Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

George F. Will - "Condescending lectures by liberals RE Wal-Mart"

George Will weighs in on the Chicago Wal-Mart controversy. Surprise - - Mr. Will believes that if enough people buy it, that makes it “good.” The market is always correct; regulation is bad. (We deregulated the savings and loans, which cost the taxpayers $500 billion, but I digress).

Mr. Will throws out some whoppers:

“By lowering consumer prices, Wal-Mart costs about 50 retail jobs among competitors for every 100 jobs Wal-Mart creates.”

Beyond the fact that he seems to have pulled these numbers from his nether regions, Mr. Will deceives himself by thinking that “a job is a job.” "100" is clearly more than, greater than, higher than, "50," you thick dummies, so be happy and bow before your Wal-Martian deliverers!

Even if these made-up numbers are remotely correct, he fails to consider that the loss of a full-time job paying even a shade above minimum wage but with insurance and benefits does not in any way equate with a Blue Vest punch-in job at Wal-Mart, where benefits are laughable and “associates” can and are sent home early on a regular basis, cutting further into their wages.

And what about Wal-Mart suppliers who have to send hundreds of previously domestic jobs overseas in order to meet Wal-Mart's near-monopolistic demands for "the low price"? Is that just one layer too deep to think about?

“So why is the woman shopping here anyway? She looks at the questioner as though he is dimwitted and directs his attention to the low prices of the DVDs on the rack next to her.

"Sensibly, she compartmentalizes her moods and her money. Besides, she should not brood.”

This could be the Holy Saving Statement for pro-business Republicans everywhere: “Sensibly, she compartmentalizes her moods and her money.” I imagine the civil rights activists who staged the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 should have been sensible and “compartmentalized their mood and their money” as well. Mr. Will seems almost amused by the woman's economically enforced inability to ignore Wal-Mart and go elsewhere.

Woe be to the people at the top of the pyramid when the middle and lower classes finally do decide to get “uppity” - - stop being, as Mr. Will condescends, "sensible" - - and actually vote with their pocketbooks.

(Also, DVDs are not all that inexpensive at Wal-Mart, as anyone who took the time to look can tell you. They generally "front" some inexpensive loss-leaders at the end-caps and charge more than, for example, Best Buy, on the balance of their titles.)

I could go on and on - - and probably will tomorrow, since Mr. Will has tackled this issue as ineffectively and one dimensionally as my poor Green Bay Packers tackled Bears ball carriers last Sunday.

Condescending lectures by liberals
by George Will

    EVERGREEN PARK, Ill. -- This suburb, contiguous with Chicago's western edge, is 88 percent white. A large majority of the customers of the Wal-Mart that sits here, less than a block outside Chicago, are from the city, and more than 90 percent of the store's customers are African American.

    One of whom, a woman pushing a shopping cart with a stoical 3-year-old along for the ride, has a chip on her shoulder about the size of this 141,000-square-foot Wal-Mart. She applied for a job when the store opened in January and was turned down because, she said, the person doing the hiring "had an attitude." So why is the woman shopping here anyway? She looks at the questioner as though he is dimwitted and directs his attention to the low prices of the DVDs on the rack next to her.

    Sensibly, she compartmentalizes her moods and her money. Besides, she should not brood. She had lots of company in not being hired: More than 25,000 people applied for the 325 openings.

    Which vexes liberals such as John Kerry. (He and his helpmeet last shopped at Wal-Mart when?) In 2004 he tested what has become one of the Democrats' 2006 themes: Wal-Mart is, he said, "disgraceful" and symbolic of "what's wrong with America." By now Democrats have succeeded, to their embarrassment (if they are susceptible to that), in making the basic numbers familiar:

    The median household income of Wal-Mart shoppers is under $40,000. Wal-Mart, the most prodigious job-creator in the history of the private sector in this galaxy, has almost as many employees (1.3 million) as the U.S. military has uniformed personnel. A McKinsey company study concluded that Wal-Mart accounted for 13 percent of the nation's productivity gains in the second half of the 1990s, which probably made Wal-Mart about as important as the Federal Reserve in holding down inflation. By lowering consumer prices, Wal-Mart costs about 50 retail jobs among competitors for every 100 jobs Wal-Mart creates . [editorial comment - wha...?] Wal-Mart and its effects save shoppers more than $200 billion a year, dwarfing such government programs as food stamps ($28.6 billion) and the earned-income tax credit ($34.6 billion).

    People who buy their groceries from Wal-Mart -- it has one-fifth of the nation's grocery business -- save at least 17 percent. But because unions are strong in many grocery stores trying to compete with Wal-Mart, unions are yanking on the Democratic Party's leash, demanding laws to force Wal-Mart to pay wages and benefits higher than those that already are high enough to attract 77 times as many applicants than there were jobs at this store.

    The big-hearted progressives on Chicago's City Council, evidently unconcerned that the city gets zero sales tax revenue from a half-billion dollars that Chicago residents spend in the 42 suburban Wal-Marts, have passed a bill that, by dictating wages and benefits, would keep Wal-Marts from locating in the city. Richard Daley, a bread-and-butter Democrat, used his first veto in 17 years as mayor to swat it away.

    Liberals think their campaign against Wal-Mart is a way of introducing the subject of class into America's political argument, and they are more correct than they understand. Their campaign is liberalism as condescension. It is a philosophic repugnance toward markets, because consumer sovereignty results in the masses making messes. Liberals, aghast, see the choices Americans make with their dollars and their ballots and announce -- yes, announce -- that Americans are sorely in need of more supervision by . . . liberals.

    Before they went on their bender of indignation about Wal-Mart (customers per week: 127 million), liberals had drummed McDonald's (customers per week: 175 million) out of civilized society because it is making us fat, or something. So, what next? Which preferences of ordinary Americans will liberals, in their role as national scolds, next disapprove? Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet?

    No. The current issue of the American Prospect, an impeccably progressive magazine, carries a full-page advertisement denouncing something responsible for "lies, deception, immorality, corruption, and widespread labor, human rights and environmental abuses" and for having brought "great hardship and despair to people and communities throughout the world."

    What is this focus of evil in the modern world? North Korea? The Bush administration? Fox News Channel? No, it is Coca-Cola (number of servings to Americans of the company's products each week: 2.5 billion).

    When liberals' presidential nominees consistently fail to carry Kansas, liberals do not rush to read a book titled "What's the Matter With Liberals' Nominees?" No, the book they turned into a bestseller is titled "What's the Matter With Kansas?" Notice a pattern here?

Link: George F. Will - Democrats Vs. Wal-Mart - washingtonpost.com.

Roundabout plan may get a trial spin

Forest Lake, MN considers building first of 7 traffic circles next year BY ALEX FRIEDRICH Pioneer Press Forest Lake residents nervous about navigating the seven roundabouts planned for Broadway Avenue in 2008 may get a taste next year of what's to come. City officials on Monday will consider building one roundabout next summer at Broadway Avenue West and Lake Street, also known as U.S. 61. It's a move designed to decrease the traffic disruption the seven-roundabout project is expected to create. And some city officials say it avoids bombarding an unfamiliar public with seven of the traffic circles at once. "This has more to do with traffic management, but it also gives us the opportunity to do just one," Mayor Terry Smith said. Planners are trying to use roundabouts to solve the traffic nightmare along Broadway Avenue West, the four-lane road leading from Lake Street North downtown to just west of Interstate 35. Traffic can be clogged for blocks at rush hour, and it is the most crash-prone street in Washington County. Roundabouts direct vehicles into a one-way traffic circle at intersections. Planners say they keep traffic flowing smoothly and reduce the number and severity of accidents. Although roundabouts can be confusing at first, backers say they are easier to navigate than stoplights, because drivers only have to worry about merging with traffic coming from one direction. Forest Lake's plan envisions roundabouts at Broadway Avenue's intersections with Lake, Fourth, Seventh, 12th and 19th streets — plus two where the street meets Interstate 35 ramps. To increase safety, a raised median would run down the middle of the street to prevent drivers from making dangerous left turns. The roundabouts themselves would have two lanes. The plan would cost at least $10 million. If things go smoothly, construction on the first would begin in July. Construction on the rest could begin in early 2008, with all but landscaping finished by late 2008. When city officials several months ago proposed the idea for seven roundabouts — which would be the longest string in Minnesota — some business owners and residents were skeptical. Then-City Council Member Dick Tschida suggested trying one and seeing how it worked. Council Member Rick Ashbach said Friday that "bringing familiarity (of the roundabout) to the community before they all hit makes a lot of sense." Smith said he proposed the idea several weeks ago, mainly as a way to minimize the project's disruption of traffic. If workers tore up all of Broadway — including the Broadway-Lake intersection — it would be difficult to detour Lake Street traffic through the construction on Broadway, he said. "To tear up Broadway and Highway 61 at the same time would create a horrendous traffic mess," Smith said. If planners put in the Broadway-Lake roundabout first, the mayor said, they could easily detour traffic through Broadway. The finished roundabout could then handle Lake Street traffic when the rest of Broadway is torn up next year, he said. Putting in the roundabout next year would also fit the timing of other construction plans for those two roads, city and county officials said. "It would be nice to do everything at the same time," said Washington County Transportation Manager Sandra Cullen, who said county engineers support the proposal. Sanket Bhakta, owner of the AmericInn on Broadway, said business owners have been concerned that roundabouts and medians will decrease customers' access to their businesses by making left turns impossible. But he called the try-out plan for the one roundabout "a great idea." Alex Friedrich can be reached at afriedrich@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2109.

Link: Roundabout plan may get a trial spin.

Sherman Park development backed

Link: JS Online: DayWatch.

By Tom Daykin

A 22-unit apartment and retail development proposed for Milwaukee's Sherman Park neighborhood has received preliminary city zoning approval, with construction to begin in November, the developer said today.

The $4.5 million Boulevard Commons project is planned for the 4200 block of W. North Ave. by New Covenant Housing Corp., a non-profit developer. The project, which has received Plan Commission approval, should take about nine to 12 months to complete, said Executive Director Johnny Moutry Jr.

New Covenant received $350,020 in federal affordable-housing tax credits and will use those credits to generate equity financing for the project.

In return, all but two of the two- and three-bedroom apartments will rent at below-market rents, for about $650 to $750 a month, Moutry said. Those apartments are available only to people earning up to 60% of the area's median income - roughly $40,300 for a family of four.

The development also will have 6,000 square feet of street-level retail space.

Chicago manages to beat Packers AND workers in 48 hour span: Daley vetoes 'big box' ordinance

From the Chicago Tribune:

By Gary Washburn Tribune staff reporter

Published September 11, 2006, 12:58 PM CDT

Mayor Richard Daley today vetoed the "big-box" minimum
wage ordinance, setting the stage for a veto override vote at
Wednesday's City Council meeting.

But Daley's action signaled he has the necessary support on the council to sustain the veto.

The ordinance requires that beginning next July, employees will be paid a minimum of $9.25 an hour in wages and $1.50 in fringe benefits, figures that will rise to $10 and $3, respectively, by 2010. Automatic
annual cost-of-living increases will apply thereafter.

By comparison, the federal minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, while the state minimum is $6.50 an hour—but both amounts can be less if employees receive tips.

"I understand and share a desire to ensure that everyone who works in the city of Chicago earns a decent wage," Daley said in a letter addressed to the council that was filed with the City Clerk's office. "But I do not believe that this ordinance, well intentioned as it may be, would achieve that end.

"Rather, I believe it would drive jobs and businesses from our city, penalizing neighborhoods that need additional economic activity the most," Daley said. "In light of this, I believe it is my duty to veto this ordinance."

It was the first time in Daley's 17 years as mayor he exercised his veto power. By law, the mayor had until Wednesday's council meeting to issue his veto.

In a rare display of defiance, aldermen had voted 35-14 on July 26 to pass the minimum-wage law over the mayor's opposition.

Retailers had threatened to challenge the new law, absent any signal from City Hall that Daley was going to veto it.

The ordinance applies to stores of at least 90,000 square feet operated by firms with $1 billion or more in annual sales.

Earlier this summer, Wal-Mart said plans for as many as 20 stores in the city over the coming years could be affected by the ordinance's passage. Before the City Council vote, Target Corp. had told three South Side aldermen that planned stores in their wards were being put on hold pending the vote.

"By vetoing this ordinance, the mayor has decided to stand with the most powerful, profitable corporations in the world against the taxpayers, the working men and women of this city," Ald. Joe Moore (49th), the Big Box measure's sponsor, told WGN-Ch. 9.

"I'm very disappointed and hope my colleagues will stand firm and override the mayor's veto on Wednesday," Moore said.

gwashburn@tribune.com

Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

Link: Daley vetoes 'big box' ordinance | Chicago Tribune.

 

The Gross Report: Cul-de-sac Nation

Excellent ruminations on the culture of the cul-de-sac at The Gross Report, though I disagree with his assessment of visibility in a cul-de-sac; often back yards are arranged such that you have no neighbors visible on either side:

So, why might an urban planner mistakenly categorize a cul-de-sac as a public space? This bizarre misbegotten spawn of irrational thinking could arise by focusing on one necessary (but not sufficient) aspect of a public space: visibility. In a public space, actors are visible to other actors. For instance, consider a shopping mall or, better yet, the front steps of a county courthouse. People in these two places, both in passing through these places and conducting business, see each other. Because of the layout of these places, it is impossible not to be seen. (For contrast, consider the world of Internet commerce, where millions of consumers come and go without ever having to leave their home or come face-to-face with their fellow shoppers). The quintessential public space was the Greek agora (or its modern equivalent, the New England town meeting), where citizens met to discuss politics. A cul-de-sac does indeed resemble a public place insofar as residents of the cul-de-sac itself are exposed to (otherwise put: can be seen by) their neighbors. That is, a resident of a cul-de-sac, in conducting his daily residential activities (mowing the lawn, going to / coming from work, playing croquet with his kids in the front yard, watching porn with the wife with the curtains open, etc.) is visible to all of his cul-de-sac neighbors. This is in contrast to a traditional street, where one's activities are visible primarily to the house on the other side of the street. In a cul-de-sac, a large amount of a resident's activities are visible to his fellow neighbors.

Link: The Gross Report: Cul-de-sac Nation.

"Upscale commercial" in Franklin

The September 5th meeting of the Franklin Common Council opened with citizen comments, and a middle-aged woman stepped to the microphone to speak about an article she'd read in the Franklin Hub newspaper about developer Mark Carstensen's plans for commercial development on the corner of Drexel and Hwy. 100 - - an agenda item for later in the meeting, as it happens:

I’d just like to make a comment in support of that. I’d like to see that happen. There are other prople in the area that also would like to see him build. He does a nice job; he’s done a wonderful job with what he’s done in Wyndham Hills and his own little mall he has on Loomis Road and Drexel. I’ve been waiting a long time – I’ve been here only five years – but it seems like a long time for some of those stores, retail stores and other stores, grocery stores, to come into our area. And since he’s made that proposal I’d just like to say that I’d like to see that happen. I drive to North Avenue and 124th to go to Sendik’s. I drive out to Waukesha or Brookfield to visit Chico’s and Talbot’s; Wauwatosa to go to Outpost, and I sure would like to see some of those in our Franklin area. I don’t know if there’s anything else you’d like me to say, but …

Mayor Tom Taylor, in thanking the commentor, noted that he was getting substantial email in support of the project, with just a few in opposition.

Finally, after normal city business, the “Shops at Wyndham Village” agenda item came up. The director of community development, Doug Wheaton – a near-enigma to me, as I’ve been utterly unable to get through to him via phone or email – sat before the council with Mark Carstensen to render the opinion of the Department of City Development and clarify the requests before the council, which were A) rezoning from multi-family to Civic Center, and B) to establish a date for a public hearing on the matter.

Wheaton outlined seven key criteria on which the City Development department’s positive appraisal of the project is based:

• The project brings the property into compliance with Comprehensive Master Plan
• It’s an attractive commercial location
• The plan provides amenities beneficial to community and appropriate to the neighborhood; citizens have requested upscale shopping
• The plan is consistent with goal of decreasing tax burden on residents by pursuing the 70-30 goal (Mayor Tom Taylor interjected at this point: “The number 1 goal of the common council”). 27th Street, the site of anticipated growth, is actually outside the Franklin School District while the Carstensen property is within it.
• The developer has agreed to fully comply with environmental regulations
• The developer’s reputation is excellent
• The opportunity will pass if no action is taken

After Wheaton's remarks, Carstensen made the Sendik's announcement, which spread rosy joy throughout the room. Council members took turns praising Carstensen, and, true to my prediction, mention was made of a letter or flier that had been distributed in adjacent neighborhoods that was, according to more than one alderman, full of erronious information. (I'd love to see that flier.)

Once again, I have to say that the project seems very promising. So what's to worry about? Well, for one thing, there are no plans or visualizations of the development available to review. Carstensen's inability at the last meeting of the Plan Commission to definitively say that a big-box like Wal-Mart would not be part of the complex raised some eyebrows; Wal-Mart has a track record of elbowing its way into communities that don't want it there, sometimes by getting zoning changes made by a “front developer” before announcing their intention to invade.

At this particular meeting, it seemed clear that Carstensen’s liberal use of phrases like “you have my word” and direct statements like “I would not impose anything that would negatively impact any of those people that live on the north side [of Drexel]” were aimed squarely at the Wal-Mart boogie-man. He is certainly no carpet-bagger, having been born and raised right here in Franklin. The Wal-Mart fear can most likely be put to rest.

Another concern is the placement of the potential “Shops at Wyndham Village” (let’s call it The SaWV from now on) commercial center in relationship to Franklin’s already sprawled civic buildings.

I’ve shaded a “dead zone” in the photo above that will exist between the Franklin Library – which is an enormous community asset that is fast becoming a popular civic gathering space – and The SaWV. Though still in the “Civic Center” district as defined by Franklin’s Comprehensive Master Plan (though the comical, car-centric separation of the library, city hall, the police station and the post office make "Center" an iffy designation at best), there is not so much as a sidewalk connecting The SaWV site and the library. Franklin cannot afford to put in a sidewalk, and they cannot require Carstensen to do so; in any event, the space between the two areas is too far to walk for the typical shopper.

For all of its wonderful potential, The SaWV are in danger of becoming another parking lot-encircled “pod” in the sprawling Franklin landscape. Will this concern be aired at the public hearing?

At the September 5th Franklin Common Council meeting, developer Mark Carstensen finally lifted the veil a bit on his proposed "Shops at Wyndham Village" development at Drexel and Hwy. 100: Upscale grocer Sendik's is confirmed as a tenant.

One can imagine the developers at Fountains of Franklin, the other "upscale lifestyle center" currently under construction 2-3/4 miles away over on Rawson, vastly lowering their expectations. They haven't announced a single tenant as of yet.

More tomorrow ...

"It's tough to tell someone you know that your building looks ugly."

A typically insightful column this week from Whitney Gould in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, discussing sad developments in the Wisconsin resort area of Door County.

Fish Creek - I've been vacationing in Door County since I was a teenager. Even back then, when my parents weren't golfing at Peninsula State Park they were grousing about "too much development." (Translation: Mom-and-pop cabins being leveled for fancier motels.)

These days, the motels are giving way to condos; modest cottages are becoming teardowns; and meadows that once swayed with Queen Anne's lace are sprouting McMansions. I find myself sounding more and more like my parents, fretting that Door County's character - the breezy ambience born of those wide-open spaces and water views; the intimacy of those picturesque little villages - is being lost.

But it's not just the development that worries me. It's the ugliness of so much of it: the proliferation, in the unincorporated areas, of faceless metal storage sheds; the obliteration of scenic vistas; the squeezing of huge, poorly designed condos and generic-looking shopping strips into narrow sites; the overall lack of attention to proportion, scale and detail. Has the architecture profession gone AWOL up here?

"So much of what we're seeing was designed for cities," says Virge Temme, a Sturgeon Bay architect who shares my distress. "It's completely out of character for Door County."

Temme, to her credit, is trying to buck the trend. Her houses tend to be small and nicely proportioned and packed with earth-friendly features such as solar heating, recycled and salvaged materials, and rainwater collection systems.

But she has been approached by builders who want her to "design" massive new condos, when what they really mean is that she should rubber-stamp an already completed cookie-cutter design by non-architects - an illegal, unethical practice that she wants no part of.

"There is no real sense of style to much of this stuff," says Mark Walter, executive director of the Bay-Lake Regional Planning Commission. "It's just haphazard. And with property values increasing so fast" - shoreline parcels can bring up to $20,000 a linear foot - "people just don't understand how to say no when someone is waving $1 million in front of you for some new project."

Locals told me that the close-knit nature of the peninsula's villages, with their old-boy networks, makes things even trickier.

"It's tough to tell someone you know that your building looks ugly," says Bob Kufrin, village administrator in Sister Bay, which is becoming a haven for retirees.

Link: JS Online:Character assassination: Good design AWOL in Door County sprawl.

Suburban Sprawl - Heaven or Hell?

Contains an interesting critique of pro-sprawl author Robert Bruegmann's book, Sprawl: A Compact history -

Suburban Sprawl - Heaven or Hell?
Americans Are Getting Frustrated with the Suburban Sprawl Lifestyle

By Joel Hirschhorn

If all the sprawl subdivisions covering America is heaven, then we know that people get to heaven in their cars. On the other hand, when sprawl residents fill up their several household cars with gas and choke on what all their driving is costing them, they are likely to think they’re in hell. And when they arrive home tired and stressed out and have a few spare minutes to pay their bills for electricity, natural gas and – for many – rising mortgage costs and soon reach for the bottle of anti-depressant pills and later some prescription sleeping pills, they know that life in suburban sprawl is no longer the heavenly American dream.

Though I once lived in classic suburban sprawl - in Madison, Wisconsin - and eventually learned to hate that automobile dependent lifestyle, it was not until I worked on the sprawl issue from a public policy perspective for the National Governors Association that I learned just how awful the past half-century of relentless sprawl has been for our nation. Mae West said “too much of a good thing is wonderful.” Maybe that’s a good way to decide whether something is good or not. For me ice cream and Chinese food are good and too much of each of them is definitely wonderful. You can probably think of a number of good things in your life. However, think about what you have seen outside of downtowns – the congested roads and highways, the endless strip malls, the big box stores with their seas of parking lots, the never-ending rows of chain restaurants and fast-food joints (that are pretty much the same everywhere in the nation), and all those cookie-cutter subdivisions covering hills, valleys and once beautiful farmland. Is all of that “wonderful?” If not, suburban sprawl is definitely not good. And we certainly have much too much of it covering an incredible amount of America from Puerto Rico to Hawaii to Alaska and everywhere in between.

Link: Suburban Sprawl - Heaven or Hell? - Associated Content.