Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

The folly of funding the Drexel Interchange: Part 2 - Subsidizing an off-ramp economy rather than creating a community-strengthening, sustainable DEEP economy

Continuing my discussion of a proposed Interchange on Drexel Avenue (see Part 1).

First, an updated report from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

The [Oak Creek] Common Council on Thursday scheduled a special meeting for 6 p.m. Monday to discuss the city's financial commitment to a possible I-94 interchange at Drexel Ave.

The council has already adopted a resolution pledging $3.75 million in city money. At time [sic], that was equal to 25% of the $15 million that the state Department of Transportation estimated the interchange would cost.

The DOT, however, requires 50% in local money to build an interchange.

Recently, however, the DOT reduced its cost estimate to $12.9 million and Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance, which has a large office complex in Franklin, has pledged $1.6 million toward the interchange cost.

The City of Franklin has not pledged any money to the proposed interchange, although it has said it would cover $500,000 in lighting on the Franklin side of S. 27th St. That would normally be the responsibility of the DOT.

A new resolution to be considered at Monday's special meeting would commit Oak Creek to the same $3.75 million it previously pledged for the interchange, plus $650,000 in lighting for Drexel Ave. and S. 27th St. and related utility costs.

The resolution was to have been considered at the council's regular meeting Tuesday, but the discussion was postponed.

The Franklin Common Council said this week it is open to further negotiations on a Drexel interchange.

So, Oak Creek -- a beneficiary of the superfluous-to-Franklin interchange by virtue of its location relative to Howell Ave. and the vacant Delphi plant; why wouldn't they be all for it? -- waits for Franklin to flinch. They are good poker players.

But if Franklin is smart, the city will stand pat and keep its half-million out of this blatant subsidy.

I'm pessimistic about the city's ability to play their cards right, though. Unfortunately, past and present Franklin members of the 27th Street Steering Committee suffer from cognitive dissonance when it comes to economic development in that area. This group, composed of self-professed "true conservatives," has gotten used to tossing around numbers like $265,823 for marketing materials related to 27th Street. Once you've committed to a writing checks like that, a half-mil is not so hard to part with when it might actually result in an actual work product (and, obviously, Boomgaard does not count as a positive outcome).

Meanwhile, putting sidewalk facilities in front of Franklin's high school (finally!) during the impending reconstruction of 51st street -- a vital, common sense piece of the rehabilitation this city sorely needs -- is bemoaned by 27th Street chair and Franklin alderman Steve Olson because, true conservative that he is, he believes the city should not spend money that, in his view, it does not have. (On the positive side, it should be noted that Alderman Olson is no Scrooge; he donated $50 to the Franklin Trails Committee's Walking Workshop, held last weekend.).

Here are some truths that need to be understood:

1. The interchange will be built, whether or not Franklin subsidizes it with its half million dollar "enhanced lighting" Trojan horse payment. The powerful road-building lobby has this in hand, and will deploy their bought-and-paid-for advocates;
2. Does an interchange near city limits create jobs? Yes - site location consultants count access to a freeway as a plus for any community they are considering;
3. When site location consultants evaluate Franklin for freeway access as a potential asset, they put a big gold star next to the city's name: The Rawson and Ryan interchanges bracket the city perfectly. (New interchange? No thanks - we're good);
4. Does a third(!) interchange near city limits create jobs? Yes, but 99% of them require a hair net and pay minimum wage;
5. Why is Northwestern Mutual kicking in? Northwestern Mutual owns a large parcel of land across 27th Street from their Franklin corporate campus. $1.6 million is a small price to pay to create the possibility of a lucrative off-ramp development (they are surely not looking to cut 95 seconds from their employees' commutes);
6. Franklin is facing infrastructure and municipal service challenges to the extent that $500,000 can and should be utilized within city limits, or on regional efforts that are more likely to strengthen the city's sustainability;
7. The Rawson and Ryan interchanges create a natural traffic flow onto 27th Street, which is supposed to be our commercial jewel, the marketing of which is evidently worth our spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. Frankly, a Drexel interchange breaks that advantageous flow;
8. The newly-created ramp-blight vs. potential opportunity equation weighs distinctly against Franklin. Off-ramp fast food jobs do not offset increased road damage, heightened "drive-thru community" image problems, and diversion of traffic away from already-expensive 27th Street.

Franklin faces a clear choice: Spend a half-million dollars to subsidize off-ramp fast food franchises and shoot more and faster traffic through town, or use that money to bolster a sustainable, deep economy that will attract quality businesses and jobs.

So, if site location consultants feel that Franklin is already well situated with regard to freeway access, what other factors do they look at that Franklin ought to work on improving? We'll look at that in Part 3 (and, hopefully, at the Economic Development Commission meeting on Monday night).

The "Enhanced Lighting" Trojan Horse and the folly of funding the Drexel Interchange: Part 1

 

 

TOP PHOTO: Abandoned restaurant on 27th street directly across the street from the Northwestern Mutual corporate campus, 2006. ABOVE: Same abandoned restaurant, 30 minutes ago.

An interesting debate is occurring in neighboring Oak Creek and Franklin regarding a proposed Interchange on Drexel Avenue.

Let's get this out of the way right now: This interchange will be built. Promises have been made, money has changed hands. The question is whether Franklin will be suckered into paying for an interchange we don't need.

The proposed interchange is in Oak Creek, directly adjacent to their growing Howell Avenue commercial corridor, a strip-mall-clogged, drive-thru abomination that nonetheless provides some level of sales tax and property tax revenue to the city, and that's nothing to sneeze at.

The citizens of Oak Creek -- which is an otherwise beautiful suburban community, don't get me wrong -- probably don’t point to this particular strip with civic pride (but, hey, there’s a Sonic Drive-In there!). On the other hand, a huge plot of land containing an abandoned manufacturing plant is ripe for just the kind of development that direct proximity to an interchange can bring; a new interchange would almost certainly put that parcel into play. Oak Creek has much to gain from what is to Franklin a superfluous interchange.

The length of Drexel Avenue between the proposed interchange and 27th Street, which is supposed to be marketed and developed as an Oak Creek/Franklin partnership, is laughably under-engineered. Though the road is ostensibly part of the Oak Leaf Bike Trail, it has no shoulder to speak of and is a virtual death-trap for any biker brave enough to traverse it.

The State Department of Transportation, which requires a 50% local-money commitment to new interchanges, has set a May 1st deadline for Franklin and Oak Creek to collaborate on funding their "shares."

Northwestern Mutual, whose campus in on the Franklin side of 27th Street, has offered to contributes $1.6 million to the interchange project. So their employees can get to work 90 seconds quicker from the south? No -- they own the empty land on the Oak Creek side of 27th Street, where an urban village has been envisioned.

Now it gets complicated, and I’ll paraphrase at this point. As part of the Oak Creek/Franklin 27th Street partnership, both cities committed to a half million dollars each for “enhanced lighting” on 27th Street.

“Enhanced lighting?”

Anyway, long story short: The State DOT said, in effect, we’ll pay for the “enhanced lighting” (“enhanced lighting”?), if Oak Creek and Franklin toss their funds originally earmarked for “enhanced lighting” (“enhanced lighting”?!?!) into the “build an Interchange” pot.

So, instead of paying for what could be considered an improvement for the potential 27th Street Corridor -- of benefit to Franklin AND Oak Creek -- Franklin taxpayers will be tricked into paying a half million dollars for an Oak Creek interchange of no real benefit to Franklin, a city which is bracketed nicely by the Rawson and Ryan Interchanges.

Last night, according to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

The Franklin Common Council deadlocked on a proposal made by Ald. Steve Olson. Olson proposed that Franklin pay for $500,000 in lighting improvements on S. 27th St. that normally would be the obligation of the DOT if the DOT built the Drexel interchange and required no money from Franklin for the interchange.

You don't even have to read between the lines to see the folly of such a move! The Trojan Horse was stopped at the door. For now.

Funny thing is: Oak Creek also took no action regarding the Drexel Interchange.

They are turning out to be much better poker players than the Franklin side of the road.

Part 2 to come, in which we discuss bad poker, new priorities and opportunities, and the effects of cognitive dissonance on 27th Street Steering Committee members  ...

Proposed agenda items for next Economic Development Meeting

 

Here are my submitted agenda items for the Franklin Economic Development Commission meeting scheduled for Monday, April 26 (6pm; room to be announced).

I'll post the agenda when it appears; unfortunately, there is no guarantee that any of these items will appear.

1) Digital Visioning Presentation: This will reprise the presentation I gave, at the mayor's request, to the Ad Hoc Development Process Review Committee. IT WOULD BE USEFUL TO HAVE POWERPOINT CAPABILITIES FOR THIS; I can make paper handouts if PowerPoint is not possible. [Note: I'm long overdue in sharing my Digital Visioning presentation here on SPRAWLED OUT. The illustration above is a preview.]

2) Franklin Trails Committee update: Walking Workshop and next steps.

3) Web 2.0 and Economic Development: Discussion of implementations to the City of Franklin website that can be made at little or no cost; discussion of FaceBook page for Franklin Economic Development news and issues; etc.

4) Re-engagement with/re-assessment of the 27th Street project: I'm told by Mayor Taylor that the Economic Development Commission is essentially responsible for the 27th Street Steering Committee, yet it is my opinion/observation that the EDC membership is woefully under-informed as to the issues facing the project as well as the monies being spent. (I note, for instance, that the 4/20/10 Common Council agenda item G.5 concerns the Drexel Avenue Interchange in relationship to 27th Street, and the EDC has not offered the Common Council a recommendation on the issue.)

I think we have to:

• Tear this thing down to its component pieces, review the timeline, and make sure this ongoing expenditure still makes sense in the current (and anticipated) economic climate, as well as in light of Oak Creek's evolving indifference; and
• If we're going forward, reassess the streetscape planning and design to leverage new federal grant and funding opportunities that accompany certain design choices that I do NOT see in any current streetscape drafts.

If the 27th Street reassessment means distributing a bunch of binders full of review information at this meeting and then holding the discussion at a subsequent meeting (after the EDC membership has had time to review the material), so be it.

Coveting an interchange, will a local business pony up the cash?

ABOVE: In a photo taken while Northwestern Mutual's "phase 2" was still under construction (see girders at upper right), the Oak Creek "commitment" to connecting 27th street to a possible Drexel interchange is demonstrated. The road has since been re-paved --- but remains a narrow, near-shoulderless barrier.

Steve Jagler, executive editor of BizTimes in Milwaukee, made some spring predictions via the OnMilwaukee.com site.

While we're on the south side of the county, Oak Creek and Franklin have been unable to come up with the matching local funds that the Wisconsin Department of Transportation would require to build a new freeway interchange on Interstate 94 at Drexel Avenue. Later this year, look for Northwestern Mutual Insurance Co. to pony up and cover the heretofore missing dollars. The Quiet Company is hush about its plans, but sources say Northwestern Mutual needs the exit ramp to serve its sprawling campus on South 27th Street. The company also has acquired several parcels of land surrounding the campus, and a freeway exit at Drexel Avenue would add commercial value to the properties.

This is a fairly fascinating notion. Anyone who has traveled Drexel on the Oak Creek side of 27th Street can't help but notice that the road is very consciously "under-engineered." After all --- the "spirit of Franklin-Oak Creek 27th Street cooperation" notwithstanding --- Oak Creek wants traffic to go EAST to their burgeoning commercial strip on Howell. What do they need with 27th Street?

So a fairly superfluousness interchange may be funded because Northwestern Mutual perceives a 45-second time-savings as a possible boon to property it owns around the 27th Street campus --- most significantly, on the Oak Creek side. Rather than take the Rawson exit, which brings traffic right down 27th Street (and through a commercial district that Oak Creek-Franklin profess interest in cooperatively growing), a Drexel interchange offers drivers a choice of turning west on a narrow, uninviting road (the Franklin side), or right on a meticulously maintained, multi-lane asphalt wonder (the Oak Creek side), which has a huge, vacant Delphi plant waiting for commercial development.

It doesn't take much imagination to see, in the lack of regional cooperation at work here, a moat forming around the island city of Franklin.

I've placed this on the agenda for discussion at the next Franklin Economic Development Commission meeting and that of the Trails Committee; we'll see what sense of urgency is created.

Because we should know better by now: Rehabilitating suburbia

Dwell Magazine and Inhabitat.com sponsored a REBURBIA Suburban Design competition recently, challenging entrants to reinvent suburbia. Perhaps make crapulent, hostile landscapes (like the one above) more safe, useful, and conducive to community.

In a future where limited natural resources will force us to find better solutions for density and efficiency, what will become of the cul-de-sacs, cookie-cutter tract houses and generic strip malls that have long upheld the diffuse infrastructure of suburbia? How can we redirect these existing spaces to promote sustainability, walkability, and community? It’s a problem that demands a visionary design solution and we want you to create the vision!

Clearly, wholesale razing of asphalt-moated structures is not practical, so solutions that rehabilitate the mistakes of the past are especially intriguing. Hence, "Reburbia."

A series of before and after drawings by Galina Tahchieva immediately caught my eye. The restaurant pad below should be very familiar to residents of Franklin and surrounding communities. Unfortunately, the "new" Golden Corral restaurant slated for 27th Street - yes, the 27th Street for which the city has expensively established "design standards" - looks almost exactly like the "before" picture below. I guess we'll fix it later.

This set of simple infill techniques represents a sprawl repair toolkit to retrofit the 5 building prototypes that define Suburbia. These iconic detached structures and their parcels, via modest interventions, have the potential to contribute to a more diverse, cohesive urban fabric within a walkable and identifiable public realm.

Rather than being demolished, these existing buildings are re-purposed and/or lined with new structures using renewable technologies and energy-efficient practices, often taking advantage of Suburbia’s typically excessive setbacks and parking lots.

A drive-through restaurant pad becomes part of a main street, but largely concealed from it, with perimeter liner buildings added along the edges of its parking lot. A strip center is converted into a recycling center with a green roof and 2 side-wings with solar panels framing a courtyard that reaches to the sidewalk. A gas station remains in place while growing a two-story corner store-office extension at a busy intersection to help screen it. A suburban ranch house is permitted to utilize its deep front yard to add a wing with additional bedrooms, a home office, or a rental outbuilding that creates a courtyard with the existing home and defines a livelier street frontage at the sidewalk. Even the ubiquitous McMansion can be converted into senior housing when a five-bedroom/ three-car garage home yields a 10 room-9 bathroom facility for seniors and a caretaker.

See the other 4 building types at Urban Sprawl Repair Kit: Repairing The Urban Fabric « ReBurbia.

Roundabouts & drunk driving: A new defense against impaired drivers?

A note from local businesswoman and activist (Citizens for a Safe Wisconsin, Inc.) Shari Hanneman prompted this thought:

Could the argument be made that encountering periodic roundabouts provides an IMPEDIMENT for drunk drivers that stops them from getting too far and eventually venturing into residential subdivisions ala the incredibly tragic Buckhorn situation in Franklin?

Consider this: I'm not certain of Eddie Lynn Keck's exact route the night he killed two people with his vehicle after being overserved, but it's a pretty safe bet that the WIIIIIDE and fast 27th street or Ryan Road did nothing to impede him; he was on autopilot for that portion of the drive. He could very well have blown a few red lights without stopping his progress.

I'm willing to bet that a series of roundabouts might have caused him to run up a curb or sideswipe someone non-lethally rather than allow him to continue unabated into a subdivision where the tragedy occurred.

Food for thought. Roundabouts for 27th street are on the Franklin Economic Development Commission's agenda for this coming Monday.

From the column Circular Logic Wins Out- Car And Driver:

It occurred to me that these five consecutive Michigan roundabouts might comprise a better drunk-driving exam than any count-backward-and-touch-your-nose routine. It was the first quintuple roundabout I'd ever encountered and, as I later learned, Roundabouts No. 1 and No. 2 hold the distinction of being the first in the country intended to act as a single system. A tourist destination.

I immediately drove to see local police chief Robert Brookins. I said, "Hi, I'm a reporter, and I want to ask..."

"About the roundabouts?" he interrupted. And off he went.

"You should have seen it before," the chief said. "With stoplights and stop signs, the traffic would back up along the exits and onto the freeway. You could wait through three or four stoplight cycles. But now the longest delay I've observed is about 20 seconds. I know it looks complex, but it flows 17-to-20-percent-more traffic and does so at faster average speeds."

Brookins had been monitoring the roundabouts for less than a year but already possessed compelling statistics. "We've had 16 accidents in the big roundabout," he said. "One crash in the middle roundabout. And six in the eastern one. All were minor, mostly sideswipes, 'cause the speeds are so slow. Prior to the roundabouts, you'd get guys blowing the lights, and there'd be high-speed broadsides that were really bad."

Then the chief directed me to Mike Goryl, a soft-spoken county traffic engineer who helped design this crop of circles. Goryl explained that the center islands aren't perfectly round but resemble the agitator in a washing machine, flinging traffic away from the hurricane's eye and toward an exit — with no static cling. All the roundabouts are off-camber, too, he said, mostly to drain water but also to reduce cornering speeds. "Even if you follow what we call the 'fastest path,'" he said, "you'd voluntarily drive at about 25 mph."

In the coming years, Goryl predicts, Americans will become accustomed to such systems. "It's a really efficient way of flowing dense traffic," he says. "People complain at first, but what they don't realize is they're always moving, rather than stopped dead at a light."

Time for leadership on 27th street roundabouts

I remember the first time I encountered a roundabout. My wife and I were en route to IKEA, and I recall releasing an expletive under my breath as, suddenly jolted from my semi-autopilot revelry, I navigated through to the other side. Whereupon I reengaged the autopilot.

To the uninitiated driver, roundabouts seem to be little more than a nuisance. For one thing, a roundabout creates the sudden (and unfamiliar) need to re-engage with one's surroundings rather than simply obey a light. It's a sad fact of human nature that we would rather have a little red light grind us to a dead stop than proceed unimpeded through a traffic innovation that demands little more from us than our attention.

Ask the average person who hasn't used a roundabout regularly, and they will likely wrinkle their nose at the notion. We do not like what we do not know.

It's unfortunate that Franklin's initial impression of roundabouts is formed by a faux-roundabout - - actually a roundabout in miniature - - built in front of Shoppes at Wyndham Village as an effort to allay the thru-traffic fears of the residential subdivision across the street. Some drivers may have traveled the roundabout in New Berlin, which is complicated by its interaction with the freeway ramps (though still fairly easy to deal with).

And it doesn't help that we have a state senator pouring sand in the gears with specious reasoning and reactionary concerns clouding her judgment. State Senator Mary Lazich's complaint that "I've had constituents [who have no experience with roundabouts] voice their concerns to me" does not stack up against the voluminous hard data that supports roundabouts as superior on multiple levels - safety foremost - to traditional intersections.

The Franklin-Oak Creek Joint 27th Street Steering Committee discussed the benefits of roundabouts vs. intersections at their June 10th meeting. Though the Wisconsin Department of Transportation will ultimately make the decision as to whether a newly-constructed 27th Street will feature roundabouts, the committee's chairman, Franklin Alderman Steve Olson, hoped to bring to the Oak Creek and Franklin Common Councils a recommendation that they endorse via resolution the installation of roundabouts (resolution language after the jump).

I attended the meeting in order to comment in support of roundabouts on 27th; my experience discussing them with my colleagues on the Economic Development Commission convinced me that many of Franklin's decision makers were approaching the issue on a purely intuitive level (my recording of the discussion features Alderman [and EDC chairman] Ken Skowronski stating: "Roundabouts are a disaster.") rather than based on hard facts and real data.

I needn't have worried. At the direction of the the Joint 27th Street Steering Committee, HNTB, construction and design consultant for Oak Creek and Franklin, prepared a roundabout-vs.-intersection report to facilitate the discussion (Download HNTB Roundabout Report pdf).

Any points I made in my comments to the Steering Committee were only amplified by the HNTB report - - and then further amplified by Franklin's city engineer Jack Bennett in his pro-roundabout comments. Click on the summary page below to enlarge:

While the points above are discussed at much further length in the actual report, this evaluation matrix is a pretty powerful statement in support of roundabouts on 27th Street.

And that's even before the introduction of mitigating information provided by the two HNTB consultants as they discussed the document: It turns out that the only "non-up" arrows on the matrix in the roundabout column could easily be changed to "up" arrows; HNTB admitted that they were extremely conservative in their measurements for "Construction Costs," "Aesthetics," and, particularly, "Community Acceptance." (They went so far as to suggest changing the direction of these arrows, but Chairman Olson did not want to compromise their report).

After fruitful discussion, the Franklin-Oak Creek Joint 27th Street Steering Committee unanimously voted to recommend to the Common Councils of their respective cities that they pass a resolution in favor of roundabouts on 27th Street.

Oak Creek will vote on it at their next meeting; in Franklin, however, the item was removed from this Tuesday's agenda. 

In Part 2 of this post, I'll discuss that removal and the "Community Acceptance" aspect of roundabouts. I'll also address the need to exercise some real leadership in reassuring the electorate that the benefits of properly designed roundabouts are beyond the realm of THEORY, and that they are in fact safer, more economical, provide faster transit, and will drive economic development more effectively than intersections. 

And there will be charts and graphs ....

27th Street committee chairman and Economic Development commissioner resigns; suddenly realizes his wife is a local real estate agent

27th Street committee chairman Ted Grintjes - he of the Boomgaard debacle - has resigned from positions on the Franklin Economic Development Commission and the Franklin Community Development Authority as well.

Why? "Because his wife, who is a real-estate agent, was approached recently by Franklin property owners with an interest in selling their property along South 27th Street."

It should be noted that his wife has had Franklin listings in the past which have evidently not prompted such concerns of conflict of interest.

The Franklin Economic Development Commission and the Franklin Community Development Authority (and the 27th Street Committee) occasionally have closed door meetings that you and I are not privy to. Oh to be a real estate agent with knowledge of the strategies and plans of these unelected bodies. It would be a great help in securing and selling, for example, a $5,500,000 "large executive home with many amenities includes 4 bedrooms, 3 fireplaces, a den/office, tennis courts and an indoor pool. The view overlooks the sparkling pool area."

Grintjes was also involved with the Franklin Citizens for Responsible Government, which is not a jewel on anyone's resume, to be sure. He was their spokesman in 2003 and is cited in a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel story thusly:

Though [the DA's civil charges] name only [Orville] Seymer and the citizen group as defendants, the complaint sheds light on how the organization's activities were financed, at least in part, by loans and contributions from local business interests, including Ted Grintjes and James Rhiner, longtime members of the city's Economic Development Commission and Community Development Authority.

Does that sound like the way things ought to be?

Time for new blood.

From FranklinNOW:

27th Street committee chairman resigns

Ted Grintjes resigned July 30 as chairman of the Franklin-Oak Creek Joint South 27th Street Steering Committee, as well as from the Franklin Economic Development Commission and the Franklin Community Development Authority.

Grintjes said he resigned because his wife, who is a real-estate agent, was approached recently by Franklin property owners with an interest in selling their property along South 27th Street.

He said he could have abstained on participation in matters relating to his wife's real-estate connections on 27th Street but he decided resignation would remove any possibility of a conflict of interest.

Grintjes had been chairman of the steering committee for about five years. He was a member of the EDC and a vice chairman of the CDA. All three positions he resigned from are voluntary.

Was that so hard? 27th Street Committee launches website with a sane name

south27thstreet.com.

How much did THAT name cost?

And these clever guys went out and locked down all the domain names with "Boomgaard" in it, and were prepared to pay giant money to the holder of domain rights to one particular version of the name.

Whoever thought of south27thstreet.com - buy that person a cold beer or their preferred beverage.

They need a new copywriter, though. Whoever wrote this:

....this up-and-coming area has all the amenities of a great Milwaukee suburb – including easy freeway and interstate access, commercial development and a sense of character.

... is either in on the joke or hasn't recently visited a suburb ("sense of character"?)

So, ladies and gentlemen of Franklin and Oak Creek, allow me to list your amenities:
- easy freeway and interstate access
- commercial development
- a "sense of character"(!)

That's all, move along.

So, so sad.

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.