Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

Money Magazine names Middleton, Wisconsin best place to live

Franklin (ranked #90) take note: Middleton is where the great Middleton Hills traditional neighborhood development is located - coincidence?

Also, you'll never break the top 10 (or 50) if you continue to accept ongoing mediocrity from commercial developers (yes, that means Shoppes at Wyndham Village) and subdivision designers (that means... pretty much all of them).

Middleton profile here. Photo below is Middleton Hills.

By The Associated Press
Middleton - This small town in the shadow of Madison has its own reason to boast.

Money magazine announced today that Middleton is the "Best Place to Live" in America for 2007, citing its tight-knit community and proximity to the cultural and economic benefits of Madison.

That city, the state capital and roughly 14 times larger than Middleton, was named by Money as the best place to live in 1998.

With a population just over 17,000, Middleton was praised by Money for its small-town charm, booming economy and extensive parks and bike trails.

Many of its residents commute the seven miles to Madison for work, but enjoy the amenities a smaller town brings, Money said.

"Those places tend to do well on these kind of lists," said Money executive editor Craig Matters.

Middleton is also home to Capital Brewery, which revels in Wisconsin's beer heritage and has an expansive beer garden where patrons are encouraged to pack a picnic and stay to watch movies or listen to a band.

The American Girl dollmaker is one of Middleton's largest employers.

Sarah Witter, 37, moved to Middleton from Madison four years ago. She lives in a 105-year-old house near the downtown center with her husband and two young children.

Witter said Middleton has a "comforting, happy feeling" that sets it apart from Madison.

"Everybody is extremely welcoming," Witter said. "I've never lived anywhere in Madison where I've known all my neighbors within a couple months. I always feel like I'm in this 'Leave it to Beaver' world almost."

Money's focus this year in its annual best places to live issue looked at 2,876 places with populations between 7,500 and 50,000.

Middleton was followed by Hanover, N.H., Louisville, Colo., Lake Mary, Fla., Claremont, Calif., Papillion, Neb., Milton, Mass., Chaska, Minn., Nether Providence, Pa., and Suwanee, Ga.

Three other Wisconsin towns also made the top 100: Germantown at No. 30, New Berlin at No. 41 and Franklin at No. 90.

The rankings were based on a series of factors including economic vitality, job availability, safety, residents' health, ethnic and racial diversity, cultural amenities, green space and other economic and quality of life measures.

SAFETY ISSUES created by poor planning lead to a generation of children who cannot walk or ride bikes to school, even if school is a stone's throw from their homes

Just 48 percent of children who live within a mile of  school walk or bike to get there, a study found.
In 1969, 90 percent of children who lived near school biked or walked.

What's the deal? Many suburbs and newer cities lack sidewalks, making safety is an issue. At Franklin's Pleasant View Elementary, children who live approximately 500 yards from the school wait for and take the bus! Who can blame them? If you walk the single roadway in, you have cars and bus traffic literally brushing up against you (see picture above).

I wonder what the acceptable low property taxes vs. children hit by vehicles equation is for those who say sidewalks are a waste of money - even in a school zone?

Let's not forget the fact that subdivisions that can see Pleasant View Elementary from their backyards cannot get there without taking a long, circuitous route, a great portion of which consists of sidewalk-less, highly dangerous 51st Street.

Interesting excerpt:

Older urban communities have the most walking and biking children, at least partly because they were built with pedestrians in mind. But newer communities -- like many in the South -- were designed around the car, and may lack continuous sidewalks or safe crosswalks, [Professor Lawrence] Frank said.

Research also has shown that the South has the lowest levels of exercise and adult activity.

Walking to school goes by wayside   

By Mike Stobbe, Associated Press. Associated Press writer Dorie Turner contributed to this report

   July 14, 2007

ATLANTA -- Fewer than half of American children who live close to school regularly walk or bike to classes, according to a new study that highlights a dramatic shift toward car commuting.

Children in the South did the least amount of walking or cycling, partly  because of safety concerns, experts say.

The issue is considered important because it is linked to escalating rates of childhood obesity. And many schools have been cutting back on recess and physical education, said Sarah Martin, the study's lead author.

"Kids need to take advantage of the opportunities that do exist for physical activity," said Martin, a Maine-based consultant and former researcher with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The article about the study is being published in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Martin did the research when she was at the CDC.

Other studies have found that relatively few children walk or bike to school. The numbers have dropped as the population has grown while the number of schools has declined and the distance to get to them has grown for many families.

In 1969, about 90 percent of children who lived within a mile of school walked or biked to get there. In 2004, just 48 percent did that at least one day a week, the study found.

Separately, federal statistics suggest the numbers are worse, as expected, for children who live farther from school. In 1969, 42 percent walked or cycled and in 2001 (the most recent data available), just 16 percent did.

The figures for those living within a mile of school are based on a spring 2004 nationwide, random telephone survey of more than 7,400 families with children ages 9 to 15.

The researchers didn't ask why so many children were driven to school, but possible explanations include parental attitudes about exercise and safety concerns, Martin said.

Generally, studies have found that less educated families exercise less and have higher rates of obesity. But Martin's survey found that the children of well-educated parents were more likely to get a ride to school. She said in those families, parents may believe it's safer and more expedient for one of them to drive a child to school on the way to work.

Such families likely have more cars too. Other researchers have found that the number of cars is key to whether children walk, said Lawrence Frank, a professor of community and regional planning at the University of British Columbia.

"More cars means less likely to walk," he said.

Older urban communities have the most walking and biking children, at least partly because they were built with pedestrians in mind. But newer communities -- like many in the South -- were designed around the car, and may lack continuous sidewalks or safe crosswalks, Frank said.

Research also has shown that the South has the lowest levels of exercise and adult activity.

 

     -- Associated Press

James Rowen: "Scott Walker Cluelessness Reaches Embarrassing New Height"

Once again, James Rowen at The Political Environment distills brilliantly the obstinacy of Milwaukee County Exec Scott Walker:

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Scott Walker returned from a tour of cities with urban rail systems still opposed to a system for Milwaukee because the other cities have traffic congestion that is mitigated by the rail option.

Oh: so we don't have bad traffic congestion? So why was Walker such a big backer of spending $6.5 billion to upgrade and widen the region's freeways, including pushing new lanes through Milwaukee?

Wasn't the expansion to deal with our oh-so-horrendous traffic congestion?

Congratulations as well to the "insightful" letter-writer in last week's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel who noted: "The most successful mass transit systems in the country are all subsidized by taxes. If you think this one won't be, set the pipe down, you've had enough."

This is in contrast to our gold-plated highway system, of course, which is built with funds derived from gold fairy dust we find late at night in the meadow ...

Raising expectations: Kudos to Franklin blogger Greg Kowalski

Oak Creek's Target Complex entrance. And lots of asphalt.

Last week Franklinnow.com community blogger Greg Kowalski posted a petition in hopes of sending a message to Franklin officials regarding the cynical "we're just lucky to get one" attitude that seems to prevail regarding the Shoppes at Wyndham Village "upscale commercial center," and, specifically, the deeply disappointing cookie-cutter Target design that has been deemed okey-dokey for the area that is touted as Franklin's city center.

Greg and I don't agree on everything, and I called Greg "idealistic" for his activist stance - - frankly, I get the sense that this is a done deal for which the city will be pretty pragmatic regarding planning standards (or, as an insider put it, "the fix is in"; see my post "Dancing around the UDO"). Also, loyalties to the developer, Mark Carstensen, have clouded the issue (see "The Expectations Game 2: Standing behind the local developer"), and there are persons who feel that a company that contributes charitably (and, incidentally, very profitably public relations-wise) to a community is immune to standards ("Simply put: 'I don’t care what Target looks like'").

And let's not forget the 800-pound gorilla in the room: a developer's first priority is (and SHOULD be) to make a property profitable, not to make it particularly useful to the community in the long term. That's why city planning commissions exist - you cannot count on the developer to do what's best for the long-term vision of a city.

In the case of Shoppes at Wyndham Village, it seems apparent that Mark Carstensen's group has created a site plan designed to conform to their business plan, i.e. eventually sell the Target "unit" (the building and huge uninterrupted parking area as marked in yellow below) to Target Corporate in the near future and hold on to the outlying buildings, from which his group will collect rents and lease payments (a conjecture described in detail with illustrations here).

In other words, the same amount of parking spaces could have been provided along with provisions for pedestrians and community space, but that "package" would not something Target Corp. could eventually buy in whole.

But Mark Carstensen's group shouldn't be vilified for that potential strategy; it's up to the city plan commission to identify the conflicts with Franklin's City Civic Center standards (see the guidelines HERE) and demand (not "suggest") that they be corrected. The developer certainly isn't going to risk losing Target, the lynch pin of the plan, by unilaterally making demands.

In this case, the Franklin Common Council approved the change to an oddly-shaped three-lot plot just over a month ago without any significant discussion.

Greg Kowalski's main issue is with the suburban-wasteland design proposal for the Target building. His Target petition has generated (as of today) 40 signatures; but more importantly, Franklin residents are leaving pointed messages to the city administration regarding their expectations. While the Shoppes at Wyndham Village may well turn out to be a lost cause, Greg has contributed to Franklin's first baby steps toward a more transparent city planning process (like this) when it comes to developments that define community space, and, by extension, define us.

Greg - who is only 21 years-old, by the way - should be further congratulated for enduring ongoing juvenile attacks, taunts and name-calling emanating from his "opposite number" at Franklinnow.com, blogger Kevin Fischer, whose "opinions" are mandated by his employment as a Republican aide as well as his fervent desire to maintain side-gigs as a fill-in right wing talk show host. (Here's one of my new favorite Fischer-isms: "If I see a coyote attacking a child or a pet, and I’m a licensed gun owner, I’m blasting away. I am NOT going to clap my hands, yell "SHOO SHOO," run to the phone, or hope and pray the damn thing runs away." Next day's newspaper headline: Tragedy as man accidentally kills child: "But that gun is licensed!" he sobs to police.)

If you haven't already, go sign Greg's petition and leave a comment. Express your desire for something better for the community, not just for the developer's bottom line.

Corporate citizenship

Say what you will about the morality of their enterprise, but On The Border - - "Wisconsin's Premier Gentlemen's Club" - -  is pretty darn near the top of the sponsor list - - DIAMOND LEVEL - - of Franklin's 4th of July Civic Celebration. That's stepping up for the local community!

And they didn't do anything cynical like underwrite a Family Tent. I think I remember seeing their sign next to the Porta-potties one year, though. [UPDATE/CLARIFICATION: I'm serious; there was a big "On The Border" banner near the Porta-potties indicating that they'd sponsored them.)

Calls to mind a local blogger's argument regarding Target's inadequate store proposal for Franklin: no problem, because "Our community will benefit directly from Target’s generosity."

James Rowen: Sprawlville for the rich is Waukesha County's future

James Rowen's recent op-ed piece for the Capital Times:

Sprawlville for the rich is Waukesha County's future

James Rowen
July 6, 2007

A friend whom we hadn't seen in a while suggested we come to Fort Atkinson for a visit, so we decided to drive the "back way," using Highway 18 from Milwaukee, to both enjoy the scenery and avoid the demoralizing sprawl corridor that runs west from Milwaukee on Interstate 94 to Johnson Creek.

So we picked up Highway 18 at Brookfield, worked our way through the city of Waukesha, and headed west toward Jefferson County.

It's my duty to report that like its interstate big sister a few miles north, the two-lane blacktop of Highway 18 through Waukesha County is now just another road to Sprawlville.

What you can't miss upon leaving the Waukesha city limits are subdivisions, some incomplete, but changing the landscape nonetheless.

In "Oakmont," houses are in various stages of construction, as are some homes in "Woodland Hills" across the road on the north side of Highway 18.

The houses in Woodland Hills are indeed near some woods and hills, but many of the subdivision trees, lined up along the edge of some of the lots, were yet to be planted, their root balls wrapped in burlap.

Farther to the west, it wasn't uncommon to see a new, lone house atop a ridge, suggesting that there might be more down the back slope, tucked into the hilly Kettle Moraine.

There were still barns and cornfields along Highway 18, but these vestiges of Waukesha's rural past are getting more difficult to successfully farm, I'm told by county residents, because the once-contiguous farmland has been bisected and chopped by subdivision streets and big-lot driveways.

A billboard on one available parcel north of the highway on the way to Jefferson County offers 209 acres for sale.

That's a hefty parcel. With lots and houses routinely in the $500,000-and-up range, 209 acres is worth more than $100 million when built up.

And build they will.

Nearer to the Jefferson County line, and offering a bookend to the subdivisions closer to the Waukesha city limits to the east, there's an 81-house development, part of a larger project called "The Settlement," which is partially completed in a field just south of Highway 18.

A few months ago, Dan Vrakas, the Waukesha County executive, said in a Milwaukee radio interview (and confirmed in an e-mail he sent me) that he expects the population of Waukesha County to hit 520,000 "someday."

In 2000, the Waukesha County population was 361,000, according to the Census Bureau.

And even with all those subdivisions popping up on roads that run north, south, east and west across Waukesha County, you wonder: Where are they going to put all those people?

Multifamily housing might make sense, don't you think? Multi-units, with fewer acres of lawn watering and fertilizing per resident, could take some pressure off the land and the water table, too.

That's not in the cards for Waukesha County.

Many suburbs prohibit apartment buildings, and communities have used their zoning powers to discourage people with low to moderate incomes from putting down roots altogether by mandating that houses of the single-family variety be built on large (read: expensive) lots.

And don't look to regional planners to bring housing sanity or diversity to Sprawlville.

The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, of which Waukesha County is a member, and which bought an office in the heart of western Waukesha County's sprawl zone, hasn't written a housing plan for its seven-county region since 1975.

Which leaves action to the locals, a not altogether bad outcome in a democracy.

The good folks in Fort Atkinson, aware of approaching, encroaching sprawl, fought to block a Wal-Mart in their community and another in the neighboring city of Jefferson to give both cities walkable, traditional downtowns a better chance to survive.
Which helped us enjoy our day in Fort Atkinson.

After dinner, we walked from our friend's house near the downtown to get dessert at the Cafe Carpe, an eclectic, welcoming tavern, restaurant and music club on the Rock River.

That's where co-owner Kitty Welch still makes the world's best chocolate cake, and her husband, Bill Camplin, when not booking bands, is known to sing and play the guitar.

Sated, relaxed, we returned to Milwaukee, getting on I-94 far enough west to take a look at Pabst Farms, where a small city is being built on 1,600 acres of former Waukesha County farmland that will have nothing in common with its former identity except a name.

James Rowen is a Milwaukee writer and consultant who blogs at http://thepoliticalenvironment.blogspot.com/.

"Slow Down" signs: Trying to counteract residential streets engineered for speed

Those "Slow Down" signs you see posted in the occasional front yard seem to taunt me as I'm out for a run, tail dragging in the heat. Slow down? I'm barely moving!

An interesting item on Franklinnow.com - you can buy "Slow Down" and optimistic "Thanks for Slowing Down" signs for $9 each (to buy a sign, call Sgt. Eric Schroeder at [414] 858-2615).

Why do we need cardboard signs in our front yards? Because residential streets have been (and continue to be) designed to encourage high speed. Watch even the most sedate looking, soccer mom-driven mini-van as it streaks through a subdivision. And check out the speedway curve pictured above - - with a walking path emptying out into the heart of the turn! Amazing.

Wide roads and curves (as opposed to more sensible right-angle turns) in residential subdivisions make people drive much faster than they should, putting kids and pedestrians ( no sidewalks, remember?) at extreme risk. 

So we have to put out cardboard signs.

Franklinnow.com blogger begins petition for a better Shoppes at Wyndham Village

Franklin blogger Greg Kowalski (also a member of the now-toothless Franklin Environmental Commission) has made no secret of his dissatisfaction with the layout of Shoppes at Wyndham Village, in particular the cookie-cutter Target store proposed as co-anchor for the development.

Greg's a young guy (21 years old, I believe) which makes him an easy target for the "establishment" blogger at Franklinnow.com, Kevin Fischer (right wing fill-in radio host and employee of Republican state senator Mary Lazich) who delights in reminding us (and his readers) of Greg's youth and the fact that he does not yet pay property taxes - - which, I suppose, somehow renders Greg's opinions moot.

Greg's an idealistic guy; he's posted a petition here where he is trying to gather names to present to the powers-that-be in Franklin regarding the low quality Target site plan Franklin is apparently more than willing to accept. While he may have shot himself in the foot a bit by making the language of the petition a bit too specific, here's hoping that people bother to add their names along with a comment or two.

Greg Kowalski's Target Petition.

Holding cities and counties accountable for sprawl via lawsuit in California

From USA TODAY:

Calif. sees sprawl as warming culprit

By John Ritter, USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — California is pioneering what could be the next battleground against global warming: filing suit to hold cities and counties accountable for greenhouse gas emissions caused by poorly planned suburban sprawl.

The unprecedented action is being closely watched by states that have taken aggressive steps to combat climate change — including New York, Massachusetts and Washington.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown has sued San Bernardino County, the USA's largest in land area and one of the fastest growing, for failing to account for greenhouse gases when updating its 25-year blueprint for growth.

IN 'INLAND' EMPIRE: 25-year growth plan needs revisions, critics say
"It's ground-breaking. California is just leading the way for other states and jurisdictions that will ultimately follow," says Richard Frank of the Center for Environmental Law and Policy at the University of California-Berkeley.

In Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick in April ordered regulators to require developers of projects large enough to undergo state environmental review to assess how they contribute to global warming.

In New York, global warming is one of Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's "top priorities," says spokesman Jeffrey Lerner. "He's very focused on it. He feels like we need to do everything we can to address that issue right away."

The California lawsuit, filed in the spring, argues that the 1970 California Environmental Quality Act requires greenhouse gases to be regulated like any other type of pollution. Sixteen states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam have similar laws, but no other state has used these laws to sue over global warming.

If the suit is successful, California cities and counties could be forced to take steps to limit sprawl, promote compact development, require builders to design energy-efficient houses that offer solar power, and encourage less driving, more mass transit and use of alternative fuels.

San Bernardino County officials say they addressed global warming after the attorney general's office filed criticisms, but no regulations require them to do so in growth planning. "The state's making an example of us to send a message to everyone else in California," says spokesman David Wert.

Local Republican staffer/right wing talk show fill-in struggles to stay on-message

A follow-up to my post, "Putting the lie to right wing dogma: "The property tax boogieman will cause people to move out of Franklin": Local Republican staffer and right wing talk radio fill-in host Kevin Fischer winds himself into idealogical knots as he seeks to explain why Franklin's population is booming and new subdivisions are springing up like weeds in this "veritable tax hell."

Read it and get dizzy. If you've recently moved to Franklin, you may also be offended: "He's saying I'm an idiot to have bought a house here in this tax hell!"

But please be somewhat empathetic; his is the ongoing struggle shared by those whose ideology must conform to their primary sources of income (not a phenomena exclusive to the right or left wing, by the way). Mr. Fischer is an employee of Republican Wisconsin state senator Mary Lazich (as his Franklinnow.com bio emphatically avoids mentioning) and a right wing radio fill-in host. He's on a short leash; he will not be long for either gig if he suddenly goes off-message. (Carrying the water occasionally gets tough; I remember Rush Limbaugh sighing with relief on the air after the Republican defeat in last year's elections: “The way I feel is this: I feel liberated, and I'm going to tell you as plainly as I can why. I no longer am going to have to carry the water for people who I don't think deserve having their water carried..." ).

With that said: No one with an ounce of sense is claiming that property taxes should skyrocket. However, the reality faced by a community like Franklin is stark and unmistakable: it is a sprawled suburb that supports far-flung, profit motive-driven subdivisions with very little interconnectivity and (as of yet) no city commercial center. That's a recipe for high initial tax burden on home owners - - the price we pay for "a desirable suburb, safe and clean," not to mention (and Mr. Fischer surely wouldn't) one that provides and supports good schools for our children.

(Side note: Where's the developer who will step in and create the Neo-traditional commercial/residential neighborhood that will begin to turn the tide? What can local government do to encourage such a thing?)

Understand this: People with children in the Franklin School District (count me in that group) hear from fellow parents, and some of them are putting "For Sale" signs in their front yards because they feel they need to move to a community with a stronger commitment to their schools. (Conversely, what's the leading factor keeping a family in any certain city when "trading up" their house? I would suggest that it's the school system.)

And there are rumblings from those who look at the Target-anchored Shoppes at Wyndham Village project - - of particular significance for its location in the nominal "city center" - - as a bellwether indicating that Franklin is just not for them in the long term.  One woman put it to me bluntly: "I'm seeing that Franklin is either not interested or just unable to control how it's treated by developers."

Don't shoot the messenger - just reporting what I was told.

And there's the fact that people simply do not put down long term roots anymore. We are a mobile society that relocates with rather incredible frequency. Civic pride and sense of place are dwindling to nothing. Attend Franklin's wonderful 4th of July civic celebration this week and marvel at how anomalous such a gathering is!

(Another side note: I'll never forget the conversation I had with a Franklin municipal official when I suggested that additional commercial and civic amenities close to and adjacent to the library and Legend Park would create a nice multi-use public space where members of the community could have regular, informal, year-round social contact with one another. "Where would we have our 4th of July festival?" he exclaimed.)

Do property taxes cause certain people to relocate out of Franklin? Let's hope so! Frankly, an appreciable  out-migration is probably just what this community needs in order to re-think the sprawl mentality that has led us to "tax hell." Unfortunately, I fear the numbers presented in stories like "Franklin sees population boom, census data show" will  lull local leadership into an ongoing "business as usual" attitude, punctuated by occasional fits of look-at-us-grow back patting.