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

In Wisconsin, killing the economy today and into the future: "Technical schools say they're in a vise grip" - JSOnline

How do you kill a state's vitality and economy? Put your boot on the neck of its educational infrastructure.

If and when Wisconsin Governor Walker's budget is passed -- corporate tax breaks or not -- businesses will trip over themselves abandoning a state that does not bother to develop a valuable workforce. Vocational schools provide opportunities for a wide array of potential taxpayers, and creates a crucial labor/creative resource for business and industry.

Wisconsin is about to shutter its windows and go dark....

State funding for Wisconsin's 16 technical colleges would drop to a dollar level not seen since the late 1980s, despite enrollment growth of 40% over the last decade, if cuts in Gov. Scott Walker's proposed budget ultimately gain approval, college officials said last week.

That could lead to longer waiting lists for classes, more limited access to courses and programs, and ultimately, challenges for Wisconsin manufacturers, health care providers and other employers looking for skilled workers as the state's economy struggles to recover, officials said.

"We had to turn away a lot of students last year because we had filled classes," said Lee Rasch, president of Western Technical College in La Crosse. "We easily turned away a couple thousand students. The jobs are here, but we don't have the funding to increase capacity. If the goal (stated by Walker) is to create 250,000 jobs, these are the kinds of jobs we need."

Read the rest at: Technical schools say they're in a vise grip - JSOnline

 

See also The Death of the Covenant:

Radomski says what the state would lose is a unified effort to promote college planning in the state. Most states, he says, have now implemented some kind of “pledge” program for students exchanging state assistance for meeting some academic standard.

The Political Environment: High-Speed Rail Is A National Economic Development Plan

As Wisconsin's new Governor-elect works to pull the coffin-lid shut on Wisconsin's middle class and fully enable corporate socialism, here's another excellent reality-based post by James Rowen on the importance of Wisconsin's participation in regional and national economic development:

Lost in the rhetoric and misstatements about the Madison-Milwaukee train is that it is a segment of a network of trains connecting Chicago and the Twin Cities, and eventually a portion of a truly national rail system.

It makes no sense to excise Wisconsin from the line. Check out this map of the Midwest plan, and remember that it will connect to routes service other regions, too.

It will make the state an inaccessible economic backwater.

Short-to-medium length trips are not always available by air; often airports are distant from central business districts or other job centers, and last-minute air travel can be pricey.

And many people - - the elderly, the young - - do not drive, do not own a car or have access to one. Rail opponents, often suburbanites, need to realize that not everyone has a minivan.

The rail system is intended to fill in these gaps, providing connections among businesses, universities and tourist destinations not easily served by aviation.

Trains also offer a working environment not replicable inside a car.

Modern trains are fast, wi-fi-equipped, comfortable and imminently practical.

A new national rail network makes an infrastructure investment that fills a need, puts people to work and was to be made available in Wisconsin at no construction cost, and an annual operating charge statewide of about $60,000 a month.  A bargain, as I said a few days ago.

As the scribe Wisconsin State Journal philosopher scribe used to say, "What could be more fairer?"

Read the rest at: The Political Environment: High-Speed Rail Is A National Economic Development Plan

Downtown malls - becoming oxymoronic?

The company that owns the financially troubled Shops of Grand Avenue in downtown Milwaukee will be sold at a public auction later this month.

The notice says ownership interests in Grand Avenue City Mall LLC, which owns the Shops of Grand Avenue, will be the subject of an Oct. 26 public auction. It will be conducted at the offices of Arnold & Porter, a New York law firm.

A sign that enclosed, climate-controlled shopping malls do not fare well against downtown streets and shops? One would hope.

Read the rest at: Financially troubled Grand Avenue mall to be sold at auction - JSOnline

Wisconsin receives $46.5 million installment for high-speed rail

Another step closer to the 21st century in Wisconsin:

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle today announced $46.5 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for work to continue on the state's high-speed rail system. Doyle and LaHood spoke today in Watertown, where a new high-speed rail station will be constructed at the site of a former grocery store.

"Because of the vision and investment of President Obama and Secretary LaHood, Watertown, Madison, Milwaukee and all of Wisconsin will see the tremendous economic benefits of high speed passenger rail," Doyle said.

In the next two and a half years, over 5,500 construction workers, engineers, machine operators and others will be working hard to make track improvements, build train stations, and improve the roads around these tracks. You are going to start seeing a lot of hard hats and neon vests around here and that is good news for everyone in this state.

Read the rest at: Wisconsin receives $46.5 million installment for high-speed rail - BizTimes

Milwaukee – A Walker’s Paradise?

Much to agree with here; however, from the standpoint of someone who lives in an outlying suburb, you can go YEARS without actually getting to downtown Milwaukee -- 15 minutes away -- and not even notice it. The lack of a rail-to-suburb network or reliable bus service greatly stifles what should be ongoing interaction between suburbanites and the city.

Milwaukee is a walker’s paradise.  Wisconsin’s largest city has made some great strides recently and, as with many cities in the Midwest, if you haven’t been here in the last decade you might as well say you’ve never been here.  Once you’re on foot, you find that this city has a lot to offer in its confusingly large yet compact downtown area. 

Read the rest at: Andrew Knee: Milwaukee – A Walker’s Paradise « urbanOut

The Predictable Outcome of Raising Fares and Cutting Services: Lower Ridership for Milwaukee County Transit

The Milwaukee journal Sentinel reports that county transit ridership has fallen 9%. This is a surprise?

From "Left on the Lake":

While the usual suburban suspects on right wing talk radio will no doubt giggle with glee over the numbers, the fact is that a strong mass transit system is critical to any metropolitan area just as it has been for the last 100 years.

So what makes Milwaukee unique in this area when other mass transit systems are seeing increased usage because of the recession? It’s simple, we’re cutting routes and raising fares. That’s a damaging combination to any service provider.

Read more at Left on the Lake.

Midwest Intercity Passenger Rail Program AT LAST?

Decades late, but here is what the beginning of a sensible transportation program looks like, via a federal grant.

Awardees : Wisconsin Department of Transportation; Minnesota Department of Transportation

Total Approximate Funding (entire corridor) : $823,000,000

Benefiting States : Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois

Miles of Track : Upgraded - 144 miles, New - 32 miles, Planned - 275 miles (est.), Total - Appx. 441 Miles

The corridor stretching from the Twin Cities to Madison, Milwaukee, and Chicago is an essential segment of the Midwest rail system. However, there is currently no passenger rail service between Milwaukee and Madison, the two largest metropolitan areas in Wisconsin.

Using grants from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), intercity passenger rail service will be established between Milwaukee and Madison with stops in Brookeld, Oconomowoc, and Watertown at speeds of up to 110 mph. Service is expected by 2013.

Improvements between Chicago and Milwaukee will ultimately reduce travel time by more than 30 percent and increase maximum speeds from 79 mph to 110 mph. Eventually, passengers will be able to travel from Chicago to the Twin Cities at a top speed of 110 mph, saving time and energy compared to driving.

Summary of Corridor Investments

Chicago - Milwaukee: Station construction, infrastructure enhancements, and signal and track improvements will increase on-time performance and reliability and create the building blocks for future 110 mph service. The increased speed will eventually reduce travel time between the two cities by more than 30 percent.

Milwaukee - Madison: Implementation of a new service by upgrading infrastructure along 80 miles of track connecting Wisconsin’s two largest cities. This project also includes new and refurbished stations, as well as positive train control. Approximately 76 percent of Wisconsin’s total population lives within 30 miles of the rail stations on this corridor.

Madison - Minneapolis/St. Paul: Planning and environmental work will begin to lay the groundwork for connecting the rail line through Wisconsin to Minnesota at speeds of up to 110 mph. Several route alignments will be considered in the planning process.

Read the rest at: Fact Sheet: High Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program: Minneapolis/St. Paul - Madison - Milwaukee - Chicago | The White House

Getting closer: Wisconsin lands $800 million for high-speed rail

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Wisconsin will receive more than $800 million to build a high-speed rail line carrying passengers between Milwaukee and Madison at 110 mph and recapture a piece of a regional rail system largely abandoned six decades ago.

The high-speed line could be up and running as early as 2013, the state says.

President Barack Obama mentioned the federal investment in high-speed rail in his State of the Union speech Wednesday night and was expected to announce the specific awards for 13 projects nationally at an event in Florida on Thursday morning.

A fact sheet issued by the White House lists the $810 million for the stations and track improvements necessary for the high-speed line connecting the state's two largest cities, along with improvements to the Amtrak Hiawatha line between Milwaukee and Chicago that will serve as the building blocks for a 110-mph service along that route.

Ridership on that line nearly doubled from 397,518 passengers in 2002 to 766,167 in 2008, then leveled off in 2009. The decrease was blamed on the recession, which decreased travel across various modes of transportation.

The federal funding is part of an $8 billion package of rail grants approved by Congress in the 2009 economic recovery act. It provides money to build up the tracks and start operation of a high-speed rail connection that had been stalled in Wisconsin for decades.

"I am really pleased with President Obama's investment in the future of Wisconsin's economy," Gov. Jim Doyle said late Wednesday. "This is a major job creation project that will provide a long-term boost to our economy.

"Through high-speed rail we will connect the major centers of commerce in Wisconsin and in the region. This was a national competition, and the results clearly demonstrate that Wisconsin had a very strong application."

As it pursued the federal funds, the state last year decided to purchase two 14-car train sets manufactured by the Spanish company Talgo Inc. Those cars are expected to be built in Wisconsin.

The advance work helped put Wisconsin in a favorable position to win the federal stimulus dollars. The effort also benefited from the planning and engineering work done on the tracks that will be used to carry the high-speed trains.

The route is expected to include stops in Brookfield, Oconomowoc and Watertown.

Eventually, the high-speed line could be extended from Madison to the Twin Cities.

Job creation cited

Doyle promoted the Milwaukee-Madison rail link as an initiative to create jobs in Wisconsin and provide a missing element in southern Wisconsin's transportation  options. In earlier lobbying, he said the high-speed line would create nearly 13,000 jobs, reduce auto trips by 7.8 million over 10 years and save millions of gallons of fuel.

Obama also touted the job-creating benefits of rail projects and included the federal grants in the economic stimulus package pushed through Congress last year. Nearly half the states submitted 45 applications for the high-speed rail funding.

The administration promised that the grants would be allocated based on the merits of the individual projects.

The work to upgrade the tracks to accommodate the high-speed trains from downtown Milwaukee to the Dane County Regional Airport is projected to cost roughly $651.8 million. Doyle sought $817 million in federal funds to cover contingencies and inflation.

Advocates and opponents have debated the value of investments in high-speed rail for decades.

Those opposed to the rail project argued that it would waste transportation dollars that the state can't afford to spend, and reduce the amount of money available to maintain and improve freeways.

The high-speed line funded with the federal allocation follows and expands on a rail corridor that existed throughout the early part of the last century, and eventually gave way to I-94.

"There have been discussions along this line for 20 years at least," said Craig Thompson, executive director of the Transportation Development Association of Wisconsin. "It's very expensive, and we've been having trouble finding money to meet existing needs."

The challenge in the future will be to find the money for ongoing operations of the high-speed rail system, Thompson said.

Rick Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association, called the award an "exciting first step" in building a system that connects cities in the region and ultimately across the country.

"Currently, people are forced to drive, and that's the most expensive and least productive way to travel," he said. "We have to find more convenient, faster and less-expensive ways to travel in order to have a strong economy."

Patrick Marley and Diana Marrero of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Read the rest at: Wisconsin lands $800 million for high-speed rail - JSOnline

"In 2005, we found that the suburban poor population is greater than the urban poor population."

Photo: From the Flickr collection of TheTruthAbout.

One of the main forces compelling people to abandon central cities in favor of far-flung suburbs in the years following World War II (besides government subsidized home loans and highways) was the concentration of poverty in urban environments.

The worm has turned: A long-term series of policies aimed at squeezing/eliminating the middle class combined with suburban growth patterns that have proved unsustainable have created clusters of entire cul-de-sacs and subdivisions that are foreclosed or rapidly degrading. Beyond the blight of abandoned McMansions, property tax-funded school districts are being de-funded to the bone, causing economically stable families to leave - - sprawling further out - - while depleted suburbs are left wondering how, for instance, they'll pay to plow those cul-de-sacs.

Highlights from The Brookings Institute Study:

By 2008, suburbs were home to the largest and fastest-growing poor population in the country.

Between 2000 and 2008, suburbs in the country’s largest metro areas saw their poor population grow by 25 percent—almost five times faster than primary cities and well ahead of the growth seen in smaller metro areas and non-metropolitan communities. As a result, by 2008 large suburbs were home to 1.5 million more poor than their primary cities and housed almost one-third of the nation’s poor overall.

Midwestern cities and suburbs experienced by far the largest poverty rate increases over the decade.

Led by increasing poverty in auto manufacturing metro areas—like Grand Rapids and Youngstown—Midwestern city and suburban poverty rates climbed 3.0 and 2.2 percentage points, respectively. At the same time, Northeastern metros—led by New York and Worcester— actually saw poverty rates in their primary cities decline, while collectively their suburbs experienced a slight increase.

Read more at: More suburban residents living in poverty - JSOnline.

See also: A Cul-De-Sac of Closures, and Responding to the Transport Needs of the Impoverished Suburbs