Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

Kaid Benfield's Blog: "Why doesn't the public health community get it about walkability?"

 

To say the chart above is startling is an understatement. The date in the "before" map is not 1935, or even 1975 -- you're looking at the spread of obesity in the time since THE SIMPSONS have been on TV.

That, my friends, is an epidemic.

Research proves that sprawl is significantly associated with inactivity and obesity, now perhaps the nation's foremost public health menace.  The results of overweight and obesity include increased coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon), hypertension, dyslipidemia, stroke, liver and Gallbladder disease, sleep apnea and respiratory problems, osteoarthritis, and gynecological problems (abnormal menses, infertility).  Research also shows that walkable neighborhoods and transit improve fitness and the health of communities.  Sure sounds important to me.

Read the rest at: Why doesn't the public health community get it about walkability? | Kaid Benfield's Blog | Switchboard, from NRDC

U.S. Secretary of Transportation: "Transportation is a public health issue"

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood: "People want options. They want to be able to be more physically active on streets that are friendlier to pedestrians and bicyclists. And when adults model physical activity, our kids see it, and they get it."

From LaHood's blog:

Yesterday, DOT Undersecretary Roy Kienitz talked about how transportation decisions that value things like "vehicle throughput" instead of pedestrian safety affect America's communities. And about how transit decisions that emphasize "minutes-saved" pit outlying suburban commuters against their inner-lying urban neighbors. Recognizing that those policies have had an effect on public health, he said, "Transportation is about more than engineering."

But, as Undersecretary Kienitz told yesterday's meeting, DOT has taken steps to fix the formula and find a different approach.

Through our work with HUD and EPA in the Obama Administration's Partnership for Sustainable Communities, through our TIGER discretionary grants, and through a range of other programs like Safe Routes to School, we're funding the kinds of projects that will help develop livable communities and provide opportunities for people to walk, bike, or take transit.

Everywhere I go, I hear from Americans that this is what they want. In fact, walking and biking have increased by 25% in the last ten years.

Read the rest at: Transportation is a public health issue; DOT doing its part to keep kids moving - Welcome to the FastLane: The Official Blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation

Good Advice from The New Republic

Posted from my iPad (clumsily), a quote from The New Republic's blog that certain Franklin aldermen should keep in mind before they scuttle pedestrian access on a road project tomorrow night:

"What is needed to catch up with the pent up demand for walkable urban places, especially in the suburbs, is complete transportation policy reform. Since transportation drives development, we need to build the second half of the American transportation system--rail and bus transit and bikes and walking-- while repairing our existing roadway system. Only this will allow for the emergence of the walkable urban places that the market, economy, and environment demands."

Christopher Leinberger, The New Republic

Northwestern Mutual brings pressure to bear in Drexel Interchange question: Two Franklin aldermen schedule Saturday meeting

 
ABOVE: Vacant for nearly a decade - across the street from 1,700+ employees.

If you thought Northwestern Mutual's benign media statement on Wednesday was their final word on the subject, think again.

Wednesday's statement:

"Northwestern Mutual provided funds to support the Drexel Interchange project through an agreement made with the DOT when it initially built a campus in Franklin several years ago. This initiative should not be connected to any other current transit projects under consideration."

But wait...

A letter from "The Quiet Company's" Vice President of Legislative and Regulatory Relations to Franklin Mayor Tom Taylor, dated April 28th, seems designed to put the fear of God into Franklin's leadership -- and certainly has done so in the case of Alderman Tim Solomon, who reminded those at Wednesday night's meeting that Northwestern Mutual paid $2 million is taxes last year in Franklin.

Northwestern Mutual makes no secret of the fact that they own a significant parcel of land across the street from their Franklin campus -- in Oak Creek -- that would be put into lucrative play by yet another interchange. [PDF link HERE.}

To listen to him proclaim "This needs to happen!", Northwestern Mutual seems to represent to Alderman Solomon more of a threat than a benefit. His exhortations relied on raising fear of losing NML and their tax payments rather than touting a set of ongoing community benefits the city should reinforce.

If NML becomes the "tipping point" for installation of an interchange that sucks quality, sustainable development out of Franklin's interior and onto a ribbon of asphalt in Oak Creek -- picture a cluster of colorful, burger-serving ticks clinging to a recently deceased rodent -- what will that do to their image locally? The photo above tells the story: The perception is that NML is located in Franklin, but doesn't really live here; everything 1,700 employees need is inside their building, and no restaurants or other amenities have seen any benefit in locating around their self-contained campus.

Self-proclaimed "fiscal conservatives" Aldermen Solomon and Steve Olson have called a special meeting of the Franklin council for Saturday at 12:30pm. Saturday is the DOT's deadline for getting a 50% local-share agreement they have deemed necessary for building the interchange. They really want to spend some money, and are willing to skip cartoons to do so.

Here is the text of Northwestern Mutual's letter:

April 28, 2010

Mayor Tom Taylor
City of Franklin
9229 W. Loomis Road
Franklin, Wl 53132

Dear Mayor Taylor:

I am writing to follow-up on the Common Council meeting of Tuesday, April 20th, during which considerable discussion revolved around proposed City of Franklin payments for lighting on 27th St., as well as the possibility of a new interchange at Interstate 94 and Drexel Avenue. As you know, I attended that meeting along with my colleague Catherine Young. We were both impressed by the considerable attention and thought the Council gave to this important topic.

During that discussion, several Council members expressed a desire for a better understanding of Northwestern Mutual's position on and involvement with the Drexel Interchange. Rather than engage in a number of one-on-one conversations and risk having those conversations misconstrued, I thought it would be best to commit to writing Northwestern Mutual's perspective on this issue.

Northwestern Mutual's position on the Drexel Interchange has been clear for some time. As our CEO, Ed Zore, stated in a 2007 letter to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (copy attached), we believe the attributes of the 27th Street Corridor that attracted Northwestern Mutual to Franklin in 2002 have great potential to attract other significant businesses and the highest quality developers to the area as well. These attributes include under-utilized, readily developable parcels of land, close proximity to downtown Milwaukee, easy access to General Mitchell International Airport, and a location in the heart of the corridor from'the Illinois border to Milwaukee from which businesses can draw many employees.

For Franklin's and Oak Creek's shared vision for the corridor to come to fruition, however, the communities need to invest in the necessary infrastructure that will make such development possible. We continue to believe the Drexel Avenue interchange is a critical element of this infrastructure. Based on this conviction, we agreed to redirect a previous 2004 payment of $1.6 million to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to the Drexel Avenue interchange, contingent on the local communities fulfilling the rest of the required local cost share. There were some comments at the Common Council meeting that perhaps a Drexel Avenue exit would speed a decision of Northwestern Mutual to build another building on the Campus. I would like to be clear that there is no such correlation. While our campus could accommodate additional buildings, we have no current plans for additional expansion in Franklin, Milwaukee, or anywhere else for that matter. If and when we have expansion needs, a wide range of business-driven factors will be considered in evaluating a variety of options available to the Company.

Finally, we were somewhat puzzled by comments made by some at the meeting that the Drexel Avenue interchange was located in Oak Creek, and therefore would have limited benefit to the City of Franklin. As you know well, over the past eight years, Northwestern Mutual has invested over $200 million in our Franklin Campus. Nearly 2,000 family-supporting jobs are located there, and in 2009, the Company paid $2 million of property taxes on the campus. 1 can say unequivocally that Northwestern Mutual would not be at its current Franklin location if the Rawson Avenue exit (located in Oak Creek) did not exist. We all owe a debt ofgratitude to the forward thinking leaders and decision-makers from previous decades who decided Rawson Avenue was an appropriate place for the current interchange.

We realize the notion of paying for something in another municipality raises legitimate legal and political questions. Nonetheless, we would encourage you and your colleagues to continue the process of partnering with the City of Oak Creek and doing whatever is within your power to support such critical infrastructure improvements as the Drexel Avenue interchange.

Please feel to contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Sincerely,

Steven M. Radke
[Vice President - Legislative and Regulatory Relations]

cc:

Alderman Steve Olson
Alderman Tim Solomon
Alderman Kristen Wilhelm
Alderman Steve Taylor
Alderman Doug Schmidt
Alderman Ken Skowronski

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.

Alderman Outraged At Drexel Interchange Project -- WISN Milwaukee

He has a point:

MILWAUKEE -- A Milwaukee alderman is exchanging jabs with one of the area's biggest employers and another city's mayor.

At issue is a proposed interchange at the intersection of Interstate 94 and Drexel Avenue.

The Oak Creek City Council committed to the project Monday night in a special vote which Milwaukee Alderman Bob Bauman said could end up hurting Milwaukee.

"So here you have a Milwaukee-based company, Northwestern Mutual Life, investing in an interchange in the suburbs which will harm their home city," Alderman Robert Bauman.

Bauman said a Department of Transportation study showed a new interchange could take business away from downtown Milwaukee where Northwestern Mutual is headquartered.

The new interchange would be near Northwestern Mutual's offices in Franklin.

"I feel very badly that this alderman feels that way in regards to the suburbs," Oak Creek Mayor Dick Bolender said.

Bolender said Northwestern Mutual committed $1.6 million to the proposed Drexel Interchange's $13 million price tag.

"I feel bad Milwaukee's not getting things we are. But I also feel that interchange will not only benefit Oak Creek but also South Milwaukee because they use Drexel Avenue to come to the west. It'll also benefit Franklin," Bolender said.

Northwestern Mutual would not talk on camera but sent a statement saying, "Northwestern Mutual provided funds to support the Drexel Interchange project through an agreement made with the DOT when it initially built a campus in Franklin several years ago. This initiative should not be connected to any other current transit projects under consideration."

"So if they have an extra $1.6 million laying around that they can use to fund an interchange on I-94 at Drexel Avenue, we have projects in downtown Milwaukee which could use a similar investment of $1.6 million and we'd be very, very happy to have it," Bauman said.

The DOT has set a May 1 deadline for cities to commit to funding. Franklin has yet to commit.

Franklin's mayor said he could call a special vote this week.

via www.wisn.com

Obama Bicycle Policy Wins Love From Cyclists, Scorn From Trucking Industry

The beginning of the end for mindless road widening?

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a weekend bicyclist, might consider keeping his head down and his helmet on. A backlash is brewing over his new bicycling policy.

LaHood says the government is going to give bicycling – and walking, too – the same importance as automobiles in transportation planning and the selection of projects for federal money. The former Republican congressman quietly announced the "sea change" in transportation policy last month.

"This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized," he wrote in his government blog.

Read the rest at: Obama Bicycle Policy Wins Love From Cyclists, Scorn From Trucking Industry.

"Aero-tropo-what?"

I don't get it either, frankly:

In the city of the future, all roads lead to the airport.

At least they do in international consultant John Kasarda’s “aerotropolis,” where offices, factories, four-star hotels, golf courses, theaters, warehouses, medical clinics, fine restaurants and shipping centers cluster around an airport like metal shavings on a magnet.

via www.milwaukeenewsbuzz.com

The Predictable Outcome of Raising Fares and Cutting Services: Lower Ridership for Milwaukee County Transit

The Milwaukee journal Sentinel reports that county transit ridership has fallen 9%. This is a surprise?

From "Left on the Lake":

While the usual suburban suspects on right wing talk radio will no doubt giggle with glee over the numbers, the fact is that a strong mass transit system is critical to any metropolitan area just as it has been for the last 100 years.

So what makes Milwaukee unique in this area when other mass transit systems are seeing increased usage because of the recession? It’s simple, we’re cutting routes and raising fares. That’s a damaging combination to any service provider.

Read more at Left on the Lake.

Streetsblog Streetfilms: Seattle's new light rail

Transit done right. Milwaukee should have had this in place 15 years ago.