Park appeared to not have any biome, which led to anything from the game being able to appear, including more rare types of Pokemon. Pokemon GO also has something called a lure module that players can place down which will attract more Pokemon to a Pokestop for 15 minutes. All these factors working together caused a massive influx of players to Lake Park from players from the greater Milwaukee and nearby Waukesha counties.
The area surrounding Lake park has affluent people living around there (homes valued in the range of $500k - $950k), and the Lake Park Bistro upscale restaurant was just north of the park with the largest parking lot closest to the concentration of Pokestops. Prior to Pokemon GO it was a quiet area with a great view of Lake Michigan from many of the homes along Lake Drive.
I'm inclined to believe that it was not only a combination of the holy grail Pokemon GO location for the greater Milwaukee area, but also a bit of "Not In My Backyard" [1] that led to the augmented reality game ordinance.
I spent a lot of time at lake Park for pokemon go almost exactly a year ago! It was basically a huge party and a great example of how AR could bring people together.
I was traveling a lot through the Midwest last summer and there were hoards of people staring at their phones while actively walking around in about a dozen states.
It was wonderful to watch.
I can't wait to see what form of communal AR we see develop over the next 10 years.
Local government in places with a waterfront is almost completely made up of people who have a special interest to champion and spends 90% of it's time bickering about said interests.
The area surrounding Lake park has affluent people living around there (homes valued in the range of $500k - $950k), and the Lake Park Bistro upscale restaurant was just north of the park with the largest parking lot closest to the concentration of Pokestops. Prior to Pokemon GO it was a quiet area with a great view of Lake Michigan from many of the homes along Lake Drive.
I'm inclined to believe that it was not only a combination of the holy grail Pokemon GO location for the greater Milwaukee area, but also a bit of "Not In My Backyard" [1] that led to the augmented reality game ordinance.
[1] - http://milwaukeerecord.com/city-life/lake-parks-pokemon-go-m...