Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

Building on good bones vs. making room for a drive-thru

The Former Herda's True Value Hardware Store in St. Martins

With last week's Economic Development Commission meeting canceled due to lack of a quorum (mass illness), I was able to attend and listen in on an organizational meeting of a group called Franklin Citizens for Community Development (formerly known as "Franklin First"), a project organized by blogger Greg Kowalski and James Mullarkey (a Franklin Community Development Authority Commissioner). I wanted to get a sense of their intent.

I listened as they discussed possible mission statements. At first, I heard a lot of "we need a water park," "we need a performing arts center," "why aren't we Mequon?" "high-end amenities!" etc.

I brought with me a picture of the empty hardware store down in St. Martins, which is a beautiful building, and reminded them that the city has some good "bones" to build on; their organization would do well, in other words, to exploit current assets before crying out for more new construction. This seemed to be enthusiastically received.

I also introduced the term "sustainable" to their discussion. One look at the city's budget will tell you that the current way of doing things is not going to work for much longer. Perhaps Citizens for Community Development could use their energy and voices to promote the small steps that are needed in order to create a more economically vibrant city. For instance, promoting small businesses in town is an excellent way to enrich the local economy: For every dollar spent at a local business, 45% is reinvested locally. Spent a dollar at a corporate chain and a mere 15% is reinvested locally.

(We will hopefully be talking more, by the way, about the building above on this blog in the near future.)

Meanwhile, Kowalski's Franklin Today blog reports a rumor that the now-vacant Sentry store on 76th and Rawson may be purchased by neighboring Walgreens, and - amazingly - razed to make room for a drive-thru window.

That's right: Torn down for a drive-thru window.

The bar is once again lowered.

Wondering why we don't bother building community amenities anymore?

I'm long overdue in noting the unfortunate end of the Franklin Cultural Center board's efforts to fund and build an arts center here. The organization was chaired by Don Dorson (read his letter after the jump). So much for local community amenities.

I also just started reading a newly published book called THE CUL-DE-SAC SYNDROME: TURNING AROUND THE UNSUSTAINABLE AMERICAN DREAM. And there's Franklin - a favorite for authors and journalists needing an object lesson in sprawl economics -  on page 53:

High-growth areas nearly always translate into higher property taxes. One study in Dane County, Wisconsin, where the tax burden is among the highest in the United States, showed that while the county's population grew 12 percent from 1990 to 1996, total property taxes soared 3.57 times faster than the population. Part of the reason is that developers rarely pay the long-term costs of building communities. Impact fees are often minimal.

Once subdivisions are built, builders are off the hook to fund schools parks, roads, and other infrastructure. In fact, the disparity between what a single-family home costs taxpayers and what developers pay is huge. In Franklin, Wisconsin, just south of Milwaukee, each new home cost taxpayers more than $10,000 for schools and services in 1992 (it was considerably more by 2008). The developer's contribution: $813 per home. Impact fees vary from locale to locale, but they never cover the full cost of development.

Suburban strip malls: There's no "there" there

Franklin's own Shoppes at Wyndham Village -- Good news: A handy Target store! Bad news: In no danger of being named one of the Great Places in America

Retrofitting Suburbia on suburban strip malls:

At best, the promise of freedom inherent to the road and the promise of self actualization promoted by consumerism endow the strip with the capacity to satisfy a broad range of individual needs and desires. At worst, the collective aspirations expressed by the commercial strip speak of the willing suppression of local identity by national systems of corporate investment and mass consumption.

We dare not observe International Walk to School Day in Franklin, Wisconsin

Today is International Walk to School Day.

But not in Franklin, Wisconsin, where nearby is still far away. There is no ambiguity about it: The County Sheriff has determined that all of Franklin School District is in an unusually hazardous transportation area.

How could the mortgage crisis get worse in suburbia? How about some BRAIN SWELLING DISEASE?

Via Slate: The Big Money:

Filmmakers Andrew and Leslie Cockburn discuss a scene from their new documentary American Casino. The scene shows how a sea of abandoned swimming pools in California has become a mosquito Club Med.

ALL Philly libraries set to close October 2nd

Yup - all of them. as reported at Philly.com:

Closure notices are going up at physical libraries and recreation centers throughout the day. The facilities would be closed Oct. 2 if budget relief from the state doesn't come through.

More at: PhillyBurbs.com:  Action needed NOW to keep Philly libraries open:

Missing the President's education address: Another blow to the concept of community

Yesterday the President of the United States gave a speech which he hoped would inspire the youth of America to seize their educational opportunities and aim high.

And who better to look to as an example? You could do much, much worse than to emulate the work ethic and accomplishments of Barack Obama. To have a person of his accomplishment speak to our nation’s youth as a group is precisely the sort of event that has the power to change lives for the better.

How wonderful to have as our president man with the background to credibly say the following:

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life -- what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you've got going on at home -- none of that is an excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude in school. That's no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school.

There is no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up.

No one's written your destiny for you, because here in America, you write your own destiny.

You make your own future.

That is powerful stuff to hear as a child, especially in the company of your peers - - as a community. It is deeply meaningful to look around yourself and see others like yourself absorbing the same advice from the man holding our nation's highest office.

For schools that took advantage of the opportunity, it was a great success.

Unfortunately, my children did not get to see the president's address at their school and share an uplifting community moment. Insane as it may seem (and it will certainly be labeled thus when recalled in future history texts), school officials in many districts were bullied by parents who take seriously the paycheck demagoguery of the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck.

They feared "indoctrination." Parents actually threatened to keep their kids at home if their school showed a speech about the importance of working hard at school.

They feared the idea of the president of the United States addressing the nation's children on the subject of doing well in school?

Par for the course, I'm afraid, in the ongoing disintegration of the concept of community in the post-Proposition 13, partisan-above-all world.

Could it be that the drumbeat of fear-mongering against a message extolling the importance of education and personal responsibility is rooted in the rising spirit of naked self-interest encouraged by the rantings of radio wingnuts? Combine the ongoing marginalization of school district funding as a result of "taxpayer revolts," haphazardly applied TIF districts that rob the educational coffers while enriching corporate swells, and paid-for-their-ideology conservatives who libel and smear school officials and without bothering to attend the meetings they describe, and you get a pretty "low achievement" atmosphere.

To be more specific about the instance above: Wisconsin state senator Mary Lazich's aide, Kevin Fischer, recently called Franklin School District business manager "a true crook" and "shyster" in a posting on his blog that discusses the local tax levy (a blog which is hosted by the parent company of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). Fischer, who aspires to talk radio as a fill-in for WISN right wing talker Mark Belling, also has names for the citizens who bothered to attend the school board meeting and voted for an increase in the tax levy: "mindless robots"; "blind sheep, like lemmings"; and "the 25 potted plants at the annual meeting." He then tastefully invoked forced sodomy ("...we’re bending over quite a bit. Please tax us some more.")

Not exactly an education booster, but a true suburbanite in his fixated self-interest. I have no idea if Fischer attended or graduated from college (it took me months just to get him and the editor at FranklinNow to finally admit on his blog he is a paid aide to a Republican state senator), but I do know that Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck do not have a single college degree among them: Limbaugh lasted a year in college and dropped out; Hannity dropped out of two universities; Beck was provided a special nontraditional program at Yale, where he took a single theology course and dropped out.

What does education -- and public investment in education -- mean to the likes of Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck?

For that matter, what use do they have for communities, where people can share ideas without resorting to the FOX playsheet?

Consider as well the bar-lowering knee-slapper George W. Bush trotted out regularly while president:

"To the 'C' students, I say: You, too, can be President of the United States."

And, at the Naval Academy:

The thing McCain loved about the Naval Academy was he got to study all the time. (Laughter.) He and I both showed that if you -- people with C averages can succeed. (Laughter.) Welcome.

This works if your father and grandfather "encourage" their political and business associates to rescue you regularly, of course; you tend not to "fail upward" without that safety net. That's a different kind of community -- one that not all of us have access to. And it's not an attitude I want my kids to adopt.

Given an opportunity to harness the inspirational story of our president and infuse a pro-education, pro-achievement ethos at the community level, we dropped the ball. "Watch him at home if you'd like," many were advised.

Not a proud moment for America - - but a quintessentially suburban moment, I submit.

Can't happen here?: Seattle libraries close for week to save money

For those who take the local library and its services for granted, read the article linked below.

Can't happen here?

The main library in this book-loving city is an architectural landmark: a daring, contemporary temple to the written word that draws tourists as well as literary locals and those who just want a place to sit, read, rest or think.

Just don't try checking anything out, returning an overdue book or even logging onto the online catalog this week. The city's entire library system — from its branches to book drops to Web site — is shut down to save money.

"I think it's a very sad day — week — for the city of Seattle that they can't access their local library, which is one of the most heavily used libraries in the country," said Nancy Pearl, the city's ex-librarian superstar and the author of "Book Lust," a best-selling tribute to the joy of reading.

Read the rest at: The Associated Press: Seattle libraries close for week to save money:

Bad news beat: Emerald ash borer discovered in Franklin

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports what I guess we should have know was inevitable.

Emerald ash borer discovered in Franklin - JSOnline.

"USE YOUR PC'S AT HOME. If you don't have one, don't expect to leech off of the taxpayers."

Intriguing thread of comments at the Battle Joined blog reveals some cynical attitudes towards the role of a public library in Franklin, Wisconsin.

One wonders why anyone would consider moving to - or relocating a business to - a community that does not make a priority of its public library and its associated services, programs, and opportunities.