Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

Because we should know better by now: Rehabilitating suburbia

Dwell Magazine and Inhabitat.com sponsored a REBURBIA Suburban Design competition recently, challenging entrants to reinvent suburbia. Perhaps make crapulent, hostile landscapes (like the one above) more safe, useful, and conducive to community.

In a future where limited natural resources will force us to find better solutions for density and efficiency, what will become of the cul-de-sacs, cookie-cutter tract houses and generic strip malls that have long upheld the diffuse infrastructure of suburbia? How can we redirect these existing spaces to promote sustainability, walkability, and community? It’s a problem that demands a visionary design solution and we want you to create the vision!

Clearly, wholesale razing of asphalt-moated structures is not practical, so solutions that rehabilitate the mistakes of the past are especially intriguing. Hence, "Reburbia."

A series of before and after drawings by Galina Tahchieva immediately caught my eye. The restaurant pad below should be very familiar to residents of Franklin and surrounding communities. Unfortunately, the "new" Golden Corral restaurant slated for 27th Street - yes, the 27th Street for which the city has expensively established "design standards" - looks almost exactly like the "before" picture below. I guess we'll fix it later.

This set of simple infill techniques represents a sprawl repair toolkit to retrofit the 5 building prototypes that define Suburbia. These iconic detached structures and their parcels, via modest interventions, have the potential to contribute to a more diverse, cohesive urban fabric within a walkable and identifiable public realm.

Rather than being demolished, these existing buildings are re-purposed and/or lined with new structures using renewable technologies and energy-efficient practices, often taking advantage of Suburbia’s typically excessive setbacks and parking lots.

A drive-through restaurant pad becomes part of a main street, but largely concealed from it, with perimeter liner buildings added along the edges of its parking lot. A strip center is converted into a recycling center with a green roof and 2 side-wings with solar panels framing a courtyard that reaches to the sidewalk. A gas station remains in place while growing a two-story corner store-office extension at a busy intersection to help screen it. A suburban ranch house is permitted to utilize its deep front yard to add a wing with additional bedrooms, a home office, or a rental outbuilding that creates a courtyard with the existing home and defines a livelier street frontage at the sidewalk. Even the ubiquitous McMansion can be converted into senior housing when a five-bedroom/ three-car garage home yields a 10 room-9 bathroom facility for seniors and a caretaker.

See the other 4 building types at Urban Sprawl Repair Kit: Repairing The Urban Fabric « ReBurbia.

Roundabouts & drunk driving: A new defense against impaired drivers?

A note from local businesswoman and activist (Citizens for a Safe Wisconsin, Inc.) Shari Hanneman prompted this thought:

Could the argument be made that encountering periodic roundabouts provides an IMPEDIMENT for drunk drivers that stops them from getting too far and eventually venturing into residential subdivisions ala the incredibly tragic Buckhorn situation in Franklin?

Consider this: I'm not certain of Eddie Lynn Keck's exact route the night he killed two people with his vehicle after being overserved, but it's a pretty safe bet that the WIIIIIDE and fast 27th street or Ryan Road did nothing to impede him; he was on autopilot for that portion of the drive. He could very well have blown a few red lights without stopping his progress.

I'm willing to bet that a series of roundabouts might have caused him to run up a curb or sideswipe someone non-lethally rather than allow him to continue unabated into a subdivision where the tragedy occurred.

Food for thought. Roundabouts for 27th street are on the Franklin Economic Development Commission's agenda for this coming Monday.

From the column Circular Logic Wins Out- Car And Driver:

It occurred to me that these five consecutive Michigan roundabouts might comprise a better drunk-driving exam than any count-backward-and-touch-your-nose routine. It was the first quintuple roundabout I'd ever encountered and, as I later learned, Roundabouts No. 1 and No. 2 hold the distinction of being the first in the country intended to act as a single system. A tourist destination.

I immediately drove to see local police chief Robert Brookins. I said, "Hi, I'm a reporter, and I want to ask..."

"About the roundabouts?" he interrupted. And off he went.

"You should have seen it before," the chief said. "With stoplights and stop signs, the traffic would back up along the exits and onto the freeway. You could wait through three or four stoplight cycles. But now the longest delay I've observed is about 20 seconds. I know it looks complex, but it flows 17-to-20-percent-more traffic and does so at faster average speeds."

Brookins had been monitoring the roundabouts for less than a year but already possessed compelling statistics. "We've had 16 accidents in the big roundabout," he said. "One crash in the middle roundabout. And six in the eastern one. All were minor, mostly sideswipes, 'cause the speeds are so slow. Prior to the roundabouts, you'd get guys blowing the lights, and there'd be high-speed broadsides that were really bad."

Then the chief directed me to Mike Goryl, a soft-spoken county traffic engineer who helped design this crop of circles. Goryl explained that the center islands aren't perfectly round but resemble the agitator in a washing machine, flinging traffic away from the hurricane's eye and toward an exit — with no static cling. All the roundabouts are off-camber, too, he said, mostly to drain water but also to reduce cornering speeds. "Even if you follow what we call the 'fastest path,'" he said, "you'd voluntarily drive at about 25 mph."

In the coming years, Goryl predicts, Americans will become accustomed to such systems. "It's a really efficient way of flowing dense traffic," he says. "People complain at first, but what they don't realize is they're always moving, rather than stopped dead at a light."

Time for leadership on 27th street roundabouts

I remember the first time I encountered a roundabout. My wife and I were en route to IKEA, and I recall releasing an expletive under my breath as, suddenly jolted from my semi-autopilot revelry, I navigated through to the other side. Whereupon I reengaged the autopilot.

To the uninitiated driver, roundabouts seem to be little more than a nuisance. For one thing, a roundabout creates the sudden (and unfamiliar) need to re-engage with one's surroundings rather than simply obey a light. It's a sad fact of human nature that we would rather have a little red light grind us to a dead stop than proceed unimpeded through a traffic innovation that demands little more from us than our attention.

Ask the average person who hasn't used a roundabout regularly, and they will likely wrinkle their nose at the notion. We do not like what we do not know.

It's unfortunate that Franklin's initial impression of roundabouts is formed by a faux-roundabout - - actually a roundabout in miniature - - built in front of Shoppes at Wyndham Village as an effort to allay the thru-traffic fears of the residential subdivision across the street. Some drivers may have traveled the roundabout in New Berlin, which is complicated by its interaction with the freeway ramps (though still fairly easy to deal with).

And it doesn't help that we have a state senator pouring sand in the gears with specious reasoning and reactionary concerns clouding her judgment. State Senator Mary Lazich's complaint that "I've had constituents [who have no experience with roundabouts] voice their concerns to me" does not stack up against the voluminous hard data that supports roundabouts as superior on multiple levels - safety foremost - to traditional intersections.

The Franklin-Oak Creek Joint 27th Street Steering Committee discussed the benefits of roundabouts vs. intersections at their June 10th meeting. Though the Wisconsin Department of Transportation will ultimately make the decision as to whether a newly-constructed 27th Street will feature roundabouts, the committee's chairman, Franklin Alderman Steve Olson, hoped to bring to the Oak Creek and Franklin Common Councils a recommendation that they endorse via resolution the installation of roundabouts (resolution language after the jump).

I attended the meeting in order to comment in support of roundabouts on 27th; my experience discussing them with my colleagues on the Economic Development Commission convinced me that many of Franklin's decision makers were approaching the issue on a purely intuitive level (my recording of the discussion features Alderman [and EDC chairman] Ken Skowronski stating: "Roundabouts are a disaster.") rather than based on hard facts and real data.

I needn't have worried. At the direction of the the Joint 27th Street Steering Committee, HNTB, construction and design consultant for Oak Creek and Franklin, prepared a roundabout-vs.-intersection report to facilitate the discussion (Download HNTB Roundabout Report pdf).

Any points I made in my comments to the Steering Committee were only amplified by the HNTB report - - and then further amplified by Franklin's city engineer Jack Bennett in his pro-roundabout comments. Click on the summary page below to enlarge:

While the points above are discussed at much further length in the actual report, this evaluation matrix is a pretty powerful statement in support of roundabouts on 27th Street.

And that's even before the introduction of mitigating information provided by the two HNTB consultants as they discussed the document: It turns out that the only "non-up" arrows on the matrix in the roundabout column could easily be changed to "up" arrows; HNTB admitted that they were extremely conservative in their measurements for "Construction Costs," "Aesthetics," and, particularly, "Community Acceptance." (They went so far as to suggest changing the direction of these arrows, but Chairman Olson did not want to compromise their report).

After fruitful discussion, the Franklin-Oak Creek Joint 27th Street Steering Committee unanimously voted to recommend to the Common Councils of their respective cities that they pass a resolution in favor of roundabouts on 27th Street.

Oak Creek will vote on it at their next meeting; in Franklin, however, the item was removed from this Tuesday's agenda. 

In Part 2 of this post, I'll discuss that removal and the "Community Acceptance" aspect of roundabouts. I'll also address the need to exercise some real leadership in reassuring the electorate that the benefits of properly designed roundabouts are beyond the realm of THEORY, and that they are in fact safer, more economical, provide faster transit, and will drive economic development more effectively than intersections. 

And there will be charts and graphs ....

27th Street committee chairman and Economic Development commissioner resigns; suddenly realizes his wife is a local real estate agent

27th Street committee chairman Ted Grintjes - he of the Boomgaard debacle - has resigned from positions on the Franklin Economic Development Commission and the Franklin Community Development Authority as well.

Why? "Because his wife, who is a real-estate agent, was approached recently by Franklin property owners with an interest in selling their property along South 27th Street."

It should be noted that his wife has had Franklin listings in the past which have evidently not prompted such concerns of conflict of interest.

The Franklin Economic Development Commission and the Franklin Community Development Authority (and the 27th Street Committee) occasionally have closed door meetings that you and I are not privy to. Oh to be a real estate agent with knowledge of the strategies and plans of these unelected bodies. It would be a great help in securing and selling, for example, a $5,500,000 "large executive home with many amenities includes 4 bedrooms, 3 fireplaces, a den/office, tennis courts and an indoor pool. The view overlooks the sparkling pool area."

Grintjes was also involved with the Franklin Citizens for Responsible Government, which is not a jewel on anyone's resume, to be sure. He was their spokesman in 2003 and is cited in a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel story thusly:

Though [the DA's civil charges] name only [Orville] Seymer and the citizen group as defendants, the complaint sheds light on how the organization's activities were financed, at least in part, by loans and contributions from local business interests, including Ted Grintjes and James Rhiner, longtime members of the city's Economic Development Commission and Community Development Authority.

Does that sound like the way things ought to be?

Time for new blood.

From FranklinNOW:

27th Street committee chairman resigns

Ted Grintjes resigned July 30 as chairman of the Franklin-Oak Creek Joint South 27th Street Steering Committee, as well as from the Franklin Economic Development Commission and the Franklin Community Development Authority.

Grintjes said he resigned because his wife, who is a real-estate agent, was approached recently by Franklin property owners with an interest in selling their property along South 27th Street.

He said he could have abstained on participation in matters relating to his wife's real-estate connections on 27th Street but he decided resignation would remove any possibility of a conflict of interest.

Grintjes had been chairman of the steering committee for about five years. He was a member of the EDC and a vice chairman of the CDA. All three positions he resigned from are voluntary.

Was that so hard? 27th Street Committee launches website with a sane name

south27thstreet.com.

How much did THAT name cost?

And these clever guys went out and locked down all the domain names with "Boomgaard" in it, and were prepared to pay giant money to the holder of domain rights to one particular version of the name.

Whoever thought of south27thstreet.com - buy that person a cold beer or their preferred beverage.

They need a new copywriter, though. Whoever wrote this:

....this up-and-coming area has all the amenities of a great Milwaukee suburb – including easy freeway and interstate access, commercial development and a sense of character.

... is either in on the joke or hasn't recently visited a suburb ("sense of character"?)

So, ladies and gentlemen of Franklin and Oak Creek, allow me to list your amenities:
- easy freeway and interstate access
- commercial development
- a "sense of character"(!)

That's all, move along.

So, so sad.

Oak Creek boots Boomgaard; Franklin remains quiet

Will they get their money by from Zizzo Group? Don't hold your breath.

Would this name have been deflected without blogger pressure?

From FranklinNow.com:

The South 27th Street Steering Committee will likely have to come up with a new name for the 27th Street Corridor after its first choice -- the "Boomgaard District" -- was ridiculed by bloggers, radio talk show hosts, columnists and many residents.

The Oak Creek Common Council last night unanimously approved a motion referring the name back to the committee, with a recommendation to consider selecting a new name.

The formal action follows a consensus reached last month by Oak Creek and Franklin officials that the name should be re-evaluated by the committee. The committee decided that it would wait at least 120 days before making a final decision on a name.

Flickr set of signs on "old 41"

WI, Milwaukee County-U. S. 41(Old) Sleepy Hollow Motel, originally uploaded by Alan C of Marion,IN.

"Alan C." writes:

I took a quick business trip to Wisconsin and managed to get off the interstate south of Milwaukee and find old U.S. 41, now designated WI 241. This was the first sign I ran into and the best of the bunch. I guess they wanted everyone to know that there was NO VACANCY by painting the NO onto the sign.

Click the image to see more from the set.

Boomgaard: "We've heard from only one side, the blogger community and the people who comment on the blogs"

Ted Grintjes evidently doesn't read Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columns or see the video they posted, or listen to talk radio.

What a botched job. Horrendous and expensive - - and this debacle comes from a member of the Franklin Citizens for Responsible Government (Grintjes was the group's spokesman in 2003).

Ah, the Franklin Citizens for Responsible Government. Here's a little background on that group from  the 12/17/06 Journal Sentinel:

Franklin Citizens for Responsible Leadership emerged in March 2003, saying it intended to recall [Basil] Ryan and anyone else members saw as blocking the city's economic development efforts. Over the next year, the group replaced four of the six sitting aldermen with one of its founding members - Ald. Steve Olson - and three others sympathetic to its agenda. Olson later distanced himself from the group.

The group made what turned out to be false or exaggerated claims against opponents in fliers, claiming in one case that the candidate knew a sex-offender home was being planned for Franklin and that the candidate did nothing to fight a landfill expansion whose height would "exceed the Empire State Building."

"It was 'take the office at all costs.' That was the tactic they used," said former Ald. Don Dorsan, who lost to Olson and complained to the district attorney's office that the group had knowingly distributed false information about him.

Sounds like a great bunch of fellas.

From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Regional News Briefs section.

Group awaits feedback on 'Boomgaard' name

Franklin - A controversial plan to christen the area along S. 27th St. in Franklin and Oak Creek as the Boomgaard District is on hold while the committee that chose the moniker gets more feedback from local residents and businesses.

Ted Grintjes, who chairs the S. 27th St. Steering Committee, said Wednesday that a final decision on the name could take 120 days or more.

"We've heard from only one side, the blogger community and the people who comment on the blogs," Grintjes said of the negative reception the name has received since it was announced. "And we'd really like to hear from the business community and residents."

The name Boomgaard, which is Dutch for orchard, plays on the city's environmental and cultural history, but it has been pilloried by critics as pretentious and a bad fit for the two communities.

The committee decided to suspend action on the name Tuesday night after the mayors of Oak Creek and Franklin sent it back for reconsideration.

Joint 27th Street Steering Committee Meeting 4pm today

Thanks to Franklin alderman Steve Olson, I was made aware that there's a Joint 27th Street Steering Committee Meeting scheduled for 4 pm today. It's at Oak Creek City Hall and includes a citizen comment period.

4 pm? That should encourage citizen participation, huh? I can't get there, but I'll get a tape.

On the agenda: A $29,254.24 "marketing, branding, positioning, and public relations" payment to HTNB Corporation - - an engineering firm. They are the conduit through which we pay Zizzo Group.

Why do it this way? Ask Ted Grintjes. And this bill is ONLY for the period between Feb. 23rd and March 28th of this year.

Here's another question someone should ask: How much does Ted Grintjes think it costs to buy and reserve a group of internet domain names?

Boomgaard!

Man on the street Boomgaard video: SURPRISE! Nobody like the name ...

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Jim Stingl asked some folks around town what the think of "Boomgaard District" as a name for the 27th Street area (click HERE for video feed).

The Zizzo Group and 27th Street honcho Ted Grintjes must be bursting with pride.

Wait until we talk about the money we spent for that silly name ....