Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

FLOOD NOTE: IRS may cut you a break

As noted in the online video I watched at the Small Business Administration website (and via tip from Kevin Fischer), the IRS is willing to cut a break for persons affected by the flood.

As a self-employed writer, I could certainly use a few extra months to pay my first quarterly tax bill. We bought a new furnace to replace the drowned one with our stimulus check ...

Oak Creek boots Boomgaard; Franklin remains quiet

Will they get their money by from Zizzo Group? Don't hold your breath.

Would this name have been deflected without blogger pressure?

From FranklinNow.com:

The South 27th Street Steering Committee will likely have to come up with a new name for the 27th Street Corridor after its first choice -- the "Boomgaard District" -- was ridiculed by bloggers, radio talk show hosts, columnists and many residents.

The Oak Creek Common Council last night unanimously approved a motion referring the name back to the committee, with a recommendation to consider selecting a new name.

The formal action follows a consensus reached last month by Oak Creek and Franklin officials that the name should be re-evaluated by the committee. The committee decided that it would wait at least 120 days before making a final decision on a name.

Flood note: Manage your cel phone bills

In the aftermath of the flood, many people who lost land lines but still had to communicate are finding themselves way, way over their cel phone's maximum minutes and well into the .40¢-.50¢(!) per minute territory that comes with "overages." I ended up 200+ minutes past my limit even after expending a pretty good supply of the "rollover" minutes I had banked.

The expenses are piling up, so this is one you can and should nip in the bud.

Tip: Call your cel phone company and let them know you are in an area declared a Federal Disaster Area. Often they will forgive the extra minutes. In my case, AT&T (the only company you can use with an iPhone) agreed to backdate a plan upgrade for me so I'm billed for the next-higher service plan this month, which keeps me out of overage trouble. That'll cost me $20 more on one bill (I can switch back immediately, and there's no charge for plan-switching); much better than the $80-$100 I'd get socked for if I paid the per-minute overage rates.

Lost in the flood; found in the flood

Where to begin?

I'm sitting at a Starbucks, taking advantage of free wi-fi because we have no internet or cable at home.

We have no basement - - like many people here in southeastern Wisconsin, we were "affected" by flooding; eight feet of water found it's way in and drowned my office and its entire contents, not to mention everything we had in storage. So, what you see at left is ten years of my professional and personal life mixed into a slurry - the water line is just below the ceiling. The other half of the basement looked even worse. I'm not alone; dozens of households in Franklin have been upended by the storms, and the entire Midwest is absolutely reeling.

The storm was Saturday night, and it's the following Friday before I can sit still long enough to think. As many are learning, putting the pieces back together after an event like this is an exhausting, all-encompassing experience that leaves little or no time for contemplation or tapping notes into a laptop. In fact, I really have no business being here, away from the myriad things that still need attention at home. This will have to be a short entry with a promise of more later (you'll want to hear about an army of FEMA folks touring my humble abode, for instance).

This is a blog about finding community, and I found it in spades the morning after the flood. You have no idea the amount of stuff a writer with a pop culture jones can accumulate over the course of 10 years in one house; the basement was literally packed with books, memorabilia, publications, product samples, about 100 GI Joes (I wrote a book about Hasbro and their movable man of action, which pretty much put me on the mailing list for every new figure), and it had to be emptied ASAP, a task that looked like it could take the better part of a week. If not for the miniature army of help that showed up at our house the next morning once word had gotten out  -  people I knew well and people I'd never before met - I would still be hauling buckets of waterlogged books, furniture and files.

And I'm not talking about simply "helping out"; these people were in the water hauling container after container of heavy, waterlogged debris up a narrow stairway, over and over and over again. It was sweaty, dirty, painful, work that went on all day, and I was surrounded by people willing to stay with it until we got it done. And, unbelievably, we did. Six tons worth. I can't imagine being able to adequately pay back their generosity and selflessness.

Mayor Taylor came over, not to pose for pictures or gaze ruefully at the mess, but to lug containers of my office-soup up the stairs. My alderman, Kristen Wilhelm, got elbow deep, working for hours. FranklinNOW blogger Greg Kowalski and his sister pitched in. Alderman Steve Taylor came by - - and I'm not even in his district.

In the days that followed, Alderman and plan commission member Ken Skowronski stopped by to offer his expertise on battening the hatches (and my open basement window) for subsequent rain. Jerry Schaefer, Franklin's superintendent of Public Works (a busy man this week), did the same. With their advice and input I was able to take steps that helped me relax a bit as even more rain came.

In this space I talk a lot about the built environment and how it can promote or negate the sense of neighborliness and community in a suburb like Franklin. I'm seeing now what I'd always suspected - - that this is a city whose citizens and leadership are well worth bragging about and on whom well thought-out development and planning will not be wasted. We can disagree on how we get there, but we unquestionably have the human element in place that guarantees success.

What's lost in the flood is just "stuff." What you find in the aftermath of an event like this is what's really worthwhile.

Thanks is too small a word.

Free Wi-Fi is all Starbucks needs to conquer the world - and it arrives Tuesday

This could be the final nail in the coffin of locally-owned coffee-houses: Affordable (read: FREE) Wi-Fi at Starbucks.

Frankly, free Wi-Fi is probably the number one factor for me in choosing a spot to sit and drink expensive coffee - - a "third place" where I can escape the home office for a bit. I imagine this'll bring in the laptops by the bucketful.

From USATODAY.com:

Starbucks offers new flavor: Free Wi-Fi
By Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY

Thirsty for more business during the worst slump in its history, Starbucks will try to lure more customers by offering two hours of free AT&T Wi-Fi a day.
The Wi-Fi freebie will be available starting Tuesday to customers who purchase a minimum $5 reloadable Starbucks Card, register online for the Starbucks Rewards Card program, and use the card at least once a month. The two hours must be consecutive. New members also receive a voucher for a free drink.

Starbucks' 7-year-old relationship with T-Mobile for Wi-Fi service is being phased out in 2008.

For the coffee chain, the move is an attempt to entice its shrinking customer base — cutting back on pricey treats during the economic downturn — to return. Traffic and sales have been shrinking for months as founder Howard Schultz searches for a way to revive the brand. He's hoping the Wi-Fi freebie will attract more traffic to its 7,000 company-owned U.S. stores.

"Customers have let us know they want to be recognized for choosing Starbucks," says Brad Stevens, vice president of customer relationships. Particularly, he says, at a time when "budgets are tight."

While the Starbucks Card is 6 years old, the rewards program attached to it was rolled out in April. Rewards program members who register online already receive free syrup and milk options with drinks as well as free refills of hot and iced brewed coffees and a free drink when they buy a pound of coffee beans.

One brand experts says Starbucks still has a ways to go to revive the brand's image.

"They are desperate to keep the traffic going in their stores," says Eric Zeitoun, president of Dragon Rouge USA, a brand consulting firm. "But free Internet access won't get you there. Starbucks needs to fundamentally rethink the environment of its stores."

But Stevens says that free Internet will become a "core benefit" of the rewards program.

The Starbucks Card has become a behemoth — with more than $1 billion loaded onto cards last year.

Nearly 14% of all U.S. transactions at Starbucks are paid for using the Starbucks Card, says Stevens.

The card's new rewards program gives Starbucks an opportunity to gather personal information on its best customers (if they opt in), including details on what they like to eat and drink, and even when.

Starbucks is trying to figure out ways to market individually to consumers based on those preferences. "The Holy Grail is to reward customers with exactly what they want," says Stevens.

If you buy a scone each time you visit Starbucks, the chain is looking at programs that would reward you in the future with a free scone from time to time, he says.

Starbucks also is looking at ways to put card data on key fobs, cellphones and even travel mugs.

Driving Toward Disaster

James Howard Kunstler, whose name pops up often in this blog, is currently promoting his new novel, World Made by Hand, thus his somewhat higher profile in mainstream media. Just in the nick of time, too.

From The Washington Post.:

Wake Up America. We're Driving Toward Disaster.

By James Howard Kunstler
Sunday, May 25, 2008

Everywhere I go these days, talking about the global energy predicament on the college lecture circuit or at environmental conferences, I hear an increasingly shrill cry for "solutions." This is just another symptom of the delusional thinking that now grips the nation, especially among the educated and well-intentioned.

I say this because I detect in this strident plea the desperate wish to keep our "Happy Motoring" utopia running by means other than oil and its byproducts. But the truth is that no combination of solar, wind and nuclear power, ethanol, biodiesel, tar sands and used French-fry oil will allow us to power Wal-Mart, Disney World and the interstate highway system -- or even a fraction of these things -- in the future. We have to make other arrangements.

The public, and especially the mainstream media, misunderstands the "peak oil" story. It's not about running out of oil. It's about the instabilities that will shake the complex systems of daily life as soon as the global demand for oil exceeds the global supply. These systems can be listed concisely:

The way we produce food

The way we conduct commerce and trade

The way we travel

The way we occupy the land

The way we acquire and spend capital

And there are others: governance, health care, education and more.

As the world passes the all-time oil production high and watches as the price of a barrel of oil busts another record, as it did last week, these systems will run into trouble. Instability in one sector will bleed into another. Shocks to the oil markets will hurt trucking, which will slow commerce and food distribution, manufacturing and the tourist industry in a chain of cascading effects. Problems in finance will squeeze any enterprise that requires capital, including oil exploration and production, as well as government spending. These systems are all interrelated. They all face a crisis. What's more, the stress induced by the failure of these systems will only increase the wishful thinking across our nation.

And that's the worst part of our quandary: the American public's narrow focus on keeping all our cars running at any cost. Even the environmental community is hung up on this. The Rocky Mountain Institute has been pushing for the development of a "Hypercar" for years -- inadvertently promoting the idea that we really don't need to change.

Years ago, U.S. negotiators at a U.N. environmental conference told their interlocutors that the American lifestyle is "not up for negotiation." This stance is, unfortunately, related to two pernicious beliefs that have become common in the United States in recent decades. The first is the idea that when you wish upon a star, your dreams come true. (Oprah Winfrey advanced this notion last year with her promotion of a pop book called "The Secret," which said, in effect, that if you wish hard enough for something, it will come to you.) One of the basic differences between a child and an adult is the ability to know the difference between wishing for things and actually making them happen through earnest effort.

The companion belief to "wishing upon a star" is the idea that one can get something for nothing. This derives from America's new favorite religion: not evangelical Christianity but the worship of unearned riches. (The holy shrine to this tragic belief is Las Vegas.) When you combine these two beliefs, the result is the notion that when you wish upon a star, you'll get something for nothing. This is what underlies our current fantasy, as well as our inability to respond intelligently to the energy crisis.

These beliefs also explain why the presidential campaign is devoid of meaningful discussion about our energy predicament and its implications. The idea that we can become "energy independent" and maintain our current lifestyle is absurd. So is the gas-tax holiday. (Which politician wants to tell voters on Labor Day that the holiday is over?) The pie-in-the-sky plan to turn grain into fuel came to grief, too, when we saw its disruptive effect on global grain prices and the food shortages around the world, even in the United States. In recent weeks, the rice and cooking-oil shelves in my upstate New York supermarket have been stripped clean.

So what are intelligent responses to our predicament? First, we'll have to dramatically reorganize the everyday activities of American life. We'll have to grow our food closer to home, in a manner that will require more human attention. In fact, agriculture needs to return to the center of economic life. We'll have to restore local economic networks -- the very networks that the big-box stores systematically destroyed -- made of fine-grained layers of wholesalers, middlemen and retailers.

We'll also have to occupy the landscape differently, in traditional towns, villages and small cities. Our giant metroplexes are not going to make it, and the successful places will be ones that encourage local farming.

Fixing the U.S. passenger railroad system is probably the one project we could undertake right away that would have the greatest impact on the country's oil consumption. The fact that we're not talking about it -- especially in the presidential campaign -- shows how confused we are. The airline industry is disintegrating under the enormous pressure of fuel costs. Airlines cannot fire any more employees and have already offloaded their pension obligations and outsourced their repairs. At least five small airlines have filed for bankruptcy protection in the past two months. If we don't get the passenger trains running again, Americans will be going nowhere five years from now.

We don't have time to be crybabies about this. The talk on the presidential campaign trail about "hope" has its purpose. We cannot afford to remain befuddled and demoralized. But we must understand that hope is not something applied externally. Real hope resides within us. We generate it -- by proving that we are competent, earnest individuals who can discern between wishing and doing, who don't figure on getting something for nothing and who can be honest about the way the universe really works.

James Howard Kunstler is the author of The Geography of Nowhere and, most recently, of World Made by Hand, a novel about America's post-oil future.

"Why are streets and land uses in postwar suburbs arranged so that everyone has to have a car to reach even the most routine daily destinations?"

From Planning Quote of the Day:

"Why do we lay out subdivisions that make it impossible for a ten-year old to walk to a store for a Popsicle or a loaf of bread? Why are streets and land uses in postwar suburbs arranged so that everyone has to have a car to reach even the most routine daily destinations? Wouldn't it be better if everyday necessities were easy to reach and if the streets and sidewalks were designed as convivial places for meeting friends and neighbors?"

-- Philip Langdon, "New Development, Traditional Patterns" (in Planning Commissioners Journal #36)

Is Ed McMahon the Rock Hudson of the mortgage lending crisis?

Bear with me.

Remember when AIDS was considered by the high-minded to be some sort of punishment from on high sent to punish libidinous homosexuals for their morality-flouting lifestyles?

It wasn't just southern evangelists. Ronald Reagan's communications director, Pat Buchanan, stated that AIDS is "nature's revenge on gay men." Reagan's response to the growing epidemic was anemic at best. It was a problem confined to "others," people outside of his conception of reality (he fought World War II on a soundstage, remember).

The message was clear whne it came to AIDS: Fund programs for prevention, education, treatment and a cure? Why should we upstanding heterosexuals pay for the profligate lifestyles of morally bankrupt homosexuals - - i.e. bad people?

Because, you see, only bad people got AIDS.

How deep did the notion pervade the Reagan administration? From an article called Reagan's AIDS Legacy: Silence Equals Death:

Dr. C. Everett Koop, Reagan's surgeon general, has said that because of "intradepartmental politics" he was cut out of all AIDS discussions for the first five years of the Reagan administration. The reason, he explained, was "because transmission of AIDS was understood to be primarily in the homosexual population and in those who abused intravenous drugs." The president's advisers, Koop said, "took the stand, 'They are only getting what they justly deserve.' "

Not even a medical problem, they thought.

Things changed on July 25, 1985, when the American Hospital in Paris announced that Rock Hudson, a mainstream star in the Reagans' circle of acquaintance - - high profile good people! - -  had AIDS. Though Reagan and his administration remained resolutely silent on the epidemic (he finally publicly addressed AIDS in 1987, near the end of his second term), mainstream Hollywood rallied around the cause all the more fervently, campaigning for government funding and intervention. 

Because, you see, good people get AIDS. "Gosh, this could happen to anyone!" the people in Ron and Nancy's circle began to say to themselves.

If this could happen to Rock Hudson ...

Compare the pre-Rock Hudson attitude of righteous conservatives toward AIDS with local right wing columnist Patrick McIlheran's cold condescension toward those unlucky enough to be swept up in the mortgage lending crisis wave. He quotes an "angry renter":

"It just seems so wrong that these people made a wrong decision," she said, "and now they're crying for help and they seem to be getting it."

McIlheran himself lectures further:

Rage as you will about liars' loans and bankers' bonuses, what's still more outrageous is when we make it official public policy to punish the prudent and to help the profligate. It's grim that some people could lose their houses and have to rent for a while. It would be far worse if Big Mama Government swooped in to undo their mistake - with money taken from people who wanted to stop renting and never got the chance.

In this case the federal government has decided to take action; foreclosures are occurring at record levels, and, frankly, the banks are the main beneficiaries of the bail-out (it pays to have friends in high places). If some actual American citizens see a bit of relief, so much the better.

But, McIlheran sputters, why should we upstanding homeowners pay for the profligate habits of all those bad people? Because, you see, only bad people get into mortgage trouble. Only bad people can be taken in by fast-talking loan representatives who profit enormously from ridiculous mortgages. Only bad people experience bad breaks. McIlheran apparently can no more muster compassion for these deadbeats than Pat Buchanan could for the promiscuous, hedonistic queens he saw in his mind's eye when contemplating the scourge of AIDS.

We now learn that Ed McMahon - - by all accounts a sensible, good person with money and lawyers and powerful pals! - - is facing foreclosure on his mansion.

From CNN:

King: And the payments, you can't make -- what's the problem?

Ed McMahon: Well, if you spend more money than you make, you know what happens. And it can happen. You know, a couple of divorces thrown in, a few things like that. And, you know, things happen. You want everything to be perfect, but that combination of the economy, I have a little injury, I have a situation. And it all came together.

Anyone even vaguely acquainted with pop culture of the past half-century is aware of McMahon's countless hosting and spokesman gigs. The guy was always working, tireless - - and don't forget his profit and syndication participation in shows like Star Search and TV Bloopers And Practical Jokes (on NBC from 1982 until 1998!). I'm fairly certain he never has to pay for his Budweiser, either.

And yet, it is happening to him - - a man with armies of agents and lawyers watching over him. He's not a guy known for tossing around money or being particularly "profligate." He's known as one of the "good eggs" in Hollywood. But, nonetheless, misfortune swooped on him (a broken neck, a bad real estate market, etc.) and now he faces a crisis.

Sure - you can see gold-encrusted Evander Holyfield getting into money trouble - that fits the McIlheran "you had it coming" profile. And the McMansion-lusting young couples who jumped from dorms to five-acre cul-de-sacs via mom and dad loans and made-up income numbers - - I admit to feeling they cooked their own goose.

But Ed McMahon? There he is on Larry King saying, "You know, things happen"! He's a veteran of two wars!

Gosh, this could happen to anyone!

So, what about non-celebrity people who are equally "good eggs," not particular greedy (though McIlheran preaches incessantly that greed and wastefulness are our God-given rights as Americans), and didn't/don't have that army of lawyers and agents nearby to check the paperwork for them? What about the ones that didn't "over-buy," but just bought a modest house for their family while trusting their mortgage broker?

Remember that paperwork when you bought your house? Remember the whole afternoon of signing and initialing? Did you have a lawyer present? You don't think they could have slipped one by you during that process?

Think again. One does not have to be "profligate" to be victimized. There are solid, coupon-clipping, flag-waving citizens out there who are in a deep hole because they took bad advice.

And to the "Angry Renters" quoted in McIlheran's piece: Rather than wallow in smug self-involvement and blame the victims, count your lucky stars (as I do; I bought my house before the boom and have a "sane" fixed mortgage). You dodged a bullet - the slightest shift in circumstances and you would have been in a chair at CountryWide Mortgage with a grinning rep hovering over you, paperwork in hand, American Dream in sight. "Only a fool would pass up this deal in this market. Are you going to be a fool?"

Because if it can happen to Ed McMahon ...

RELATED: The mortgage lending crisis explained

FLICKR set of Charlette, NC transit photos

PA130097, originally uploaded by davereid2.

Thanks to Dave Reid at UrbanMilwaukee.com for the great shots.

"Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them."

Excellent point made by a letter writer in the Journal Sentinel recently. Make transit an integral, pleasant part of infrastructure, and people will quickly incorporate it into their daily routines. We're about 12 years behind on this.

Habit-forming transit

Philosopher A.N. Whitehead's rule of thumb: "Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them."

Applied to our ecologically threatened lives, this rule of thumb means that an effective green strategy has got to be one that doesn't require anyone ever to think green. Green has got to be built into the infrastructure that shapes our daily routines.

Roads and rails are just such routine-shapers and therefore deserve our full attention and wisest decisions. As we assess their impacts, we can see that a widened road encourages car-centered habits; mass transit encourages greener routines. Forecasting the long-term future, I contend that the road to ecological hell is paved with wide swaths of concrete - not with intentions of any sort.

William Washabaugh
UWM Professor of Anthropology
Milwaukee