Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

Census says: more bikes on the road in Milwaukee - JSOnline

I had a great time at the grand opening of the Milwaukee Bike Federation's new headquarters earlier this week. Brew City appears to be transforming itself -- slowly but surely -- into a bike-friendly city.

From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

The "share the road" group has increased its share on the road in Milwaukee, based on the latest figures compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau and released in the American Community Survey.

The number of Milwaukee workers who bicycled to their jobs more than doubled from 2006 to 2008, and now accounts for more than 1% of the total commuter traffic.

In the surveys conducted last year, 2,508 workers cited bicycling as their primary mode of commuting to work in the previous week. That's up from 1,154, in the 2006 census survey.

The volume of pedaling public is still dwarfed by the motoring public, but the growth has been encouraging, said Dave Schlabowske, the city bicycle and  pedestrian coordinator.

"It's been a steady, almost exponential increase in the number of people cycling, and anecdotally, you just see more people riding this year," Schlabowske said. "It confirms that we're doing the right things, if we agree, and perhaps not everyone does, that it's a good thing to get more people riding bikes to work."

Milwaukee has outpaced the nation in the increase of people turning to their bikes as a mode of transportation, but it still lags behind a number of leading cycling cities in the overall numbers and the ratio on the road.

In Portland, 5.9% of the workers bike to their jobs. In Madison, the percentage is 3.8%; in Minneapolis it's 4.2%. The national figure is .5%.

Schlabowske said the notable figure for Milwaukee has been the growth, increases of 17%, 29% and 43% in the past three American Community Surveys.

"More people are riding bikes for different reasons: gas prices going up, being environmentally conscious and looking to be in better health," Schlabowske said. "I think it's also fair to say it's because we've made very significant improvements in our infrastructure and combined that with the very active encouragement efforts by the Bicycle Federation of  Wisconsin."

Read the rest at: Census says: more bikes on the road in Milwaukee - JSOnline

Gas is almost $4 a gallon - - and Complete Streets come to Franklin

Some excellent news to report.

I gave a couple of presentations on the benefits of Complete Streets to the City of Franklin Plan Commission as well as the Common Council. Consequently, by unanimous Common Council vote, the Franklin Trails Committee will become the Franklin Complete Streets and Connectivity Advisory Board. (See FranklinNow story here.)

The stated goal of the Board is creation of a Complete Streets ordinance which will give proper priority to non-vehicular traffic and provide guidelines for new development and street repair in terms of facilities for pedestrians and bikes. We'll also be working toward creating a more connectivity-minded street grid. 

I'll post much, much more information in the days to come. In the meantime, here is a silent and, for now, low res version of the presentation I gave on 3/6/12. Once we get a Franklin Complete Streets website launched, this information will be posted in much, much more detail.

As Wi-Fi Havens And E-Book Centers, Public Libraries Aren't Going Away Soon | Fast Company

To those equating community libraries to simple warehouses for printed matter whose utility is tied to our dependance upon bound books, some interesting news:

The American Library Association has just published its newest investigation into the state of the nation's public libraries, and the news is...actually rather good. You may think that odd in an era of ubiquitous alternative distractions to reading a real book--from iPads to Kindles--but it's really these new high-tech devices, along with the Internet that's keeping libraries flourishing. The one fly in the ointment is that funding cuts seem to be threatening many services.

While just a few years ago public libraries were all about borrowing books to read, or finding somewhere to study alongside handy text resources, the Net has changed much of this. Now 99.3% of the U.S.'s libraries offer Net access, via a public PC or open Wi-Fi, and 64% of libraries say they're the only free access point in their communities. With that figure stepping up to 73% for rural libraries, and 70% of libraries reporting that public use of their Net facilities increased in 2010, it's easy to see that the public library is still hugely relevant in a digital era.

It seems that [the library's] Internet nexus is extremely handy for people seeking jobs, via vacancy listings and other resources: 88% of libraries offer this, and 72% say their staff are helping clients fill in application forms. Meanwhile, 25% of libraries are in partnerships with government agencies and other groups to build e-government services--almost double the 13% figure from just two years ago. Though we live in a digital era that obviates many reasons to travel, it seems the library still is the social hub for data sharing.

Read the rest at: As Wi-Fi Havens And E-Book Centers, Public Libraries Aren't Going Away Soon | Fast Company

CNU 19 in Madison

I'm attending the Congress for the New Urbanism gathering in Madison this week, hoping to bring back some ideas (and energy) for Franklin. If we had train service between Madison and Milwaukee, I could be writing blog entries during my trips back and forth to the CNU 19 gathering; as it is, I'll have to catch up in the evenings.

In the meantime, here are some great regularly updated CNU news pages that will keep you on top of the events in Madison as they happen.

CNU Liveblog

The CNU 19 Daily

 

Government 2.0: Citizens take the lead

Look at this nifty and useful Google Calendar implimentation on Greg Kowalski's FRANKLIN TODAY blog:

This is exactly the kind of useful content that a community blog should offer. Bonus feature: If you have a Google Calendar account (and/or iCal on a Mac), you can subscribe to Greg's City of Franklin Calendar and have those events integrated into your own calendar and automatically updated.

That's pretty handy.

The official City of Franklin website has a calendar module as well, and it isn't so bad. It looks like this:

Clicking "View all Events" sends you to a page with a longer list of city events as well as links to agendas and meeting minutes.

I think, however, the city could stand to emulate Kowalski's use of free Google services so citizens can subscribe, for instance, to meetings covering certain TOPICS and ISSUES as well as gathering of specific commissions and committees.

Inching closer to transparency ....

Retrofitting suburbia: the state of the art

On June 1st, I'll be at the Congress for the New Urbanism 19 in Madison, Wisconsin attending, on behalf of the city of Franklin, an in-depth “202” session that will feature a discussion of innovative sprawl retrofit solutions by Dan Slone, June Williamson, and Galina Tachieva. Their published works include Retrofitting Suburbia, the Sprawl Repair Manual, and A Legal Guide to Urban and Sustainable Development.

They will present key urban design principles, prototypical techniques, in-depth case studies, and regulatory frameworks for implementation, followed by discussion of the frontiers of innovation for suburban retrofits.

Today’s American suburbs have an overabundance of everything — infrastructure, national chains, big boxes, fast-food drive-throughs — but when overabundance starts to fail, high quantity becomes a liability. Re-using and adapting the existing suburban types to incubate new possibilities will help gradually complete the rest of sprawl’s incomplete fabric and make it more livable and sustainable in the long run.

Read the rest at: Retrofitting suburbia: the state of the art | New Urban Network

 

Madison, Wisconsin Protests 3/5/11

Madison Protests 3/5/11, originally uploaded by John Michlig.

Awe-inspiring does not begin to describe the atmosphere on a cold day in Madison, Wisconsin.

The Great Desprawling Experiment - Emerging Ideas - Utne Reader

The very epitome of "the geography of nowhere" -- targeted for transformation.

Next up: Trying to get Robin Williams to go 30 days without doing a Popeye impression. Equally challenging.

It’s hard to conceive of a less likely poster child for the livable-communities movement, which prizes dense urban-style neighborhoods where residents can live without cars. Yet developers and county leaders in Fairfax County are close to finalizing a radical multibillion-dollar plan to “desprawl” Tysons. The proposal, aimed at attracting a total of 100,000 with the texture and energy of city life, involves tearing up large swaths of the existing town and constructing a series of urban villages, with buildings up to 25 stories high.

“Tysons Corner is a leading example of a suburb trying to transform itself into something else,” says Christopher Leinberger, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and a top thinker on the future of America’s suburbs. “The people there see walkable urban areas and say, ‘We want that here.’ They want that kind of urban excitement.”

Read the rest at: The Great Desprawling Experiment - Emerging Ideas - Utne Reader

"My favorite posts of 2010" | Kaid Benfield's Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC

Kaid Benfield is a familiar name to SPRAWLED OUT readers; I frequently link to his excellent posts at Kaid Benfield's Blog, which is part of the Natural Resources Defense Council website. In his year-end roundup of his favorite posts from his own blog, Kaid was kind enough to mention me and fellow Milwaukee-area blogger Dave Reid:

Props are due also to an amazing bunch of urbanist and environmental Facebook and real-life friends who keep me informed on all sorts of subjects from the amusing to the profound, and thanks especially to the fabulous blog writers whose work on these subjects continually inspires me, including Steve Mouzon, Chuck Marohn, Dave Reid, Chuck Wolfe, Daniel Nairn, Aaron Renn, Jon Hiskes, Richard Layman, Sam Newberg, Justin Horner, Deron Lovaas, Mary Newsom, Jason King, Chewie, Randy Simes, Payton Chung, Warren Karlenzig, John Michlig, Karja Hansen, and some I am probably forgetting.  Keep up the great work.

After you read some of Kaid's entries at the link below, you'll understand why I'm so gratified to be in that list.

Read the rest at: My favorite posts of 2010, from the very personal to the very cosmic | Kaid Benfield's Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC

So, now I'm a plan commissioner ...

Back in June of 2006, I started this blog as a research exercise upon learning that the neighboring cities of Franklin (where I live) and Oak Creek would somehow cooperate on developing 27th Street, which acts as a border between the communities.

That led me to the discovery of a book called THE GEOGRAPHY OF NOWHERE by James Howard Kunstler, a reading experience that utterly changed my view of the world around me. 

Haven't read it yet? Take a break and GO ORDER A COPY. I'll wait.

Anyway, attempting to follow the 27th Street drama led to my attendance at many Common Council and Plan Commission meetings, where, combined with my outside reading, I learned "how the sausage is made" in terms of suburban development. I discovered that our suburban built environment will continue to be bleak and uninviting (with precious few exceptions) unless citizens and stakeholders step up and voice their opinions. So very often, bad planning was a result of simply continuing with policies that "worked" in the past, without regard to our present reality or the long term effects of, for instance, making it impossible for kids to walk to school or sporting events.

So my blog became a voice in the suburban wilderness, introducing terms like "walkability" and "smart growth" into the public debate (I think I can take credit for the recent proliferation of the phrase "sea of asphalt" in local media). I began speaking at public meetings -- and, after a period of attracting little more than quizzical stares, I think the economic and social sense of what I was advocating began to take root.

I did my time on the Economic Development Commission; continue to work on connectivity issues while serving on the Trails Committee (including helping to capture a Safe Routes to School Grant); and kept plugging away at the Sprawled Out blog.

Recently, a vacancy appeared on the Franklin Plan Commission, and I threw my name in for consideration. Last night, the Common Council voted unanimously to endorse my nomination, so I am now a Plan Commissioner -- first meeting is tomorrow night.

I'm grateful for the opportunity, and hope to bring something of value to Franklin's overall vision. I also want to use this blog to increase transparency of the planning and development process in Franklin, so you can look forward to seeing, whenever possible, pdfs of the materials Plan Commissioners .have access to for each meeting and decision.

Onward ...