Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

A talk with Galina Tachieva, author of ‘The Sprawl Repair Manual’ | Grist

Q. You talk about the economic opportunities that the foreclosure crisis has created. At the same time, it seems like people have less and less money to do big projects. Financing has become very difficult for a lot of developers. How do you see those things balancing out?

A. Of course, right now it's very difficult to even think about any large project. However, there is a whole range of tools which are prepared for very different economic conditions and for very different scales. That is why the whole method is structured from the bigger picture of the region going all the way down to the community scale and all the way down to the block or the building, to be able to respond to different economic conditions.

It might be a government, regional organization, or municipality thinking about their future development as a larger place, as a region. Or it might be a developer who can maybe intervene in one block, who can actually take advantage of some of the foreclosures -- maybe acquire a block of some of these foreclosed properties, and do something on a much smaller scale. And all the way down to the single building. People are thinking about the second generation of some of these suburban building sites coming through the next cycle.

Read the rest at: A talk with Galina Tachieva, author of ‘The Sprawl Repair Manual’ | Grist

RETROFITTING SUBURBIA: "The next 50 years' big sustainable design project"

RETROFITTING SUBURBIA author Ellen Dunham-Jones on "the next 50 years' big sustainable design project": 

   

The Search for Community One Sleepover at a Time? | Planetizen

From a review for the book IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: THE SEARCH FOR COMMUNITY ONE SLEEPOVER AT A TIME:

What was most interesting to me was that almost all of the neighbors on Lovenheim’s street had an intense need to be part of a community and a social network, but they didn’t have the facilities to achieve it. One neighbor observed that public spaces have largely been privatized into commercial spaces. Think about the coffee shop, king Starbucks, bookstores. These are little self-contained units with a small entry fee.  Another neighbor contrasted American neighborhoods to African tribal villages whose homes are traditionally organized around acentral space out of a primal need for survival. She observed that American neighborhoods are designed for privacy to fuel the prevailing ideology that we can survive alone. And then she suggests the antidote to this landscape of isolation…parks! Brilliant.

Read the rest at: The Search for Community One Sleepover at a Time? | Planetizen

Top 10 Books - 2010 | Planetizen

If I haven't already read them, they're very likely on my Amazon Wish List. Not included on the list, surprisingly, is Retrofitting Suburbia by Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson, which I found excellent.

From Planetizen:

Planetizen is pleased to release its ninth annual list of the ten best books in urban planning, design and development published in 2009. This year's assortment ranges from an impassioned argument for making transit fun to a low-key and practical guide to smart growth. And of course, Jane Jacobs makes an appearance.

The Planetizen editorial staff based its 2010 edition list on a number of criteria, including editorial reviews, popularity, Planetizen reader nominations, number of references, sales figures, recommendations from experts and the book's potential impact on the urban planning, development and design professions.

This year, historical analysis dominates the list, with five or more books reaching back into the past for insight. Erik Sanderson reaches back all the way to 1609 in Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City, and Mark Ovenden digs into the history of the Paris Underground with a lushly illustrated coffee table book. But the future and present are not forgotten, with several books tackling today's realities and strategies for improvement.

We present our list in alphabetical order, and are not assigning rank. And now, on to the list!

• “The Bicycle Diaries,” David Byrne (former lead singer of The Talking Heads, and now solo artist). Viking Press 
• “The Smart Growth Manual,” Andrés Duany, Jeff Speck and Mike Lydon. McGrawHill Professional
• “Wrestling With Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York’s Master Builder and Transformed the American City,” Anthony Flint. Random House
• “On Private Property: Finding Common Ground on the Ownership of Land,” Eric Freyfogle. Beacon Press
• “Building Up and Tearing Down: Reflections on the Age of Architecture,” Paul Goldberger. The Monacelli Press
• “The Architecture of Community,” Léon Krier. Island Press
• “The BLDGBLOG Book,” Geoff Manaugh (writer of the well-know BLDGBLOG). Chronicle Books
• “Paris Underground: The Maps, Stations and Design of the Métro,” Mark Ovenden. Penguin
• “Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability,” David Owen. Riverhead Books (also read “Urban is Good,” a New York Times review of this book).
• “Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City,” Eric W. Sanderson. Abrams Books (also read "Island in the Stream,” a New York Times review of this book).

Read detailed reviews of each book at: Top 10 Books - 2010 | Planetizen

The Smart Growth Manual: An Interview with author Mike Lydon

My copy of the Smart Growth Manual arrives today. If it's even half as good as Suburban Nation, it'll soon be bristling with post-it notes.

Mike Lydon, co-author of the new Smart Growth Manual, is a member of the Next American Vanguard, a group of 34 young advocates, planners and policymakers representing America’s next generation of urban leaders. He formerly worked at the planning firm Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company alongside Andres Duany, who wrote Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream along with Jeff Speck, another prolific planner and urban designer. Lydon helped the two write and edit The Smart Growth Manual, a “companion volume” to Suburban Nation that seeks to thoroughly define “smart growth” and provide advice and best-practice examples of how to translate the idea into urban reality. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has called the book an “indispensable guide to city planning,” and the website Planetizen recently named it as one of the 10 best planning, design and development books of the year. Here, Lydon tells NAC about working on the book.

Tell us a bit about the history of the project.

The Smart Growth Manual was originally conceived as the follow-up to the highly successful Suburban Nation, written by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck, published in 2000. Jeff set out to write the The Smart Growth Manual as a user-friendly guide to combating the problem of suburban sprawl so clearly identified in Suburban Nation. Jeff, who was still the Director of Town Planning for DPZ at the time, took a sabbatical to write the first draft. As Jeff tells it, Andres read the draft but felt that there was just too much changing in the planning field for the book to move forward; too many smart growth projects just coming out of the ground; too many new policies whose outcomes could not yet be measured; and too many related movements—such as green building, global warming/environmental groups, public health advocates, smart growth, New Urbanism, etc.—that had not yet achieved the traction that they have today. So they decided to hold off on the project and observe, while also continuing to refine and advance their own work.

Read the rest at NAC Daily Report: The Smart Growth Manual: An Interview with Mike Lydon

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.

Conservatives and Mass Transit: All Aboard? -- Politics Daily

One of the prime examples of an area of public policy where conservative dogma seems contrary to conservative ideology:

Effete liberals love mass transit and red-blooded American conservatives disdain it, right? That's the stereotype, all right. Libs love their commuter trains, while we conservatives dig our pickup trucks. There's surely something to those images, but a new book titled, "Moving Minds; Conservatives and Public Transportation," seeks to lead some 21st century conservatives to rethink their view of riding the subway. 

This debate comes at a time when conservatives stand accused of failing to embrace new ideas (in fact, the authors would argue this is really the renewing of an old idea, but you get the point.) Clearly, a conservative arguing in favor of mass transit dispels the notion that conservatives aren't receptive to exploring new solutions to the nation's ongoing problems. Both sides are guilty of taking stances on issues -- and sticking with them -- regardless of the emergence of new facts or changing priorities. It's all too uncommon to find an adherent of one political philosophy championing an issue generally identified as "belonging" to the other team. For this reason, if nothing else, the authors of this book deserve attention, even praise.

Read the rest at: Conservatives and Mass Transit: All Aboard? -- Politics Daily

Friends of the Franklin Public Library need your used books CDs, DVDs, tapes, and magazines

The Friends of the Franklin Public Library are looking for gently used books CDs, DVDs, tapes, and magazines for their Annual Book Sale, which will be held on Friday, September 11th.

From the Friends:

This popular annual event helps the Friends sponsor numerous events at the Library such as the wonderful cooking classes presented by Staci Joers, quilting classes or the successful Divas and Divine Desserts program. In addition to these great community events, the funds raised by the Friends help support programs that the Library budget simply cannot afford. This past year the Friends donated $14,000 toward computers for the children’s department, $8,000 toward updated books about foreign countries and the 50 states and $4,500 toward the children’s, young adult and adult summer reading program.

Help the Friends continue supporting the Franklin Public Library and to continue to offer these community programs by donating your books and other material to the Library for their sale. Drop off your used books at the Franklin Public Library between the hours of 10 and 8:30 Monday through Thursday and 10 to 5pm on Friday.

The book sale will be held on Friday, September 11th, 10am - 5pm, Saturday, September 12th, 10am - 5pm, and Sunday, September 13th, 1pm - 4pm

A special Friends only presale will be held on Thursday, September 10th from 6pm to 8:30. 

Not currently a Friend of the Franklin Library?  Pick up a Friends’ membership form at the Library or e-mail the Friends of the Franklin Public Library at FranklinFriends@mcfls.org 

The Franklin Public Library is located at:  9151 West Loomis Road, Franklin, WI 53132  Phone (414) 425-8214.

The Friends of the Franklin Public Library are looking for gently used books CDs, DVDs, tapes, and magazines for their Annual Book Sale, which will be held on Friday, September 11th.

From the Friends:

This popular annual event helps the Friends sponsor numerous events at the Library such as the wonderful cooking classes presented by Staci Joers, quilting classes or the successful Divas and Divine Desserts program. In addition to these great community events, the funds raised by the Friends help support programs that the Library budget simply cannot afford. This past year the Friends donated $14,000 toward computers for the children’s department, $8,000 toward updated books about foreign countries and the 50 states and $4,500 toward the children’s, young adult and adult summer reading program.

Help the Friends continue supporting the Franklin Public Library and to continue to offer these community programs by donating your books and other material to the Library for their sale. Drop off your used books at the Franklin Public Library between the hours of 10 and 8:30 Monday through Thursday and 10 to 5pm on Friday.

The book sale will be held on Friday, September 11th, 10am - 5pm, Saturday, September 12th, 10am - 5pm, and Sunday, September 13th, 1pm - 4pm

A special Friends only presale will be held on Thursday, September 10th from 6pm to 8:30. 

Not currently a Friend of the Franklin Library?  Pick up a Friends’ membership form at the Library or e-mail the Friends of the Franklin Public Library at FranklinFriends@mcfls.org 

The Franklin Public Library is located at:  9151 West Loomis Road, Franklin, WI 53132  Phone (414) 425-8214.

Saving the suburbs: Interview with the authors of Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs

Architects Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson explain how existing suburbs can be redesigned and redeveloped in their book RETROFITTING SUBURBIA.

Common Council tonight: Slouch toward mediocrity or reach for excellence?

"That ribbon of highway..." In a residential area.

The Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 at the monumental Franklin Law Enforcement Center.

Some background:

On February 27th, the Wisconsin DOT sent a memo to Franklin outlining new deadlines for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus fund applications.

There were no emergency meetings of committees and boards of which I'm aware. (The Economic Development Commission, in fact, canceled our 2/23/09 meeting for reasons to which I'm not privy).

On March 2nd, one of the city's construction consultants, R.A. Smith, sent an email to Franklin's city engineers:

John & Ron,

On behalf of the Village of Greendale, we would like to know if the City of Franklin has interest in pursuing Round 2 stimulus funding for the S. 51st St. project both municipalities discussed last year?

We have attached a map of the segment and the WDOT round 2 stimulus letter for your review.

Please let us know your thoughts on the project very soon due to the tight funding application timeframes.

That was all we needed, apparently. On March 10th the Board of Public Works recommended pursuing the project. It does not specify a four-lane urban highway, but that is the only cross-section available at this point - - reason enough to be concerned.

So the list of possible stimulus funded projects now reads like this:

a) W. Puetz Road (S. Street to St. Martins Road)
b) S.  Street (Puetz Road to Drexel Avenue)
c) S. 51st Street (North of Rawson Avenue to College Avenue in Greendale)
d) Additional Project

That's it.

Did I miss the brainstorming session that came up with these projects? Or, do we determine projects based on the recommendation of contractors who can bill us for the project they suggest?

We are on the cusp of another missed opportunity to rise above mediocrity and more "entropy made visible."

Franklin's streets and roads  - both the pavement AND the network - are in desperate need of rehabilitation

Excellent planning?

The city of Franklin almost flamboyantly thumbs its nose at the idea of traveling from place to place without a vehicle. Residential roads are built wide and curvilinear for maximum speed - kids and bikes be damned.

Nearby is still far away.

There are neighborhoods close enough to Franklin High School to be illuminated by the sports field's lights - yet the residents of those houses have no way to walk or bike to the high school! Is it any wonder that so many vehicles are on the road at the beginning and end of school days? That's an embarrassment.

When did this become acceptable?

Pleasant View Elementary remains accessible by a single thin road with not so much as a shoulder to retreat to if you should attempt to walk or bike to the school. Another embarrassment.

In fact, the County Sheriff has determined that all of Franklin School District is in an unusually hazardous transportation area. Therefor, all students in the district are entitled to bus transportation.

Subdivisions that get to hear the trucks loading and unloading at the Sendik's on 51st and Rawson have no access to it via foot or bicycle, which would make their proximity a pretty spectacular amenity.

And that's all right with us? We're not going to bother to address any of that with stimulus funds?

Franklin seems content to ignore opportunities to increase connectivity. I have a list of almost 600 Wisconsin bicycle and pedestrian projects funded or co-funded by the federal government from 1993 to 2007. FRANKLIN DOES NOT APPEAR ON THE LIST AT ALL.

Not. Even. Once.

What happened to Complete Streets?

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding should not be used to expand a system of roads that do not provide safe travel for people who are walking or bicycling. Too many Franklin streets are designed to be wide and fast, without sufficient sidewalks, crosswalks or bicycle lanes. We, in fact, CREATE traffic with huge roads and no alternative.

Little or no consideration has been given for the safety of older people, children, or people with disabilities. These incomplete streets are dangerous and create barriers for people to get to jobs, school, the doctor, and fully participate in civic life.

Basically, Franklin's system of ever-widening collector streets without regard to interior grid roads - a blatant concession to subdivision developers - does nothing but concentrate and increase traffic, create noise, and make it impossible to travel from place to place without firing up an internal combustion engine.

This is not an environment that encourages businesses to move in and take root. It is not an environment friendly to commercial enterprises that benefit from the ability to linger (book store, coffee shops, etc.).

So, tonight, the Common Council will vote on a hastily thrown-together package of road projects - - unless they dare to rise above and call for further discussion IMMEDIATELY to better maximize the opportunity presented by stimulus funds.

And I mean meetings that start TOMORROW and incorporate input from various interested parties and persons who have expertise beyond TRAFFIC ENGINEERING.

Ah, "traffic engineering." Evidently, the pure basis for all growth in Franklin.

Keep the following excerpt from the book SUBURBAN NATION in mind at tonight's meeting when engineers cite "traffic analysis" and "throughput forecasting":

Those who are skeptical of the need for a fundamental reconsideration of transportation planning should take note of something we experienced a few years ago. In a large working session on the design of Playa Vista, an urban infill project in Los Angeles, the traffic engineer was presenting a report of current and projected congestion around the development. From our seat by the window, we had an unobstructed rush-hour view of a street he had diagnosed as highly congested and in need of widening. Why, then, was traffic flowing smoothly, with hardly any stacking at the traffic light? When we asked, the traffic engineer offered an answer that should be recorded permanently in the annals of the profession: "The computer model that we use does not necessarily bear any relationship to reality."

So, let us hope they spare us their "projected traffic" studies. (More on concepts like INDUCED TRAFFIC and LATENT DEMAND in later postings.)

More to come ...

See also: 7 Most Ridiculous New Roads Being Built with Stimulus Funds