Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

Bruce Springsteen: Still speaking truth to power

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel photo by Jim Bovin

Bruce Springsteen didn't play BORN IN THE USA last night at his Milwaukee show.

At least not the "old version." No one in the Bush administration will mistake his devastating update, GYPSY BIKER, for a campaign jingle ala Reagan and BORN.

More on a transcendent show later ...

GYPSY BIKER

The speculators made their money
On the blood you shed
Your Mama's pulled the sheets up off your bed
The profiteers on Jane Street
Sold your shoes and clothes
Ain't nobody talking 'cause everybody knows
We pulled your cycle out of the garage
And polished up the chrome
Our Gypsy biker's comin' home

Sister Mary sits with your colors
Brother John is drunk and gone
This whole town's been rousted
Which side are you on
The favored march up over the hill
In some fools parade
Shoutin' victory for the righteous
But there ain't much here but graves
Ain't nobody talkin'
We're just waitin' on the phone
Our Gypsy biker is comin' home

We rode her into the foothills
Bobby brought the gasoline
We stood 'round her in a circle
As she lit up the ravine
The spring high desert wind
Rushed down on us all the way back home

To the dead it don't matter much
'Bout who's wrong or right
You asked me that question I didn't get it right
You slipped into your darkness
Now all that remains
Is my love for you brother
Lying still and unchanged
To them that threw you away
You ain't nothin' but gone
Our Gypsy biker is comin' home

Now I'm out countin' white lines
Countin' white lines and getting stoned
My Gypsy biker is coming home.

Copyright © 2007 Bruce Springsteen (ASCAP)

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel review.

"We're going to have to shoot Rover, sweetie. Taxes are too high...."

In the battle of graphic designer prowess (online and on paper), Franklin candidate for mayor Basil Ryan is clearly burying the incumbent, Tom Taylor.

But the image on the slick-looking mailer I got this past week is a bit.... overwrought, to say the least.

"You see, sweetie, developers have run rampant on the city's current administration, and we're paying the price now. So go say your goodbyes to Rover and we'll do the fiscally responsible thing."

Basil Ryan's website.

Tom Taylor's website (which still, unfortunately, misspells "government. Point taken: none of the "friends of Tom Taylor" read Sprawled Out.)

3/17/08 UPDATE: Spelling is corrected!

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article: Bitter Rivals Face Off Again in Franklin Race.

"I knew the information was wrong, but I posted it anyway because I had an important point to make."

I told you it gets worse.

To review yesterday's entry:

Go to this post by Kevin Fischer (the post is now altered; he pasted in the correct numbers after being busted). See that? Numbers and stuff showing how GW's done such a great job for the middle class tax-wise as compared to Clinton.

Click the thumbnail below to see the pre-busted entry in all its glory.

Now go to what Kevin Fischer calls "my source." He didn't actually travel there, by the way, or he would have seen this clear disclaimer on that very site:

Recently an incorrect comparison of income taxes under Presidents Clinton and Bush has been making the rounds of the internet, showing up in forwarded e-mails and on numerous blogs and message boards. (See examples here, here, here, and here.)

Yes - they are referring to the VERY SAME incorrect comparison that Kevin Fischer blithely pasted into his blog (taken - uncredited - from here, here, here, or here?).

The disclaimer states in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS that the information in those other blogs, which is ostensibly from the Tax Foundation, is INCORRECT. The disclaimer was posted way back on February 19th.

End of review. On to the update.

A couple of commenters on Fischer's blog pointed out his lack of fact-checking, prompting a jaw-dropping evasion from Fischer.

Remember, Fischer did one of two things. Pick one:

• He found the numbers on the page he claims as "my source," where he saw the huge, unmistakable disclaimer/warning saying "THESE NUMBERS ARE WRONG!"  - - and posted them anyway.

or

• He took the material from another fact-challenged blog - "Hey, these numbers look good!" - and failed to check the source or credit the blog he took it from.

I pick the second option. Blog CSI reveals that he accidentally picked up a bit of the other blog's html code when he copied the material, which screwed up the "Single making 50K" line (see below). Oops!.

However, Fischer clearly didn't want to admit that he'd simply cut-and-paste information from another blog without checking the source or giving attribution to the blog. (This from the author of the line "Conservatives take responsibility for their actions.")

What follows is the beginning of Fischer's reply to the commenters who called him on his error. Ladies and gentlemen, here is everything you need to know about purveyors of conservative dogma (as opposed to truly thoughtful conservatives who engage issues with facts) in one astounding paragraph  (please adopt serious, broadcaster-like tones when reading):

I was well aware of the disclaimer by the Tax Foundation when I posted this entry. Obviously, I had no problem with this post (after all, I plastered it on my blog) because I had an important point to make.

Surely, this will inflate his stock with like-minded WISN squawk radio. "Why let facts stand in the way of my important point?"

Observation: If Fischer applies the same honesty-free logic when at work as an aide for Republican state senator Mary Lazich, ("Kevin, please find for me the amount of taxes various income groups paid in 1999 under Clinton..."),  that may explain her voting record.

Lesson: Bring a grain of salt when reading Kevin Fischer's "facts."

And liberal bloggers aren't off the hook - - there are a few out there who are certainly not immune from instances of fact-bending to suit their "important point." This particular instance, however, needed to be called out  as many of Fischer's dogma-skewed, insight-averse "facts" are capable of causing real harm close to home.

I respect Kevin Fischer's right to his opinion (and his newfound blogging/commenting civility has not gone unnoticed), but we all have a duty to the facts first, and our "important point" second.

If and when I get it wrong, I expect the same scrutiny.

The "journalist" too busy to actually READ "his source"

Go to this genius post by Kevin Fischer. See that? Numbers and stuff showing how GW's done such a great job for the middle class tax-wise as compared to Clinton.

Cut, paste - - it's "journalism"!

Now go to what Kevin Fischer calls "my source." He didn't travel there, by the way, or he would have seen this clear disclaimer on that very site:

Recently an incorrect comparison of income taxes under Presidents Clinton and Bush has been making the rounds of the internet, showing up in forwarded e-mails and on numerous blogs and message boards. (See examples here, here, here, and here.)

Yes - they are referring to the VERY SAME incorrect comparison that eager-beaver Kevin Fischer blithely pasted into his blog (perhaps taken - uncredited - from here, here, here, or here?). The disclaimer was posted way back on February 19th.

What an embarrassing way to reveal a blatant, unchecked-out, unattributed cut-and-paste job from another blog (or, worse, a forwarded e-mail of dubious origin).

Kevin Fischer can't be bothered to check the primary site that he calls .... "my source"?

He can't give proper attribution to the blog or site that he actually took it from?

So, with that slipshod behavior revealed, is there any question as to whether Kevin Fischer bothered to check the math that the extremely dubious "Tax Foundation" uses, even in its corrected figures?

Not when you have a cut-and-paste ideology uninformed by actual insight or research.

Fischer recently wrote (with a straight face?): "Conservatives take responsibility for their actions."  

Well, once they're busted they do. And then only after they've exhausted every legal (and sometimes illegal) maneuver available.

It gets worse. Stay tuned ...

Cabela's: Perfecting the art of big box extortion

(ABOVE: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel photo by Jeffrey Phelps)

What a deal.

Cabela's - notorious for extorting local governments (and taxpayers) where they build stores - will be getting $4 million from Washington County for the favor of building their store there. The county will be taking out a loan at 5.5% to pay the subsidy; it will be in hock until 2023.

Now, understand: This is not $4 million worth of road improvements for around the store location, or $4 million worth of infrastructure enhancements surrounding the Cabela's building, or a deal for property tax abatements that total $4 million.

This is a straight cash payment of the county to a business of four million dollars.

I'm not kidding. And it gets better.

"Well," Mr. Pro-Big Box might say, "a store like Cabela's generates sales tax that the county can use to lower property taxes of its citizens, make county-wide infrastructure improvements, etc."

Wrong. The county has a plan: the tax dollars generated by Cabela's go right back to pay the loan on the extortion fee that the county agreed to. That's right; Cabela's does not contribute sales tax to the county until approximately 2023. Every penny of sales tax generated by Cabela's goes right back into their coffers.

Compounding the punishment inflicted on the county; they eat 5.5% interest on a loan - - almost another million dollars - - because Cabela's wants payment of $4 million immediately.

So, in return the county gets... "temporary ownership of 18,085 square feet" of the store? For what, exactly? And does the county swallow the property tax on that square footage (if they were due to get any in the first place)?

What a deal.

Cabela's works their magic all over the country. Texas, for example, as reported by Jim Hightower in The Austin Chronicle:

For its part, Cabela's is unabashed about its dependence on corporate socialism, even declaring in its annual report that grabbing public money is key to its business plan. But while it thrives on government giveaways, the retail chain has added a new twist to the game by demurely declaring that, as a private, for-profit company, its privacy rights would be violated if details about its public subsidy were revealed to the public. Thus, Cabela's has sued our state attorney general, claiming that it would suffer "substantial competitive harm" if the terms of its deal with the governor were publicly disclosed.

So, class, let's review: A private corporation is funded by the state to give it a leg up on its local competitors, but it declares that it must be exempt form the state's public disclosure law in order to protect its competitive advantage. Are we clear now on the new definition of "free enterprise"?

It bears repeating that Gander Mountain, which has a store here in Franklin, is actively anti-subsidy. Heck, I'll even link to a conservative website to illustrate the point.

Google "Cabela's" and "extortion," by the way, and you get 1,180 hits. And pray they don't come around here, where the current administration has never met a big box that it doesn't smother with wet, sloppy kisses.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Cabela's payment decided

County to temporarily 'own' part of store

By DON BEHM
dbehm@journalsentinel.com

West Bend - Washington County this spring will fulfill its September 2005 pledge to pay $4 million to Cabela's for building a store in Richfield, county attorney Kim Nass said.

In return for its subsidy payment, the county will gain temporary ownership of 18,085 square feet - encompassing the four major wildlife and fish displays - inside the 165,000-square-foot outdoor gear store, Nass said.

Documents officially describe the space as a "condominium" unit. The four displays include the towering conservation mountain with a stream at the center of the main retail floor, a walk-through freshwater fish aquarium, North Woods animal museum and an African diorama.

The county received a $4 million loan from the State Trust Fund in August 2007 to finance the subsidy, but the payment to Cabela's has been delayed as terms of the agreement continued to be negotiated, Nass said. A 5.5% interest rate will boost total payments to no more than $5.97 million.

The loan will be repaid no later than 2023 with county sales tax dollars generated by retail purchases at Cabela's, finance director Susan Haag said.

The first loan payment is due in March 2009. Washington County's ownership of the area inside the store will lapse when the loan is repaid, in 2023 or earlier.

Since the store opened in September 2006, the county has set aside the full $370,488 in taxes generated by Cabela's merchandise sales for the first loan payment, Haag said.

In 2007, the Cabela's store collected $234,262 in sales taxes for the county, or nearly 2.6% of all county sales tax collections last year.

With friends like these ...

Are they really "friends of Tom Taylor" if they still haven't told him that  - of all words - "government" has been misspelled on his re-election web site for weeks?

Oops ...

3/17/08 UPDATE: Spelling is FIXED!

Business subsidies: Revealing who is getting a free lunch at your expense

Who else finds it interesting that the CNI NOW websites created an easy way for you to see exactly how much a 3rd grade teacher is paid - - with his or her name included in the data - - but they don't provide a chart detailing the state and local subsidies and corporate welfare doled out to, for instance, Wal-Mart, Target and Cabela's?

One reason they don't is the fact that these subsidies are cleverly hidden, even at the municipal level. Frankly, most elected officials are unable to enumerate for you the full extent of subsidies granted to individual developers and businesses.

We'll talk more about these subsidies as they relate to Franklin and communities like ours in the very near future. You'll be very surprised at the bounties suburban governments are willing to give to big boxes for the favor of locating in their side of the street, and further surprised at how well hidden these subsidies are. Then, you'll be outraged when you learn that there is little or no return on these expenditures; in fact, most often the local municipality sees a loss, all in service to competing against the suburb across the street. Across 27th street, for instance.

To repeat a Franklin Alderman's quote of last week:

"Congratulations," said [District 2] Alderman Timothy Solomon to Deborah Tomczyk, an attorney representing Wal-Mart. "We're not all against Wal-Mart just so you're aware. You're bringing forth a very nice project."

Remember those words.

Corporate socialism is alive and well ...

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Transparency on business subsidies

By BRUCE SPEIGHT  and PHINEAS BAXANDALL

It always makes sense for government to improve the bang it gets for its buck, but especially during tough budget times. Democrats and Republicans deserve credit for having found a way to do so.

The state of Wisconsin currently faces a $652 million budget deficit. Despite partisan bickering that delayed this year's budget by four months, representatives from both chambers have reached across party lines to pass bipartisan bills that create public disclosure of government subsidies for economic development.

Last summer, the Journal Sentinel examined deals with 25 big companies that were awarded about $80 million in state subsidies over a six-year period. The investigation found that overall the companies fell about 40% short on the job creation they promised in order to receive the subsidies. In the absence of established accountability mechanisms, the investigation reported that the state often lowers its requirements rather than canceling the subsidies or seeking repayment.

Legislation passed this week should prevent such scandals in the future. It consolidates and strengthens rules about disclosure of state expenditures intended to spur business in the state. It will make information about subsidies readily accessible through a searchable online database that lists who receives commerce subsidies for what purpose. It also provides a type of taxpayer money-back guarantee to recoup state funds if recipients do not deliver on their promises.

Regardless of how much public money one believes should be spent on business incentives, improved transparency makes sense. We live in an era when Americans expect to be able to search their own bank accounts or cell phone bills online, in which we can verify information people tell us by Googling it. To restore public confidence in government, we must also have "Google-able government" when in comes to transparency and accountability for the public purse.

The great advantage of disclosing and integrating information about subsidies is also captured in a simple business nostrum: You can't manage what you can't measure. At present, subsidies get doled out through an uncoordinated range of disparate programs that lack a larger vision of the whole. It is not possible, for instance, to access whether subsidies are focused on the right industries or regions and to determine which incentives create the most high-paying jobs. Reliable and comprehensive data make it possible to assess whether we are implementing programs fairly and effectively. It also makes it possible for state managers to evaluate how money could be better spent.

The law, which is expected to be signed by the governor, follows in Wisconsin's proud tradition of open government. Our state also has become a leader in disclosing the activity of lobbyists and disbursement of procurement contracts.

To realize the law's full potential will require careful rule-making and attention to the reported information. The information must be fully searchable and should include details about subsidy recipients' promised investments, jobs and health care coverage, for instance.

Most important will be to ensure that accountability follows transparency. The provision for "recouping" subsidies from recipients that don't deliver or lie about their performance must be enforced to have real teeth. Watchdogs inside and out of government will need to keep a close eye on the information.

As Wisconsinites prepare their taxes this season, they can rest a little easier knowing that a new tool for transparent government will be working for them.

Bruce Speight is a public interest advocate with Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group. Phineas Baxandall is a tax and budget policy analyst for WISPIRG.

 

"New media have empowered neighborhood groups"

From Planning Quote of the Day:

new media have empowered neighborhood groups

"Free, new media have empowered neighborhood groups tremendously. A decade ago, anyone wanting to oppose a rezoning or a development had to go door to door or make scores of phone calls to get people to meetings. Time and distance greatly constrained what people could accomplish.

But now an increasing number of neighborhood groups are using tools like Yahoo or Google groups, which allow e-mail messages to go out instantly to group members -- and only to group members -- so quickly that neighborhoods are now as agile as their industry opponents. Neighborhoods are also using free blogs to give them a public face and to archive public documents.

I think this new "Army of Davids" power is very apparent in Greensboro, where developers have lost recent rezoning battles (or given up before they started) in response to neighborhood pressure. It looks like they're going to lose a few more."

-- David Wharton, "And They're Getting More Organized All the Time" (Dec. 4, 2007, on his A Little Urbanity blog about living in the middle of Greensboro, North Carolina)

"Free, new media have empowered neighborhood groups tremendously. A decade ago, anyone wanting to oppose a rezoning or a development had to go door to door or make scores of phone calls to get people to meetings. Time and distance greatly constrained what people could accomplish.

But now an increasing number of neighborhood groups are using tools like Yahoo or Google groups, which allow e-mail messages to go out instantly to group members -- and only to group members -- so quickly that neighborhoods are now as agile as their industry opponents. Neighborhoods are also using free blogs to give them a public face and to archive public documents.

I think this new "Army of Davids" power is very apparent in Greensboro, where developers have lost recent rezoning battles (or given up before they started) in response to neighborhood pressure. It looks like they're going to lose a few more."

-- David Wharton, "And They're Getting More Organized All the Time" (Dec. 4, 2007, on his A Little Urbanity blog about living in the middle of Greensboro, North Carolina)

What about that Wal-Mart expansion?

A couple of emailers have asked why SPRAWLED OUT seems to be ignoring the Wal-Mart expansion plans on 27th street.

First, of all - thanks for asking!

Three main reasons:

#1, I recognized early on that it was a done deal and there would be little or no discussion about it. Turns out, there wasn't even public comment allowed at the Plan Commission meeting where the expansion was to be discussed - an "error on the agenda," according to Mayor Taylor. Alderman Hammelman, with whom I have no beef, evidently did himself no re-election favors by failing to speak out strongly for his constituents and demanding the reinstatement of the planned public comment period.

#2, the expansion is literally a blight absorbed into a blight. The Wal-Mart physical building and the entire area around it has been allowed to sink into decrepitude that is creeping outward in an ever-widening orbit of near-squalor.  The message sent by Wal-Mart seems to be: Let us expand and we'll clean up after ourselves. A little. Maybe. For a while.

#3, SPRAWLED OUT will comment comprehensively on corporate socialists like Wal-Mart in the near future, as well as businesses like Gander Mountain who have, without fanfare, actually turned down handouts from eager-to-please local governments - - the same handouts that companies like Wal-Mart and Cabela's unashamedly demand (and get).

An aside to Alderman Solomon ("Congratulations," said Alderman Timothy Solomon to Deborah Tomczyk, an attorney representing Wal-Mart. "We're not all against Wal-Mart just so you're aware. You're bringing forth a very nice project."): Those who are not wary of Wal-Mart do not understand Wal-Mart.

Stay tuned.

And now, back to a period of grieving for the loss of #4.

Milwaukee's transit mess: "A comical story about how a community can waste and squander"

I guess my favorite example of the kind of short-sighted thinking that opponents of comprehensive public transit engage in can be encapsulated by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Patrick McIlheran's now infamous blog entry (unlinkable today - jammed because of - choke - Favre's retirement news Fixed. But Favre is still retiring) where he made the following deeply revelatory financial calculation:

I wanted to see what the posh place in Franklin had on offer. And -- here's the key -- I had it somewhere my head that gas was down to $2.85, so why not spend a little cheaper gas getting there?

That's just brilliant. Remember, folks, these are the same live-for-the-moment guys who tell us that light rail is a bad, expensive idea. Because after all, we have enough gas today.

The bill is coming due ....

UPDATE: Finally got through to the McIlheran blog to be greeted by this gem:

Owen Robinson finds the best part of the story about people inconvenienced when the county transit system cuts off low-ridership routes and portions of routes -- the woman who fell on ice while walking the added distance to reach a bus route. It boils down to:

I broke my knee. I blame Scott Walker.

The best part. What a knee-slapper, so to speak.

(Also noted at Whallah, where McIlheran gets no love - - he and I both deployed "knee-slapper.")

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

$91.5 million federal transit aid blocked

By LARRY SANDLER
lsandler@journalsentinel.com

Posted: March 3, 2008

After years of wrangling over how to spend $91.5 million in long-idle federal aid, a bureaucratic mix-up has blocked further study of using the money for public transit improvements, officials said Monday.

And until that problem is solved, the federal money - the last remaining piece of a $289 million appropriation from 1991 - can't be spent on express buses, streetcars, light rail or anything else that has been proposed, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker said.

City administrators will be summoned before the Milwaukee Common Council's Public Works Committee on Wednesday to explain what happened, said Ald. Bob Bauman, the committee chairman.

"It's a fitting conclusion to what has been a fiasco and just a comical story about how a community can waste and squander" a shrinking pool of federal money that is now in increasing danger of being lost altogether, said Bauman, a longtime transit advocate. He added the issue to his committee's agenda after learning of it from a Journal Sentinel reporter. Walker, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and other leaders said they are appealing to federal transit officials and may seek help from the state's congressional delegation to straighten things out.

Full Story in extended ...