Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

Never too late for incentives in Franklin?

Last night the Franklin Common Council voted 4-1 to approve a $9,000 "grant" for a Class B reserve liquor license for Staybridge Suites Hotel (Alderman Olson voted no).

In other words, Staybridge will not have to pay $9,000 of the $10,000 fee.

The FranklinNOW online story states: Alderman Timothy Solomon said the hotel would bring much needed new revenue to the city.

"Would bring...". Not "will." So, Staybridge Suites is convinced to break ground now that this incentive is in place, right?

No - - Staybridge Suites is scheduled to open next month - - anyone driving past the corner of Ryan and 27th Street can see the structure pretty much ready to go.

Wha...?

Call me crazy, but perhaps a $9k "grant" could be better spent incentivizing a commercial opportunity in Franklin that is not days from opening!

As promised, I've submitted the issue for discussion as an agenda item for the next Economic Development Commission meeting (January 26).

In the meantime, Mark Hansen
 Director of Sales and Marketing
 Staybridge Suites has posted a comment on Greg Kowalski's Franklin Today blog which raises more questions than it answers.

Here is the text of my agenda item (with downloadable PDF as well); Download Staybridge EDC agenda item

As the issue has immediate and far-ranging impact on economic development policy and procedure in Franklin, I would like to submit as an agenda discussion item the following:

STAYBRIDGE SUITES:
$9000 LIQUOR LICENSE “GRANT” ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

It’s my goal to examine this specific instance in proper detail in order to improve policy and communications regarding economic development measures under consideration now and in the future.

Suggested non-commission participants:
    Mayor Tom Taylor
   
Our discussion should include, but not limit itself to, the following:

1) Define the parameters of the “grant”

2) Create a detailed timeline showing
•    Where and how this proposal was generated
•    Who made the primary approach (did this originate from STAYBRIDGE or the City of Franklin?)
•    At what point was this issue discussed by/brought before the EDC, if at all? What, if any, was the EDC’s recommendation?
   
3) Communication issues
•    Why is a comment on a blog the first place people read/hear about the specific details of this grant (see attachment: “Franklin Today” blog comment: Mark Hansen
 Director of Sales and Marketing
 Staybridge Suites Franklin)
•    Is Hansen’s description accurate?

4) Precedent issues: pro and con
•    Strategy: Does this “grant” bind the City of Franklin in discussions with other developers?
•    Legal: Does this “grant” bind the City of Franklin in discussions with other developers?
•    Fairness: Can this “grant,” or one like it, be offered as an incentive to a locally-owned business?
•    Example: Coffee/snack shop in front of Franklin library on Drexel/Loomis corner to spur community/commercial development in a focused area of public space.

5) Benefits
•    How does the $9000 “grant” create a better economic development situation for Franklin?

6) Deficits
•    How could the $9000 “grant” adversely affect Franklin?

7) Straw poll
•    EDC membership votes “for” or “against” the Staybridge “grant” in nonbinding open vote

Submitted 1/7/09.

Applebee's thinks they have forcefield technology separating smokers from nonsmokers. Guess what? They don't.

Why do we need a smoking ban in Wisconsin? After all, restaurants offer non-smoking sections, right?

My wife and I took advantage of a gift certificate we got for Christmas and went to the Southridge Applebee's. It was fairly busy, but the waitress (who semed to be a "shift manager") said she could seat us immediately in a non-smoking section. As she walked briskly away - evidently we were to follow her - another waitress commented, "Where are you taking them?"

She took us to a table next to the bar. "Here you go - nonsmoking for two," she said, even as smoke from the cigarette of a guy sitting at a barstool inches from her curled around her head. The bar, of course, is a designated smoking area.

No thanks, we said.

"But this is a non-smoking table," the waitress protested.

No problem; we'll go elsewhere.

A manager-type intervened as we turned to leave and seated us at a table farther from the bar. Crisis averted - for us, at least.

As we ate, I watched the poor couple pictured above as they waved away the smoke of the blonde woman sitting about a foot away. The gentleman spent most of his meal covering his mouth and nose.

But, you see, at Applebee's they dub certain tables "non-smoking" - - even when they are situated mere inches from a table they designate as a smoking area. So the blonde lady above - seated after the couple who thought they were in a smoke-free section - merrily puffed away while whatever force field that Applebee's imagined existed between the two tables failed to keep her exhalations away from the unfortunate couple.

No more Applebee's for us.

And isn't it time for the state of Wisconsin to join the 21st century and mandate smoke-free environments?

Free liquor license for Franklin hotel? So much for taking enforcement seriously

As a member of the Franklin Economic Development Commission, I say "NO." Then I ask, "Why are we even considering this?"

If this strange measure passes, I will ask to put the issue on the agenda of one of the EDC's infrequent meetings and get a big white board out so we can list all of the "advantages" of handing Staybridge Suites 10k that they apparently didn't even ask for.

The white board will likely remain pretty darn white, if I indeed even get the cap off the dry-erase marker.

Then we can talk about how the Buckhorn Inn, the bar right across the street from Staybridge (though you'd be crazy to attempt to walk there), also didn't take its liquor license so seriously.

Want to give Staybridge $10,000 that we evidently have laying around in petty cash? Write 'em a check and print a picture of the presentation in the NOW community newspaper. Don't, however, thumb your nose at the serious responsibility that comes with serving alcohol on the premises by waving off the fee.

Why should any other business bother paying any fees to the city?

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Jan. 5, 2009 | Franklin Mayor Tom Taylor will ask the Common Council on Tuesday to reconsider giving the city's first hotel a $10,000 liquor license for free.

The proposal for Staybridge Suites first was considered by the council Dec. 16 and failed on a 4-3 vote. Taylor cast the tie-breaking vote, but said today that he would like the council to reconsider the matter.

Taylor said the extended-stay hotel, which is due to open at 9527 S. 27th St. next month, is different from taverns that pay for liquor licenses. He noted that the city collects room taxes from the hotel and that Staybridge offers the possibility of drawing first-time visitors to Franklin.

Taylor said he didn't know whether the city had ever waived the liquor license fee before.

Buckhorn Inn: Any consequences?

When you live in a suburb that has precious few areas that are safe for pedestrians, you have to figure that the sullen guy leaning hard into the beer and shots four stools over is not going to get home that evening without driving. That's just a fact of life - - one that the owner of Franklin's Buckhorn Inn did not take seriously enough, evidently, when vetting and "training" his bartending staff.

From news coverage of the tragedy:

According to the complaint, Keck drank two bottles of beer around 11 a.m., then left to visit his children for Christmas, returning to the bar around 3:30 p.m.

Bartenders said they served him at least three bottles of Miller Genuine Draft, two shots of Goldschlager and one shot of Rumplemintz during his second visit. One bartender said Keck "could barely walk or talk" and was slurring his words when he left the bar shortly before 6 p.m. The bartender said he was not concerned about Keck driving because Keck usually passed out in his work van outside, the complaint says.

Problem is, he didn't "pass out in his work van" (excellent and safe plan, huh?). Keck attempted to drive home, killing two people on the way.

In addition to being ignorant of the term "overserving," the Buckhorn bartenders were also evidently unaware of carbon monoxide poisoning or hypothermia, two of the dangers Keck faced if he indeed "passed out in his work van outside," which the bartenders seemed to think was a perfectly viable option. With friends like these ...

The Franklin Common Council will debate action against the Buckhorn Tavern tonight; they rejected an independent special prosecutor's proposal of a 75-day closure.

Interesting side note: The Buckhorn's parking lot remained well used in the days and weeks after the accident; the bar seemed to suffer no stigma resulting from the incident.

It was as if nothing had happened...

UPDATED: Bush attempts to indulge in a little sprawl vandalism before he leaves office

Always time for another profitable outrage or two before headin' back to the ranch.

UPDATE: Timber firm drops road use request ("When we heard about the concern for further input, we said, 'Well, that makes sense,' and we apologized and set up some [public] meetings," said Kathy Budinick, a spokeswoman for Plum Creek)

The squeaky wheel ...

Forest Service paves way for development in Montana woods:

Washington Post

January 4, 2009

The Bush administration appears poised to push through a change in U.S. Forest Service agreements that would make it far easier for mountain forests to be converted to housing subdivisions.

Mark Rey, the former timber lobbyist who heads the Forest Service, last week signaled his intent to formalize the controversial change before the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.

As a candidate, Obama campaigned against the measure in Montana, where local governments complained of being blindsided by Rey's negotiating the policy shift behind closed doors with the nation's largest private landowner.

The shift is technical but with large implications. It would allow Plum Creek Timber Co. to pave roads passing through Forest Service land. For decades, such roads were little more than trails used by logging trucks to reach timber stands.

But as Plum Creek has moved into the real estate business, paving those roads became a necessary prelude to opening vast tracts of the company's 8 million acres to the vacation homes that are transforming landscapes across the West.

Scenic western Montana, where Plum Creek owns 1.2 million acres, would be most affected, placing burdens on county governments to provide services and undoing efforts to cluster housing near towns.

"Just within the last couple weeks, they finalized a big subdivision west of Kalispell," said D. James McCubbin, deputy county attorney of Missoula County, which complained that the closed-door negotiations violated federal laws requiring public comment because the changes would affect endangered species and sensitive ecosystems. Kalispell is in Flathead County, where officials also protested.

The uproar last summer forced Rey to postpone finalizing the change, which came after "considerable internal disagreement" within the Forest Service, according to a Government Accountability Office report requested by Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.). The report said that 900 miles of logging roads could be paved in Montana and that amending the long-held easements "could have a nationwide impact."

Tester and Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, then asked for an inquiry by the inspector general of the Agriculture Department, which includes the Forest Service.

"I think we need another set of eyes on it," Tester said Friday. "I don't think that's running out the clock. If this is a good agreement, then what's the rush? Why do it in the eleventh hour of this administration?"

Obama sharply criticized Rey's efforts during the presidential campaign, citing concerns that a landscape dotted with luxury homes would be less hospitable to Montanans accustomed to easy access to timberlands.

"At a time when Montana's sportsmen are finding it increasingly hard to access lands, it is outrageous that the Bush administration would exacerbate the problem by encouraging prime hunting and fishing lands to be carved up and closed off," Obama said.

Rey vows to act soon. In a Dec. 12 letter to Tester and Bingaman, he repeated his logic for granting Plum Creek the changes it requested, then closed with a promise to schedule briefings "to describe how we plan to proceed."

In a phone interview Wednesday, Rey said he would act immediately after the courtesy meetings with the lawmakers. "Probably in the next week or so, before this goes forward," he said. Tester said he had not yet heard from Rey's office to arrange a meeting.

On environmental questions, the Bush administration has a checkered record of following through on promised eleventh-hour changes, said Robert Dreher, a lawyer with Defenders of Wildlife.

"I suppose it's a legacy issue," Dreher said. "They've already backed off on a couple of things they said they were going to do," including proposed changes on marine fisheries and industrial emissions.

On the other hand, the Bush White House went ahead with controversial changes to the Endangered Species Act, despite opposition from environmentalists.

The Plum Creek deal could be accomplished with the stroke of a pen. Because it amends existing easements, the change involves no 30-day waiting period. But the step carries a political cost that the administration evidently has been assessing since June, when Rey said he expected to formalize within a month the change that half a year later is still unresolved.

"It's conceivable they don't want to leave office looking like bad guys," Dreher said. "There's been a lot of concern about the nature of the process and the lack of inclusiveness. You've got the county government in Montana angry over it. If they do this walking out the door, they're kind of ramming it down their throats."

A matter of perspective in the FRANKLIN CITIZEN newspaper

The FRANKLIN CITIZEN is a quaint little community paper that reports the news in Franklin with, it seems, limited resources. Bless 'em; they try.

They had a two-part feature on "The Major Events for 2008 in Franklin."

Remember the record rain and flooding in June that swamped countless basements (including mine)  and houses here in town? Remember being declared a disaster area? Remember dumpsters in front of houses all over town? Heck, I had FEMA at my house and ended up being interviewed for local news. Drexel was impassable for days. Houses floated down Lake Delton - and then the lake disappeared.

The FRANKLIN CITIZEN marked that event thusly:

Graduation Ceremony Delayed
Franklin High School Seniors finally graduated June 10, after weather postponed the ceremony June 8.

Who says journalism is dead? I'd love to see how they would have covered the moon landing.

Digging into TIFs

A perfect storm of holiday travel, remodeling, and deadline glut has precluded me from posting recently. In the meantime, check out Fred Keller's multipart series on the strange, mostly-misunderstood world of TIF (Tax Incremental Finance [or Funding]) Districts.

It'll surely be a platform for further discussion and exploration.