I can see a frozen custard restaurant in the background - which hails from the Great White North - so I think it is safe to say that this plant is Miscanthus sinensis (Maiden Grass). That species also has foliage with skin-slicing properties if you are so unfortunately as to run it between your fingers, and it also has the propensity to seed itself in quite perniciously here in the Ohio River valley region.
Pampas Grass (Cortaderia selloana) is similar, but quite a bit bigger I think and certainly not a hardy species in Wisconsin.