Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

New Report: “Bright Flight” means younger, more affluent cities. And suburbs sit on their collective hands.

ABOVE: Cities, like Washington, D.C., are attracting a younger, more affluent, white population. Photo by Poldavo (Alex).

From “Bright Flight” Means Younger, More Affluent Cities | TheCityFix.com:

A new study from the Brookings Institution, “The State of Metropolitan America,” shows that, for the first time, America’s suburbs are more likely to be home to minorities, the poor and a rapidly growing older population, while younger, educated whites move to cities for better jobs and shorter commutes. The report analyzes census data from 2000-2008 in the United States’ 100 largest metropolitan areas, revealing a reversal of historical demographic trends. (See an interactive map here.)

So, the question is: What will suburbs like mine do to meet this challenge?

I can tell you what Franklin, Wisconsin is currently doing: Nothing.

No initiatives, projects, forums, or incentive programs. In fact, we just pledged a half million dollars to a neighboring community for a superfluous highway interchange, a move that tells the world that Franklin is still about a decade behind the curve.

And, unfortunately, the collegial environment depicted in the photo above is virtually nonexistent in my suburb, and it's something savvy first-time home-buyers are much more aware of now than they were, say, ten years ago (I, for one, was not a savvy home-buyer when it came to judging the community surrounding my house.)

Last year I proposed, via my position on the Economic Development Commission, an city-sponsored effort to work with a developer to encourage creation of a coffee shop/co-working space next to the Franklin library. A member of the Commission argued for "green space" instead - next to a park. Another wanted to add a "friendly amendment" to the Commission's recommendation stating that no money whatsoever be spent on the effort.

So much for that.

Many trade city living for the traditionally strong school districts found in suburbs; "Sure, I'm isolated and can't get anywhere without a car, but my kids are in a good school." However, strangled as they are by ill-fated TIF deals and taxpayer revolts ("My property tax is too high!"), suburban school districts are facing imminent decline. Franklin's school district is cutting an alarming number of positions, and the high school is an old relic.

Suburban public amenities? "Community columnists" decry funding community libraries!

Why bother anymore?

We may be looking at a whole new attitude toward the idea of home ownership. From The Atlantic website:

Houses make sense when you're rooted, financially and geographically. The future of the America is itinerant, flexible, and wary of burying money in an immobile "economic trap." Throw in the 100 million Americans we're expected to add in the next four decades, and you've got a congestion problem that suggests we should replace front lawns and sedans with apartments and trains. 

The blog's author, Derek Thompson, is referring to opinions set forth in Richard Florida's new book, THE GREAT RESET (which is the very first e-book I purchased for my iPad).

Thompson quotes the following from Florida's book:

We've reached the limits of what George W. Bush used to call the "ownership society." Owning your own home made sense when people could hope to hold a job for most or all of their lives. But in an economy that revolves around mobility and flexibility, a house that can't be sold becomes an economic trap, preventing people from moving freely to economic opportunity. Not only has that piece of the American Dream grown dark, but it's also clear that financial excess in the housing sector was one of the central causes of the economic crisis. The rate of home ownership has been on the decline for some time now. Many of those who still choose to buy homes will choose smaller ones, while many more will opt for rental housing.

Our new way of life is likely to depend a whole lot less on the car. In October 2009, The New York Times reported "...After more than a century in which an automobile represented the American dream, car enthusiasm may no longer be a part of Americans' DNA." Car culture no longer exerts the powerful pull it once did. More and more families are deciding to share cars, and young people are putting off buying them and using public transit, bikes, their feet or Zipcars (membership-based, easy-access short-term car rentals) instead. It's not just that oil and gas have become expensive, it's that traffic and gridlock have become a deadweight time cost on us and our economy.

Compared with the end of 2008, the average household is now spending an extra $135 a month for fuel. But, to repeat: My suburb just pledged $500,000 to build a highway interchange that we don't need in a neighboring community. And it's not just money that will be going to the edge of town and over the border, it will be development as well. Why build a neighborhood-based coffee shop when you can toss up an offramp-serving drive-thru java shed right next to the freeway?

At the same time, Franklin is pouring money into a streetscape design for a commercial strip that all but ignores transit options like dedicated bus lanes and Zipcar facilities. Instead, our big-ticket item on 27th Street is "enhanced lighting"  - the seventh most popular item mentioned on preference surveys, as Franklin Alderman (and 27th Street Steering Committee Chairman) Steve Olson is fond of reminding us.

If success and sustainability are a destination, perhaps it's time suburbs - mine in particular - realize that the road that brought them here won't get them there.

Franklin's fledgling SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL program is on Facebook

 
SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL is a federally funded program designed to encourage kindergarten through eighth grade students to walk or bike to school; encouraging healthy and active lifestyles. 

Visit and hit the "LIKE" button to track our community's progress.

"One of the special things about community design is that not all of us are equally susceptible to the risks that we are looking to control and not all of us will benefit equally from the advantages that flow from community design."

Episode One: Sprawlanta 

Dr. Howard Frumkin is Special Assistant to the Director for Climate Change and Health at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. The following interview is an excerpt from our conversation with Dr. Frumkin during production for Episode #1 of American Makeover.

AM: How does community design impact different age groups - the young, the elderly, etc.?

FRUMKIN: One of the special things about community design is that not all of us are equally susceptible to the risks that we are looking to control and not all of us will benefit equally from the advantages that flow from community design; but across the lifespan almost all of us can benefit from good community design.  Let’s look at the different groups and how they might respond to healthy community design.  Children need the opportunity to be active and independent and safe. Good pedestrian infrastructure, good sidewalks and bicycle trails that are separated from traffic and that are easily navigated are an important asset for children.  At the other end of the lifespan, are the elderly. Many elderly people can't drive or shouldn't drive and that means that they will benefit from destinations that are close to where they live and from good pedestrian infrastructure that will help them get from home to the doctor's office or to the library or to the church.  People with disabilities may not be able to drive and certainly benefit from good well-markedl, safe pedestrian infrastructure.  People who are poor and can't afford to buy cars need to rely on transit and need to rely on pedestrian infrastructure. Putting those attributes in place is an act of social justice because it helps people who are poor to be able to get where they need to go, find economic opportunities, seek healthcare and do the other things they need to do. So for all of these subpopulations in our society and more health community design offers very important benefits.

My remarks to the Common Council regarding funding the Drexel Interchange

My remarks before the Franklin Common Council (made up of material posted here previously) made prior to their special meeting on funding the Drexel Interchange. More on the meeting -- and a fairly startling position taken by Northwestern Mutual -- later in the day:

This interchange will happen with or without our subsidy. 

But I couldn’t just watch as a city with countless infrastructure and service deficiencies votes to commit half a million dollars of Franklin taxpayer money -- cleverly camouflaged -- to an interchange project that is unneeded by Franklin, a community well-served by two interchanges. [NOTE: Actually THREE, counting College Avenue]

And spending money on a superfluous interchange even as the Federal government launches initiative after initiative and grant after grant designed to bolster communities that pursue Smart Growth principles and alternative transportation options is poor strategy, to say the least. 

The smart community looks FORWARD, not BACKWARD; off-ramp development strategies are yesterday’s mistakes that we don’t need to repeat today.

I attempted to bring this topic up at Monday’s Economic Development Commission meeting -- the mayor reminded me recently that the EDC is ostensibly in charge of the Franklin half of the 27th Street Steering Committee -- but I was told we could not discuss $500,000 in “enhanced lighting” funds for 27th street and the possible diversion of those funds to an interchange as per the failed motion of last Tuesday’s meeting.

Also: I had heard that, at the last council meeting, former EDC member and 27th Street Steering Committee chairman Ted Grinjes claimed that the EDC had advocated for the interchange. I asked at the last EDC meeting, and was told that that is not the case.

Do WE need an interchange? When site location consultants evaluate Franklin, we get an “A” by virtue of two interchanges perfectly bracketing the city. 

Northwestern Mutual, it should be noted, owns an enormous parcel of land on the Oak Creek side of 27th Street, across from their campus. Their $1.6 million contribution has nothing to do with cutting 95 seconds off of their employees’ commutes. Also, they are quoted in the paper this morning as saying that the funds were pledged way back when they were building the campus, and are not reflective of the current economic or transit situation.

As a practical matter, the Rawson and Ryan interchanges create a natural traffic flow onto 27th Street, which is supposed to be our commercial jewel, the marketing alone of which is evidently worth our spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. Frankly, a Drexel interchange breaks that advantageous flow. 

Perhaps the deal we make with Oak Creek is this: We will suffer the interchange’s diversion of traffic as well as Northwestern Mutual’s $1.6 million leaving our community -- a community that didn’t get Northwestern Mutual here for free, by the way -- in return for freeing our $500,000 “enhanced lighting” pledge so we can actively promote and incentivise economic development in and around our neighborhoods and commercial areas, creating higher property values and a deep, sustainable local economy.

On the other hand, Franklin can continue to postpone maintenance and needed upgrades. "Fiscal conservative" aldermen can continue to attempt to derail pedestrian facilities such as the one planned for in front of our high school as "too expensive," while tripping over themselves to send $500,000 to Oak Creek -- and get their hands on a Golden Shovel at the groundbreaking.

These same “fiscal conservatives” are fond of reminding us that “the market will determine” whether this or that development will occur. They are not fond of the idea of even small incentives created by the city to help shape development that is more economically and socially valuable to the community in the long term -- rather than simply a good turn of the dollar for a developer in the short term. 

Yet, here we are, willing to dump $500,000 into an interchange that the market does not seem to be begging for.

SO, after the meeting, get back in your car; if you want to enjoy a coffee and conversation it will have to be in another community, because Franklin has not been "creative" enough up to this point to inspire a single coffee shop, deli, ice cream store, or other public gathering place within walking distance of its library, city hall and central city park.

And, as soon as this superfluous Interchange goes in, any chance Franklin had at developing the sorts of neighborhood-based, human-scale amenities that spur growth of a deep, sustainable local economy will be dashed like a bug on a windshield. It'll be Starbucks, Perkins, Sbarro, Dairy Queen, Burger King, Pizza Hut, etc. -- the royal court of fast food --  all swarmed up close to interchange, suckling on the sea of cars exiting for a bite before they get right back on and back up to speed.

Because, you see, we're on the road to becoming a drive-thru town, and tonight will seal the deal.

My drive-thru city gets ready to subsidize a superfluous interchange: "Politicians get reelected by building (and funding) new shiny roads and bridges that offer plenty of photo-ops and nice padding for their resumes come election time."

 

Tonight there will be a special Common Council meeting in Franklin regarding the superfluous Drexel Interchange. 

[NOTE: See update at bottom of post]

Come and bear witness to the overwhelming power of the road building lobby. Watch as a city with countless infrastructure and service deficiencies will almost certainly vote to commit half a million dollars of Franklin taxpayer money -- cleverly camouflaged -- to an interchange project that is A) unneeded by Franklin, well-served by two interchanges, and B) bound to occur whether or not Franklin throws city funds at Oak Creek -- even as the Federal government launches initiative after initiative designed to bolster communities that pursue alternative transportation options.

There are politicians already penciling in the anticipated date of groundbreaking so they can get there for their photo opp. You would be very naive to think Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker's March leash-snapping in Florida (Florida?) by Wisconsin road builders did not include pointed, back-room reminders as to the fact they effectively own him. (I picture elegant table centerpieces at a gala "build we must" banquet, each festooned with the name of a promised project. Right next to the relish on Table 16: The Drexel Interchange.) 

It's a done deal.

Any politician betting on a Walker gubernatorial victory very likely got on the phone. Greendale Republican legislator Jeff Stone, who "brokered" the potential Oak Creek-Franklin pay-to-play deal, will expect his reward, and a Golden Shovel at the gala groundbreaking.

Meanwhile, Franklin will continue to postpone maintenance and needed upgrades. "Fiscal conservative" aldermen will attempt to derail pedestrian facilities in front of our high school as "too expensive," while tripping over themselves to send $500,000 to Oak Creek -- and get their hands on a Golden Shovel. 

Franklin Mayor Tom Taylor -- who could have broken the deadlock at the last common council meeting, and, to his credit, did not fall sway to siren call of the Golden Shovel -- has said he does not want Franklin taxpayer funds going across 27th Street to Oak Creek. He wants the council to "get creative" in tonight's meeting. He is likely barking up the wrong tree.

So, come and watch - 6pm at Franklin City Hall. And, after the meeting, get back in your car; if you want to enjoy a coffee and conversation it will have to be in another community, because Franklin has not been "creative" enough up to this point to inspire a single coffee shop, deli, ice cream store, or other public gathering place within walking distance of its library, city hall and central city park. 

And, as soon as this superfluous Interchange goes in, any chance Franklin had at developing the sorts of neighborhood-based, human-scale amenities that spur growth of a deep, sustainable local economy will be dashed like a bug on a windshield. It'll be Starbucks, Perkins, Sbarro, Dairy Queen, etc., all swarmed up close to interchange, suckling on the sea of cars exiting the interchange for a bite before they get back on and barrel onward.

Because, you see, we're a drive-thru town, and tonight will seal the deal. 

••••••

More from Infrastructurist:

We’ve discussed how democracy has played a major part in our failure to have a modern rail system. And like it or not, our electoral system has had a bigger role than most people would like to admit in contributing to the dire state of our existing infrastructure. A report released this week by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, titled “Road Work Ahead: Holding Government Accountable for Fixing America’s Crumbling Roads and Bridges,” supports this idea:

The deterioration of our roads and bridges is no accident. Rather, it is the direct result of countless policy decisions that put other considerations ahead of the pressing need to preserve our investment in the highway system. Political forces often undermine a strong commitment to maintenance: Members of Congress, state legislators and local politicians thrive on ribbon-cuttings. Powerful special interests push for new and bigger highways. Meanwhile, federal and state policies – which should provide strong guidance in the wise use of taxpayer dollars – often fail to achieve the proper balance between building new infrastructure and taking care of what we already have built.

In other words, politicians get reelected by building (and funding) new shiny roads and bridges that offer plenty of photo-ops and nice padding for their resumes come election time. What’s far less sexy and soundbite-worthy is “I fixed every crumbling bridge and pothole-ridden road in this state.” For an unskilled politician, these massive new projects can lead to disaster (the Bridge to Nowhere, anyone?). But for most always-election-ready officials in D.C., new highways and bridges are easy makeshift symbols of progress and “getting things done.”

via www.infrastructurist.com

••••••

I learned via Greg Kowalski that turnout for the special meeting will likely be sparse due to other activities planned for tonight:

FRANKLIN PUBLIC LIBRARY: All meeting rooms are BOOKED tonight

FOREST PARK MIDDLE SCHOOL: Franklin Citizens for Community Development at 6:30pm. 

FRANKLIN PUBLIC SCHOOLS is having their reorganization meeting tonight

GREENDALE HIGH SCHOOL has a nationally-known speaker on teen/parent relationships tonight starting at 6pm. 

Need an excuse to visit Culvers's on Monday? Benefit for family of Greendale's Ava Zimmerman

An update to my post on the tragic death of 5 year-old Ava Marie Zimmerman, struck and killed by a car in Greendale; an announcement from Culver's:

On Monday, April 26, 2010 participating Culver's will be holding a fundraiser for Ava's family. We will donate 10% of our daily sales to the family to help cover their expenses incurred from this tragic accident.

(via Franklin Today)

The ROI for smart growth and placemaking: "Love Ain’t Enough: Put Up or Shut Up"

Fortunately, creating communities that feature great places and human-scaled development is paying off in terms of higher property values and their attraction of non-polluting industries. This link features other returns-on-investment in digest form:

Like any next, big something, placemaking is growing up. And in its role as gawky adolescent, it’s beginning to realize something most of us have long since come to accept: You can’t skirt by on youthful good looks forever.

Today, efforts to create more endearing and enduring surroundings are being subjected to decidedly grown up demands. And with them, smart growthers—from enviros to designers to code reform advocates—are learning one of life’s hardest lessons: Love will only take you so far.

Son, you’ve got to demonstrate sufficient returns.

Recently, a city asked me for some help in their argument for funding transit oriented developments with TIFF dollars. The top arguments that immediately came to mind are the same reasons that cities are investing in planning and zoning reform, even during these tight times. City planning is able to speak to a variety of the significant challenges that currently face us. Here’s the soundbite version of the top 4 drivers.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

How do walkable neighbourhoods contribute to the local economy? They increase long term asset value for many reasons, including increased housing value, less crime, higher walkscore, lower vehicle miles traveled, less carbon emissions, fewer auto costs, greater personal fitness, decreased infrastructure cost, more hours available, real community, and the list goes on.

PUBLIC HEALTH

What does obesity cost, and how is it effected by where I live? The average white male living in a compact community weighs 10 pounds less than his counterpart in a low density subdivision, according to the British Columbia School of Planning. Every 1% rise in the urban sprawl index increases the risk of obesity by 0.5%, according to Boston University School of Public Health. The medical costs to treat obesity in the US for 2008 is estimated at $147 billion.

Read the rest at PlaceShakers and NewsMakers

Friends of Franklin's Parks forming

 

From Don Dorson (who also took the great picture above):

I am pleased to announce the creation of the Friends of Franklin's Parks!

Conceived and sanctioned the City of Franklin Parks Commission, The Friends of Franklin's Parks is an independent volunteer organization dedicated to supporting the parks and other publicly accessible lands located in Franklin. The Friends of Franklin Parks intends to work closely with the Parks Department , the City of Franklin  and other organizations holding publicly accessible lands in Franklin to promote the use of Franklin's wonderful parks and public spaces and by providing volunteers for work on specific or ongoing projects identified by the parks director, staff and/or the parks commission.
 
The first organizational meeting of the Friends of Franklin's Park will be held on February 24th at the Franklin Public Library in the Fadrow room A at 6:30.
 
For more information or to register as a Friend of Franklin's Parks visit our website at: www.friendsoffranklinsparks.webs.com

Will Franklin cultivate and support local small business owners?

My repeated suggestions to the Franklin Economic Development Commission to construct and steer incentives to small, locally-owned businesses -- indeed, to give any sort of overt, structured support to local businesses -- has fallen on deaf ears thus far. 

Why make any out-of-the-ordinary effort to support local small businesses? A nice encapsulation appears on the New Rules Project website:

Local Character and Prosperity
In an increasingly homogenized world, communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character have an economic advantage.

Community Well-Being
Locally owned businesses build strong communities by sustaining vibrant town centers, linking neighbors in a web of economic and social relationships, and contributing to local causes.

Local Decision-Making
Local ownership ensures that important decisions are made locally by people who live in the community and who will feel the impacts of those decisions.

Keeping Dollars in the Local Economy
Compared to chain stores, locally owned businesses recycle a much larger share of their revenue back into the local economy, enriching the whole community.

Job and Wages
Locally owned businesses create more jobs locally and, in some sectors, provide better wages and benefits than chains do.

Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship fuels America's economic innovation and prosperity, and serves as a key means for families to move out of low-wage jobs and into the middle class.

Public Benefits and Costs
Local stores in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure and make more efficient use of public services relative to big box stores and strip shopping malls.

Environmental Sustainability
Local stores help to sustain vibrant, compact, walkable town centers-which in turn are essential to reducing sprawl, automobile use, habitat loss, and air and water pollution.

Competition
A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term.

Product Diversity
A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based, not on a national sales plan, but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.

Monday's EDC meeting includes the following agenda item: "Discussion Concerning Possible Incentive Programs for Development."

Though the EDC has been ambivalent thus far to my calls to create an overt program of support for small- and locally-owned businesses, perhaps "peer pressure" from nearby municipalities will get their attention this time around.

Cudahy, Shorewood OK aid to businesses - JSOnline.

Cudahy has created a cash and loan program that would give up to $57,300 to businesses, and Shorewood has approved a loan and a grant to help a restaurant move into larger space.

Both actions, taken Tuesday by the Cudahy Common Council and the Shorewood Village Board, are aimed at boosting economic development.

will give up to $57,300 in cash and loans to each of five small businesses that open on Packard Ave. Among the incentives that would be offered to the retail businesses: loans of up to $25,000 at 2% interest; matching grants of up to $25,000 to build or improve a storefront façade; up to $10,000 in cash to buy out an existing business' current lease so that the business can move to Packard Ave. Shorewood approved loan of $102,500 at 2% and a $50,000 grant to help North Star American Bistro move across N. Oakland Ave.

Columnist warns of forced porch-sitting, with possible mandatory neighbor interaction

[Sorry for the odd typography and text color - I'm trying to use the Google Chrome browser, and it isn't playing nice with Typepad]

Let's take a few moments and discuss the many and varied reasons that Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel conserva-columnist Patrick McIlheran cannot be taken seriously when he attempts to address suburban sprawl issues.

Reason one: Mr. McIlheran, from what I gather, lives in a traditional urban-type neighborhood and spends the balance of his day in a city-based office (at least for now; newspapering is a tough business lately) at the Journal-Sentinel building. He also has written frequently about how he's availed himself to the city of Milwaukee's (increasingly meager) bus transit system.

One wonders how this daily experience gives him any insight whatsoever into the habits and lifestyles created and enforced by suburban subdivisions.

How about this: Plant Mr. McIlheran and family in a Franklin or Oak Creek subdivision - one of the curvy-road, avoid-the-neighbors, park-in-my-backyard, strictly-zoned types that he loves - for a period of one year. And make him work at the Franklin Northwestern Mutual Insurance campus.

Reason two: Despite his obvious dependence on the many well-funded arms of Sprawl Inc. (Reason Foundation, American Dream Coalition [be sure to download their inspiring and not-at-all-funded-by-oil-and-auto-companies "white papers" in their website's "Automobility" section], Randal O'Toole on speed-dial, etc.), he cannot (as per usual, I'm afraid) muster a "fact" that doesn't make you laugh. 

For example: McIlheran has chosen for special mention designer Rick Harrison, who has come up with something that he calls "Prefurbia" (this zany appellation, interestingly, is not mentioned in McIlheran's column, perhaps to accommodate the clumsy headline: "Suburbia that keeps its prefix"). On the plus side, Harrison's "coving" design sets out to eliminate cul-de-sacs, increase connectivity, and decrease paved area. On the minus side, Harrison is oddly drawn to the "speedway" curved road plan that makes so many suburbs deathtraps for bikes and pedestrians. The illustration below is from Harrison's site and depicts a development called "Edgewood" in southeastern Wisconsin:

I've seen worse, but there not much to get excited about here. Unless you're Patrick McIlheran:

And between the angles, setbacks and serpentine streets, the subdivisions use much less pavement - usually 25% less for a given acreage, says Harrison.

"Much less pavement." "Usually 25% less for a given acreage." Less than.... what? Did they stop using editors over at the Milwaukee JS?

Perhaps McIlheran derived his nugget from an old 1998 New York Times profile of Harrison:

In a typical subdivision, streets account for 20 to 30 percent of the land, say builders. At [Harrison-designed] Eagle Pass, however, that figure is 17 percent.

So Harrison's "coving" uses less asphalt than a "typical subdivision"? Not entirely inspiring; the curving roads in Harrison's designs are built for speed, and getting rid of "typical subdivision" cul-de-sacs accounts for a huge amount of asphalt without having to do much else, design-wise.

Heroic? No.

Reason three: McIlheran loves him some drive-thru design.

Built-for-speed roads are worth touting:

His roads are snaky, with few intersections (and, so, few stops).

Excellent - because we gotta get through that residential area at top speed! Hooray - "FEW STOPS"!

Reason four: Like others who lobby for Sprawl, Inc., McIlheran conveys the ludicrous notion that - in a region overrun with non-planned, non-sustainable suburbs that have grown at the whims of developers and their desire for increased and quicker profit (a condition that has created the need for cuts in services while property taxes continue to climb) - creating provisions for New Urbanist or Traditional Neighborhood Development subdivisions somehow limits our choices rather than increasing them by adding another flavor to the mix.

You see, in McIlheran's worldview, the appearance of a non-standard choice in some way magically eliminates countless existing subdivisions - and their ready-to-buy vacancies. So, he uses ludicrous language like the following:

Porches are nice to relax on. Not that you should have to.

People are busy, after all, [quoting Harrison] "and maybe they don't want to know their neighbors that well."

Harrison does not like the dominant planning idea of recent years, New Urbanism, which mandates porches and narrow houses on narrow lots...

So, when they built the wildly successful Middleton Hills subdivision in Middleton, Wisconsin, did residents of the surrounding subdivisions receive orders to get out on their porches? Were they told they'd better learn the names of their neighbor's pets? Did the Middleton Hills "mandate" of "narrow houses on narrow lots" result in letters being sent to nearby Manor of the Lake McMansion subdivision that they'd better start building infill immediately?

Ludicrous.

But, for those with the patience to read to the end of McIlheran's column, all becomes clear, and we have reason five that Patrick McIlheran should not write about planning issues:

And this guy's made money for himself and for developers with such an accommodating attitude. Hallelujah. Ain't America cool?

At least he's fairly transparent in his quest for additional partisan speaking gigs - perhaps at next year's National Association of Home Builder's convention.

Because, goodness knows that "developers making money" is what creates successful communities, and any attempt to enforce standards would be "bossy" ....

[See related: The Conservative Case for Walking and Biking]