Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

Mobile's Take: "Don't reduce bus routes and cut fares."

From Mobile's Take:

That was the common theme at last nights Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors public hearing on the 2008 Budget. This was, by far, was the largest crowd at this budget hearing that I have witnessed since I started going to these hearings many years ago. Parking was at a premium since every single space at the Washington Park Senior Center was taken and many had to park on the street and walk, as I had to do when I arrived at 6:40 PM for the 7:00 PM meeting. The Washington Park Senior Center Auditorium was standing room only for every single seat was taken.

More...

Pabst farms update: Mall builder may pull out; rethinking the whole "mall" idea

Once again, "developer gamesmanship" - - The Deal - - seemed ready to overwhelm common sense.

"Two local retail sources who did not want to be named said rumors of General Growth's decision to pull out have been circulating for weeks. They suggested the site has not been attracting as much interest from retailers as expected because of the lack of population in the Oconomowoc area."

Masters of the obvious.

In The Political Environment: Don't Build The Interchange To Nowhere, James Rowen writes:

So the developer of the million-square-foot upscale mall at Pabst Farms is pulling out; maybe asking them to pay 7% of the cost of the $25 million Diamond Interchange so shoppers could get to the mall was asking too much?

...The mall would have added hundreds of additional relatively low-paying jobs to the entire project's commercial components, yet Pabst Farms has no transit service and no market-rate, apartment or multi-family housing for people who might work at Pabst Farms properties.

Is this planning?

And, again picked up from The Political Environment blog: General Growth seems to be rethinking the whole idea of malls in an article on the Congress For The New Urbanism's website:

General Growth Properties, the nation’s second-largest owner of shopping malls, has decided to start redeveloping its more than 200 properties by adding housing, offices, hotels, and other elements — and applying New Urbanism’s techniques in some locations. Thomas D’Alesandro IV, senior vice president of the Chicago-based company, told a session at CNU in Philadelphia that he foresees “the reinvention of existing malls into mixed-use centers.”

The firm has quietly had Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. work on a plan for redeveloping Utah’s first enclosed shopping mall — the Cottonwood Mall in Holladay, just south of Salt Lake City — into a mixed-use development. That project, whose design has not yet been made public, joins mixed-use redevelopment projects that the company is pursuing in Columbia, Maryland, Natick, Massachusetts, Rock Springs, Wyoming, and elsewhere.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Pabst Farms may lose builder

Developer seeks backup firm for massive Oconomowoc mall

By AMY RINARD
[email protected]

Posted: Oct. 3, 2007

Oconomowoc - Developers of Pabst Farms are shopping for another company to build a large upscale mall at I-94 and Highway 67 because General Growth Properties Inc. looks like it is bowing out of the high-profile project.

Peter Bell, president of Pabst Farms Development Inc., said he still intends to open a large regional shopping mall at Pabst Farms in 2010 and has been in discussions for several months with other companies that are interested in taking on the project on that schedule.

"We're talking to other national developers," Bell said in a phone interview Wednesday from Florida, where he was touring a shopping mall built by a developer he said was interested in the Oconomowoc project.

"If (General Growth) has some internal reasons for slowing down or are unable to execute on this site, I've got a timetable to maintain; I'm moving forward."

General Growth properties Senior Vice President Louis Bucksbaum did not return phone calls Wednesday. The company, a publicly traded real estate investment trust, reported in its latest financial results July 31 that its funds from operations were 71 cents a share in the second quarter, which fell short of the 74 cents a share that analysts had expected.

However, the company said in July that it still expects to match its predicted financial results for 2007, and last week it announced plans to team up with another firm on a $450 million hotel, condominium and retail development in downtown St. Louis.

Two local retail sources who did not want to be named said rumors of General Growth's decision to pull out have been circulating for weeks. They suggested the site has not been attracting as much interest from retailers as expected because of the lack of population in the Oconomowoc area.

Bell said General Growth's withdrawal from the project was not being contemplated for financial reasons but because of internal discussions in the company about a shift in business strategy and the number of projects it can take on at one time.

Officials of General Growth, the second-largest developer of malls in the country and the owner of Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa, have more than once come before the city's Common Council to present their plans for the 184-acre, 1 million-square-foot Pabst Farms Town Centre, intended to attract shoppers from a broad swath of Wisconsin. Aldermen have approved those plans.

A large drawing of the latest version of the mall design hangs on a wall in City Hall for review by city staff.

"Because of the investment of time we've put into this process, I'd be disappointed," Mayor Maury Sullivan said Wednesday when told about a possible change in mall developers.

"But whatever the reason might be, life moves on, and there's no reason why the concept cannot go forward with a different player. The city still is expecting it will be a regional mall of a pretty large scale and a quality development."

Meanwhile, the Waukesha County Board is expected later this month to vote on a plan to build a new freeway interchange at I-94 and County Highway P designed primarily to serve the mall.

The county would contribute $1.75 million toward the cost of the $25 million freeway project, with Pabst Farms contributing another $1.75 million and the city $400,000 from revenues generated through the tax incremental financing program created for part of the 1,500-acre Pabst Farms development. The state Department of Transportation would fund the remainder of the project.

The interchange project was expanded and its scheduling accelerated after General Growth announced plans last year for the mall.

County Executive Dan Vrakas said Wednesday that it makes no difference to the interchange funding agreement he brokered if General Growth backs out of the mall project, as long as a large retail center is built at the Pabst Farms site.

"To me this was never about General Growth," he said. "To me this is about having a regional shopping mall there."

General Growth Properties has proposed a mall that would include a multi-screen cinema and two hotels.

The main section of Pabst Farms Town Centre would be an enclosed multistory structure with two or three large anchor stores; two smaller anchor stores, such as a bookstore, and 100 to 120 smaller shops.

West of the enclosed mall would be an open-air mall. A 16-screen movie theater and restaurants are planned east of the enclosed mall.

A 44-acre parcel east of the cinema would be for stand-alone big-box stores.

Bell said he believes a mall at Pabst Farms still is on track to open in 2010.

He said several developers of high-quality regional retail centers are talking with him about building the mall at Pabst Farms and that having a plan in place to build the interchange is essential to moving the mall plan forward.

Tom Daykin and Doris Hajewski of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Milwaukee's parks get another kick to the head

The long decline continues as Milwaukee County Exec Scott Walker proposes more county park job cuts.

I've posted below some park pictures from Gretchen Schuldt's Milwaukee Rising blog (visit her blog to see more).

Color conservative Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Patrick McIlheran unconcerned:

Well, yeah. The place needs a coat of paint. The tennis courts need some Roundup. Which isn't particularly complex work.

Patrick needs to read that Roundup container's instruction panel a little closer - -  I doubt that it's recommended for patching fractured blacktop surfaces, nor can it spray out a new regulation net.

Hmmmm - - part-time park workers armed with Roundup, and American soldiers forced to add scrap "improvised armor" to their Humvees in Iraq. Conservatives are consistent in their shortsightedness, at least.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Editorial: Cutting into bone

With parks already in decline, now's not the right time for the county executive to slash the full-time parks maintenance staff. Supervisors need to look at this carefully.

From the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Sept. 20, 2007

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker's proposed budget for next year would abolish 81 additional full-time county parks jobs. Walker says the parks won't suffer, because the job cuts are part of a broader plan to reorganize parks maintenance operations.

For the sake of our parks system, we hope he's right, but we're skeptical. Our parks are already paying the price for chronic cuts in staff and deferred maintenance.

That skepticism is shared by some members of the County Board, who have justifiably chided Walker for refusing to even consider an advisory referendum on raising the county sales tax to produce more revenue for parks.

Walker points out that of the 81 jobs he proposed to eliminate next year, 31 are vacant. He also noted that his budget calls for hiring 20 new forestry and maintenance workers who will have more supervisory duties, provides $600,000 to hire more seasonal workers because much of the work in parks is seasonal and includes $1.1 million to purchase new mowers and other maintenance equipment and gear.

The budget also calls for creating a park patrol of 12 half-time seasonal workers on bicycles with two-way radios.

The combination of the new positions, new equipment and more seasonal help will give parks administrators more managerial flexibility and resources, Walker said Thursday. In fact, he said, the Parks Department will have more hours of help available next year than it does now.

Walker is also proposing $14 million in new construction next year, including $2.5 million for the new Lincoln Park Family Aquatic Center and $1.5 million for three new splash pads to replace old wading pools in other parks. That makes sense, as does his decision to keep the Dr. Martin Luther King and Kosciusko community centers open. They earlier had been targeted for closure.

But we question the wisdom of slashing so many full-time parks maintenance workers in one fell swoop and relying so heavily on seasonal workers. That changing pool of workers will need to be trained and retrained, and valuable institutional memory will be lost.

With the parks already in trouble, now is not the best time for such drastic shifts in staffing.

Should Milwaukee County cut 81 parks positions? Why or why not? Send a letter to: Journal Sentinel editorial department

"It is impossible for them to engage in any kind of constructive discussion. They are so blinded by ideology, so blinded by a need to discredit any thought, idea, or proposal from the left, that it leaves the metropolitan area frozen."

It's interesting how our growing time spent in vehicles coincides with the growth of talk radio blather. Is it any wonder that the voices of the right will stop at nothing to reinforce an auto-centric existence? They'd lose their captive, isolated, road-rage-fueled audience if people suddenly got comfortable on a train or well-kept bus.

Not long ago I was listening on the weekend to WISN (shower radio!); a gardening show hosted by the ubiquitous "Paul" (he co-hosts about a dozen shows every weekend morning) and a woman referred to as... "The Garden Hoe." Classy.

Typically astute observations by Paul Soglin at Waxing America:

The problem with Milwaukee is talk radio.

So long as Charlie Sykes, Mark Belling and Jay Weber dominate the discussion on crime and poverty, there is little hope for Wisconsin's most important city to work its way out of its troubles.

For the past three months as I drove to Milwaukee every other week on I-94 I listened to Milwaukee stations. Sykes on the way into town, Belling on the way out.

This past month I discovered Jay Weber. Yikes.

It is impossible for them to engage in any kind of constructive discussion. They are so blinded by ideology, so blinded by a need to discredit any thought, idea, or proposal from the left, that it leaves the metropolitan area frozen.

On the issue of crime, I will gladly join them in making specific criticisms of some inadequate approaches to law enforcement.

There is a need to jail and convict, there is a need to fix 'broken windows.'

There is a need to drive out drug dealers, extortionists, and pimps from low income communities.

There is a need to stand up to public officials who attack those who might assist the police in combating crime.

But there is also a need to expand the discussion beyond their narrow purposes. Sykes does not understand how New York City lowered crimes rates when Giuliani was mayor. Belling does not understand the management of a police department, and Weber, especially does not understand the nature of community policing in Madison or anywhere else in the western hemisphere.

None of them understand that law enforcement alone does not work. To bring about real change law enforcement must be combined with strategies that strengthen neighborhoods and address issues of job training, education, childcare, transportation, and health.

So long as the discussion is drawn in the narrow lines provided by Sykes-Belling-Weber, there will be no meaningful discussion of the issues and Milwaukee will not arrive at sound solutions.

That is because community leaders, business leaders, and political leaders need the support of citizens to implement change. Sykes-Belling-Weber do an excellent job at what they know best - making sure metropolitan Milwaukee never achieves cohesion.

The problem with Milwaukee is talk radio.

So long as Charlie Sykes, Mark Belling and Jay Weber dominate the discussion on crime and poverty, there is little hope for Wisconsin's most important city to work its way out of its troubles.

For the past three months as I drove to Milwaukee every other week on I-94 I listened to Milwaukee stations. Sykes on the way into town, Belling on the way out.

This past month I discovered Jay Weber. Yikes.

It is impossible for them to engage in any kind of constructive discussion. They are so blinded by ideology, so blinded by a need to discredit any thought, idea, or proposal from the left, that it leaves the metropolitan area frozen.

On the issue of crime, I will gladly join them in making specific criticisms of some inadequate approaches to law enforcement.

There is a need to jail and convict, there is a need to fix 'broken windows.'

There is a need to drive out drug dealers, extortionists, and pimps from low income communities.

There is a need to stand up to public officials who attack those who might assist the police in combating crime.

But there is also a need to expand the discussion beyond their narrow purposes. Sykes does not understand how New York City lowered crimes rates when Giuliani was mayor. Belling does not understand the management of a police department, and Weber, especially does not understand the nature of community policing in Madison or anywhere else in the western hemisphere.

None of them understand that law enforcement alone does not work. To bring about real change law enforcement must be combined with strategies that strengthen neighborhoods and address issues of job training, education, childcare, transportation, and health.

So long as the discussion is drawn in the narrow lines provided by Sykes-Belling-Weber, there will be no meaningful discussion of the issues and Milwaukee will not arrive at sound solutions.

That is because community leaders, business leaders, and political leaders need the support of citizens to implement change. Sykes-Belling-Weber do an excellent job at what they know best - making sure metropolitan Milwaukee never achieves cohesion.

Milwaukee's oncoming transit nightmare

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Walker wants bus fare boosted to $2

Regressive tax 101. Get it from those who have little to give, while degrading conditions and quality of service to the point that taking the bus is a choice of last resort.

Blogger Gretchen Schuldt has an excellent compilation of potential transit cuts as well as "transit users speak out" videos here.

Subsidizing Sprawl: $25 million freeway interchange deemed "crucial" to large upscale shopping center at Pabst Farms

James Rowen says it best at The Political Environment:

That's one of the distortions caused by the rush to build The Road To Sprawlville: public money is used to subsidize development that pushes the economy farther from already-built business communities - - with merchants and residents in the losing communities knowing that some of their tax money is paying for their demise.

Mall supporters are touting its revenue production for state and local collections, so the message to Waukesha County and local Oconomowoc taxpayers is this:

Shop t'il you drop and help pay off your interchange investment.

Nearby Jefferson - already facing an impending Wal-Mart SuperCenter - will feel this.

Freeway deal struck for Pabst Farms mall

Oconomowoc, developer, state, county to pay for interchange

By AMY RINARD
[email protected]

Posted: Sept. 3, 2007

Oconomowoc - Waukesha County Executive Dan Vrakas is to unveil today an agreement on a $25 million freeway interchange deemed crucial to the development of a large upscale shopping center at Pabst Farms.

Debate over who would pay for the interchange had cast doubt over whether it would be built.

But Vrakas is to announce that he worked out the agreement to share the cost of building a full diamond interchange, complete with four roundabouts, at I-94 and County Highway P in far western Waukesha County. It would funnel shoppers into the mall.

"This development with a major national mall coming in would be a huge economic center for western Waukesha County," Vrakas said.

"I'm proposing to partner with the state, the City of Oconomowoc, as well as the developer to handle the safe movement of vehicles out there."

The agreement calls for the county and Pabst Farms Development Inc., owner and manager of the 1,500-acre development near I-94 and Highway 67, to contribute $1.75 million each toward the interchange project.

Another $400,000 would come out of city property tax revenue paid by stores and other commercial and industrial buildings built at Pabst Farms. That revenue would be segregated, until all project costs are paid for, in a fund to be used for public improvements in the Pabst Farms tax incremental financing district.

The rest of the funding for the interchange would come from the state Department of Transportation, out of its Southeast Freeway Rehabilitation Program, said Dewayne Johnson, director of the Southeast Region of the department.

"We're pretty encouraged with the cooperation going on and with people talking about how to deal cooperatively to advance the schedule for building the interchange," he said.

'It will pay off'

Norm Cummings, Waukesha County director of administration, said construction of the interchange is crucial for mall developers.

"Before the developer will agree to come here, they needed assurance that there is a safe interchange to get customers there," he said.

The potential economic benefits of the mall to the county, the city and the state were lucrative enough to get all the parties to the table to work out a plan to pay for construction of the interchange, he said.

State sales tax revenue from the mall has been estimated at $15 million a year. The city, the county and the Oconomowoc School District would reap the rewards of an increased property tax base. And the revenue should come sooner than expected, with the end of the Pabst Farms tax incremental financing program anticipated in 2014 or 2015, a year earlier than originally planned.

"It will pay off for the county, for the city, and there's no question it will pay off for the state," Cummings said of the mall.

The county's share of the interchange cost would be paid out of surplus funds accumulated the last five years from savings on capital projects, he said, noting that no new county taxes are needed to pay for the interchange. He also said that no projects have been scrapped or put on hold as a result of designating funds for the interchange.

After General Growth Properties announced plans last year for the 184-acre, 1 million-square-foot Pabst Farms Town Centre, intended to attract shoppers from a broad swath of Wisconsin, local and state officials scrambled to design and figure out how to pay for the interchange.

In the 1990s, department analysts projected an expansion of the I-94/Highway P interchange for 2012.

Last month, during a public information meeting on the interchange project, department officials said that if funding was approved, construction could start in the spring and be completed in 2010. Developers have said the mall could open in the fall of 2010.

"For years, we have known there would be development out there; what has accelerated is the size and scope of the development," Richard Bolte, county public works director, said of the mall.

"The intensity of this is what's changed significantly."

Theater, 2 hotels

General Growth Properties, the second-largest developer of malls in the country and the owner of Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa, has proposed a mall including a multi-screen cinema and two hotels.

The main section of Pabst Farms Town Centre would be an enclosed multistory structure with two or three large anchor stores; two smaller anchor stores, such as a bookstore; and 100 to 120 smaller shops.

Another part of the complex, west of the enclosed mall, would be an open-air mall with small one-story shops and sidewalks.

A 16-screen movie theater and restaurants are planned east of the enclosed mall.

A 44-acre parcel east of the cinema would be the site of retailers that operate stand-alone big-box stores.

Highway P, known locally as Sawyer Road, is east of the big-box store area. The interchange would allow motorists to get on and off I-94 there, and plans call for an intersection with a road leading into the mall complex to be built on Highway P.

Vrakas' plan, included in his 2008 capital budget, must win approval from the County Board.

Board approval also will be required for the memorandum of understanding that outlines details of the agreement involving the state, the county, the city and Pabst Farms Development.

Vrakas said he was confident of board approval for the funding plan because the cost of the interchange would be shared and the economic benefits of the mall would be huge.

"I think we have a proposal that meets the needs of the county and the taxpayers," he said.

"And to be a good citizen means to also ask, 'What does this mean for others?' "

The August 10th Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Perspectives page is a marvel.

In the center of the page, The National Review's Jonah Goldberg expounds on the possible reasons for our current narcissism and overwhelming self interest (Mr. Rogers?), while to the right (literally and figuratively) conservative columnist Patrick McIlheran ties himself in knots attempting to explain that we can somehow continue to get something for nothing; only a true-blue conservative soldier can brag at one point that "Minnesota's tax, 20 cents a gallon, hasn't budged since 1988," then contradict himself in his big wrap-up by wagging his finger: "The notion of a new bridge tax has the same feel of paying again for something we already bought and never got." (But, didn't you just pat Minnesota on the back for not paying for something via a sane and adequate gas tax?)

Could it be that our growing narcissism and self-interest are the ingredients that produce (and support via elections) an ideology that supports higher and higher bus fares for the poorest among us while multimillionaire venture capitalists pay less tax than a cleaning lady.

Then, blessedly, at the bottom of the page comes this reflection on the concept of community by columnist Nancy Bauer-King, who picks up the thread started by Steve Paske.

Reflecting on what it means

By NANCY BAUER-KING

Posted: Aug. 9, 2007

"Humans need meaning," said one of my professors 35 years ago. "We need meaning like we need air."

I immediately tried to figure out what he meant. Thank heavens he explained that a normal response to any event in my life (i.e., an MRI result, a closed ramp on I-94, a granddaughter being deployed to Afghanistan) is to reflect upon what it means to me.

If only the professor had left it there. But, no, he had to go and meddle. He added, "And to be a good citizen means to also ask, 'What does this mean for others?' "

Ever since that class, when reflecting on the daily unfolding of events, I have been plagued with the questions: What does (insert issue here) mean for me? For others?

The Journal Sentinel's Jim Stingl evoked my meaning-awareness reflections in his Aug. 5 column ("Pensioners hit another pay-dirty deal").

What does it mean that Milwaukee County is willing to pay unethical (if not illegal) pensions but not willing to subsidize bus routes to help people get to work?

For me, personally, it means little or nothing. I live in Racine County and have a car.

But what does it mean for others? For three years, I was pastor at a south side Milwaukee church. I knew several people who relied on the bus to get to work. Many of these jobs were low-paying, I might add. (I'm hoping that employers are determining how many of their employees may be affected by the proposed route cuts and fare increases. Perhaps CEOs' complaints would carry more weight than from those who rely on the buses.)

What does it mean for us to watch horrified after a Minneapolis bridge collapses and then scream about a possible increase in Wisconsin taxes that could help repair aging bridges around us?

Or what does it mean that we have fits about money being allocated to alleviate suffering in Milwaukee's inner city but acquiesce as billions are spent causing suffering in Iraq?

"What does it mean," my 91-year-old mother asked me last week, "that they keep inventing new things to keep old people alive but eliminate the things that can help us get through the day?" My mother has a pacemaker and a shelf full of medication, and she wears a necklace that she can poke for help if she falls (and remains conscious).

But she can't see numbers to operate a cell phone. She has difficulty operating her television and radio. A computer is out of the question.

I grew up in an era in which the purpose of education was to prepare productive members of society. Today, the focus seems to be on getting a job that pays lots of money. If this assessment of the current goal of education is true, I don't hear the issue discussed, let alone what it means. What I do hear mostly is selfish whining about paying taxes and nasty rants about "bleeding heart liberals."

"It all depends upon whose ox is being gored," a clergy colleague laughed, referring to 4,000-year-old (at least) laws found in the Hebrew Scriptures (Exodus: 21.28-36). His comment (and the laws) illustrates how long our human communities have found it necessary to regulate self-interest.

Thankfully, I know lots of people who are true public servants. They are the ones willing to look beyond their own self-interest, discuss the complexity, consequences and meanings of events and sacrifice for the good of the community.

Nancy Bauer-King of Racine is a retired clergywoman. Her e-mail address is  [email protected]

Editorial: "In this world, you get what you pay for. And I know I'm going to tick a lot of people off for saying this, but I don't mind seeing my taxes go up if it coincides with improved services."

Much credit to Steve Paske for confronting conservative obstinateness (and blatant ongoing opportunism) regarding "big, bad taxes"  - - which the wealthiest among us need not worry about, by the way, thanks to the dogged efforts of the Bush administration.

Taxes aren't that bad

By STEVE PASKE

Posted: Aug. 8, 2007

The conservative talk radio waves are buzzing.

"Democrats are trying to pass the biggest tax increase in state history," they say. "If what they have proposed passes, we'll become the highest taxed state in the nation."

In the meantime, they seem to ignore other things. Swimming pools at Milwaukee County parks lie dormant. Watertown Plank Road is so poorly maintained in front of the hospital, that it must be hell on Earth for someone arriving in an ambulance with appendicitis. Minneapolis is in the headlines for the I-35W bridge collapse, but our own inability to fund adequate inspections could easily have led to an identical story with the Hoan Bridge a few years back.

Yet some try to scare us with tired old mantras: "Once a tax goes up, it never drops."

Apparently, they've forgotten that the highest federal tax bracket was above 70% in the 1970s and now sits at 39%. They'll immediately remind you that the '70s were rife with inflation and a weak economy. They won't mention that from 1942 through 1963, the top federal bracket ranged from 88% to 94%. If I'm not mistaken, those years are known as a period of rapid economic expansion.

Another mantra: "In order to stimulate the economy, you have to lower taxes."

In 1921, the top federal tax rate was 73%, dropping to 24% by 1929. By virtue of the fact that this decade is remembered as the roaring '20s, this shows that lowering taxes stimulates economic activity. Unless of course you take into account that in 1929, in which we had the lowest top bracket tax rate in the past 80 years, we also saw the beginning of the Great Depression.

What we have here is a group of media pundits vehemently extolling the virtues of individual ambition and drive, never thinking to mention that in reality most members of society will see far more benefit if the wealth is spread.

The conservatives will argue that nobody will want to become a doctor or a lawyer or work in a profession that requires a lot of schooling if there is not reward at the end of the tunnel. Honestly, though, is anyone really not going to pursue a medical career because he or she will be taxed 50% on every dollar earned above $200,000 instead of 39%?

Conservatives will argue that potential small business owners will be less likely to risk starting a new venture because the financial rewards will be less. Never mind that an adequate system of public health service along with a failed business safety net funded by higher taxes would dramatically reduce the pain of failure.

In this world, you get what you pay for. And I know I'm going to tick a lot of people off for saying this, but I don't mind seeing my taxes go up if it coincides with improved services.

So if you're wondering why schools are failing, bridges are collapsing or police are so short staffed, don't look any further than the fact that we pay less in taxes than the people of almost any other developed nation.

True, if you're an entrepreneur in Wisconsin, the passage of these taxes will likely mean that if your business succeeds, you'll only become a billionaire instead of a kazillioinaire. But if you're tired of reading about deteriorating parks, increased crime, not enough firefighters or families going bankrupt due to medical emergencies, turn off your radio and pick up the phone to call your state legislators.

Tell them that in the interest of the community, you are willing to pay your share. Your share, my friends, is called taxes.

Steve Paske of Milwaukee is a Milwaukee Public Schools teacher and author of a new book, "Breaking Stride." His e-mail address is [email protected]

Good election news

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker's hand-picked candidate for a south suburban county supervisor seat is defeated. Perhaps the tide is turning; local right wing commentator Charlie Sykes posted on his blog: "The Milwaukee tax revolt is over."

Translated: The blinders are coming off.

Jursik defeats Kujawa in county supervisor race

By JESSE GARZA
[email protected]

Posted: Aug. 7, 2007

Cudahy lawyer and community activist Pat Jursik defeated South Milwaukee landscaper Chris Kujawa in Tuesday's special election for a vacant south suburban seat on the Milwaukee County Board.

Unofficial results from the Milwaukee County Election Commission show that Jursik, 59, won with 3,104 votes to 2,622 for Kujawa. Jursik had warned during the campaign that Kujawa would be an overly loyal disciple of County Executive Scott Walker, and said she would be the more independent voice for the district, which includes Cudahy, St. Francis, South Milwaukee and part of Oak Creek.

The seat opened up after former Supervisor Ryan McCue was elected mayor of Cudahy. Jursik will face voters again in April if she wants to run for a full four-year term.

Jursik favors putting a 1-cent sales-tax increase proposal for parks, transit and property tax relief before voters Feb. 19, something Walker has pledged to veto. A close veto override vote is expected next month.

Although she said voters should have a chance to weigh in on the topic, she said she would personally prefer a smaller sales tax increase for parks and transit, perhaps of 0.25%. She promised to hold the line on property tax increases.

Jursik got into the race over her concern for the deterioration of Sheridan Park, which is across the street from her home. That concern grew to a broader worry over how tight county budgets of recent years may be cutting too deeply.

She's been critical of Walker for budget cuts and for not acting sooner to halt some pension buybacks for county workers that a Journal Sentinel article said could ultimately cost $50 million.

Raise fares, cut routes: Business as usual for Scott Walker

"The county has raised fares, cut service or both every year since 2000. One result is that transit ridership is dropping here while it's rising nationwide and in most other major cities."

Not a problem, of course, for people who have two cars in the garage and fixate on their property taxes. The Scott Walker solution seems to be: make the people with the smallest incomes pay more for less.

Perhaps gas prices need to go up even further so anti-transit and anti-light rail forces can begin to see what's ahead - - and what we're not nearly prepared for.

Plan ends routes, raises fares

By LARRY SANDLER
[email protected]

Posted: July 22, 2007

Milwaukee County would raise bus fares from $1.75 to $2, drop 13 bus routes and shorten 13 others, under the Milwaukee County Transit System's 2008 budget request.

Also, fares would rise from $3.25 to $4 on the Transit Plus vans that serve the county's disabled and frail elderly residents. And Transit Plus service would be sliced to the minimum allowed by the federal government, replacing the current countywide door-to-door service with service only in areas near the shrinking bus routes.

Together, the fare hikes and service cuts would drive down regular bus ridership by 16% and Transit Plus ridership by 8%, transit officials estimate.

Some bus riders said Sunday they were disappointed in the proposal.

"For me, I would be at a loss," said Joyce Kubiak as she got off the Route 64 bus at Southridge Mall Sunday afternoon. The 64, which generally runs along S. 60th St. from W. Greenfield Ave. to W. Grange Ave. before turning west to Southridge, is one of the routes proposed for elimination. She lives along the route and said, "I depend on it."

$2 fares
Fares would rise from $1.75 to $2 for adults who pay cash on the bus. Cash fares would rise from 85 cents to $1 for riders who are aged under 12 or over 64 or are disabled. Weekly passes and sheets of 10 tickets would stay at $16.

13 routes ended
Eliminated would be five regular routes, four Freeway Flyer routes, three school routes and an industrial park shuttle.

13 routes sliced
Shortened would be 11 regular routes and two Freeway Flyer routes. Service would be reduced or reorganized on several other routes.

Paratransit service cut
Instead of countywide door-to-door service, the Transit Plus van service for the frail elderly and disabled would run only within three-quarters of a mile of county bus routes. Transit Plus fares would rise from $3.25 to $4.

County Executive Scott Walker said he doesn't want to cut service, but everything would be on the table when he tries to balance the overall county budget before he sends it to the County Board in September. Through a spokesman, County Board Chairman Lee Holloway said he would fight to avoid either service cuts or fare hikes.

Although Walker and transit system Managing Director Anita Gulotta-Connelly said multiple factors - including rising employee and retiree health care costs - contributed to the proposed cuts, the budget request says the proposed $2.3 million spending reduction "is the result of significant service adjustments to meet targeted tax levy amounts." Gulotta-Connelly said the county budget office told the bus system to chop its property tax support by nearly $1 million, reflecting Walker's pledge to hold the line on property taxes.

Even worse times could be ahead. The proposed cuts would reduce service by 13%. But without new state or local funding, the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission has warned the bus system could face a 35% service cut by 2010, when it exhausts a pool of federal aid for major maintenance on buses.

The bus system's plight led Walker, Holloway, Gulotta-Connelly and Mayor Tom Barrett to renew their calls for a new revenue source to take public transit off the property tax - and to speculate whether it would take a crisis to reach that goal.

"I do think we are on the edge of that crisis," Gulotta-Connelly said.

Holloway "feels the transit system is dying without a dedicated funding source," County Board spokesman Harold Mester said.

And Walker said he hoped the possible cuts and fare increases would spur the Legislature to act, adding, "Nothing else has worked thus far."

Milwaukee County is one of the only places in the nation where property taxes pay for buses, keeping the transit system in competition with other county agencies for tax dollars. But neither local officials nor legislators have reached a consensus on how to replace the levy.

Holloway wants the Legislature to authorize a new local sales tax for transit, as do some other supervisors and aldermen. But the board has yet to rally behind a transit sales tax; Walker opposes any new sales tax; and other supervisors and Barrett say new sales tax revenue should be shared with parks, public safety agencies or both.

Walker, meanwhile, wants the Legislature to shift part of the existing state sales tax on vehicle-related purchases into transportation, a concept vetoed several years ago by Gov. Jim Doyle. Barrett said that's not politically realistic and pointed out that no lawmaker has even raised the idea during deliberations on the 2007-'09 state budget. Walker retorted that no one has added a local sales tax to the state budget, and he doesn't think that's politically realistic, either.

As that debate has continued, the county has raised fares, cut service or both every year since 2000. One result is that transit ridership is dropping here while it's rising nationwide and in most other major cities. The transit system is expecting 2007 ridership to fall well short of its projected 47.7 million rides, the budget request says.

Walker said cutting bus routes would limit access to jobs and cutting paratransit van service would hit the elderly and disabled. By contrast, he said, "I don't like fare increases, but they're the least of my worries."

Gulotta-Connelly said the bus system had cut other spending, including a successful push in union contract talks to require transit employees and retirees to pay part of their health insurance premiums for the first time.

Alan J. Borsuk of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.