Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

The more they see, the less they like: 10 reasons why opposition to the House transportation bill is growing

Ten reasons opposition to the House transportation bill is growing

1. Ends three decades of dedicated federal funding for public transportation.
2. Cuts overall transportation funding for nearly every state and relies on risky and speculative funding sources.
3. Takes away local control, planning authority and resources.
4. Ends the “Safe Routes to School” program and other dedicated funding to make streets safer for walking and bicycling.
5. Eliminates the bridge repair program and offloads responsibility for thousands of deficient bridges to local governments.
6. Allows transportation money in a pollution-control fund to be used on new roadways for solo drivers.
7. Requires more bureaucracy at transit agencies.
8. Bets big on little-known “State Infrastructure Banks.”
9. Undermines basic safeguards to protect human health and the environment, and to give citizens a voice in the project review process.
10. Abandons any true “national” interest in transportation.

Read the rest at: Transportation For America » The more they see, the less they like: 10 reasons why opposition to the House transportation bill is growing

Attack of the STROADS

ABOVE: On the STROAD again in Franklin, WI.

From the always-vital STRONG TOWNS blog:

The STROAD design -- a street/road hybrid -- is the futon of transportation alternatives. Where a futon is a piece of furniture that serves both as an uncomfortable couch and an uncomfortable bed, a STROAD moves cars at speeds too slow to get around efficiently but too fast to support productive private sector investment. The result is an expensive highway and a declining tax base.

10 years later, the sad lesson of the Segway: The suburbs killed your rocket-pack

“Instead of becoming the next Bill Gates or Henry Ford, Kamen might find himself ending up like another great American inventor, Preston Tucker, who in the 1940s built the Tucker, a car too far ahead of its time.”

I think the explanation is far simpler. The Segway revealed what we in the suburbs are getting to know more and more: You cannot walk or bike from any place of significance to any other place of significance in most modern areas of human habitation.

In a world largely created for cars, a conveyance like the Segway is nothing but a toy.

Ten years on, and I've neither ridden one nor seen one at use "in the wild" by anyone other than a mall cop or city tourist.

 

Read the rest at: » A Segway anniversary JIMROMENESKO.COM

Another community taken for a ride by Wal-Mart, part 2: Adding insult to (uninsured) injury

South Milwaukee, look what YOU -- and the State of Wisconsin's Medicaid program --  just bought:

After trying to mollify its critics in recent years by offering better health care benefits to its employees, Wal-Mart is substantially rolling back coverage for part-time workers and significantly raising premiums for many full-time staff.

Oh, and Wisconsin's clueless governor is trying to CUT Medicare as we speak. The perfect storm.

Honestly, South Milwaukee - you didn't see this coming?

Read the rest at: Wal-Mart Cuts Some Health Care Benefits - NYTimes.com

Another community taken for a ride by Wal-Mart

Is the death-spiral of the Middle Class still mysterious to people when municipalities PAY to have cash-larded retailers come in to help shutter any and all local businesses?

Wal-Mart throttles South Milwaukee:

The city will spend $800,000 to clean up environmental contamination on the city-owned parcel. The city also will spend up to $1 million on cleanup work on an adjacent 6.5-acre parcel owned by an investment group, led by Briohn Building Corp., that Gatlin is buying.

The city's project costs could total $3.05 million. That amount includes $1.75 million previously spent to acquire and do earlier demolition and cleanup work on its 3.5-acre parcel, minus $500,000 Gatlin will pay South Milwaukee to buy that land.

The Walmart will generate $276,000 in estimated annual property taxes, which will be used to pay off the city's costs, including interest. Once that debt is paid off, the property taxes go to the city, its school district and other local governments.

Do the math. So much for sustainable communities.

Very, very sad.

Slowly emerging from the pit of hiatus

ABOVE: The Franklin Quarry - a rare peek inside. Yes - it's BIG.

Lack of posts does not indicate a lack of activity. 

Since being appointed to the Plan Commission a few months back, I've not seen a site plan for new development of any huge significance -- a sign of the times, to be sure.  

New berms being constructed alongside the quarry, however, have caused consternation among residents nearby. The engineering training of Commission members varies greatly, but Plan Staff is there to assure us that the quarry's operators are within pre-agreed mining limits. Since the berms do not violate any ordinances and are actually required by the city's agreement with the quarry (also called the PPD, and posted below) we voted to allow their design to go forward.  

To the surprise of almost everyone involved, the two companies that operate the quarry located in the heart of Franklin -- near neighborhoods and a school -- are not being monitored independently for possible seismic and particulate violations. Neighbors have been holding meetings to address what they feel are egregious violations.

After a close read of the agreement between the City of Franklin and the quarry operators (a document which was not included in the Plan Commission's packet for agenda items pertaining to the quarry, by the way), I found a clear mandate for action by the Commission. I introduced -- and the Plan Commission passed -- two motions calling for a quarry monitoring group to be put together, and for resumption of independent seismic and particulate monitoring at the expense of the companies operating the quarry, as per the original agreement.

I added an amendment to the motion that prohibits elected officials from serving on the quarry monitoring body; there are compelling examples of the quarry being released from certain obligations and responsibilities with the aid of elected officials who have received financial support as candidates from the quarry operators. Nothing illegal about this, but certainly not within the best interests of the city.

Next on the agenda: introducing the COMPLETE STREETS concept to Franklin. I gave a presentation to the Plan Commission this past week, and expect to repeat it for the Common Council and Forward Franklin Economic Development Commission in the near future. MUCH to say about COMPLETE STREETS and its potential positive economic and social impact in the near future -- in this case, a bit of engineering training is occuring on an ongoing basis -- so watch this space.

Franklin, WI Quarry PDD 23 105 pages

Narrower roads: Less expensive, safer, and more bike/pedestrian friendly

Avert your eyes: The obscenity that is Franklin's 31st Street. At rush hour.

We often hear city officials proclaim their view of the "natural" progression of a road as needing to be BIGGER and WIDER as the years go on. A few years back, aldermen in my city lobbied hard for an obscenely wide road to be built behind the Northwestern Mutual Life headquarters.

After all, went the argument, it'll need to get that big eventually....

This viewpoint is deeply flawed, to say the least, and it's costing our cities an enormous amount of money. We now pay to plow, salt, patch and otherwise and maintain a wide, four-lane road that was laid in front of long-standing houses --- this is where a residential STREET should be --- that gets very, very little traffic per day. Worse, it's only a few yards away from, and parallels, 27th Street, which was supposed to be our high-traffic commercial strip.

People who travel down 31st Street for the first time (most Franklin residents are unaware that it exists) are utterly shocked at its immensity.

No - the smart money is on REDUCING the width of roads and streets. In Minnesota, cities are paring back streets when it comes time to repave them.

A growing number of metro area cities are taking a broader, greener view of street repairs.

Instead of just rebuilding worn roads, cities such as Bloomington, Richfield and St. Paul are narrowing streets to provide space for bike lanes and sidewalks. St. Anthony has added rain basins and retention ditches to filter and re-use runoff for irrigation, officials said.

But despite little additional cost, health and environmental benefits and lower traffic speeds that improve safety, some residents have objected loudly enough to stop their streets from going green.

"They are somewhat controversial when initially proposed in a neighborhood," said Metropolitan Council member Steve Elkins, a former Bloomington council member. "But once they are put in, we have never had a neighborhood ask us to undo the bike lanes."

...

The city website includes a Living Streets Plan manual, estimating that shrinking 30-foot-wide residential streets by 8 feet will save 15 percent in pavement costs, enough to cover the cost of adding rainwater gardens, trees and other green improvements.

The narrower street would cut maintenance expense by about 25 percent, which could save up to $1,000 a mile per year, the manual says. The rain gardens filter runoff before sending it into streams and lakes. More walking and biking instead of driving creates healthier residents and cuts air pollution.

Read the rest at: Cities turn to a new, green path for street designs | StarTribune.com

Do We Need Public Libraries? (Enjoy your "Tax Freeze": Part 2)

My post entitled "Enjoy your 'Tax Freeze': Part 1 - A Country Without Libraries" elicited a couple of comments from two local tax freeze advocates (they won't mind me characterizing them that way, I'm sure). Their point seemed to be; "Get into the 21st century - - we have the internet and Kindles now!" I was reminded by both commentors that Ben Franklin would have really dug the Kindle - - after all, he was an inventor.

They miss the point.

To define a library by the technology that delivers words and information is erroneous -- as erroneous as stating (rather elliptically)  "Libraries in schools are already being reduced by digital media. That's the demand."

Libraries (and, more dangerously, LIBRARIANS) in schools are NOT being reduced by digital media. They are being reduced by school boards and school budgets that are defining libraries as little more than "warehouses of bound matter." Schools that have cut librarians in favor of part-time "media specialists" suffer the consequences; I see my own children having to turn to me to learn basic research.

From a 1998 American Prospect article called “Will Libraries Survive?” by linguist Geoffrey Nunberg

In 1998, a Commerce Department study followed that 62 million people are using the Internet, and other estimates put the figure still higher. Most of these… are people who already use the public library less often than their parents did for purposes of obtaining recreational and instructive reading. Now they no longer need to rely on the library even for the sorts of information they can't easily get on National Public Radio or at Barnes & Noble… they may still want to have a library around as an information source of last resort, but they have a number of more convenient options to exhaust before they are driven to use it.

So, in 2011, the library should be dead or dying. But that's not what's happening, for instance, in Chicago. From the book Better Together: Restoring the American Community:

In little more than a decade, Chicago has built 32 neighborhood branch libraries and renovated nine others. the downtown Harold Washington Library Center, opened in 1991, is one of the largest public library buildings in the world. Its green metal roof with huge gargoyle like owls, their wings extravagantly unfurled, make it in unmistakable landmark. 14 more new branches are scheduled to open by 2005. More to the point, the libraries are humming with activity.

In other words, proper attention to public library facilities will make those facilities integral to the community—more than worth the investment made. In an hours-old news clip, you see Illinois continue that commitment:

Sixteen Illinois public libraries will receive construction grants to help pay for essential upgrades planned for this summer.

The grants will go toward projects such as handicapped accessibility, heating, ventilating and air conditioning units, building additions and renovation. Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White says many public libraries lack the funds to perform these improvements without grant money.

And why? These urban and suburban libraries provide huge quality-of-life benefits. Irregardless of whether information is delivered via bound matter or iPad, or Kindle, or microfiche, or computer monitor, etc.

So - a commentor says "literature, research, and study are all evolving."

True. So...?

Innovative libraries aren't content serving as one-way conduits of information; they want to foster dialogue and exchange with their users. What does that have to do with whether words appear on paper of an illuminated screen?

As further expressed in the book Better Together: A library is no longer a passive repository of books and information or an outpost of culture, quiet, and a calm in a noisy world. The library of today is—should be—an active and responsive part of the community and an agent of change. In addition, the Internet, which was supposed to wipe out its reason for existence,  is very often cited as one of the things that brings people to the library.

This may come as a surprise to some of our more sheltered subdivision dwellers, but there is a “digital divide” in this country. Believe it or not, there are people who live within blocks of you who do not have access to the Internet, a computer, and certainly not a Kindle. For them, the library provides a window into a world of information we take for granted in our suburban enclaves. And now that the digital divide extends into our suburban enclaves, library access is more important than ever for people seeking employment, information, networking tools, etc.

There are also people who are new to the world of computers and the Internet. Late bloomers. For them, the Franklin public library provides very inexpensive computer classes. At five dollars per class, they are eminently affordable; at the same time, their immense popularity has created a not insignificant chunk of income for the library, which helps perpetuate these services.

Here in Franklin, our library stands as the only non-retail “third place” in existence. That is, the library is the only place you can go with no barrier to entry; a place where you may meet or happen upon virtually anyone.

What is a “third place”? Ray Oldenburg describes  it as a place that is neither work nor home, a place where people can spend time together. The café, the public, the neighborhood tavern, the old-fashioned drugstore with soda fountain are some of the examples he uses. A good third place makes few demands on the people who gather there, beyond requiring them to observe some basic local rules (for instance, that individuals, and especially newcomers, will not dominate the conversation; or that Illinois natives will assert their Bears fandom in moderation while in Wisconsin borders). A third place is a neutral ground where people from different walks of life in the community can meet and get to know one another, having in common perhaps only their desire to frequent this particular place. (More about "third places" here.)

Think of some examples of "third places" in Franklin. It's a very, very short list.

The replacement of local shops by chain stores and implementation of single-use zoning that puts housing, workplaces, and retail establishments in segregated areas have effectively eliminated the “corner drugstores” and the coffee shops where people met one another and found out what was going on in town and in the neighborhood. Television keeps us at home in the evening, when in the past we would've sought one another's company in a third place. The authors of the blog comments which I am addressing here have first-hand knowledge of the political and ideological polarization that is threatening us locally. I attribute a great deal of the blame for the lack of community in suburbs like Franklin to the simple fact that our built environment has made it impossible for those serendipitous chance encounters between persons who have ideological differences that lead to constructive debate and collegial jousting. Instead, we are treated to “bloggers” and anonymous commenters who insult one another's ideas—and assault one another personally—in away they never would if they had actual, real-world interaction with persons outside of their ideological spectrum.

Look at the crowds at Starbucks and other cafés. They attest to the continuing need that people feel for third places. However, those third places have a barrier to entry; that being the fact that you are ostensibly there to purchase three-dollar coffee and maybe a muffin. If you bring a backpack full of notebooks and pencils to Starbucks and simply loiter, you are not living up to your side of the bargain. The demographic is narrowed thusly.

Yes, Benjamin Franklin would have loved the Kindle. But he would be horrified to learn that citizens of his beloved republic are, in the dawning of the 21st century, cocooning themselves in rec rooms and pulling up their McMansion drawbridges against interaction with other people and other ideas. He would be sickened to hear that we are now celebrating "tax freezes" at the expense of those social institutions that have helped us grow as a country over previous generations; the institutions built by our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents to serve us and that were paid for by their taxes, though they knew they would see no personal, immediate benefit.

Can you even imagine that forward-looking ethic today?

Our tax rate is at its lowest in four generations, and yet we whine about contributing to educate our children, plow our roads, keep our infrastructure together, and provide community amenities. Where we used to invest in future generations, we now look to secure our own purses, tomorrow be damned.

Still, one cannot deny that Ben Franklin would have loved the Kindle...

Enjoy your "Tax Freeze": Part 1 - A Country Without Libraries

What does a "property tax freeze" get you, besides votes? Well, if you actually follow through and spare the average suburban home owner a tax hike that approximates the cost of a single night out in a restaurant, you can begin to kiss public amenities like libraries goodbye:

All across the United States, large and small cities are closing public libraries or curtailing their hours of operations. Detroit, I read a few days ago, may close all of its branches and Denver half of its own: decisions that will undoubtedly put hundreds of its employees out of work. When you count the families all over this country who don’t have computers or can’t afford Internet connections and rely on the ones in libraries to look for jobs, the consequences will be even more dire. People everywhere are unhappy about these closings, and so are mayors making the hard decisions. But with roads and streets left in disrepair, teachers, policemen and firemen being laid off, and politicians in both parties pledging never to raise taxes, no matter what happens to our quality of life, the outlook is bleak.“The greatest nation on earth,” as we still call ourselves, no longer has the political will to arrest its visible and precipitous decline and save the institutions on which the workings of our democracy depend.

Onward toward total isolation and homogeneity. On the plus side, you saved $120 this year!

Read the rest at: A Country Without Libraries by Charles Simic | NYRBlog | The New York Review of Books

“Many low-density suburbs and McMansion subdivisions, including some that are lovely and affluent today, may become what inner cities became in the 1960s and ’70s — slums characterized by poverty, crime and decay"

So says Christopher B. Leinberger, an urban land use expert, in a recent essay in The Atlantic Monthly. While that dark vision is not shared by all observers, it's clear to most that "change or die" is still the operative phrase.

Outlying suburban homes in many parts of the U.S. are now worth less than the materials that went into building them. The cycle is that homeowners have no incentive to invest in their homes and banks won’t finance renovations anyway. Homeowners with a choice move away, leaving behind those who can’t afford to live anywhere else. Crime and decay isn’t far behind.

The answer: Make communities, not subdivisions. Create walkable cities, which appeal to up-and-coming homebuyers:

On the flip side, the trend to walkable urbanism is driven by those in their 20s and 30s, who don’t want to spend their disposable income on cars and crave high-density and fast-paced downtown living. A whole lot of experts — perhaps Richard Florida best known among them — say for cities to thrive, they have to cater to young, creative workers who are sought after by the employees of the knowledge economy.

But baby boomers, singles, childless couples and empty nesters are also looking for interesting urban living in droves. And their proportion of the population is rising.

This is the challenge that the city of Franklin faces right now. How will local leadership respond?

Read more at:

Fuel Prices Shift Math for Life in Far Suburbs

TheSpec - Walkability and the new urbanism