Mary Lazich's Idea Of Regionalism: A Free Ride

Which, given that you can't ride the bus from Milwaukee to New Berlin, is somewhere between irony and a bad pun.

Here is what the State Senator (R) from New Berlin had to say on her blog about the notion that New Berlin would make anything in the way of a regional benefits payment to Milwaukee for extending water service to New Berlin:

"Despite an approved Compact, Milwaukee holds a gun to New Berlin
By Mary Lazich

Monday, Jul 28 2008, 12:55 PM

"I must admit I was taken aback when I read the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel that Milwaukee is negotiating with New Berlin to sell Milwaukee water.

"The price tag would be hefty $1.5 million one time fee in addition to actual costs.

"During the lengthy deliberations about the Great Lakes Compact, I made it clear that despite my reservations, I supported an effective document that was good for the Great Lakes, the state of Wisconsin, and would preserve our greatest natural resource.

"Time and time again, I heard Compact proponents make the case that the Compact would address the water needs of New Berlin.

"The conventional wisdom was that the Compact needed to be approved quickly, and if it was, New Berlin’s water woes would be taken care of.

"Making those arguments were city of Milwaukee officials from Mayor Tom Barrett on down.

"They claimed the city of Milwaukee would no longer have issues with New Berlin getting water if Wisconsin would simply okay the Compact. It seems that isn’t the case.

"Wisconsin has approved the Compact, but for the city of Milwaukee, on this critical public health issue, it’s still business as usual, imposing a hefty price tag for a community in desperate need of water.

"For the city of Milwaukee, it was never about the Compact. It was and remains a question of money and control over a suburb to the west."

My, oh my, where does one begin to unpack these 'arguments?'

* She was "taken aback" reading a July 23rd newspaper story that New Berlin and Milwaukee were negotiating a water sale?

The news that those negotiations were authorized by state officials was reported in a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 54 weeks ago, and there were subequent stories about negotiations, meetings between Milwaukee and New Berlin's mayors about water, etc.

(Tip also to Lazich and blog writing staff: There is no slash mark between "Journal" and "Sentinel" in "Milwaukee Journal Sentinel." Check the paper's front page more than once every 54 weeks for confirmation.)

Where's she been getting her information about Great Lakes water: the Ohio newspapers?

Or did she forget her earlier blog post where she blasted New Berlin Mayor Jack Chiovatero for meeting with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett about water, or as it was described on her blog, "cozying up."

* The Compact, approved just a few weeks ago, would end New Berlin's water woes?

So it was up to outsiders to fix New Berlin's problem?

Wasn't that New Berlin's responsibility, something Lazich would understand, as a former New Berlin city council member, Waukesha County Board supervisor, state representative and now State Senator?

Lazich does not mention that New Berlin officials for years, on their own, and in the face of federal action, delayed cleaning up its water supply, then decided over the last couple of years not to buy water filtration upgrades that could have cleaned the water, and met the federal requirements, because New Berlin felt it could get better water - - Milwaukee's water - - cheaper.

* Lazich says "During the lengthy deliberations about the Great Lakes Compact, I made it clear that despite my reservations, I supported an effective document that was good for the Great Lakes, the state of Wisconsin, and would preserve our greatest natural resource."

Now come on, there: There's more spin in that sentence than an out-of-control Tilt-a-Whirl.

By "effective document," Lazich must mean the revised, fantasy Compact she wanted renegotiated by all eight Great Lakes states and two Canadian provinces as an alternative to the draft Compact she vocally opposed from Day One, stalled in a legislative study committee, and voted against this year on the Senate floor.

Twice.

New Berlin Mayor Chiovatero still has to get this deal past his City Council; he and his brace of first-line consultants will not have to cozy up to New Berlin council members to help them understand that a $1.5 million payment to Milwaukee is a smaller number, and hence a better deal for cleaner, reliable water, than is $6 million for radium-removal filtration equipment and maintenance to further deplete their wells.

Change At SEWRPC: Actual And Imagined

While the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission plods away with its stale, suburban expansionist model, a regional commission out east is aggressively promoting community revivals in some tired Philadelphia neighborhoods and older, beaten-down suburbs.

Can you imagine SEWRPC, at its isolated Pewaukee headquarters in western Waukesha County doing something like that in the seven-county region from which it absorbs about $2.3 million in local property taxes every year - - with the largest share, about 35%, coming from Milwaukee County.

The very place in the region where there are indeed older suburbs and city neighborhoods that could use a regional planning shot in the arm.

Expecially in an era of rising gasoline prices that make closer-in suburbs and city neighborhoods more attractive than sprawled-out subdivisions - - like Pabst Farms, where housing starts have been suspended, but also where SEWRPC is promoting a new Interstate highway interchange to serve a planned shopping mall whose construction has already been postponed once.

Remember, SEWRPC is the agency that has not done a regional housing study since 1975, but has been promising to begin one since 2005, yet will not release the proposed scope of the study because it considers it an internal planning document.

The study, if and when it begins, is supposed to make recommendations to the more than 140 municipalities in its region about meeting housing needs, especially in so-called affordable housing, which often means housing for low-income and/or minority residents and families.

With those time lines, and recommendations to be offered into a regional environment that prefers to see affordable housing clustered in the City of Milwaukee, I won't expect to see SEWRPC as it is now structured - - no commissioners from the City of Milwaukee, and a majority representing still-rural counties - - jump into something as revolutionary as marketing older suburbs and city neighborhoods anytime soon.

But there is news on the SEWRPC affirmative action front:

The agency reported at yesterday's Environmental Justice Task Force meeting that it has increased the number of minorities on its professional (as opposed to clerical and technical) staff from last year.

Last year's total: one among 42.
This year, it's up - - to three of 49.

Nestle Water Bottling Operation In California Could Be Stopped

The Nestle company, known in these parts for their "Ice Mountain" brand of bottled water from a wetland in Michigan, could be forced out of the water bottling business in one California town by a series of new state standards.

Nestle is an aggressive marketer of bottled worldwide under various brands: the Michigan operation had its origins in the proposed Perrier water bottling operation kicked out of Wisconsin by conservationists some years earlier.

Seems the tough regulatory effort in California is being led by the Attorney General with the very recognizable name of Jerry Brown.

Carrying around water in petroleum-consuming plastic bottles has become something of an affectation of late: tap water is many times cheaper, and doesn't produce the wasteful bottles or trucking expenses to deliver them.

The biggest loophole in the Great Lakes Compact was permission for water bottling firms to ship unlimited quantities of water permanently away from the Great Lakes basin in containers smaller than 5.7 gallons.

That was a sop to water-rich Michigan, a sign of an economy so weak in a once-powerful industrial state that Michigan would demand language in the Compact to protect a relative handful of jobs at its state's water bottling operation.

The Compact is working its way through Congress because most of the agreement's conservation and anti-diversion provisions do help sustain the Great Lakes - - 20% of the entire planet's supply of fresh surface water.

Individual states in the eight-state Compact agreement could bar the export of bottled water away from the Great Lakes basin.

I suspect that as bottled water bans spread from west to east, there will come a day that outlawing bottled water exports that leave the Great Lakes basin will take hold in Wisconsin and neighboring states.

That is, if we are really serious about water sustainability, we'll stem the bottle-by-bottle diversion of water from the Great Lakes basin in plastic containers that too often end up in the gutter, vacant yards and landfills.

Milwaukee Public Market Adds Organic Grocer In New Building

Milwaukee's Public Market gets a new tenant - - a full-line organic grocer - - in a second building around the corner.

That's a huge signal that the market, which had a difficult beginning, seems to have more than stabilized.

The trick was to offer customers what they wanted.

Great Lakes Compact Moving Swiftly Through Congress

The Great Lakes Compact is moving through the Congress, with a committee in the House of Representatives approving it and a favorable committee hearing also taking place in the Senate, chaired by Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold.

This is good series of steps; the Compact will assure that little Great Lakes water will be diverted from the Great Lakes basin, and if the rules are followed, that water will be returned from communities that have also demonstrated conservation plans in place.

It's not a perfect document, as bottled water sales are still unregulated in containers less than 5.7 gallons, and the water conservation language could be stronger, but having a Compact is better than not having the agreement.

New Berlin Water Sale Moves Forward; Water Value Study To Come Later

Milwaukee's Public Works Committee voted 4-1 Tuesday to fund a study to help it determine the true value of water it might sell to the suburbs - - but also approved a deal to sell water to New Berlin for 20 years that would take effect before the water value study is finished.

It's an approach and an arrangement that I had argued was premature and inadequate.

Both recommendations go on to the full Common Council for approval.

The Daily Reporter's take is here.

The New Berlin deal calls for wholesale water deliveries to New Berlin at rates approved by the state Public Service Commission, and a one-time, $1.5 million so-called regional benefits payment from New Berlin into Milwaukee's general fund.

The payment would be useful to Milwaukee's 2009 budget, but in a document authorizing more than $1 billion in spending, it's not going to create much value, then disappears in 2010.

There were several hours of testimony Tuesday about the pros and cons of accepting the one-time payment before having experts study water's true value, hence the accuracy of the payment in relationship to the water sale and what regional services or assets it might leverage.

Aldermen on the committee were persuaded by representatives of New Berlin who said if Milwaukee were to delay the deal and wait for the study, New Berlin might pursue buying water from Oak Creek, though the water from Oak Creek would be more expensive and without the City of Milwaukee's superior filtration.

The water valuation study, carrying a $50,000 price tag, should be completed in several months and available to guide future water sales to additional suburban communities that will surely come to Milwaukee in New Berlin's footsteps.

Waukesha, Brookfield and several other communities could apply soon for Milwaukee water, and the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission is separately studying the creation of a regional water authority that conceivably could ship Lake Michigan water throughout the region.

The commission, SEWRPC, is in the third-year of a $1 million study about regional water issues, but is not looking at the opportunities that water sales could have on the region's housing, transit, employment, air quality or other issues.

There was disagreement in testimony to the Council committee Tuesday about whether the New Berlin deal sets a precedent, or should be considered as a separate arrangement because New Berlin already is a Milwaukee water works customer for a different portion of the Waukesha community.

Voting "aye" were Alds. Joseph Dudzik, Robert Puente, Robert Donovan and Willie Wade.

Chairman Robert Bauman was the sole "no" vote; the measure had the strong support of Mayor Tom Barrett.

My take?

The city should get the study rolling immediately, then continue to negotiate with New Berlin with independent data and opinion in hand.

The odds are slim that New Berlin would agree to purchase more expensive water from Oak Creek, or to install filtration equipment on its own troubled wells - - another option that is also more expensive than buying Milwaukee's superior water.

New Berlin's proposal, while substantial, does little to help Milwaukee's extensive low-income population with pressing transit and housing issues.

And the agreement does not obligate New Berlin to expand its affordable housing stock (currently 80 units in a city of 39,000 people, and nearly all for seniors, not working families), or its transit connections (the last direct bus route from Milwaukee to New Berlin's main business area, its industrial park, was ended in 2004).

The Milwaukee water transfer is headed to New Berlin's "middle-third," site of the induustrial park and open land, where studies indicate up to 1,119 new housing units and 5,668 new jobs could be created.

The process the committee chose to follow - - water sale first, then a study to determine water's value - - amounts to a missed opportunity for Milwaukee to define water's relationship to development - - issues that will face other communities in Wisconsin and across the Great Lakes.

If water is really the next oil, the aldermanic committee put this year's Milwaukee city budget considerations - - important certainly for local officials - - ahead of larger state, regional and international water-related considerations.

And should the study conclude that Milwaukee didn't get a good enough payment from New Berlin, or enough exchange in services, how would Milwaukee convince the next city with an application that it wasn't entitled to the New Berlin formula?

Tennessee Shooter Tied To The Savage Nation

I'm not surprised to find out that the Tennessee man who said he deliberately shot up a church because it welcomed gay members and championed civil rights causes had a copy of the virulently right-wing Michael Savage's recent book, "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder."

OK: one book may not an accused mass-shooter-and-killer make (though he had other best-sellers by notable righties, too); maybe the gunman was the one with the mental disorder?

But Savage's show pumps out a daily attack on people whom Savage routinely calls degenerates and vermin and scum, and "the enemy within" - - usually Democrats, homosexuals and liberals.

He has said the ACLU leadership should be arrested and charged with treason.

He has said what he labels the homosexual agenda is destroying families, and that mentally-ill liberals are threatening American security through support for illegal immigrants and disdain for the military.

He especially reviles Democratic women politicians, like California's Senators Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein, as well as House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

620 WTMJ-AM radio offers his show most late-nights. It's a megaphone for demagoguery, and The Journal Company should really get him off its air.

It's a good thing that the alleged shooter in this case did not die, as a note he left behind said was his expectation.

Let's hope interrogators find out what his motivations were and who influenced him.

We need to know whether he thought that being a member of what Michael Savage calls his audience, "The Savage Nation," in any way stirred him to tote a 12-gauge shotgun and more than 70 shells into a church where the kids were putting on a musical performance for the congregation.

New Berlin And Milwaukee Are In Two Different Worlds - - Is There The Will To Reconnect?

Milwaukee and New Berlin are neighbors, yet their demographic differences are so vast that they might as well be located on different planets.

A critical gap is job availability - - Milwaukee has tens of thousands of unemployed residents and New Berlin has the largest industrial park in the state.

But direct transit service to the industrial park from Milwaukee ended in 2004.

(You can still ride an express bus into Milwaukee from a more northern point in New Berlin, which doesn't do anything to get Milwaukeans to the industrial park, or a two-hour+ round-trip series of buses, transfers and charter coaches to get from Milwaukee to the industrial park, and back )

There has been talk of adding direct bus service to New Berlin from Milwaukee, but those discussions have not produced results, proving that too often around here, regionalism is more talk than action.

The relevancy of this?

Milwaukee aldermen meet Tuesday (it's a public hearing, so you can listen and speak in Room 301-B, City Hall, at 10:30 a.m.) to consider selling water to New Berlin - - to acreage where it says it could build 1,119 more homes, create another 5,668 jobs, and already has approved the construction of its a convention center, hotel and water park complex.

The water sale would be for a 20-year period.

Should Milwaukee help New Berlin expand its economy, when Milwaukeans have less direct access to employment in New Berlin, and little chance of finding affordable housing near jobs there?

Consider these facts from the 2000 census, and related updated estimates:

Milwaukee has 605,000 people, New Berlin, 39,234.

21.3% of Milwaukeans live below the poverty line, or about 125,000 people. In New Berlin, the figure is 2%, or about 780.

Milwaukee is 37.3% African-American. In New Berlin, 0.4%.

The average value of an owner-occupied housing unit in Milwaukee is $80,400. In New Berlin, the figure is $162,100, or about double.

The average per-household income in Milwaukee is $32,200. In New Berlin, $67,500, again double.

New Berlin would pay the city a projected $966,000 a year for the water - - helping the utility meet with its budget - - but lowering bills for existing Milwaukee Water Utility customers between $1.50 and $4.50, depending on variables in the calculations.

New Berlin would also pay Milwaukee $1.5 million upfront in a one-time so-called regional benefits payment.

Though it could buy more expensive water from other Lake Michigan communities, New Berlin's proposed payment to Milwaukee is not likely to make a dent in the regional housing and transit issues that historically have undermined Milwaukee - - land-locked by state law - - and have allowed suburban cities like New Berlin to flourish.

Milwaukee needs to reframe the discussion and get some experts to help it calculate the value of water and its relationship to nearby development.

And it needs to consider with its regional partners all of the important planning issues as a whole - - transit, housing, air quality, development, jobs - - and not have them considered separately, years apart, without coordination and common focus.

That's how the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission has been treating these issues for decades. The SEWRPC way does not serve Milwaukee or the region, and New Berlin and Milwaukee will only be imitating it if they sign a water deal that leaves housing and transit discussions for another day.

Milwaukee and New Berlin can set an important precedent by sitting down and making an agreement with a broader scope, thus making sense and adding more value to the region than what is on the table now.

On Regional Issues, Your Two Cents Worth Can Double This Tuesday

By sheer coincidence, a couple of meetings in Milwaukee on Tuesday, July 29th, will provide people with two opportunities to hear debate about, and to participate in, key issues that are bubbling below the surface.

Media still abhor meetings. Assignment editors never understood, or cared to acknowledge, that government meetings have news value because it is at the meetings, particularly the smaller, dare I say, wonky sessions, where important nuts-and-bolts work is aired, and solutions get framed and launched.

When I was a reporter and assistant metropolitan editor at the old Milwaukee Journal, the rule was "don't send me any meeting stories."

Senior editors preferred we'd cover the controversy that would break out when final decisions were taken, though readers would have been better served if we'd covered more early-state meetings and issues from the beginning - - at the committee or subcommittee level, even though the agendas seemed boring.

Anyway: enough of that. Here's what's up on the 29th:

The Common Council's Public Works Committee, at 10:30 a.m. in City Hall Room 301-B, will take up several resolutions regarding a possible Lake Michigan water sale to New Berlin.

And later that day, an under-covered public body called the Environmental Justice Task Force, a creation of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, will meet at 4:00 p.m., at HeartLove Place, Inc., 3229 N. Martin Luther King, Jr, Drive, in Milwaukee.

The task force meetings, which began last year, are rotated throughout the SEWRPC seven-county region; this one is in Milwaukee, easing the opportunity for media coverage.

The task force was established after years of complaints that SEWRPC did not encourage participation in its decision-making by low-income and other under-represented groups and minorities.

The task force is not a full-fledged committee, mind you, the kind that performs studies, has consultants hired for it, and makes regional recommendations that can turn into significant action, such as the committee that produced the $6.5 billion freeway plan.

Or SEWRPC's water supply study committee, which is close to finishing a consultant-heavy, three-year report that is sure to help speed Lake Michigan diversions to several sprawling communities relatively far from Lake Michigan.

The makeup of the water supply committee, with an all-Caucasian, 32-person membership - - some of whom represent major industries, but none who represent the region's low-income populations - - is an example of why SEWRPC was forced by federal funding authorities and pressured by local civil rights and transit activists to make an institutional effort to include those excluded groups.

At the task force meeting on Tuesday afternoon, SEWRPC will present information about a study it says it is about to launch, following a 33-year hiatus: a regional look at, and recommendations about, housing issues, particularly the lack of affordable housing in its seven-county region and the disproportionate concentration of low-income housing in the City of Milwaukee.

The task force is still feeling its way, having been created by SEWRPC, staffed by SEWRPC, and chaired by a designated SEWRPC commissioner.

The task force did request several months ago that SEWRPC not proceed with its completely-internal, no-advertising/no-search appointment of a new Executive Director, effective in 2009.

The task force members, charged to bring an excluded perspective to an agency that has but one minority employee among its professional staff of 42, wanted a role in the hiring process; SEWRPC refused the request and promoted the current Deputy Director into the top position, so the task force got a taste of the SEWRPC's preference for top-down/closed-off management.

The daunting task before the task force is to significantly open the agency to new ideas, perspectives and production.

If SEWRPC runs the decades-delayed housing study in its standard fashion, expect the task force and outside groups to press for a broader, deeper housing study framework, work plan and goals.

Affordable housing is one of those background, under-covered but critical regional issues also likely to come up at the water sale meeting Tuesday morning at City Hall.

New Berlin wants to buy Milwaukee water for a portion of the suburban community of 38,000 where there could be substantial growth, by New Berlin's accounting - - a possible 5,668 new jobs and 1,119 new units of housing, New Berlin data show.

A reliable supply of clean, fresh Milwaukee water will be a boon to that part of New Berlin, even if only half the new housing is built and half the projected jobs materialize.

Yet New Berlin now has but 80 units of affordable housing, and, again, according to New Berlin records, nearly all that housing is for seniors, not low-income families or singles - - the very people who might be attracted to some of those new, water-assisted jobs.

The problem is that there is no direct bus service to New Berlin's Industrial Park from Milwaukee (setting aside the issue of affordable housing availability, cost and access, too).

There was such a bus line, but it ended in 2004, and the free-fall in county bus ridership and service since is a well-known story.

What's available now is a cross-town Milwaukee County Transit System bus ride on line #10 from Milwaukee to Brookfield Square mall, then transfer to a Wisconsin Coach Line chartered bus to the Industrial Park, where many businesses are clustered.

The best round-trip fare is $6.70 daily, the travel time round-trip is around two hours from Milwaukee's central city, and longer from the downtown, or the south side.

So some Milwaukee aldermen believe the water sale should more explicitly spell out reciprocal actions by New Berlin when it comes to affordable housing, transit, or other issues key to employment in Milwaukee - - what is also known as economic justice.

Draft agreements up for discussion by the council committee have New Berlin and Milwaukee committing to an annual meeting to discuss employment matters, and a one-time payment of $1.5 million from New Berlin at the front end of the planned, 20-year water sale, in addition to wholesale water sales amounting to about $1 million in the first year.

For the city, the revenue assists the utility's budget and saves each existing customers a few dollars a year.

The one-time payment is a big check, and some aldermen may have a hard time suggesting that a different amount, based on broader parameters and formulas that define and monetize the real value and relationship of water to development, should be considered instead.

If the one-time payment were framed as an annual transfer to Milwaukee of $75,000, when the potential value of New Berlin's housing tax base could grow by $181,000,000 (using 2000 census data pegging a median-priced New Berlin home at $162,000), and additional commercial and industrial property to house and pay 5,668 new workers - - well, then, the relative worth of $1.5 million begins to diminish.

The discussions at the Common Council on Tuesday, and SEWRPC's task force meeting later in the day, offer a window into matters that have great significance for groups in Milwaukee and the region - - groups that don't get a seat at the table when big issues are defined and discussed more privately by the Milwaukee-7, or out at SEWRPC's Pewaukee offices, where there are no transit connections for the public, and no electronic recording of meetings for the public's review.

But both meetings Tuesday come with interesting agendas and this important twist: Unlike at many SEWRPC meetings, where the public can only sit and watch, people coming to the task force meeting can speak!

Likewise, the Common Council committee meeting is a hearing, so the public can be heard there, too.

So: Attention all interested parties, and assignment editors, too: pencil these meetings on your calendars, then come on down.

Great Lakes Ballast Regulations Stir Debate: Interested Parties Are Invited Here To Sort It Out

Again, my apologizes for letting a few things slide, but I wanted to post Dan Egan's summary of the dispute over the best way to prevent invasive species from further damaging the Great Lakes.

One of the purposes of this blog is to provide a forum for interested parties to air their data and positions on environmental issues, particularly those effecting water and water policies.

Consider this an open invitation to either leave comments, or if you send me longer pieces, I can use them as guest posts.

And I'm still trying to figure out the best way to use this blog to sort through all the confusion and chaff on so many issues out there.

So have at it...

About ANWR And Gas Prices

There has been pressure for years to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) to oil exploration, based on the belief that there is huge supply of oil there that could lower gas prices for American drivers.

I've been trying to find one good, readable summary of the situation, so let's check the facts in this one.

The conclusions are that potential benefits are years, decades away, for what would be most likely minimal savings for consumers.

"But even in the best case, the price impact — decades from now — would amount to about 1 percent of current market prices. If work started today, production would peak in 2027 — when increased production would have the biggest impact on prices. According to Department of Energy projections, that impact would cut the prices of light sweet crude (in 2006 dollars) by 41 cents per barrel in 2026 for the low estimate, 75 cents per barrel in 2025 for the mean oil resource case, and $1.44 per barrel in 2027 for the high estimate."

Setting aside the environmental issues, which are important to enough Members of Congress that oil exploration and drilling in the ANWR has been blocked by both parties, the author of the piece cited above concludes that conservation now is a workable, available alternative.

That's because we as consumers help set the price. If we use more, the price goes up, and we use less, we help force the price down.

What I find most interesting is that $4-a-gallon gasoline has begun to push individuals towards personal conservation, which is reducing driving and demand for gasoline.

If and when transit improvements become a national priority, and industry begins to supply better gas/electric hybrid vehicles and alternative fuel vehicles, the demand for gasoline in the US should continue to fall.

However, the growth of the automobile industries in both China and India are big problems, and it would make little sense to drill in ANWR or off the coasts of Florida and California just to supply burgeoning car ownership in these two fast-growing countries.

Minorities Eating Too Many Tainted Fish From Madison's Lakes

Because of low incomes, and too little information, minority anglers and their families are eating more fish from Madison lakes than state contamination guidelines about safe mercury ingestion recommend, says the Capital Times.

That story just broke my heart.

What's In A Name?

I'm inspired to post this after reading a great post last week by the blogger Emily Mills, here.

It took me a while to get to it, but what better use is there of a quiet Sunday morning? (That's a joke and evidence that I definitely need something I haven't had in a long time - - a vacation.)

I don't know Ms. Mills, but she said it all with more flair than can I, and what I want to do is agree with her theme, especially with these points below:

She is an intelligent part of the continuing discussion about names in politics - - specifically the correct name of the political party with the donkey as its symbol and the full names of both parties' presumptive nominees.

The facts are that correct name of the party is The Democratic Party, and the nominees' full names are Barack Hussein Obama and John Sidney McCain III.

Some Republicans (I first heard it from Bob Dole years and years ago), and conservative bloggers and pundits like Rush Limbaugh, routinely use the dismissive name "Democrat Party," and add Obama's middle name to his every mention.

Adding Obama's middle name is a sly way to suggest Obama is a Muslim, or worse, somehow related to that late Iraqi leader who made the name infamous.

In retailation, some bloggers on the left have siggested always adding in McCain's middle name, but to what end? That's stupid, too.

Middle names are for official, or sworn documents, and few other everday uses.

I've known a number of people who have legally dropped them; women who take their husbands' last names often omit their given middle name and use their maiden name as a new middle name, if they use one at all.

The candidates and The Democratic Party should be referred to by the name each chooses.

That way, we stick to the facts, and then, maybe the issues?

Blogger On Journal Communications Website Calls Wisconsin DNR "Gestapo-like"

Kevin Fischer, conservative pundit and staff aide to State Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), complains on his blog that when the state Department of Natural Resources enforces regulations covering cranberry growers, its actions are "Gestapo-like."

This is his quote about the DNR's purported anti-business attitude:

"The villain? Take a guess: the Gestapo-like Department of Natural Resources, the state agency that isn’t happy unless it’s ruining someone’s life. Pretty darned stupid, isn’t it? We are our own worst enemy."

This is the professional bio Fischer has posted at the top of his blog on FranklinNOW.com, one of several Journal Communications websites that the multi-media company operates as part of its interactive, online effort, and that replaced a group of community newspapers:

"Kevin Fischer is an award-winning veteran broadcaster who has been seen and heard on Milwaukee TV and radio stations for nearly three decades. Kevin, who is a legislative aide to state Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), can be seen offering his views on the news on the public affairs program, “INTERchange,” on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10."

Fischer is a former radio reporter, so I will assume he knows that the Gestapo committed assassinations, mass murder and crimes against humanity in Germany before and during World War II, including running Hitler's concentration camps.

Fischer also fills in for righty talker Mark Belling on WISN-AM 1130, a Clear Channel radio station in Milwaukee.

For these outlets, Fischer is the go-to conservative representative or substitute authority.

This isn't a free speech issue: Fischer's choice of language is protected, as it should be, but it's not the first time that he has attacked the DNR in this fashion, having called it earlier this year "the Wisconsin wing of the Nazi party."

In that case, Fischer was mad at the DNR for protecting a portion of the Wisconsin Dells - - land and views that are in the public domain - - from encroachment by a condominium development.

For that, if you work at the DNR, you got called a Nazi.

Now you are like the Gestapo.?

Righty Pundits, Bloggers Forget Media Love Affairs With John McCain

The right is in a tizzy because it senses media bias in favor of Barack Obama during the presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee's overseas trip.

The righties forget that reporters and opinion-makers have fallen in love serially with presumptive GOP nominee John McCain - - in 2000, on the Straight Talk Express campaign bus, around the 2008 New Hampshire primary when his current campaign was revived, and on Daily Show appearances too numerous to count.

Reporters and media types are fickle, like voters. And there was no way that they wouldn't flock with Obama on the foreign tour that McCain dared him to take.

D'OH!

But these are trends, ephemeral events in a long campaign, but how easy it is to forget the positive treatment that McCain has enjoyed, and will surely get again - - if his supporters don't complain so often and so loudly that they'll drive potential media suitors away.

And, of course, for McCain there's Fox 'News,' and conservative talk radio that overwhelmingly prefers him to Obama despite little complaints here and there about McCain's lack of ideological perfection.

Repeal Of Wisconsin's Minimum Markup Law Should Be Swift, Bipartisan

The state's minimum markup law has artifically jacked up the price of gasoline, and it should be wiped off the books.

I've blogged about the law being a bad one, and the State Journal captures the argument nicely.

New Berlin Water Sale Gets Fresh Document Dump

I had earlier posted that the date, time and place of a Milwaukee Common Council Committee's consideration of a proposed water sale to New Berlin had changed.

My error: the Public Works Committee is still scheduled to meet Tuesday, July 29th, in room 301-B, at 10:30 a.m.

But...there are many new documents added to the file, and all are worth reading.

Here is a link to the file, as of Saturday, and the schedule.

The expansion of the file with so many additional records, letters, studies, emails, newspaper stories and blog posts is a clear indication of the growing interest in this issue - - inside City Hall and outside, too.

Background here.

Committee chairman Ald. Bob Bauman had indicated last week that there would be testimony and discussion, but no votes, given the complexity of the issues - - something underscored by the additional of so many new documents in the file.

Hate Radio Talker's Laughable Lawsuit Tossed

The rightwing talk show host Michael Savage, whose homophobic, anti-immigrant and autism-belittling rants are heard Monday-Friday on WTMJ AM 620, has had his ridiculous, ratings-generating, anti-free speech lawsuit tossed out of court.

Let's hear it for activist judges! Actually, hooray for judges who spot a frivolous, fake lawsuit when they see it.

One of these days, WTMJ management will decide that its constant right-wing talk show menu keeps driving Milwaukee-area away listeners.

If not for its sports programming, the station would have lost its perch as the region's leading AM station years ago.

Waukesha County Expert Sums Up The Affordable Housing Issue

Said the Executive Director of the Waukesha County Housing Authority, when discussing affordable housing needs in New Berlin:

"You don't serve the low-income people by locating them away from the job market."

But that's precisely the case in New Berlin, with 38,000 people and a growing job base, but also with just 80 units of affordable housing (most for seniors), and no direct transit service to the New Berlin economy for Milwaukee workers.

A situation that will become exacerbated with the introduction in central New Berlin of Lake Michigan water, where New Berlin - - with its minimal stock of affordable housing - - projects 1,119 new housing units and another 5,668 jobs.

Full context of the New Berlin affordable housing materials cited, here.

Rail Transit Is A Matter Of The New Economic Realities

Rick Esenberg, trapped in the pre-$4-a-gallon-mindset, decides to argue that passenger rail transit is more a matter of faith for some than a matter of economics.

His post is here.

I disagree.

Rick argues that rail is antiquated because it moves people from one fixed point to another.

But modern light rail systems are built with multiple stops - - and can be extended into more suburban settings at longer distances if the riders and residents choose that model.

He says that rail requires subsidies, but forgets to mention that roads are 100% subsidized, and if some politicians get their way, you'll have to pay a toll (a fee, close to a tax) to drive on a road you've already been taxed to help build and maintain.

You'd think continual taxation and double-billing would drive conservatives like Rick to the breaking point, but somehow, the existence of a 100% governmentally-funded highway system that keeps the big government road-building bureaucracies up and running is okey-dokey with them.

Driving does offer motorists a level of freedom to choose a route and a schedule, but we all know how often that's foiled by the orange barrels, rain, snow, or the knucklehead five miles ahead who caused an accident and tied up traffic for hours.

Yeah - - we know that freedom: the freedom to stay stuck in traffic, and if you're on one of those big highways Rick prefers, it's likely to have exits only every few miles, so you sit and enjoy the freedom to be trapped, and delayed.

I was on Amtrak's Hiawatha train to Chicago and back yesterday. The train was packed, and got more crowded when it picked up a large group getting on at the new Mitchell Airport stop.

Amtrak offers Chicago fliers a nice additional choice - - rail service connecting at Mitchell to Midwest Airlines- - so rail can provide alternatives if you are creative in the planning.

And did I mention the freedom from airport parking lot costs?

The federal trust fund that provides highway dollars to the states for 80% of new road construction is basically broke, but the highway lobby wants the fund replenished for the next five-year cycle, and higher gas taxes and tolls are likely to be the solution to keep the construction cycle going.

Of course, that will entail another cycle of repairs and maintenance - - even though driving is tailing off because of spiking gas prices.

Is the solution to keep pushing new roads farther from employment centers, yet charging people more and more taxes and fees to cover this one-dimensional option?

Transit, particularly new rail, including city light rail, commuter lines and the national high-speed network, will, by virtue of economic necessity, become preferred alternatives - - for people with cars and even for people who own them - - because the era of cheap gas and 'free' motoring is over.

That's the new paradigm, whether Rick sees it or not, and to address it, states and the federal government need to get transportation financing spread more evenly between highways and transit, with the highway and road portion devoted more to repairing what we have.

Pabst Farm Mall Operators Provide Officials With Private Jet, Tour

The folks trying to get a mall built at Pabst Farms and an interstate ramp paid for mostly with public dollars flew a bunch of Oconomowoc and Waukesha County officials on a whirlwind tour of mall properties down south.

Nice bit of reporting by the Journal Sentinel, by the way.

The Oconomowoc officials ponied up public dollars towards the trip - - and voters there can decide at election time if they approved of the expenditure.

So far, the county crew that went along, including County Executive Dan Vrakas, hasn't paid anything towards its share of the expenses, so as it stands now, for the county guys, it's a junket and day to feel like bigshots.

Hometown Blogger Swats Mary Lazich

Linda Richter, blogging on the same Journal Communications website on which Mary Lazich's blog appears, has posted a roundup of the Republican State Senator's negative reviews. (Full disclosure: my blog is used for one citation.

Even Citizens for Responsible Government, the small-government-cut-taxation crowd, is mad at Lazich. I mean, really mad.

I know they say there's no such thing as bad publicity, but maybe that's not true in all cases, or at least this one.

Marc Eisen, Media Role Model

Long-time Isthmus editor Marc Eisen has resigned, essentially laying himself off, to help save the newspaper.

If that's not class, you tell me what is.

Fragmented Public Planning And Disconnected Action Benefits No One

The Journal Sentinel argues in a Friday editorial that the New Berlin - - Milwaukee water agreement should be signed, and that related matters, like affordable housing and transit, while important, should be handled separately.

This is the crux of the regional planning deficit that holds back inclusive development in the region: issues are addressed piecemeal, without coordination, and the results reflect it.

For example, the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) has moved forward a freeway expansion plan for the surrounding seven counties that has no transit elements in it.

The planning commission's water supply study is not looking at the relationship of water and growth to housing needs and transit options.

The planning commission has not produced a housing study for the region since 1975.

And Milwaukee County's transit system, against national trends, is losing riders.

What's been allowed is a crazy-quilt of sprawl development beyond Milwaukee, itself land-locked by a special state law, that has created water demand and road-building, without regard for consequences as varied as air quality to employment opportunities.

That's why we find today that Milwaukee workers cannot easily get to new jobs in the area where New Berlin wants Lake Michigan water because there is no direct bus service from Milwaukee to the New Berlin Industrial Park.

That ended in 2004.

And the New Berlin area that is get Lake Michigan water is also projected to see more than 1,100 new housing units built - - but without an already-identified affordable housing component.

All this piecemeal and disconnected planning (it's almost unfair to planners to call it planning) and anecdotal governmental action is not wasteful of public dollars and resources.

It's also not sustainable - - especially as gasoline escalates in price.

Isn't this the right moment for the community as a whole, as a region, to stop and ask: What Are We Doing? Isn't There Another Way?

These issues are not too complex to be addressed simultaneously, as the newspaper suggests is the case. They are, in fact, at the heart of Smart Growth, something the newspaper has correctly endorsed.

There is time to make the Milwaukee - - New Berlin water deal more of a comprehensive arrangement.

Failing to do it will be yet another missed opportunity, one that will replicate itself when the larger diversion proposals come in from communities west of New Berlin.

A final thought:

Strong direction and leadership by the state about the proper framework for inter-community water deals now permissible under the Great Lakes Compact, with input from both the Public Service Commission and Department of Natural Resources, could still provide some needed guidance and further rationalize this process.

Robbers ("Thugs?") Allegedly Targeted, Burned Indian Gas Station Operators

We learn that police have charged two men with a string of 20 Milwaukee-area robberies in which Indian-owned gas stations were targeted and victims doused with hot coffee.

The allegation of the immigrants' targeting was confirmed by the suspects, according to police.

Are the perpetrators two men who made bad decisions, or are they thugs?
Just asking.

I checked several righty blogs where the "thug" word gets tossed around purportedly without discrimination, but so far, I see nothing.

Makes you wonder what thug-worthy behavior really is, unless you happen to be Lee Holloway, the villainous chairman of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors, and, why then, it's clear as a bell.

Apologizes if I missed it anywhere.

Conservative Blogger Discovers That Non-Profit Groups Donate Money To...Non-Profit Groups!

The Widgerson Library & Pub blog is ripping Clean Wisconsin, a Madison-based environmental organization, for raising money to push for clean air and water.

'Discovering' that non-profit organizations raise money from other non-profit organizations, Widgerson publishes a list of the group's institutional donors over the last four years, including a California foundation which says its goals are new energy-conserving technologies in the world's largest energy-consuming nations - - the US and China.

Who's against that?

Do we like air pollution wafting our way from coal-fired powerplants, and the mercury it deposits in our rivers and lakes>

Is the horror that there are out-of-state donors involved, like, perhaps, the out-of-state donors who supplied advertising dollars to support the candidacies of State Supreme Court candidates Anne Ziegler and Michael Gableman?

All perfectly legal, both for Clean WI and for the campaigns' "independent expenditure" supporters - - except those campaign donors are not disclosed.

Clean Wisconsin's donors are disclosed. Looks like a group of foundations that are in favor of clean air and water.

So what's the big deal?

Milwaukee Committee Will Delay New Berlin Water Sale Decision

Citing the issue's complexity, Milwaukee aldermen will take public testimony next Tuesday at its Public Works committee on a proposed water sale to New Berlin, but delay action until September, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

This blog has carried items the last few days on the proposed deal - - example here - - which includes a $1.5 million, one-time payment by New Berlin in addition to wholesale purchases of water estimated at $966,000 in the first year of the agreement.

The two communities also have agreed to a yearly meeting to discuss employment issues, and will sign a pledge not to raid each other's industries.

My position on the agreement is that it is a good first step, but does not address the full value of water, or its full relationship to development that New Berlin estimates at 1,119 new housing units and 5,668 new jobs.

New Berlin's median home value, according to the 2000 census, was $162,000, so 1,119 new housing units translates eventually to about $180,000,000 in new tax base - - maybe more, maybe less, depending on the housing mix, and, of course, the market.

Another ballpark number: 5,668 jobs in the area where water is headed. At, say, $12 per hour, that means about $24,000 per year in salary per job, or an eventual total annual payroll of $136,000,000.

Since I'm not throwing in overtime or benefits, or big management salaries, I'd say that's a pretty conservative number, and I know it will take some years to reach the maximum number of jobs.

And I know that not all those employees will live in New Berlin, but a decent percentage might.

And I have no idea how to calculate the potential value of expanded or new business or commercial properties to house those new employees, or the retail and other taxable spin-off developments and employment that will occur nearby.

Suffice it to say there will be some of that kind of spin-off for New Berlin.

My point is that the diverted Lake Michigan water is aimed at an area in New Berlin where that citysays there will be substantial development.

The question is: is the water-supplying community getting adequate compensation in return, both financially and socially?

Take affordable housing and transportation infrastructure - - two huge expenses that fall heavily on Milwaukee, where most of the region's lower-income residents live.

There is no direct Milwaukee County transit service to the heart of this area in New Berlin - - its Industrial Park.

Also; New Berlin also only has 80 units of so-called "affordable housing," nearly of which is for seniors, not low-income families or single persons - - the very Milwaukee workers who face a more-than-two-hour bus and charter coach ride to the Industrial Park, and who might benefit from more affordable housing in New Berlin if there were more units.

Affordable housing and transit improvements are among the areas of sprawl development mitigation that the city wants addressed in potential water sales to communities outside of the Great Lakes basin now allowed by the Great Lakes Compact.

The portion of New Berlin that the proposed water sale will serve is outside of the basin.

Much of the discussion on the 29th at the Common Council hearing will turn on these economic, social and regional policy issues.

A delay in consideration until September will give aldermen and city staff time to ask more questions and gather more information; infrastructure at the Milwaukee Water Works to move water to New Berlin would not be completed until 2009 at the earliest, so there is ample time to make sure the right questions are framed, researched and answered before deals are signed and money is spent.

It's not an 11th-hour time frame. More like hour nine or 10.

Transportation Spending Distortions Keep Hammering Milwaukee Taxpayers

Early discussions related to the 2009 Milwaukee budget are underway at City Hall about how to pay for street repairs.

Then the decisions:

Will there be an additional $5 street services fee?

A $20 per-registered vehicle, the so-called wheel tax?

No one wants to pay more fees or taxes, but one variation or another will likely be in the budget to stretch property tax dollars and provide the street services that are basic to running a city.

The craziness of this situation is rooted in state transportation spending and special-interest politics, with billions ticketed for road-building, regardless of the drop-off in driving due to high gasoline prices and the resulting, rekindled public interest in transit.

The Milwaukee government has asked the state to reduce by $200 million its commitment to the $1.9 billion reconstruction and widening of I-94 from the Mitchell Interchange south to the Illinois state line, with the $200 million redirected into commuter rail.

That effort was led by Milwaukee Ald. Bob Bauman.

The state has refused.

That leaves commuters south of Milwaukee eight years of orange barrel hell, and the highway-only option.

And city residents will see none of the state's new-highway budgeted billions for local services - - pothole repairs, snow removal, and other maintenance basics - - let alone a genuine transit upgrade for the region, or for, gasp!, local rail transit.

To make matter worse, a state legislative study committee is soon to begin work at the State Capitol on easing regional transportation authorities' abilities to launch new rail systems - - but state legislative leaders couldn't figure out a way to put Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett's nominee on the 22-member panel.

Barrett's nominee? The aforementioned Ald. Bauman.

Of sixteen seats on the committee not designated for legislators, six went to Madisonians.

The state is not pledged to a "fix-it-first" approach to transportation spending, or "transit-first-or-second."

The City of Milwaukee, with streets and infrastructure to pay for, and obstructed by a county executive hostile to the transit system he operates, is thus forced to tap its residents for either fees or new taxes to maintain a one-dimensional status-quo.

All in all, not a good outlook for Milwaukee, the state's largest city, and with the largest number of transit-users, too.

WisDOT Can't Find Wetlands To Fix As Compensation For I-94 Wetlands Damage

The Daily Reporter's Sean Ryan (just give him the 2008 award for best continuing reporting right now) brings us yet another bizarre twist on the $1.9 billion state transportation department plan to rebuild and widen I-94 from Milwaukee to Illinois:

The agency is obligated to compensate the public for damage to wetlands the project will entail - - at least 76 acres - - by repairing or improving wetlands in exchange, but darned if so far the agency can't find any available.

I've always been suspicious of these wetlands remediation exchanges: you pave one over here, then clean one up over there - - but, really, to what standard, and for how long, while the former wetland is gone under concrete forever.

Put this wetlands SNAFU on top of these issues - - driving is down, so the already not-congested corridor needs the new 70 miles of lanes even less, and the agency's refusal to swap the new, not-needed lanes for a commuter rail line ready to go parallel to the freeway corridor.

This project is shaping up as one of the goofiest highway projects ever planned in Wisconsin.

Regrettably, it's pegged as the most expensive state road project in history.

More regrettable, its cost represents only 30% of the entire 25-year, seven-county, $6.5 billion freeway reconstruction and expansion (127 miles of new lanes) plan served up by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission in 2003 - - when gasoline cost $2.30-a-gallon.

Xoff Continues His Antiwar Focus

I appreciate the anti-war effort being put forth by Bill Christofferson, a/k/a the blogger Xoff.

He's not running politicians' campaigns anymore, which leaves him time to carryout antiwar organizing online and in the community.

Here is a recent posting, with a schedule of upcoming events.

Conservatives who choose to take on Bill over the peace issue usually don't have his credentials and credibility he earned during two tours in Vietnam as a US Marine.

Regional Transit Committee Begins Work At The Capitol - - Without Mayor Barrett's Nominee

There are high hopes for quick passage of legislation to enable regional transit authorities to get rail systems in place in Wisconsin.

Details are in a Capital Times story about the upcoming work of a 22-member bi-partisan legislative study council committee.

And while no city in the state has more transit riders than the City of Milwaukee, Mayor Tom Barrett's request that Ald. Robert Bauman, the Common Council's acknowledged transit expert, be included on the study committee was not accepted by the legislature's leadership.

Here is the committee list: It's hard not to notice that 27% of the committee - - 6/22 - - is from Madison. Take out the legislators from the membership and Madison got 6 of the remaining 16 slots, or 38%.

It's true that there is a representative on the committee from the Milwaukee County transit system, as well as from the Milwaukee legislative delegation - - State Rep. Barbara Toles, (D) - - but the specific perspective of the Milwaukee city government should have been on the committee.

It reminds me of the 21-member running the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission.

There is representation for Milwaukee County, but none for the City of Milwaukee.

I have a great deal of respect for Rep. Toles. Her voice as a Milwaukee legislator will carry weight on the committee.

The legislative study committee has important work before it. There is a pressing need for rail transit and other improvements in Wisconsin that serve those who choose not to drive, or do not have access to an automobile.

And Milwaukee's city government represents more of those citizens than any other city in the state.

That perspective needs to be front and center in transit discussions in Wisconsin. Bob Bauman knows this stuff cold, and the committee is weaker without him.

Stormwater Pollution Still A Huge Problem In Madison

Even with the Department of Natural Resources right there, and a long-traditional of environmentalism, Madison still struggles with stormwater problems.

Kinda surprising.

Michael Savage's Attack On Autism Suffers Brings Sponsor And Station Cancellations

Michael Savage's unnecessary and cruel assault on autism's victims has brought about some advertising and station cancellations.

Isn't time that AM 620 WTMJ find something or someone else to put in this hate-monger's time slot?

Milwaukee, MMSD, And Developers Seem To Agree On Stormwater Reduction Measures

It looks like the public and private sectors are in agreement on new rules to limit stormwater runoff in new development, street reconstruction and other projects.

It's part of a pro-active effort to keep runoff and pollution out of tributaries and pipes that feed into Lake Michigan.

A good backgrounder from the Daily Reporter is here.

There's a "Banned From State Street List"

I didn't know you could do this. I'll bet some legislators are worried.

Milwaukee Water Would Flow To New Berlin Growth Area; Transit There From Milwaukee Called "Inadequate"

A City of Milwaukee report in a package of materials provided to the Common Council for a July 29th committee vote on whether to sell Lake Michigan water to central New Berlin says the destination could see thousands of new jobs, but has inadequate transit connections to Milwaukee.

The report indicates that the area in New Berlin's middle third to which Milwaukee water would be delivered could eventually see more than 5,600 new jobs, but says the employment situation there is"constrained by inadequate public transportation."

Bus service from Milwaukee is currently provided by Milwaukee County Transit Service Route #10 as far west as Brookfield Square - - a 55-minute ride from downtown Milwaukee - - then by a contracted bus operated by Waukesha's transit system through Wisconsin Coach Lines to the New Berlin Industrial Park, for example.

The Coach service has a $3.50 round-trip fare; the Milwaukee County transit round trip to Brookfield Square is $4.50.

That $8.00 daily cost can drop to $6.70 with the purchase of Milwaukee transit weekly passes or Wisconsin Coach ticket ten-packs.

A round trip ride from downtown Milwaukee to the New Berlin Industrial Park on both bus lines is more than two hours, not including layover time at Brookfield Square.

Full schedule and fare information is here.

Milwaukee County's bus Route #6 formerly went directly to the New Berlin Industrial Park, but that service ended in 2004.

The complete City of Milwaukee jobs' analysis report, with the transit discussion, is here.

What's important about the report is that Milwaukee has several existing Common Council resolutions that, as a matter of policy, tie potential out-of-community water sales to a broader agenda.

That agenda includes transit, affordable housing and other regional improvements that Milwaukee believes will help alleviate social and economic pressures in southeastern Wisconsin that fall disproportionately on the state's biggest city.

It's Milwaukee's way of trying to leverage water sales towards a broader regional agenda.

Does the proposed agreement meet those expectations?

Some of these issues will be aired at a Common Council Public Improvements committee meeting at 10:30 a.m. at City Hall.

The potential water sale, if approved by Milwaukee and New Berlin, would include a yearly meeting between the cities on employment and job access issues, along with a no-raiding pledge and a $1.5 million one-time payment to Milwaukee.

Milwaukee will have to decide if the deal adequately links the water sale to regional issues, such as access to jobs and affordable housing: New Berlin currently has 80 such units in its jurisdiction, nearly all of them targeted to seniors, not low-income families.

Records filed with Milwaukee by New Berlin also indicate the possibility of 1,119 new housing units being built in the acreage to which Milwaukee water would be delivered.

First year wholesale water revenues to Milwaukee would be $966,000; infrastructure costs to the Milwaukee Water Works would be about $6.8 million.

Further details on the possible water deal are here.

Louisiana Blogger Corrects Record About Katrina Oil Spills

This blogger corrects statements made by John McCain and others about oil spills following Hurricane Katrina, here.

A broken storage tank owned by Murphy Oil was among the culprits.

New Berlin Housing Information In Water Sale Documentation Back On Milwaukee City Website

One document disclosing information about possible housing construction in a portion of New Berlin that could be served by a potential City of Milwaukee water sale had been off-line for a day.

I had cited it in this posting, and readers had asked me why the link to the document was not active.

The document, which also discloses data about affordable housing in New Berlin and other Waukesha County communities, is now available, here.

New Berlin Transit Cost And Related Issues, In More Detail

I have edited the previous post about a possible water sale to New Berlin to reflect the cost of bus service from Milwaukee to New Berlin, including its industrial park.

Here are the facts, after discussions with the providers.

Milwaukee County Transit System Route #10 provides service to Brookfield Square. A round trip is $4.50, which includes two, 25-cent zone fare add-ons to the $4 round-trip price ($2 each way).

A weekly pass costs $16, plus the zone fares, so five round-trips a week would cost $18.50, or $3.70 a day.

(Prior to 2004, Milwaukee County did offer a direct bus - - Route #6 - - to the New Berlin Industrial Park. That service has been discontinued.)

A Milwaukee rider can still get to the New Berlin Industrial Park and other stops along the way by transferring at Brookfield Square to Waukesha's Route 218, operated by Wisconsin Coach.

That round-trip fare is $3.50, or $1.75 each way.

Wisconsin Coach offers a ten-pack of tickets for $15, or $1.50 per ticket, reducing the daily round-trip cost on this leg of the journey to $3.

Fare, route and other information about Route 218 is here.

So - - a Milwaukee worker headed to New Berlin on a regular weekly basis could ride every day, using both bus services, for $6.70, or $33.50 weekly.

I figure the time on both buses from downtown Milwaukee at 70 minutes, plus layover time at Brookfield Square, with similar times on the return, or at least two hours, 20 minutes on the bus and coach daily.

Milwaukee Water Could Help Create Thousands Of New Berlin Jobs Underserved By Transit

A City of Milwaukee report in a package of materials provided to the Common Council for a July 29th committee vote on whether to sell Lake Michigan water to central New Berlin says the water will be supplied to New Berlin acreage available for development that is not directly served by Milwaukee County Transit Service.

The report indicates that the New Berlin area to which the water is to be delivered could eventually see more than 5,600 jobs created; the lack of good transit to New Berlin is called a constraint on employers and Milwaukee residents trying to connect with each other.

The city report's language about the employer/employee connection is "constrained by inadequate public transportation."

Bus service is currently;y provided Milwaukee County Transit Service Route #10 as far west as Brookfield Square - - a 55-minute ride from downtown Milwaukee - - then by a contracted bus operated by Waukesha's transit system through Wisconsin Coach Lines to the New Berlin Industrial Park, for example.

That Coach service is a Monday-Friday operation only: with its $3.50 round-trip fare, and the Milwaukee County $4.50 round-trip Milwaukee-Brookfield Square charge (excluding any pass discounts), a round-trip by bus from Milwaukee to the New Berlin Industrial Park is as much as $8.00 daily.

Full schedule and fare information is here.

Milwaukee County's Route #6 formerly went directly to the industrial park, but that service was ended in 2004.

The City of Milwaukee jobs' analysis document, with the transit discussion, is here.

What's important about the document is that Milwaukee has several existing Common Council resolutions that, as a matter of policy, tie water sales to a broader agenda: transit growth, affordable housing and other regional improvements that Milwaukee expects to see in water-seeking communities to help alleviate certain social and economic pressures that fall disproportionately on the state's biggest city.

It's Milwaukee's way of trying to leverage water sales towards a broader regional agenda.

Does New Berlin's application for water and proposed agreements with Milwaukee meet those expectations?

The potential water sale could include a yearly meeting between Milwaukee and New Berlin on employment and access issues, along with a no-raiding pledge and a $1.5 million one-time payment.

Milwaukee will have to decide if New Berlin is adequately linking water acquisition to regional issues, such as access to jobs and affordable housing: it currently has 80 such units in its jurisdiction, nearly all of them targeted to seniors, not low-income families.

First year wholesale water revenues to Milwaukee would be $966,000; infrastructure costs to the Milwaukee Water Works would be about $6.8 million.

Details on the possible water deal are here.

Clean Wisconsin Reminds Us That Coal Is Not Clean

Mark Redsten, Clean Wisconsin's Executive Director, makes a compelling case in Sunday's Journal Sentinel Crossroads that Wisconsin and a healthy environment don't need Alliant Energy's proposed new coal-burning generating plant in Cassville.

Sales Tax Referendum Will Be A Tough Campaign

Newspaper editorial writers make campaign endorsements and write frequently about elections - - and now the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's editorial board, as a strong supporter of the one-cent sales tax November referendum ballot question, is about to experience a campaign rather close-up.

That is because Scott Walker, conservative talk radio and the other drown-government-in-a-bathtub ideologues will run their campaign at the Milwaukee County board majority that put the question on the ballot and also against the newspaper.

For the Right in this town, this is the Daily Double: they can run against government and against the newspaper, their favorite daily target (for some radio talkers, it's a fake conflict, for ratings only).

The paper's Sunday editorial (again linked here) lays out a cogent case for the additional penny sales tax, and explains how sales taxes do lower property taxes.

But it's a lengthy, detailed and complicated matter of economics to explain, and as candidates learn, making those kinds of arguments work in a campaign is an uphill slog.

That's why soundbites, bumper-stickers and catchy little slogans are so effective - - tricks of the trade mastered by Walker and his buddies on the radio.

I give the paper credit for sticking its editorial neck out on this issue. It's important.

And like a lot of campaigns, it won't be fun, because as H. L. Mencken observed (at least, I think it's Mencken), "politics ain't beanbag."

Michael Savage On Glenn Beck: Talk About A Dynamic Duo

Michael Savage made an audio appearance on the Glenn Beck show tonight on CNN.

MSNBC dumped the angry righty talker years ago for disgusting remarks about homosexuals; CNN gave Savage air time to explain away his hateful remarks about another group: children with autism and their parents.

Savage claimed he had been misquoted, though Beck played Savage's lengthy monologue, for which Savage had no apology.

Savage had said on his radio program - - yes, it still airs late at night and into the early morning hours on 62- WTMJ-AM - - that kids with autism were misdiagnosed brats with bad parents who faked their kids' symptoms to collect disability payments.

You can find more information on Savage's website, which is one of the uglier and least-professionally-appearing sites on the internet, here.

Savage regularly rants against Muslims, liberals, homosexuals, illegal immigrants and others whom he likes to call "the enemy within."

Given his penchant for self-destruction, you have to wonder whether Savage's real enemies are entirely internal.

I also wonder if any of our righty blogging friends, on behalf of people with troubled children, relatives or friends, will consider ascribing the "thu*" appellation to Savage?

On Gard! Cong. Steve Kagan Shows Up On Endangered List

Incumbent 8th District Democrat Congressman Steve Kagan shows up in a Salon.com roundtable discussion of possible winners and losers in the November election.

Text and podcast here.

Kagan is a first-termer who took Mark Green's seat, vacated when Green to run and lose the '06 Governor's race.

His opponent is the ultra-rightist John Gard, the former Wisconsin Assembly Speaker who lost to Kagan in '06.

The pundits interviewed by Salon predict Democratic gains overall, but some losses, so Wisconsin Democrats may need a major effort in the Green Bay area to retain Kagan and foil Gard again.

Drunk Driving Homicide Convictions Still Yielding Minimal Sentences

A Milwaukee man ends up with a year in the House of Corrections, with six months of work release, for driving drunk and killing man.

The man admitted his crime to police and pleaded no contest to the charge.


Flight from the scene of the crime and prior OWI convictions do not seem to be present in the case, according to a preliminary story on the Journal Sentinel's Newswatch blog.

I'll reprint the first few paragraphs below.

I know incarceration does not bring a victim back to life, but the message in the sentencing seems to be that drunk driving homicide on a major Milwaukee street is still is not a big enough social outrage to offend the court.

From the paper's blog:

MONDAY, July 21, 2008, 12:26 p.m.By Crocker Stephenson
Driver sentenced in drunk driving death

A 42-year-old Milwaukee man was sentenced this morning to a year in the House of Correction for a February drunk-driving death.

Alan T. Pointer struck and killed Percy Chambers on Feb. 7, around 10:50 p.m., as Chambers was crossing the 2400 block of King Dr.

Las month, Pointer pleaded no contest to homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle.

Water Sale Agreement To New Berlin Is Insufficient, Premature

Props to Gretchen Schuldt for publishing the first details of proposed agreements between Milwaukee and New Berlin to send Lake Michigan water to the so-called middle portion of New Berlin that is outside of the Great Lakes Basin.

The key elements of the plan, in addition to recurring revenues from the sale of water, would include a one-time $1.5 million payment to Milwaukee's general fund, proposed by Alds. Michael Murphy and James Bohl, an annual meeting to discuss employment and job access issues, and a pledge by both communities against raiding each other's businesses.

$1.5 million is equal to a one-time bonus of about 18 months of first-year revenue to Milwaukee from New Berlin for the Lake Michigan diversion, according to information submitted to the Common Council by the Milwaukee Water Works.

That first year revenue is expected to be $996,000, the documents show.

That rate is based on what the Public Service Commission permitted to be charged for an earlier diversion Menomonee Falls - - a wholesale rate of that the utility calls a "commodity charge" $0.668 per 1,000 gallons of water. (p. of the document).

Or looked at another way, $1.5 million is a premium equal to an upfront annual payment of $75,000 per year covering the 20 year agreement, (see p. 7).

That payment presumably could be used for anything from tax relief to housing, transit or other needs that Milwaukee has justifiably felt it has managed without sufficient regional cooperation.

More about that below.

Sources at City Hall say that without strong objections at a July 29th Common Council committee Public Works committee meeting, the plan is likely to win approval.

My view is that adoption is premature, for the reasons stated below, and remember - - New Berlin is not in a water crisis - - so there is time to consider and produce more information that would inform and improve a final, better plan.

Documents included in a package of resolutions and reports to be considered by the council committee indicate that substantial communications have taken place between Milwaukee and New Berlin negotiators.

What is missing is an answer to this question:

Given that the water can spur development in New Berlin, and that water is a finite resource under known social and physical pressures, and given that this will be only the first of many diversion-and-water-sale applications, has the water's true value been calculated and recognized in the proposed agreements?

This question has been given some consideration, as the one-time $1.5 million payment is on the table separate from per-gallon water-sale charges, and infrastructure costs.

But what is the origin of the $1.5 million figure, and what is it intended to cover?

And given the potential development benefit to accrue to New Berlin from this new, fresh water delivery, frankly, is it enough?

Documentation submitted in both New Berlin's diversion application made to the State of Wisconsin, and included in the council committee packet, indicate that New Berlin's growth plans show a potential 1,119 units of new housing (p. 8 in that highlighted document) in the area to which the diverted water would go.

[Update: that link was not working, but has been corrected by the city. The housing data also appears on p. 21 of the New Berlin diversion application, here.]

6.5% of the new, probable construction is expected to be multi-unit housing of some type, though it is not clear from the documentation if any of those units are for the typical residents of affordable housing - - low-income and elderly persons.

More about affordable housing in a moment.

Even in today's depressed housing market, $1.5 million could equal the value of less than a handful of new housing units in the area to which the new supply of Lake Michigan water will be directed.

And what about added tax base to service that new housing - - industry, commercial properties, and retail shops?

So $1.5 million is a lot of money, but you have to consider its complete context.

I think the negotiators should go back to the table and come up with a different number that is based on water's relationship to tax-base development and sharing - - a big piece of the true-value concept.

Since this will be the first diversion sale under the framework of the Great Lakes Compact, thus precedent-setting, the water-value question should be answered before applications and sales are approved in Wisconsin and the region.

Here is another question that should be examined:

Does the proposed sale meet existing City of Milwaukee policies, which call for the existence of affordable housing programs in the purchasing communities as a prior consideration?

And there is a related requirement expressed in city policy - - "...that any diversion request include an analysis of the impact of such diversion on land use, transportation and economic development, and how comprehensive planning, including conservation planning can mitigate negative effects.' (Council resolution 040646, adopted unanimously 9/21/04).

Is Milwaukee satisfied that the sale and related agreements meet that broad planning and land-use expectation?

The documents state that New Berlin currently provides 80 units of affordable housing, or about 6% of the 1,300 provided throughout Waukesha County.

This data and the data below are at this link, pages 9-10.

The City of Waukesha leads with 811, then New Berlin with 80, Menomomee Falls, 78, Hartland, 72, Sussex, 50. Pewaukee, 46 and Brookfield, 45.

No other community has more than 40; Butler has three, Elm Grove has one.

The date do not differentiate between affordable housing for senior citizens and for low-income families or individuals not seniors.

And you wonder why housing and economic justice advocates say it's unacceptable that the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission hasn't written a regional housing plan with affordable housing recommendations since 1975?

[Again, this document had been taken off the city's website, but is back as of Tuesday.]

To some, this will be a matter of semantics, but does Milwaukee consider 80 existing units sufficient in a city that borders Milwaukee?

Also consider the cost to the Milwaukee Water Works of upgrading its pumps and other equipment to push water past the subcontinental divide.

Documents indicate that the Milwaukee Water Works has been planning infrastructure expenditures separate from New Berlin's application that total $6,850,000, and those improvements, given their location, will allow the utility to deliver water to New Berlin.

Even if these scheduled improvements are totally coincidental to the New Berlin plan, shouldn't it bear some portion of those costs, since without them, Lake Michigan water cannot get to New Berlin unless it built a separate intake system of its own, or paid Oak Creek or Racine to pump it.?

Maybe infrastructure cost-sharing needs to be another piece of the agreement?

And what happens when the City of Waukesha comes forward with a diversion application that could call for six times as much diverted water than what New Berlin wants?

If New Berlin isn't charged some or all of the Milwaukee infrastructure cost, neither will Waukesha and the growing number of other communities who will be lining up for a water deal, and will not want to pay one cent beyond what New Berlin was charged.

And who would blame them?

Every car purchaser, home buyer and government official knows a signed agreement is tough to renegotiate and then amend.

That's why you get all the questions out on the table at the beginning, and make the best eventual deal you can.

I think the negotiators have approached some of the regional issues with the one-time payment concept.

But questions about its sufficiency aside, the negotiators have not addressed the full water value issue.

It's a big, important, historic issue. Perhaps both parties need to engage some independent expertise.

It's not a new idea.

An attorney for the City of Waukesha Water Utility suggested it years ago as a way for New Berlin to eventually win Lake Michigan water from Milwaukee.

So we're at the beginning of a process, not a decision-point.

One final thought:

Basic social issues in the region that are related to water and its development potential are not being studied by the water supply advisory committee created by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Water Commission.

From its beginning, that study was aimed at nuts-and-bolts, cost-benefit analyses.

Who has excess water-pumping and treatment capacity? Milwaukee.

Who has excess water needs? Some suburbs.

What's the solution most likely to be recommended by SEWRPC: Meet the requirements of the Great Lakes Compact, have Milwaukee deliver Lake Michigan water to buyers, and continue to validate regional sprawl away from Milwaukee that has been enabled by SEWRPC master land-use plan.

The lack of a big-picture analysis creates further need for Milwaukee and New Berlin to go several steps further and frame this proposed water sale as the regional model that it will surely become.

New Berlin is under a consent decree to provide cleaner water to its customers, but the authorities have extended the deadlines because the city was making good faith efforts to come up with a solution.

Knowing that Lake Michigan was a likely supply option down the road, New Berlin deferred the purchase of expensive filtration equipment that could have already been in place and removing naturally-occurring radium in its well water.

It preferred the Lake Michigan option.

Heavy rainfall in both 2007 and 2008 has helped New Berlin avoid severe supply problems.

This means both Milwaukee and New Berlin have time to get more information for consideration, and to deliver that information to their constituents and people across the Great Lakes region, all of whom, given that these waters are held in common trust, are on a definite "need-to-know" basis.

Milwaukee County Continues To Miss The Transit Boom

Milwaukee County, run by an executive who prefers that everyone drive a person vehicle, doesn't make the cut in this national CNN report on the transit boom.

Good-Bye Midwest Airlines' Options, Hello...Detroit!

Yeah, we remember the bad old days, when flying was a luxury aimed at business travelers and the wealthy, and if you wanted to get out of Wisconsin by plane, it often meant descending into aviation hell, better known as the Northwest Airlines' hub in Detroit.

For customer misery, it often rivaled Chicago's O'Hare.

I remember missing my grandmother's Florida funeral because an emergency exit chute on my Northwest connecting flight deployed as we were being pulled back from the gate, and our departure was stalled for several crucial hours.

That and any number of delayed flights and chaotic cattle calls at the boarding gates.

Witnesses tell me that things are better now, but to tell you the truth, I haven't flown on a domestic connection out of Detroit in years. Life's too short.

Let's just say that one of Midwest's virtues was that you didn't have to find out first-hand.

Midwest's route cuts will leave us fewer options, but at least we still have the hometown carrier, albeit slimmed down.

One Wisconsin Community Deals Head-On, And Positively, With Plastic Bags

The Village of Shorewood, at the northern border of the City of Milwaukee near the UW-Milwaukee campus, as dealt creatively with the plastic bag proble by giving everyhouse hold a free cloth alternative.

The lead was taken by Sustainable Shorewood.

Pretty neat. Details here.

One Wisconsin Community Deals Head-On, And Positively, With Plastic Bags

The Village of Shorewood, at the northern border of the City of Milwaukee near the UW-Milwaukee campus, has dealt creatively with the plastic bag proble by giving everyhouse hold a free, resusable alternative.

The collaborative effort was led by Sustainable Shorewood.

Pretty neat. Details here.

Open Records' Fee Abuses Keep Public Records Private

The Freeman has posted a useful investigation - - though I don't have a paid subscription and can only link to the short version online - - about the differences in open record charges governments make inquiring citizens pay.

I've worked in the public sector, and I know that charging anything more than the actual few cents-per-page cost is unnecessary, and has two consequences:

Government squeezes a few extra cents or dollars out of a taxpaying citizen, and some people just stop asking, so records that are in the public domain do not circulate.

Some agencies will also tack on "search fees" of many dollars an hour, even though the search is a computer in-house search engine function, not a staffer's commitment of hours pouring through paper files and folders in a warehouse.

And in many cases, I'd argue that finding and copying records for a citizen is a reasonable part of a public employe's job, so adding a fee for the employe's time is a form of double-billing a taxpayer.

I was asked two years ago by one local government to provide a $500 deposit for the acquisition of some computerized documents, and after a legal struggle, did not have to pay those fees.

There are circumstances when asking for some fees are appropriate: massive search requests, or perhaps when the documents are being used in a lawsuit or corporate claim or out-of-town request - - circumstances different than when media or citizens walk into a local government office and want records, and intend to further circulate them in the public arena.

State law provides exceptions to the charging of fees, but it's up to the holder of the record to charge or waive them, and too often, waivers are not granted because it's a way for the agency to make a few bucks or to discourage people from using the state's strong open records law.

The foundation of the state open records law is that it's in the public interest for wide release and distribution of information that is in the public domain, and the presumption is that a record, by its very existence, is already public and should be released, with few exceptions.

Charging onerous fees to keep information away from citizens is a tacky way to let public officials exercise too much power, and to undermine the law.

[Update: Here are the key paragraphs' data:

"On July 1, The Freeman filed open records requests with seven county school districts asking for copies of travel expense reimbursements and credit card statements for district administrators and school board members during the past fiscal year.

'In the requests, The Freeman asked the districts to inform us if the documents would cost more than $20. The Muskego-Norway School District, Pewaukee School District and Kettle Moraine School Districts have notified the paper they’re proceeding with the requests but didn’t say they would cost more than $20.

"Records received from the New Berlin School District cost $10.80 for 108 pages and from the Hamilton School District it cost $20 for 24 pages of documents.

"But the Waukesha School District said its 550 pages would cost $535 and the Elmbrook School District’s 490 pages would cost at least $350.

"In a July 3 letter from Waukesha Superintendent Todd Gray, he said it’ll cost $220 for copies of reimbursements and $315 for the 18 hours it would take district staff to assemble the records, according to the district business office.

"The district charges 20 cents per page to copy documents and charges $18 per hour to have finance department support staff go over the records, Jason Demerath, interim director of business services for the Waukesha School District, said.

"To figure out labor costs, he said the district estimates it would take two minutes of looking at a document to figure out if it was an administrator and if it was for travel.

"Bob Borsch, assistant superintendent of business services for Elmbrook, said the district has a policy of charging 30 cents per copy and estimates that it would take 20 hours of labor at $10 per hour to perform the task.

"In contrast, New Berlin only charged 10 cents per copy and no labor."

Feingold Supports Plans To Rid Great Lakes Of Invasive Species

Wisconsin's US Senator Russ Feingold (D) says he favors programs and requirements that would remove invasive species from ocean-going freighters and keep the harmful organisms out of the Great Lakes.

This is in the context of first-ever serious discussion of closing the lakes to these vessels because they carry in species that are damaging the waters and related economies.

Moving this sort of legislation through the US Congress and getting the cooperation of the Canadian government and multiple shipping and commercial interests could take years; far too much time has been wasted already, so Feingold and others who are taking on this issue need our full support.

SEWRPC Documents Posted, As Promised; Why Doesn't SEWRPC Do This?

The other day I posted data and quotations from several reports produced by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission.
The materials supported my claim that SEWRPC has done a poor job hiring minority staffers, and that is a component of my argument that Milwaukee, ill-served by SEWRPC management and governance, should leave the seven-county agency and spend its share of the SEWRPC tax levy that it is dunned each year on plans and people attuned to urban issues.

SEWRPC knows that minorities and others living in Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha Counties find it hard to work at SEWRPC because the agency has always been located in Waukesha County, where there is little transit service, SEWRPC records indicate.

Yet SEWRPC moved farther west in 2002, to Pewaukee, where there is no transit service, but where the agency could provide more parking for workers driving there, SEWRPC records show.

I also said I'd post these SEWRPC materials because the agency does not provide them online, so thanks to the good folks at One Wisconsin Now (disclosure: I am on the board of directors of one of its groups), the items have been converted to pdf's, and I can make them available online through this blog.

Here are the links:

1. The 1996-1997 SEWRPC Affirmative Action Plan - - the agency's first.

2. The 2007-2008 SEWRPC Affirmative Action Plan, for comparison.

3. Two pages from the minutes of the 2/24/00 SEWRPC Executive Committee in which SEWRPC indicates it is pursuing the purchase of a building that is now its headquarters, in part to provide better parking to employees. See the bracketed portion at the bottom of the first copied page.

Of course, SEWRPC could put all these documents online.

It could also tape the proceedings of its commission and advisory committee meetings, and put those online, too.

It could offer online biographies and photos of its commissioners, so you could match up names with faces and resumes and get a better idea of who is hiring the managers that are writing SEWRPC's reports.

It could bring its entire online web operation into the first decade of the 21st century, something that http://www.sewrpc.org/ is years away from achieving - - and which helps keep SEWRPC operations, meetings and hiring below the radar, far from the population centers of its seven-county region, not even on a bus line.

Anyway: those are the documents to which I referred.

I believe they fully support the case for Milwaukee withdrawing from SEWRPC, and directing the hundreds of thousands of tax dollars that are forwarded annually to SEWRPC from the city into planning and staffing that seeks out an urban agenda and workforce.

The Proliferation Of "Thug" Describing Some Black Men

Some conservative bloggers are sticking up for one of their own whom I called out here for his attaching the term "Thug" to Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway.

The bloggers' comments in that post defending their blogging cohort "No Runny Eggs" scramble spin and denial.

What made Holloway thug-worthy? Supporting a sales tax increase.

I guess in the mind of a conservative blogger, a tax increase is a crime, which would mean that some politicians are probably headed for the gallows!

Look out all you Republican legislators who supported the annual gas tax "indexed" increase (which I always thought was cowardly, bad public policy) - - these bloggers might be coming for you next.

Here is an interesting discussion about this phenomenon of racializing "thug" from the Atlanta Constitution.

Let's see how long it takes some people to spin it towards some tangential gripe.

Does This Mean WisDOT Will Engineer Light Rail?

Wisconsin's top transportation official tells the Kansas City Star that passenger rail is the way to go.

I agree, and though Frank Busalacchi was talking about Amtrak, the same arguments hold up for light rail, too.

Thanks to Michael Horne for passing this along.

Milwaukee County Board Chair Supports A Sales Tax Increase: Does That Make Him A "Thug?"

At least one self-described "hard-boiled" righty blogger can't stop playing the race card.

That's the only conclusion you can come to when "Thug" - - a word that worked itself into the local vocabulary following particularly violent crimes, and especially during former Ald. Michael McGee's legal troubles - - suddenly becomes Holloway's middle name, too.

Apparently on at least one right-wing blog from the south Milwaukee suburbs - - and so far I'm not seeing anyone on the conservative side of the blogosphere take the race-baiter to task - - Holloway's 'crime' was supporting a sales tax increase, in a public policy debate, at the Milwaukee County Board.

Which he chairs, as the Supervisors' elected leader.

In other words, where he does his job.

Yes, readers outside greater Milwaukee and beyond, this is part of the heavily-racialized public debate that is endured here.

The blogger, "No Runny Eggs" [yes, that is the blog's name], wrote this:

"Charlie Sykes has the text of a press release from Milwaukee County Board Chair Lee “Thug” Holloway purporting to claim that, even with a 1-percentage-point increase in the sales tax in Milwaukee County, it would still be “cheaper” to shop in Milwaukee County than in surrounding counties."

Despite the way that the "No Runny Eggs" wrote the item, Sykes did not use the "Thug" word when he criticized Holloway's tax increase plan on the"Sykes Writes" blog.

So is every politician who ever supported a tax increase now a "Thug" to the Right?

Former Pres. George H. W. Bush raised several taxes during his Presidency. It helped cost him re-election, but does it make him a "Thug?"

Where does that leave Scott Jensen and Tommy Thompson, Republicans who supported the long-standing, and thankfully-ended automatic annual cent-a-gallon state gasoline tax increase?

Or how about Holloway's white sales tax increase allies on the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors, like John Weishan, Jr., or my Supervisor, Gerry Broderick?

What about Milwaukee Alderman Bob Bauman, lead sponsor, with plenty of white aldermanic supporters, of a plan to fix City of Milwaukee streets with the proceeds of a new wheel tax?

Are all those current and former elected officials "Thugs"...or is that term just reserved by certain righty bloggers - - with the silent assent of others - - to describe African-American politicians they don't agree with?

[Update: Google informs me that "No Runny Eggs" has attacked "Lee "Thug" Holloway before. What an embarrassment for our County.]

Milwaukee County's $20+ Million Question To SEWRPC: What Have We Gotten For Those Tax Dollars?

Through a little-noticed annual transfer in its budget, Milwaukee County has sent a tidy sum to the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission since SEWRPC's 1960 establishment to help fund agency operations.

As the county's financing gets more strained, and public services from parks to transit keep taking cuts, isn't it time that Milwaukee County taxpayers - - and also Milwaukee city residents who pay about 48% of the county annual levy - - get a solid accounting for the money that is sent to SEWRPC each year?

It's not chickenfeed:

In just this decade, the Milwaukee County budget has delivered $7,250,000 to SEWRPC.

The payments in this decade have consistently covered about 36% of SEWRPC's operating budget, SEWRPC records show.

In past years, Milwaukee County's share of the SEWRPC operating budget was higher - - falling from 65% in the early 1960's to 50% in 1980 to 40% in 1995 - - because Milwaukee County's share of the seven-county region's equalized property value has fallen relative to the other counties shares.

SEWRPC receives additional funds in grants from and contracts with other local, state and federal agencies; 100% of the SEWRPC budget comes from public sources.

But Milwaukee County's dollar contribution to SEWRPC is still the largest county contribution among SEWRPC's seven member counties - - Milwaukee, Waukesha, Walworth, Washington, Racine, Kenosha and Ozaukee.

Despite carrying the lion's share of the counties' annual funding to SEWRPC, Milwaukee County continues to get the same three votes on the SEWRPC board that the lesser-valued, and lesser-populated counties have.

But SEWRPC's county-members-only board is not based on population.

That means the City of Milwaukee gets no seats on the commission, even though the City of Milwaukee's annual share of the SEWRPC operating budget through Milwaukee County - - about $400,000 this year - - exceeds the payments made to SEWRPC by each of these counties: Washington, Ozaukee, Walworth, Racine or Kenosha, records show.

That is what is called taxation without representation, and is one reason among many that the City and/or the County of Milwaukee should withdraw from SEWRPC and use Milwaukee tax and planning dollars on programs and people that place Milwaukee city and county interests first.
In the 48 years of SEWRPC's existence, with the funding formula, but not board power tilted towards Milwaukee County, the Milwaukee County total tax dollar transfer to SEWRPC has been $20,470,000, SEWRPC records show.

Isn't it time for Milwaukee County to state what value it feels it has received for all those Milwaukee city and county property tax dollars?

Certainly it would hold a contractor to those standards, and also for reporting compliance with applicable statutes regarding minority employment.

Isn't it time for Milwaukee County to hold SEWRPC accountable for the use of those dollars, and to make sure more SEWRPC spending and jobs go to Milwaukee city and county residents?

Though Milwaukee County has the largest number of minority residents among the seven SEWRPC counties, there are only five full-time minority employees on SEWRPC's full-time staff of 66 - - one professional employee, three technical employees and one clerical employee, according to SEWRPC affirmative action records.

An Eight-Year Mistake Coming To An End, But First...

Bush dumps on the G-8.

More Evidence That Shutting The St. Lawrence Seaway Is Necessary

Invasive species slipping through the St. Lawrence Seaway are killing the Great Lakes and industries that depend on those waters being fresh and clean, studies show.

Closing the Seaway to ocean-going ships that bring in the crippling invasives until effective controls can be instituted - - a position supported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - - should happen immediately.

Greg Kowalski Discloses WisDOT Deficiences In A Round About Way

A priceless description of a state transportation department-sponsored informational session, from Franklin blogger Greg Kowalski.

As the texters say, LOL.

Milwaukee Scores High On Cities' Walkability Ranking Nationally

Milwaukee is a great city for people on foot, according to a new national ranking.

Pedestrians are also residents, shoppers and tourists - - folks spending money and choosing to live, work and play where walkability meets their needs, and those of the businesses and institutions where pedestrians are headed.

Do you think that planners at the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, the State Department of Transportation, as well as local officials here - - I'm talking to you, Scott Walker - - will put two and two together and realize that serving the transportation needs of people who are not behind the wheel of a car is good for the economy?

Brian Fraley Needs To Read Before He Blogs

Republican pundit Brian Fraley rips liberals for not opposing Wisconsin's minimum markup law that artificially increases the price of gasoline.

I blogged about this twice since May, 2007. In this one, the words "stupid state law" appear in the title I wrote.

This post calls it "onerous" and "costly."

Don't let yourself be imprisoned by ideology and assumptions, Brian.

The Road To Sprawlville, Chapter XVIII: Beating The Commute By Sleeping In The Truck

In this blog's latest installment about sprawl 'development,' we use a lengthy catalogue in the Madison Capital Times to grasp the sickening realities facing commuting motorists.

The "Sprawlville" series usually focuses on the greater Milwaukee area, where few farms and wetlands have been safe from developer depravation and road-building excess, but don't worry, I'll bring this chapter to a close with some local southeastern Wisconsin information.

But the Capital Times finds local folks there dealing with $100 fill-ups, evaporation of home equities in too-far-from Madison housing, and this stunner:

One Spring Green woman's overnighting once a week in her truck at a state park that has good showers to avoid the long and costly return trip home that day.

That, my friends, is what is called "unsustainable," even if the campsite is serene.

What's next: selling the house and pitching a permanent tent in the state park?

Homes in walkable neighborhoods in cities or close-in, older suburbs, especially when served by modern transit, will hold their values and owners' investments better than properties in more rural sites, regardless of how beautiful the surroundings may be.

Imagine how well-situated are the residents along Milwaukee's downtown riverfront, or in Third Ward condos, with jobs, night life, shops and The Public Market within walking distance.

I happened to be in the Third Ward today, and the area was bustling. It still felt growing, and successful.

I also was out in Pabst Farms a few days ago. That's the huge upscale planned (sic) community in far western Waukesha, not far from the Jefferson County line, where some entire subdivision construction has been suspended.

Aurora's big hospital is going up on former farmland south of I-94, and there was some home-building underway in some of the residential portions north of the highway, but there were also plenty of "sale" signs, one "sold" sign (I didn't tour all the subdivisions on the 1,500-acre site) and very, very few people out and about at 11:45 a.m.

The parking lots at some of the shops were perhaps half-full, and ground has not been broken on the delayed mega-mall still ticketed for acreage in the complex, though anchor tenants have not been announced, one mall developer last year bailed out altogether and a related plan to dun state and local taxpayers $23+ million for a full diamond interchange off I-94 to service the mall from both east and west is also on hold.

And that uncertainty was well underway before gas approached, then blew through, the $4 barrier.

Expensive gas is our new, pain-at-the-pump-and-in-the-you-know-what-paradigm.

I saw it this week in Waukesha County priced at a jaw-dropping $4.399 cents-a-gallon at the Mobil station at I-94 and State Highway 164, with perverse appropriateness, just a few yards south of the headquarters of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission.

That's the agency that provided the State Transportation Department with a plan in 2003 to rebuild and expand the so-called freeway system in the region's seven counties at a cost to the public of $6.5 billion.

The plan included traffic projections based on gasoline priced at $2.30-a-gallon in 2005, with 3% annual increases thereafter, putting it for the planners' purposes at $2.51 today.

Ouch.

Yet included in the plan are 127 miles of new freeway lanes, some of which will run right past Pabst Farms when the last stages of this round of freeway construction is completed in about 15-20 years.

And highway planners across the Midwest are lobbying as we speak for more gas taxes to build more roads.

Unless there is a change in the planners' math and our politicians' mindsets, the next schedule of freeway expansion will no doubt be moving from the drawing boards to the contracting bidding process.

If state and regional planners don't pull the current freeway expansion plan off the books right now - - $1.9 billion is about to be committed to an eight-year binge on I-94 between Milwaukee and the Illinois state line, adding 70 miles of new lanes - - and substitute comprehensive transit investments instead, we'll be literally throwing away billions into the highway-expansion maw.

As with the woman from Spring Green beating some of her commuting costs to Madison by sleeping between cities in her truck, it's an unsustainable model.

Building more and wider highways will help neither city dwellers looking for transit, and their exurban and small-town compatriots who are stranded in the boonies by fuel costs that will keep on rising.

San Diego Has - - Gasp! - - A One-County Regional Planning Commission

Some officials in the public and private sectors freaked out a few weeks ago when I suggested in a Journal Sentinel op-ed that Milwaukee withdraw from the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) and create its own one-city or county commission.

Impossible they said, even though Dane County has its own one-county commission, and has turned over to the City of Madison government the responsibility for transportation planning.

If that were the case around here, we'd already have an up-to-date housing study (SEWRPC issued the last one in 1975, when Gerald Ford was President) and modern transit, like light rail.

And a commission that gave minorities a decent shot at jobs, and not the 7% minority hiring rate that includes only one minority member on the 42-person professional staff that has managed to land a job there.

(Along with four other minorities in so-called technical and clerical full-time positions.)

Instead, Milwaukee has to wait for the suburban planners and engineers working out in Pewaukee for a seven-county commission that includes rural Walworth and Ozaukee Counties, and anti-Milwaukee Waukesha County, to get us on their suburban-oriented agendas, or to give our needs their input and approval.

Take a look at the website for SANDAG - - San Diego's one-county planning commission.

Compare it to SEWRPC's mid-90's website: You decide which site looks like it wants you to get into the issues, participate and move a public-spirited agenda forward.

Unlike SEWRPC, which takes Milwaukee's money but doesn't give it representation on the commission board, SANDAG even gives San Diego's Mayor a seat right at the table!

Imagine that.

Development (sic) Has Destroyed The Chesapeake Bay's Blue Crabs

People who are blase about the risks to the Great Lakes only need look at the continuing trashing of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

The Bay and its signature blue crabs are dying.

I grew up not far from the Maryland Eastern shore, and I can tell you, what's happened to the Bay is criminal.

Legislators' Conservation Scorecard Released: Special "Dishonor" Mention for New Berlin's Mary Lazich

The Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters has released a comprehensive scorecard for legislators' performance in the just-concluded session.

State Sen. Mary Lazich, (R-New Berlin) wins a"dishonor" explanaatory mention separate from the posted charts for having continuing to vote against the Great Lakes Compact.

The final bill was a compromise supported even by Republican legislative leaders and the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.

As has been pointed out often on this blog, Lazich was so tightly entwined with a fringe, property-rights anti-Compact movement in Ohio that she put wacky ideology over the interests of her own home city constituents and long-term Great Lakes sustainability.

New Berlin has submitted the first application for a Lake Michigan diversion allowable under the Compact: had Lazich's position prevailed, New Berlin's application, now pending, would not have been able to move forward in the review process.

Greg Kowalski puts it into perspective, here.

Nice Tribute To Former Madison Alderwoman Betty Smith

Doug Moe, late of the Capital Times and now at the State Journal, has written a nice tribute to former Madison alderwoman and Council President Betty Smith as she turns 90.

The council is a non-partisan body, of course; Betty was an open-minded, progressive Republican, and you don't see too many people like that in today's political world.

Happy Birthday, and long life, to Alderwoman Smith.

Reports Show Little Improvement Since 1996 In SEWRPC Minority Hiring

In the two-paragraph "overview" of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission's 1996-1997 Affirmative Action plan - - the first such plan that SEWRPC says it produced - - the agency twice uses the phrase "action-oriented program" to describe what it has in mind.

Using SEWRPC affirmative action reports and other documents, it would be hard after more than a decade to describe those efforts as "action-oriented," or successful.

SEWRPC divides its staff among three categories: professional, technical and clerical.

Bottom line:

Of 66 full-time positions at the agency, there is one African-American female in the clerical category, one Asian, Pacific Island male in the professional category, and one Hispanic male, one Hispanic female and one Hispanic female in the technical division.

Five of 66.

And though its seven-county territory includes heavy minority populations in the cities of Milwaukee and Racine, SEWRPC, year-in-and-year-out has hired consistently few minority employees, yet has reported few solutions to self-reported "problem areas," results from affirmative action plans or meeting trend-setting goals, according to a review of SEWRPC affirmative action plans dating to 1996.

These reports are not online.

SEWRPC was created by state statute in 1960, and is comprised of Milwaukee, Waukesha, Washington, Ozaukee, Walworth, Racine and Kenosha Counties.

Additionally, there are identical or nearly identical sections and language in both the 1996-1997 document and the current, 2007-2008 plan (the 2008-2009 report is not yet available).

This suggests that the reports, with hiring data changes and other tweaks added annually, appear to be produced from templates and texts from previous years' reports, and are not dynamic annual action plans looking forward to bold goals, or reacting to poor minority hiring records with innovative solutions.

The 1996-1997 plan's Equal Employment Opportunity Policy statement was signed by then-director Kurt Bauer, the agency's first lead manager.

The 2007-2008 statement was signed by Philip Evenson, Bauer's replacement and only the agency's second executive director.

Bauer is still employed by SEWRPC as a three-quarters' time consultant as executive director emeritus, records show.

SEWRPC is headquartered in the City of Pewaukee, in Western Waukesha County.

The 1996-1997 report indicates that among its 41 professional staffers - - civil engineers, surveyors, architects, planners and other relatively specialized jobs - - there was one minority, an Asian, Pacific Islander female.

One minority of 41 professionals.

Eleven years later, the 2007-2008 report indicates that of 42 professional staffers, there was still but one minority, an Asian, Pacific Islander male.

One minority of 42 professionals - - keeping the minority statistic in the professional ranks at a steady 2%, a percentage that is insignificant, but yet manages at two to bizarrely double the actual, even more paltry raw number of one.

The 1996-1997 report shows no minority members on a 10-person clerical staff; in 2007-2008, there was a slight improvement. One minority staffer had been hired, an African-American female, among eight clerical employees.

In the technical category - - comprising draftsmen, research aides, office equipment operators and others - - this was the breakdown:

In 1996-1997, there were four minorities - - two African-American males and two American Indian females - - on a 46-member technical staff.

In 2007-2008, on a smaller, 30-person technical staff, the report says there were seven minority staffers - - at first glance suggesting a significant percentage and raw number increase in minority hiring.

But wait: Those numbers do not tell the complete story, because the reports do not differentiate between full-time and part-time employees.

In response to a follow-up question, SEWRPC indicated of the seven minority technical staffers in the 2007-2008 report, four were part-time, and only three were full-time - - one Hispanic male, one Hispanic female and one American Indian female.

None of the technical staff minorities in full-time positions were African-American, though the four minority part-time technical staffer were all African-American, SEWRPC says.

Therefore, of 66 full-time employees at SEWRPC in the 2007-2008 affirmative action report, there are actually just five minority employees at the agency - - the aforementioned, three technical staffers, the one professionals and the one clerical employee, the sole SEWRPC African-American fullitime SEWRPC staffer - - for an agency-wide, minority full-time staff level of 7.5%.

You can decide if that is an Affirmative Action success for a public agency in the greater Milwaukee area. My conclusion is at the end.

Other interesting similarities between the current year report and the first one dating back to 1996-1997:

Both contain nearly identical lists of about three dozen media, educational and community organizations to which SEWRPC says it sends job notices as part of its minority outreach action.

The only difference is that Milwaukee central city radio station WNOV was dropped from the list after the 2006-2007 report, records show.

A minority summer internship program is referenced in the 2007-2008 report as one way SEWRPC can help place minority planning and engineering students at the agency.

But the report does not repeat earlier references to a proposed public-partnership, and steering committee, to create up to 50 additional intern positions "if at least ten organizations participated," according to reports from 2001-2002 through 2005-2006.

All the SEWRPC annual affirmative action reports beginning with the 1996-1997 document cite transit deficiencies as a real or potential barrier to minority employee hiring at the agency.

Yet citing problems with parking that were affecting staff recruiting, SEWRPC purchased office space farther west from its former downtown Waukesha headquarters- - where there were some transit connections- - to the more distant Pewaukee office park location that is not on a bus line.
It made the relocation even though SEWRPC acknowledged in its 1996-1997 affirmative action report's "problem areas" section that "the time and expense of commuting to downtown Waukesha is a major disincentive to potential job applicants from Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha Counties..."

But parking problems was an issue that SEWRPC affirmatively resolved with its move from downtown Waukesha to the smaller, more isolated and whiter City of Pewaukee.

The documentation: SEWRPC's Executive Committee minutes from 2/24/00, pps. 3-4, (not online), where the committee endorsed the making of an offer to purchase the Pewaukee office building:

"The discussion also included concerns about the existing Commission offices [in the Waukesha County Historical Society], including lack of parking and the inefficient layout of the current quarters, with a special concern being expressed on the probable detrimental effect on staff recruitment.".

But the resulting relocation by SEWRPC to Pewaukee made the transit disconnect and commuting distance even worse for the agency's Milwaukee, Kenosha and Racine employees and applicants.

That lack of transit service and farther location to the west was not a sufficient reason for SEWRPC to either remain in downtown Waukesha, or to find new offices, if they they were truly needed, that were closer to the region's urban core.

So here we are in 2008, with SEWRPC, a 100% taxpayer-financed public agency that provides transportation, housing, water supply, land-use and other crucial planning services to that part of Wisconsin with the largest number of minorities - - but it can't do better than finding one minority professional for its full-time staff of 66, and has but four other full-time minority employees.

If you keep urban people off the payroll, and certainly off the all-white senior staff that SEWRPC also acknowledged did not have a single City of Milwaukee resident, it should come as no surprise that SEWRPC has been following a pro-suburban, highway-building policy agenda, too.

I've been arguing on this blog and in Milwaukee newspaper op-eds and one in Waukessha, too, that SEWRPC is a bad deal for Milwaukee, a city that sent SEWRPC $400,000 in operating money this year, has no representative on the SEWRPC 21-member governing board, and whose minority residents can barely break the color barriers on the SEWRPC staff.

I believe Milwaukee needs to withdraw from SEWRPC and either create a new, urban-focused planning commission in the region with other cities, or handle its share of the region's planning tasks in house, with its planning, transportation, public works and housing staffs.

After reading through the agency's Affirmative Action reports, and seeing little that has been successfully affirmative, or action-oriented, I renew my argument here, and rest my case.

Memo To The State Patrol

Officers, and your local counterparts:

You are leaving a lot of revenue on the table, and leaving highway workers exposed to needless risks, too, by the lack of enforcement into and through construction zones from State Highway 164 in Western Waukesha County on I-94 through the Marquette Interchange.

Individual knuckleheads that still race along that stretch in excess of the posted speed limits - - dropping in spots to 45 mph - - continue to drive that way with their menacing selfishness because there's no visible speed enforcement.

I was through that corridor today, in both directions, and saw only one law enforcement vehicle with its flashers on the shoulder, and that officer appeared to be assisting a motorist with a mechanical problem.

That's certainly a correct action, but the speeding that is going from Waukesha through the Marquette Interchange is ridiculous.

If you drive the speed limit in that corridor, you won't see any traffic enforcement, but you will get a ton of dirty looks and shaken fists from motorists who think it is their God-given right to drive at 70 mph or above even with "road construction ahead" signs and orange barrels everywhere.

WisDOT is running some heart-tugging "slow down" TV commercials aimed at motorists who zoom through construction zones.

Some ticket-writing would provide a bigger safety net than some TV spots for the workers out there as the idiots scream by.

Change Is Everywhere - - Except In Highway Planning

Huge layoffs and aircraft mothballing at Midwest Airlines.

Even faster production cessation at the General Motors truck plant in Janesville.

Tract and subdivision homes losing value quicker and deeper than city or older, inner-ring suburban properties.

Spiking fuel costs are making economic waves and changing behaviors everywhere - - except in the offices of public sector agencies that plan highways and have power over transportation improvements and investments.

At the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, and the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, planners, designers and engineers continue to propose and execute highway construction projects as if gasoline still cost about half what it actually costs today.

WisDOT is forging ahead with a $1.9 billion bells-and-whistles rebuilding and expansion of I-94 from south Milwaukee to the Illinois state line.

It is using a plan recommended by SEWRPC in 2003 that used traffic projections based on gasoline costing $2.30-a-gallon, with a predicted 3% annual increase, putting it today at $2.51-a-gallon.

[I was at SEWRPC today: regular gas at the Mobil station just south of the offices there at the intersection of State highway 164 and I-94 costs $4.299-a-gallon]

The same SEWRPC-written, WisDOT-implemented plan also contains another $3.8 billion in spending throughout the SEWRPC seven-county region on more freeway rebuilding and added lanes, with a half-billion ticketed in 2012 for the Zoo Interchange west of Milwaukee.

SEWRPC's plan calls for adding 127 miles of new lanes, but did not include any rail components.

Taking its cues from SEWRPC, and incorporating its own historic disdain for any passenger rail except the federally-subsidized Amtrak system, WisDOT did choose to add them - - even though a commuter rail initiative from Milwaukee to Racine to Kenosha, parallel to the freeway segment being widened in that corridor, sits on a shelf after many years of study.

Plenty of people have worked on the commuter rail plan in good faith. That's not the problem.

It's that road-building signals coming from the top are still the priority and direction.

I know a person pretty high up in the Minnesota Department of Transportation - - the WisDOT equivalent just to our northwest - - and that person said when Jesse Ventura was elected Minnesota Governor, the law was laid down:

We're Building Light Rail In The Twin Cities, Now!

The agency was redirected from the top to get it done, and the Hiawatha system is up and running, and breaking all ridership projections.

In our largest urban area, we do not have these choices - - because our political leaders and their opinion-maker partners deny them to us.

While Governor, Tommy Thompson and then-Waukesha County Executive Dan Finley toadying to anti-city interests fomented by right-wing talk radio, blocked and vetoed light rail.

The Waukesha Freeman as we speak opposes Waukesha County even joining a regional transportation authority to rationalize area-wide transportation services because it believes it would be too much of a benefit to the City of Milwaukee.

Our bus system in Milwaukee is dying, rail is stalled, but billions are about to be spent on wider highways, with fancier exit ramps, as driving is declining.

It's a collective state and regional failure, being played out with our tax dollars, on behalf of a dying paradigm in which road contractors and their political allies are the winners at society's expense.

Cousins Center, Open Space Preserved By Cardinal Stritch University

It appears that Cardinal Stritch University may save the Cousins Center properties in St. Francis that could have fallen to developers and bulldozers.

This would be welcome news on several fronts, not the least of which is the preservation of more than 40 acres near the lakefront.

Bush Fake "Initiative" On Offshore Oil Drilling Means Nothing

Pres. Bush's executive order on offshore oil drilling means nothing, as federal law and strong opposition by Republican politicians in Florida and California still stand in the way.

W's father, George H.W. Bush signed the original ban on offshore drilling, and brother Jeb, as Florida Governor, stood with Dad on the issue.

There's A Winner In SEWRPC Renaming Search

Not long ago, the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission paid a public relations firm to craft a new name and logo - - ideas that went nowhere but, presumably, into paid invoices.

Details here, thanks to fellow blogger Gretchen Schuldt.

However, through serendipity and clever writing elsewhere, I think we have a winner in that name-game contest, but let me back up a bit, and explain:

I saw this headline - - "District lines may not be representative" - - on a Sunday Journal Sentinel column and I got giddy thinking someone else was seeing the light about SEWRPC's setup and was willing to take a few brickbats about undermining regional cooperation.

SEWRPC is made up of seven counties, some of which have less people than a handful of Milwaukee aldermanic districts, but the commission setup mandates no City of Milwaukee representation, and so on.

Then I read the first few lines of the column and all I could imagine was Julia Taylor over at the Greater Milwaukee Committee (context and links, here) pounding out a letter to the editor about these heresies:

"Dreamers and planners like to pretend the whole metropolitan area is just one, big, blissfully happy family.

"We’re not.

"The city has about as much in common with the suburbs, oftentimes, as a perch has with a pickle."

Writing like that is apt to make some people's hair catch fire or fall out.

Now, in fairness, I need to say that the column by Mike Nichols was not, after all, about SEWRPC, though Mike has beaten the drums pretty loudly for Germantown to remove itself from the regional technical college system, MATC, (he calls it the Milwaukee Area Taxing College), so there are times when he can find fault with these unrepresentative regional/taxing bodies.

Anyway: Mike's column was an analysis of the 8th State Senate District race between incumbent Republican Alberta Darling, from River Hills, and challenger Sheldon Wasserman, the Democratic State Representative from Milwaukee.

The District contains strongly Democratic and Republican territories.

SEWRPC, made up of Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee, Washington, Ozaukee, Waukesha and Walworth Counties, was created by the state legislature in 1960.

But its name is so clunky, and identity so opaque, that SEWRPC paid a public relations firm with tax dollars to suggest a new name.

The suggestion - - Regional Planning Commission of Southeastern Wisconsin - - mercifully, was never implemented, but I think Nichols has provided an inspiration that SEWRPC can have for free:

The Perch and Pickle Planning Commission, or PPPC.

Doesn't that say it all about our so-called region, with a nice alliteration thrown in as a jargon-busting bonus?

I have been to countless meetings where people do not know what the acronym "SEWRPC" stands for, or what it does.

They confuse it with the sewerage commission (MMSD) or a political action committee (PAC).

It can even be confused with a political action committee representing sewage treatment companies.

SEWRPC is, simply, a publicly-financed planning and taxing district that has a distinctly-suburban orientation, but one where Milwaukee has no role in its governance - - except to fork over a few hundred thousand dollars in property tax dollars every year that gets spent against its interests.

The commission has avoided writing a regional study about affordable housing, with problem solving recommendations, since 1975 - - but has helped the state build more freeways across the region without equivalent transit.

That leaves hemmed-in city workers fewer transportation options to get to jobs that followed development on open land, and to fewer housing options also in the sprawling suburbs, too.

Can you say "Pabst Farms," for example?

On paper, the commission 'represents' Walworth County farmers, villages like Racine County's Elmwood Park (pop. 474), lakefront estate owners in Waukesha County's (and the state's) most upscale village of Chenequa (pop. 583) - - plus low-income trailer park occupants and hundreds of thousands of renters in Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha of many colors and who speak many languages.

That diversity has no representation in SEWRPC thinking, daily management, commission direction, or in the makeup of nearly the entire agency's staff.

Nichols column reminds us that every resident has an equal voice in deciding who will represent them in the politically and economically-fragmented 8th District.

That's not the case at SEWRPC's Pewaukee headquarters, where an absence of representation on the commission's board, may I say, keeps Milwaukee in a powerless pickle.

And if I can extend Nichols' metaphor (as his former editor at the Milwaukee Journal, I feel I have the right to butcher his copy one more time), where the suburbs run things from their very comfortable Western Waukesha County perch.

The one that is not even on a bus line.

That's why I suggested in a June 8th Journal Sentinel Crossroads op-ed that Milwaukee, either the city, county, or both, withdraw from SEWRPC and use the hundreds of thousands of property tax dollars they transfer annually to SEWRPC, er, the PPPC, and establish an urban-friendly planning commission.

It can have a simple name that underscores what it does and where it is:

The Milwaukee-Area Planning Commission.

County's Decline Fits Scott Walker's Private Sector And Political Preferences

Declining Parks. Declining Transit. Most County Executives would be embarrassed at these circumstances, and critical editorials by newspapers that had endorsed them, but for Grover Norquist fan Scott Walker, everything is right on schedule.

Grover Norquist is the conservative advisor preferring government shrunk so small that its remants can be drowned in a bathtub.

Next up for Walker; state services and his 2010 run for Governor.

If you like what's happening to the once-great county parks and transit systems, then Walker is definitely your candidate.

Gov. Schwarzenegger Rips Pres. Bush On Global Warming

Righty bloggers will say Arnold is not a real Republican, but that's his party and he's California's Governor, so this has definite value.

Text and video here.

Bush Administration Snoozed, Country Suffered Repeatedly

Can January 20, 2009 somehow come more quickly so that the Bush administration can be relegated to the Department of Bad Memories?

Bush's signature image will the detached observer, flying high above flooded New Orleans, having sat paralyzed at his ranch on vacation, wondering what to do?

Asleep at the switch there, like he was when he ignored the intelligence that warned of an imminent Al Qaeda attack, then followed the Neocons into Iraq and spent a trillion dollars there, and is now going to spend and lend more to stave off massive bank and lender failures in the deregulated financial world that his thin grasp of ideology and philosophy suggested was a nifty idea.

The government is now going to lend money to two huge companies that together hold about $5.3 trillion in mortgages, many of them suspect because they were made to people who should never have been given the loans.

And the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, FDIC, stepped in this weekend to takeover a giant failed California institution, IndyMac Bank, which wasn't even on the list of 90 troubled US banks, according to the New York Times.

Who is minding the store?

The more dollars printed and loaned out by the Federal Reserve, the weaker our currency becomes, and the higher the price of oil will rise, since it's calculated in these value-losing greenbacks.

Pretty dangerous territory for the US of A right now, and the buck, devalued as it is, stops at the President's desk.

George W. Bush: Worst president in our history, and we will be paying for his laziness and detachment for generations.

Gretchen Schuldt Reorganized Her Blog

Here 'tis. Everything you need to know about transportation planning and related matters here in Milwaukee and Wisconsin.

http://milwaukeerising.net/wordpress/

When You Need A Firefighter, Call The WMC

The $265 million tax break goosed through the State Supreme Court by the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and its servant, Justice Annette Ziegler, will cost the average Wisconsin family of four about $200.

Someone is going to have to fill up that $265 million hole in the state budget - - the source of revenue that comes back to municipalities and schools - - and that someone is you and yours truly.

So figure it this way: the next time you hit an unfilled pothole, or it takes an extra week for the streetlight by your house to be repaired, or the snowplow runs seem fewer this winter - - remember that a special interest got a big gob of public funding and you made up the difference.

People complain about taxes, but never want services cut.

Well, actually, that's not accurate.

What they want cut is a service that other people use, or that they believe they themselves will never want or need.

People complain about services provided to the general public, and especially to the poor, but then demand services that cost money on the back end - - after a crime has been committed, or blight has dragged down property values, or their kids' school performance has fallen.

If you are in a traffic accident, you want the police there - - now.

If your house catches fire, you want the fire department there - - immediately.

If a storm brings down a tree that blocks the street in front of your driveway, you want the public works crew there to remove it - - fast.

If the water tastes foul, or a restaurant meal makes you sick, or your neighbor has too many tenants, you want those inspectors to get to the bottom of the problem - - instantly.

These service cost money, and are costing individual property taxpayers more and more each year because business has managed to shift a greater percentage of its share of social responsibility financing to ordinary taxpayers and homeowners.

The WMC, whose members already enjoy tax breaks on manufacturing, equipment, computers and construction (through taxpayer-subsidized Industrial Revenue Bonds and Tax Increment Financing borrowings), are now getting an even bigger serving from the public trough through friendly members of the State Supreme Court.

Think of the WMC-serving Justices as flight attendants in first-class, while you're sitting in a seat designed for ten-year-olds and paying for a mini-bag of pretzels.

"Cocktail before takeoff? Hot towel? White wine, or red with dinner?"

Ziegler should have recused herself from the $265 million computer software case, but didn't.

The WMC didn't spend nearly $2 million on her 2007 campaign, and spend heavily again to get Justice-elect Michael Gableman on the Court later this year and have them step back from WMC inspired and supported cases.

Democracy and simple fairness, whether in the court house or on your annual tax bill, are in real trouble here, but people may not realize it until the firefighter or the police officer or the street repair crew they need is, at best, late arriving..

Sierra Club Backs Obama, His Energy Plan

The Sierra Club explains the difference between the Obama and McCain energy plans, and why it has endorsed Obama for President, here.

Official US Report Says ANWR Oil Savings Is 75 Cents A Barrel

The US Energy Department says that if oil were tapped in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), as Republicans and their oil industry pals are demanding, the projected savings in oil prices from this new supply would be 75 cents-a-barrel, when the oil begins to flow in ten years.

A 42-gallon barrel of crude oil converts to 19-20 gallons of gasoline, depending on the refinery, so the per-gallon savings, if passed on to motorists, would be pennies on the gallon.

And with the oil heading into the world market, much would go to China, India and other countries.

Can we get a little logic and honesty into this debate?

Conservative Cleric Addresses Global Warming

A conservative religious leader preaches against global warming. What's the right going to say?

The Great Lakes Compact Is A Win For Water Bottlers

Dave Dempsey writes another strong op-ed about the Great Lakes Compact and the failure in Wisconsin and the other Great Lakes' states to close the Compact loophole that allows for diversions of unlimited volumes of water in bottles as large as 5.7 gallons.

Closing that loophole had little support among Wisconsin legislators.

City of Franklin Is Among The "Most Growing," Says Mary Lazich

State Sen. Mary Lazich, (R-New Berlin), or whomever it is that writes her blog, announces that Franklin is one of the "most growing" communities in the state.

Sounds a bit off.

Here's the full item:

This morning, I had the privilege of participating in the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Sendik’s Fine Foods at the Shoppes of Wyndham Village in Franklin.

It was fitting the special ceremony was held under sunshine and gorgeous blue skies, as though the wonderful project was meant to come to Franklin.

I recall the first contact I had about this development when I was asked to lend support in the hope Sendik’s would help Franklin’s tax base.

I was pleased to endorse a project that will benefit consumers, taxpayers, and education in Franklin.

Congratulations go out to Mark and Mary Carstensen for making this quality development dream come true along with Franklin Mayor Tom Taylor, the Franklin Common Council and the Franklin Plan Commission for their vision.

Franklin is prosperous, one of the most growing communities in all of Wisconsin. I appreciate representing Franklin in state Senate District 28 and I wish Sendik’s, owner Tom Balisteri Jr., and the Shoppes at Wyndham Village the very best.

Immigrants Add Value

Here's a refreshing approach to that xenophobic drivel about immigrants that pours out of righty talk radio.

Antarctic Ice Melting, Even During Its Winter

Yeah, that global warming is a myth.

I heard Mr. Rush Limbaugh say so just the other day.

So why do they keep taking pictures of it

Limbaugh closed out a rant on July 9th with this spew:

"I don't believe the emissions warm the planet in the first place. I don't buy any of it. But your kids are being sold this bill of goods, folks. They are eating it up. Keep a sharp eye on them. They might soon qualify for Climate Change Delusion Syndrome."

Note: Blogger tells me this is the 2,000th post I've created since this blog began on February, 2, 2007, but hey, who's keeping score?

Post #1 had to do with Lake Michigan water, New Berlin's diversion efforts, and the relationship of water to sprawl development in Waukesha County at the expense of resources in Milwaukee and the surrounding area.

The Great Lakes Compact has passed in the interim, and Lake Michigan water may flow there from Milwaukee one day soon, but the land-use implications raised in that posting by Ald. Michael Murphy are every bit as valid today as they were on Feb. 2, 2007.

SF To Encourage Drivers' Cell Phone Usage

San Francisco thinks installing sensors transmitting parking space availability to SmartPhone owners will cut down on fights over spaces and wasteful circling the block while praying that a space opens up.

Maybe.

But if the sensors send the open signal to your SmartPhone, doesn't that encourage you to check your phone when you're behind the wheel, and then race through traffic to get the space?

Urban traffic congestion is a serious problem, but so is inattentive driving due to cellphone usage.

And do I have to get a SmartPhone now?

I just got a phone with a camera.

By the time I get a SmartPhone, we'll have light rail.

More Ammunition For A Downtown UWM Campus

UWM should look to other cities' experience laid out here, scrap that plan to put its new engineering campus in a sprawl setting in Wauwatosa, and locate the new facility in the heart of Milwaukee.

Thats's where there is housing and transit, plus cultural, entertainment and retail amenities.

Not to mention other schools and universities, too.

Local advocates have been making this case for some time.

Unconventional Wisdom: Forbes Likes Milwaukee

Don't you love it when a national business publication blows up the state's self-loathing naysayers?

This time, it's Forbes, giving Milwaukee a high ranking for young professionals.

The US Continues To Fumble Clean Air Policy

The EPA and the courts combine to keep stalled any progress on smokestack gas emissions.

It's "wait until next year."

How To Hurt Public Support For Passenger Rail?

Answer:

If you are Waukesha, forget to file the paperwork that shuts off the freight train horns.

How Big Is Your Bubble, Mr. Bush?

Regarding burst bubbles, there was tech, now housing, with banking around the corner, but not yet oil, it seems.

With 3,000 points off the Dow, and probably more to come, you have to wonder: is the Really Big Bubble actually the US economy, thought to be ever-expandable, reliable, safe and pre-eminent worldwide?

For Pres. Bush, the Herbert Hoover comparisons get more relevant.

Ziegler Hands WMC, Allies A $265 Million Tax Gift

You got excited about getting a $600 federal tax stimulus check?

Consider this:

Though the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce spent around $2 million on her 2007 State Supreme Court campaign, and also paid lawyers bringing a pivotal sales tax claim to the Court, Justice Annette Ziegler wrote the Court's 4-3 ruling released today in favor of the WMC position.

Apparently that's not a conflict of interest, which makes the Court little more than a WMC subsidiary.

The result: the WMC wins another long-term tax shift onto the backs of personal sales, property and income taxpayers, the state owes the company a $265 million refund, and with WMC-client Justice-elect Michael Gableman about to join the Court, Wisconsin taxpayers are in for a fleecing that could last decades.

The Journal Sentinel's first story about the decision is here.

The WMC is implementing a very effective plan right out of Republican strategist Grover Norquist's playbook.

He's the national organizer who favors cutting the size of the government so completely that what's left can be drowned in a bathtub.

The Republican Party and heavy-spending , so-called independent groups like the WMC have managed a takeover of the state Supreme Court, where its agents will do the bidding of big business, strip government of its ability to regulate in the common interest, and strip away its funding.

The WMC is focused on protecting business profits that preserve the growing pay gap between management and employee.

Owners and managers have less need for public services - - transit, parks, libraries, and even schools and public health services, to name but a obvious few.

The state will meet its obligation and provide the refund. It will also continue to lower taxes to sectors already exempted from sales taxes - - manufacturing, equipment, computers - - and so forth.

The rest of us will pay more, and/or have additional services cut.

At some point the WMC may discover that stripping public service financing ultimately hurts workforce education, development and retention, but right now, the WMC is only focused on its members' bonuses, stock options, dividends, golden parachutes and total compensation packages.

The bar at the Madison Club's gonna be packed today.

Madison Monastery Going Green

I heard about this project a few months ago; I really give the order credit for its ambitious goals.

Maybe their commitment will rub off on other developers who shy away from LEED certification because of upfront costs and miss the long-term and communal savings.

More Drunk Driving Tragedy On Wisconsin's Roads

This time, the victim is a world-class bicyclist, home after a successful cross-country fundraising trek.

CNN Discovers The Downside Of Canadian Tar Sand Exploitation

Readers of this blog will not find this CNN report entirely surprising.

Just remember that the spoils extracted from Alberta will be piped to Superior, WI and Whiting, IN and elsewhere in the upper Midwest for refining and shipping, so some of the environmental cost will be borne by motorists here eager to burn the product.

Stop Calling Them Freeways

A new study shows that highways don't pay for themselves.

Of course, when the same reality is applied to rail transit, the right starts yelling about "subsidies," but we don't hear the same language to describe the true costs of those free(sic)ways.

The Overhead Wire: Cool Blog Title, Solid Content

OK, so the good folks there at The Overhead Wire said something nice about my writing, but I've been a reader there for a while.

Solid site with excellent links to rail transit sites and info.

Check it out.

McCain Does Not Have A Bill Richardson Moment

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson stumbled during the early Democratic primaries when he suggested that Wisconsin send Great Lakes water to Nevada and the arid southwest.

John McCain is not making the same mistake.

Immigration Irony: McCain May Not Be A Citizen Who Can Legally Run For President

Daggone laws!

Bring back Mitt Romney.

WMC Charges Its Free Speech Violated - - In A Published Op-Ed

Bad blog headline:

This is better - - WMC Uses A Published Newspaper Column To Claim Its Free Speech Has Been Violated.

Anyway...we all need editors.

But back to the irony I am trying to communicate.

The Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce alleges its free speech rights are being violated - - and makes the allegations in an op-ed published by the Capital Times, one of the accused violators, if you read between the lines of the WMC's rant.

Now if the WMC's free speech was really being violated, would its op-ed have been published?

By one of those doing the violating?

The contradictions are severe: chalk it up to some bad pizza at the WMC dining room.

Some funny commentary by Illusory Tenant.

Scott Walker's Wrecking Of County Parks Rivals His Damage To The Bus System

Scott Walker's pursuit of recognition for the worst-managed County government gets momentum with the news he has pushed funding for Milwaukee County parks near the bottom of a national ranking.

Not long ago, Milwaukee was noted as the only major bus system to show a drop in ridership - - this due to Walker's simultaneous, sabotaging cuts in routes and increases in fares - - so Walker is well on his way to winning the national county executives' annual booby prize.

His goal is to transfer that record and his open contempt for public services to state government with a run for Governor in 2010.

Assembly GOP Takes An Early Hit

Incumbent State Rep. Jeff Wood, (R-Chetek), waited until the end of the filing deadline to declare himself a candidate for re-election - - as an Independent.

That was too late for the GOP to get a party candidate on the September 9th primary ballot.

My Dad would have called that "dirty pool," and suggests a certain fear factor among Republicans that '08 is lining up as a GOP debacle.

Its Own Data Give SEWRPC That Country Club Feel

I have just finished reading the 2006-2007 annual Affirmative Action report and accompanying minority hiring data compiled by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission - - it’s not available on line, so the agency provided the document and others - - and frankly, I am shocked at what I read.

SEWRPC has 83 employees - - 68 full-time, 15 part-time:

Of 42 so-called professionals - - engineers, surveyors, planners and other scientific positions - - there is only one minority individual - - an Asian-Pacific Islander male.

One.

Let that sink in.

One of 42.

At a 100% publicly-financed governmental agency, authorized by a state statute. One of 42.

Of 33 so-called technical staffers (office equipment operators, “draftsmen,” research aides and others), there are nine minorities, including five African-American males, one African-American female, one Hispanic male, one Hispanic female, and one American Indian female.

Of eight clerical employees, there is one minority, an African-American female.

That's eleven of 83.

The report does not say how many of the minorities are full or part-time, but [update]: there are indications that the minority totals, principally in the "technician" category, may be influenced by the inclusion of part-timers, even interns, and if this is proven by additional information I have requested from SEWRPC, I will certainly post that.

In a June 8th op-ed in The Milwaukee Journal Sunday Crossroads section, I said SEWRPC's all-white 11-person senior management staff, along with structural and financial inequities in the agency's management and funding, were among the reasons that SEWRPC was a bad deal for the City of Milwaukee.

After some pushback from public officials support SEWRPC in its current configuration, I repeated my position and linked to the officials' statement, all here.

What is not in dispute is that City of Milwaukee taxpayers pay a disproportionate share of the agency’s operating budget without any representation on the 21-member SEWRPC board.

Milwaukee is a city of 602,000 people, and minorities make up the majority of the city’s population.

And after reading the agency’s Affirmative Action annual report (Affirmative? Action??) - - and knowing from other SEWRPC documents that these staffing patterns have remained relatively constant for years (in 2005, there were four African-Americans, two Hispanics, two Asian, Pacific Islanders, and 1 American Indian, or nine non-white staffers of 87 total) - - I am more convinced than ever that:

Milwaukee residents are institutionally dissed by SEWRPC management:

Milwaukee absolutely needs to withdraw from SEWRPC and put its annual tax dollar transfer to SEWRPC ($400,000 this current year through the county's budgeting procedures) towards a more representative, non-discriminatory and urban-focused policy planning agency.

Furthermore:

SEWRPC says in the report - - and again, this language appears in much the same form in past years’ reports - - that its Waukesha location, and the lack of transit service there are among the probable reasons that there are so few minority employees on its staff.

Well, whose fault is that?

Did the region's minority residents fill in survey forms back in 1960 when SEWRPC was created and urge the agency to locate its offices in Waukesha County?

SEWRPC even moved a few years ago from its long-time offices in downtown Waukesha to an even more remote location in an office park in Pewaukee where, as I mentioned in my Journal Sentinel op-ed, and elsewhere, it isn't even located on a bus line.

As SEWRPC gets around to noting, too.

It's enough to make your head spin, because many of the employment and commuting issues that SEWRPC itself acknowledges would never have arisen, or would have been easier to correct, if the agency had been located in Milwaukee.

Here, verbatim, is the SEWRPC description of its “problem,” and the causes:

(I’ll have more to say later about SEWRPC’s intimation that there just aren’t enough trained minority professionals from which the agency might make some hires.)

PROBLEM AREAS

“The Commission will make a concerted effort to increase the representation of nonwhites on the Commission staff in accordance with the previously stated affirmative action goals. Attainment of the nonwhite employment goals is constrained by several factors—factors which need to be considered in the formulation of the affirmative action program, set forth in the next section of this document, and in the evaluation of progress toward implementing the affirmative action plan.

“First, the Commission has found it difficult to recruit nonwhites for professional and technical staff positions owing to a lack of qualified minority applicants in the planning, engineering, earth science, and related fields. There appear to be relatively few young people of minority groups choosing these fields for their careers and securing the necessary higher education which, in many cases, involves masters degrees.

“A second factor regarding the difficulty of hiring nonwhites may be lack of public transportation. The time and expense of commuting to the Waukesha area could be a disincentive to potential job applicants from Milwaukee, Racine, and Kenosha Counties—particularly in view of the pay levels attendant to most of the Commission technical and clerical positions. The Commission worked with Waukesha County in 2005 to reinstate transit services between Milwaukee and Waukesha County to help fill this gap. Moving to Waukesha County in order to take a technical or clerical job at the Commission is an option which may be available to some.

“Thirdly, hiring for professional positions in general at the Commission has been limited in recent years owing to budgetary constraints, and is expected to remain limited over the next several years. This is reflected on Figure 1, which shows the distribution of the professional work force and the combined technical-clerical workforce of the Commission, by the number of years at the professional or technical-clerical level. As shown, the Commission professional staff has quite been stable over the years, with 31 professionals, or 74 percent of the professional work force, having at least five years of service; and 26 professionals, or 62 percent, having at least 10 years of service. Barring unforeseen staff attrition or a significant increase in the Commission work program, it is anticipated that the hiring for professional positions will be minimal—limited to perhaps one or two positions per year—over the next several years.”

So:

By its own accounting, there is little staff turnover, there are few new hires, and there are significant barriers to bringing minorities to jobs and employment at SEWRPC.

Meaning that the odds of changing the 48-year-old agency, as currently located and managed, into a genuinely representative workplace seems as remote for Milwaukee's minority workers as is SEWRPC's offices in Western Waukesha County.

Which is not even on a bus line.

Pitching Urbanism Is Getting Easier For John Norquist

Former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist finds $4-per-gallon gasoline is helping along his Congress for the New Urbanism.

The New York Times is listening, along with the marketplace.

For people who even enjoy (gasp!) Milwaukee, see the post below.

Stop The Presses! People Like Living In Milwaukee

There's almost a "Gee-Whiz!" feeling to this story: People like living in Milwaukee (!) and the population is holding steady (!).

This wouldn't seem so surprising if you just turned off the city-haters on right-wing talk radio and did what the people interviewed for the story are doing: enjoying the lake, Miller Park, pleasant neighborhoods and Leon's Frozen Custard.

Biofuels, Yes; Corn-Based Ethanol, No.

More support for ethanol derived from wood products, grasses - - anything but the King of Vegetables, corn.

Belling 'Defended' Summerfest For Eliminating Black Acts

During his anti-Summerfest monologue Monday in the wake of its decision to remove a violent US Army game from this year's festival, WISN-AM 1130 talker and self-described jilted Summerfest sycophant Mark Belling listed all the apparently unappreciated "water-carrying" he done for the Summerfest.

Including this odd, racially-charged bit of 'defense' for Summerfest:

"It's decision to eliminate virtually all Black groups," Belling said, in favor of acts that appealed to what he called "Oldfogeyville."

Hey, Summerfest: How's all that sitting with you?

You can hear it on his podcast, Hour Two, Part One.

Begin at the ten-minute mark, though much of the entire segment is taken up with his unhappiness with Summerfest's current management.

By the way, this is not the first time that Belling has racialized Summerfest.

Last year he used his column in The Freeman, the Waukesha daily paper, to warn parents against letting their children attend the Summerfest concert by the hip-hop artist Ludacris.

(The link to Belling's column is no longer active, but I had copied some key sentences into a blog posting: "Thanks, Summerfest. This is what we really need right now," Belling writes. "Advice to the rest of us: July 1 might not be the night you want to be hanging around the lakefront.")

There were no reported incidents of violence following the concert - - just more affirmation that Belling demagogues race for ratings and effect.

T. Boone Pickens, New Wind Power Devotee, Should Be Approached Warily

Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens is getting a lot of ink and air time because he's touting wind power as an alternative to importing oil.

Well, that's fine and dandy, but remember, this is also the guy buying up water rights .

The key paragraph from that business website:

"Pickens has no qualms about charging people for water and has a ready quip for those who think it wrong to do so. “I know what people say - water’s a lot like air. Do you charge for air? ’Course not; you shouldn’t charge for water,” says he. “Well, OK, watch what happens. You won’t have any water.'”

The green Pickens loves most is money.

The G-8 Is Dinking Around With Climate Change

Putting off decisions about severe air pollution, energy waste and climate change to 2050 is hardly leadership.

I doubt I'll be around by then, but my grandchildren will know that years earlier, we failed them.

The Weaknesses Of Local Conservative Talk Radio

So it was Monday, and I was spinnin' the dial, and the afternoon shows here in Milwaukee were offering up three weaknesses in the tiresome righty talk radio format.

I. Talkers as Know-It-Alls:

Jonathan Green on 620 WTMJ-AM's 3:00 - - 6:00 p.m. drive time program "The Green House" decided to ventilate about FAA-mandated flight cancellations in April.

If you remember, the FAA had found that American, Southwest and other airlines had delayed some mandatory inspections of wiring bundles, and forced airlines to ground planes and make the required checks.

The curmudgeonly Green opined that he knew a guy who told him definitively that the FAA action took place because some bureaucrats were unfairly looking at wiring with a "micrometer," suggesting that the inspections were too strict, perhaps unnecessary.

In actuality, the inspections had been ordered two years ago; airlines like American that found their planes grounded had missed known FAA deadlines and an 18-month period during which the repairs could have been made legally.

Green probably forgot that two major airplane crashes since 1996 have been been traced, in part, to wiring problems.

Green rarely takes callers, so what he says can only be contradicted by show partner Phil Cianciola, a news guy who is usually more informed, and provides the show's humor and depth.

These disasters Green overlooked include the 1996 explosion of a TWA Boeing 747 off Long Island, NY, that killed 230 people, and a 1998 crash of a Swiss Air MD-11 in Nova Scotia that killed 229 people.

The wiring bundles implicated in those crashes were different than those that were the subject of the recent FAA enforcement action, but ask yourself:

Do you really want federal inspectors to look the other way when it comes to mandatory aviation safety inspections, especially involving parts like wiring bundles that carry electrical current?

II: Talkers As Whiners:

Mark Belling, the WISN-AM 1130 afternoon talker who competes with Green was still crying about the decision by Summerfest and the US Army to modify a killing simulator on the festival grounds after complaints from peace activists and others.

Though the controversy was over last weekend, and the Summerfest festival has closed for the season, too, Belling couldn't let it go.

He railed at Summerfest for catering more to long-haired hippies from the East Side "who don't use deodorant" than respecting Belling and his audience.

To which I only say, "Boo-Hoo."

Belling complained that he had been dissed even though he had carried a lot of water for Summerfest (his words).

He said he felt like the woman thrown over the side of the boat by a guy who was dating more than one woman, and chose the other gal. (Again, his words and simile, too).

There's nothing as pathetic as a righty talker in full victim/low-self esteem mode.

III: Talkers as Angry Middle-Aged Men: This is what so many of the hosts - - Green, Belling, Charlie Sykes and Jeff Wagner - - have in common.

(And hey, don't throw any age-ist labels my way: Of the bunch only Green is older than I am, and not by much.)

This Milwaukee AM righty radio crew comes across as a bunch of bitter complainers, usually with a predictable, over-lapping group of targets:

Big Guvmint, big cities, Democrats, the Journal Sentinel, and an assortment of liberals, environmentalists and other Friends of the Earth.

Station managers are making money with these interchangeable, talking parts, but the righty talk radio monotone on WTMJ and WISN, Milwaukee's two leading AM stations, has driven away a substantial percentage of the general public that doesn't define itself as ideologically right-wing.

Final thought:

I prefer Eric Von on WMCS AM 1290 on the AM band in the afternoons, but I often listen to the righty talkers so I know what right-wingers are thinking.

Affordable Housing Near Pabst Farms?

Turns out there's little affordable housing for Pabst Farms workers.

Please tell me you are not surprised to hear that.

Turns out a developer wants to build some nearby - - just a little - - and the hand-wringing has begun.uimz

Madison More Attentive To Ozone Reduction Than Milwaukee

Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel produced a depressing piece - - if you're in Milwaukee, that is - - about Madison and Dane County's more aggressive community response to ozone alerts than the Milwaukee 'approach.'

In Madison, a bad air day leads to free bus rides to encourage motorists to leave their automobiles at home.

And employers offer discounted lunches to employees who also leave their cars home to cut down on emissions.

Bergquist couldn't find similar responses or initiatives here in Milwaukee - - where the air is consistently dirtier than it is in Madison.

Denver's Light Rail, Progressive Planning, Has Milwaukee Connection

Democrats convening in Denver for their 2008 Presidential Nominating Convention will see a city on the move, with light rail development, a downtown baseball stadium and other amenities.

When you're there, send your kudos to Peter Park, the city's Planning and Development Director for the last four-and-a-half-years.

Park was Milwaukee city planning director under former Mayor John O. Norquist, now the CEO at The Congress for The New Urbanism, Chicago.

The WMC Is Feeling The Heat

Fresh blog wars surround the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC), with righty-bloggers aiming their Internet indignation at WMC critic Paul Soglin.

Paul's blog gets you some history.

The WMC brought all this on itself with its television spots that helped bring down sitting State Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler in April, and a year earlier, a separate ad campaign that helped put Annette Ziegler on the court.

The WMC was within its rights to back Ziegler, and Butler's opponent, Burnett County Circuit Court Judge Michael Gableman, no matter how shallow the ads or the candidates they were backing.

The WMC has been throwing its political and financial weight around for years, and surely knows that pushback can be part of the game.

Now that it's happening (disclosure: I sit on a One Wisconsin Now board, and that group also has a WMC Watch effort underway), I think it's interesting that WMC is now not enjoying the game so much.

So it goes.

Obama's Midwest Charter Plane Makes Unscheduled Landing; Did We Know Obama Was A Midwest Customer?

I first noticed the AP story about the unscheduled landing made by Barack Obama's chartered Midwest Airlines MD-80 an hour or so ago.

A couple of observations:

* Good that it was a problem easily handled by the cockpit crew.

* Interesting that Obama is chartering a type of aircraft that Midwest said it was taking out of regular service because of poor fuel economy. The MD-80's are Midwest's biggest airplanes, and can make transcontinental flights non-stop, albeit at a fuel cost premium. The company's newer B-717's have more fuel-efficient engines.

* And did I miss seeing earlier reporting that the Obama campaign was a Midwest charter customer?

Support For Great Lakes Compact Does Not Guarantee Water Policy Harmony

Editorial boards continue their push on behalf of the Great Lakes Compact as the momentum shifts from the states - - seven of eight Great Lakes states have adopted it, with Pennsylvania about to finally join the others - - to the US Congress.

The Buffalo News weighs in, here.

So far, so good, as both presumptive US presidential candidates are backing the Compact, and organized opposition does not appear on the horizon.

If I had to put down a bet, I'd say the Compact gets approved by the Congress and President in 2009 or 2010, and then the action will move to these arenas:

* States that have not passed Compact implementation rules and procedures will get busy doing so. Wisconsin has already passed its implementing language, so communities seeking diversions know what standards they have to meet and what data and commitments to conservation they need to provide in their applications.

According to the Compact, an out-of-basin community like Waukesha seeking a Great Lakes water diversion must receive approval from all the Great Lakes states.

* Activists in one or more states will push for tougher restrictions, or an outright ban, on bottled water exports, thus closing off an egregious loophole in the Compact.

Since the bottled water industry is powerful in Michigan, there could be retaliation from Michigan in the form of a diversion application denial if the applying community is in a state that moves against water bottling.

Just because the states have agreed on a Compact, and if and when it is approved by the Congress, there is no guarantee that the so-called water wars couldn't break out within the Great Lakes basin.

David Maraniss Has Written Another Great Book

On the eve of the 2008 Summer Olympic games in Beijing, China, Pulitzer-prize winning reporter and historian David Maraniss has produced an elegant perspective: Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed The World.

The book will be a treat for people born after that remarkable, first-ever commercially-televised Olympiad because Maraniss's story-telling and reporting skills bring the games, their personalities and layers of intrigue fully to life.

For those of us with some memory of the Rome games, the book’s interviews and documentation illuminate both the individual participants’ stories - - the emergence of Cassius Clay, the grace and guts of Decathlon champion Rafer Johnson - - and also the Cold War backstory and other '60's trends, all in wonderful detail.

In those days, beating the Soviets at everything, whether in space exploration, weapons' development or the Olympic boxing ring was a national pre-occupation.

So Maraniss gives us the news release battles between Soviet and American political leaders - - and also the often-hilarious story about our CIA's unsuccessful use of US track star David Sime at the Rome games to convince a Soviet athlete to defect.

The Olympics: those idealized, purely athletic contests only, right?

Sure.

I loved reading about the graceful, three-gold medal performance by American sprinter Wilma Rudolph, a polio survivor, that captivated athletes, spectators and reporters alike.

Her success was more broadly significant given the second-class status of women’s athletics, and the racial discrimination she and other African-American sports figures endured before the Civil Rights movement began soon thereafter to break down barriers across American society.

Maraniss brings Rudolph's medal triumphs fully alive, but it was an interview with her older sister Yvonne Rudolph that really brought it all home.

Yvonne Rudolph recalls an eight-year-old Wilma Rudolph finally shedding her leg braces to wear her first pair of regular shoes to church and delivering a speech where “everybody…cheered for her."

Maraniss's signature talent, book-after-book, is an ability to blend archival research, first-person interviews and then fresh language to connect sports, politics, race, and culture - - complex topics on their own that lesser authors would treat as separate and distinct.

That special literary architecture, that gift, is central to my favorite Maraniss books - - Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero, and They Marched Into Sunlight: War And Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967 - - and it's again on full display in Rome 1960.

The harsh reality of sport is that losers out-number winners, yet the also-rans complete the picture and leave their own memorable, even celebratory impressions, too.

The book is populated with losers who’d been favored to win, only to fall flat.

Or felt they were cheated by anti-American judges.

Or competed when hurt and suffered early elimination, like the deeply religious American high-jumper Joe Faust.

His story takes up just a mere five pages, and in lesser hands might have been an anecdote, or an omission altogether, but Maraniss tells us through Faust's experience a great deal about what is best in people, and the Olympic spirit.

During seven years of training, the teen-age California phenom had used each practice jump - - 100 a day - - as his private “cycle of repair,” with the crossbar an imagined crucifix over which Faust would leap “into the arms of a loving God,” wrote Maraniss.

Faust was living monastically in a Los Angeles cottage behind which he had built a makeshift jumping pit using a tattered mattress, poles and a bamboo crossbar when Maraniss tracked him down nearly fifty years after the Rome games.

“With no one watching,” Maraniss wrote, “Joe Faust was high-jumping still, with a sore knee but bounce in his step, practicing his cycle of repair, rising with penance, clearing the crucifix, absolving his sins, descending with gratitude.”

It is that kind of reporting and writing that will have readers telling their friends that they have to go out and buy this book.

Rome 1960 will prepare us for the stories and controversies likely to emerge in Beijing:

Records will fall and so will reputations.

Politicized judging will be alleged, as will cheating - - the Rome Olympics produced proof of some cyclists' doping and inklings of later-proven East German steroid abuses.

Will there be a fresh crop of disgraced track-and-field competitors this year, and by the way, are those new super high-tech swim suits a form of questionable performance enhancements, too?

And will there be a new subtext of super-power competition between US athletes and their counterparts from host-nation, gas-guzzling, air-polluting China?

Will 2008 be a broader battle of West vs. East, reminiscent of 1960's US vs. the USSR/Eastern bloc dynamics?

A personal note:

I first met David in 1973 when I was a young aide to then Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, and Maraniss was an even younger City Hall reporter for WIBA, a local radio station.

It has been a pleasure and an inspiration to have seen his career keep rising from Madison radio reporter - - and I think he even had a separate late night stint on FM radio playing what were probably albums in those days by the likes of Jimi Hendrix and "Cream" - - to Pulitzer Prize winner at The Washington Post, to an authentic American literary figure, top-rank biographer and historian.

(I was also interviewed for They Marched Into Sunlight.)

So let the 2008 games begin, and prepare yourself with Rome 1960.

I can't imagine a better summer read.

*****

Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed The World, is a Simon & Schuster book. It runs 496 pages and costs $26.

C.C. Sabathia's Signing Shakes The City

The Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club's post-Selig family ownership continues to make waves in the city, and in Major League baseball, with its blockbuster deal for C. C. Sabathia, the Cleveland Indians' 2007 American League Cy Young award-winning pitcher.

I love the Brewers' management's risk-taking, go-for-it mentality.

If only that approach would only rub off on so many other institutions around here still mired in yesterday's unimaginative "we've-never-done-it-that-way-before" mindset.

Massive Exodus From US Highways Predicted: Is Wisconsin Listening?

A new study predicts that $7-per-gallon gasoline would drive millions of vehicles from American highways and cause profound lifestyle shifts, not the least of which would be less demand for more new roads and lanes (highway capacity) and greater demand for transit.

Short summary, here.

Maybe gasoline won't get to $7, and maybe it will.

At least someone somewhere is thinking seriously about it, and has put together some data.

If planners at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission are doing the same thinking and number-crunching and big-picture analysis, they're keeping it to themselves.

All we can do is look at their recommendations and implemented plans:

* $1.9 billion spending about to begin on an eight-year rebuilding of I-94 between south Milwaukee and the Illinois state line, with 35 miles of new lanes in each direction.

* A widened Zoo Interchange (where State highway 45, I-94 and I-894 merge west of Milwaukee) moved to a more hurried beginning in 2012.

* About $3 billion in additional expansion and rebuilding throughout SEWRPC's seven-county region, ending in about 2025, give or take.

* An expanding gap between road-financing and revenues.

As I suggested here yesterday, there is a great need now for leaders in the public and private sectors to push SEWRPC and WisDOT to recalibrate their highway planning.

They need to formally shift away from their outmoded calculations of gasoline costing $2.30-per-gallon, with a 3% annual increase (this would put gas today at $2.51-per-gallon, which is nowhere near the still-escalating cost of $4.19), and get busy on shifting spending towards transit.

Part of the reason there is so little innovative, or even merely-reasonable reactive thinking in Wisconsin transportation policy, is the intrinsic and embedded power of the highway lobby in Wisconsin.

This money-driven coziness is historical, and bi-partisan, and it rules transportation policy planning and priority-setting in and around the Capitol.

With elected officials unlikely to seriously consider cost-cutting and alternative-planning initiatives, and with a regional planning commission without independence from WisDOT (it took $1 million from WisDOT to write the $6.5 regional highway plan - - a plan that WisDOT, the client, is now only too willing and eager to implement) - - it will fall to grassroots groups and influential editorial writers to wage a continuing campaign for less concrete and more transit spending.

Northern Counties Want Rail Hookup To Twin Cities

Douglas and Superior Counties want a high-speed passenger rail link to the Twin Cities across the state border.

Maybe our railophobics in the southern part of the state could learn a thing or two from their upnorth counterparts.

Fewer Fireworks Heard; Maybe The New Fine Schedules Worked

Kudos to Milwaukee city government for instituting tougher fine schedules for illegal fireworks.

I have no idea if more tickets were written this July 4th weekend, but I think the publicity helped tamp down the bottle-rocket launches that had made the UW-M area intolerable every Independence Day and night.

Public fireworks' displays are traditional and fun. Rattling your neighbors windows and freaking out their pets through the night is selfish.

Update: As I said in the comments section, people in the 'burbs wouldn't tolerate fireworks' disruptions, either, and The Freeman in Waukesha verifies it.

Closing The St. Lawrence Seaway Picks Up Support

The Journal Sentinel supports it, and State Rep. Sheldon Wasserman, (D-Milwaukee) agrees, too:

The St. Lawrence Seaway has brought the Great Lakes so many fish-killing invasive species that closing the waterway from the Atlantic Ocean is the smart economic thing to do.

It would have been unthinkable not that many years ago to push such a radical idea, but awareness about the fragility of the Great Lakes has grown, and their preservation is now more mainstream than ever.

Wasserman is also a candidate for the State Senate seat currently held by Republican Alberta Darling.

Need For Water Science Highlights UW-M's Value, Opportunity

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is moving ahead with its plan to establish a new school of freshwater science, building on the existing expertise it has had for years at the WATER Institute.

This spring's flooding continues to present problems that need good science - - the floodwaters are not receding - - and UW-M should already be in a position to assist.

Urban Wilderness Program Sunday at Urban Ecology Center

More good programming at the city's gem on the Milwaukee River.

Leaders' Reaction To Economic Peril Is Sadly Soporific

Thinker and writer James Howard Kuntsler tries to shake us out of our collective denial with some choice words about the perilous state of our economy: incomprehensible debt, oil overdependency, farmland loss, resource depletion, an unaffordable vehicle fleet, sprawl development, collapsing airlines, an archaic train system, and more.

As I read his essay, (and as I've said before, Kuntsler is not for the faint-hearted, but if you don't read him, you are missing out on some fearless truth-telling), here's what ran through my mind:

How can anyone in state government with a straight face justify the late-2008 launch of $1.9 billion in pubic spending on remodeling and expanding I-94 between south Milwaukee and the Illinois state line?

Why hasn't the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission - - the outfit that created this $6.5 billion regional freeway rebuilding and expansion debacle - - recognized reality, admitted miscalculation (error would be unthinkable) and recommended pulling back its plan because the $2.30-per-gallon gasoline price assumption upon which it was based has been shattered by gas prices that are spiking out of sight?

Why is the collective leadership and planning capacity in this area - - whether elected officials, SEWRPC, the business collaborative M-7 and/or others - - incapable of action with some urgency behind it?

Why haven't they thrown their doors open, begun to meet and seek public opinion about how to at least mitigate the widespread consequences in this new economic environment - - ramifications that are already showing up, like housing foreclosures and job losses, to mention but two of the more obvious.

Why aren't they leading some sort of coordinated, common approach to solutions to the additional demands that are coming for more public services in 2009 - - when state shared revenue to local communities will fall further - - at the same time that evaporating property values and tax bases will force more trims to budgets and problem-solving resources.

It's as if those whom we call leaders - -whether in government or the private sector - - are popping Valium when their creative thinking and organizing will be needed with unprecedented acuity by everyday citizens/taxpayers/consumers.

I'd say that July 4th was being truly recognized if I saw an energized commitment from people with their hands on the levers of power to get busier with today's realities.

Welcome "Cognitive Dissonance" Blog

Another one on our team, here.

Madison Gas Prices 26 Cents Below Milwaukee's

Recent stories indicated that the special gasoline formulation for southeastern Wisconsin adds 14 cents a gallon to the price.

So why is regular gasoline on E. Capitol Dr. in Milwaukee at $4.199, $3.999 in Lake Mills and $3.939 in Madison (the BP station on E. Washington just below the Square)?

Murphy Oil: More Clean Air Act Violations?

Having paid record fines for violations at its Superior, WI, plant, you'd think it wouldn't engage in similar behaviors in Louisiana.

Total Victory! Sykes Veers Today's Anti-Left Rant To Light Rail, Global Warming And ME!

This Summerfest brouhaha has completely unhinged Charlie Sykes.

As he closed the 10:30 a.m. segment, Charlie lapsed into a character with a lispy falsetto voice having an imaginary discussion with leftists who like drinks with little umbrellas, oppose cookouts on July 4, or, like me, are in favor of light rail.

Setting aside any effort to analyze the illogical, one thing was clear: Charlie is not a master of impersonation.Ruch Limbaugh has that particular mocking voice down pat; Charlie's needs more practice.

So from a listener's point-of-view it was an awful few minutes of radio, about on the level of high school sophomores geeking around at after-school radio club.

Summerfest Reinstates A Less-Violent Shooting Game; Talk Radio Throws A Tantrum

Talk radio is not used to losing, or accepting a compromise, and today, it's in full squawk mode.

Why?

Peace activists and others complained that family-friendly Summerfest was an inappropriate venue for a US Army's Humvee simulator that permitted young people to fire machine guns at virtual people on a screen.

So Summerfest and the Army pulled the game in favor of a modified version that kept the guns, but swapped inanimate targets for the humans.

So is everybody happy with a compromise that keeps killing images out of the festival?

Are you kidding?

Charlie Sykes is in full rant this morning, accusing Summerfest of capitulating to "moonbats."

You know these righty talkers are dealing with a little losing, as they see it, when they lapse into their programmed name-calling.

A few years ago, the right had an echo-chamber that controlled the airwaves and the Internet around here.

It's still an uneven playing field, given the incessant righty radio on both leading AM stations,WTMJ and WISN, day and night, but the other side has a few blogs and networks that can get a few results, too.

Charlie attacked Bill Christofferson for posting Summerfest's phone number and then Charlie read off the number, twice. As he had done yesterday, too to gin up calls to Summerfest in support of the killing game.

A double-standard?

And he questioned who these Veterans for Peace really were, as apparently that group had complained to Summerfest,as did Peace Action Wisconsin.

I don't know if Bill is a member of either Peace Action Wisconsin or Veterans for Peace, but I do know he served two tours during the Vietnam War as a US Marine, and I don't think any of the local righty talkers can match that.

.

Hallelujah! Aldi's Can Open A Supermarket On Blue Mound Road

The Town of Brookfield Plan Commission stuck its collective nose in the air when Aldi foods proposed a discount supermarket for Blue Mound Road, but sanity and appreciation of a bargain led the Town Board to its thumbs up instead.

Trader Joe and Aldi are controlled by the same family, so that made Brookfield's image-makers feel a little better.

To Reach A Good Outcome, A Regional Housing Plan Has To Be Wide-Open From The Beginning

The Public Policy Forum noted in a detailed 2002 study that the region's segregation was an economic drag, and that SEWRPC - - the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission - - could write a housing plan to help the region overcome segregation's negative brake on the economy.

Too bad no one listened, as SEWRPC last completed a housing study in 1975 - - and that took seven years from its proposal by the City of Milwaukee to publication.

Rumor has it SEWRPC is circulating a proposed work plan that calls for a housing study to be launched perhaps this year and completed by 2010-2011.

So much has changed in the housing picture in just the last year, given the subprime mortgage market meltdown, falling home prices, disappearing homeowners' equity and epidemic foreclosures.

And as SEWRPC began this spring to flesh out a potential housing study work plan, spiking gas prices threw into doubt many of the basic assumptions in SEWRPC's master, uberland use plan that has been in place while suburbia marched west towards Jefferson County and away from Milwaukee.

What's taking place now in the housing market and alongside it have come on top of other varied cultural and economic shifts since the last SEWRPC housing study - - like gentrification, Kenosha's appeal to Chicagoans, and revivals where the conventional wisdom said they couldn't happen: Milwaukee's downtown, third and fifth wards, and in the Menomonee Valley.

And there have been declines of some older suburbs, like West Allis and West Milwaukee, which had major factory tax base losses in recession that took hold in the late '70's.

More freeway lanes are being built, but driving is down, and so is Milwaukee County bus ridership. Certainly all these conditions affect the housing market, renters and homeowners.

And watershed planning is taking hold in the SEWRPC region - - another new wrinkle and opportunity that will influence economic development and every housing-related activity, too.

Writing a plan that recognizes and weaves all these factors together - - and my list is hardly definitive - - and that confronts the segregation that the Public Policy Forum study, and countless others have pointed out, will require the crafting and execution of one heckuva complicated and important plan.

SEWRPC has its own way of doing things: Work plans are drafted internally; existing plans and studies guide the crafting of new initiatives.

Advisory committees are then established which guide staff and consultants towards a finished product that must be approved by a full commission vote.

So while SEWRPC has ample data, and no doubt some planners on staff who can get a lot more, will the agency let them look at case studies and examples far-and-wide to get the best product available?

And while those internal processes are important, so is the outside game.

This plan has got to be rooted in what people think and want, not just what technical experts think and want.

Everyday experience makes everyday people expert, and nothing is more basic that housing.

SEWRPC has asked its newly-formed Environmental Justice Task Force to suggest possible appointments to a housing study advisory committee, and this is a positive thing, but I'd suggest SEWRPC go several steps further.

To ensure that this study is a genuine, no-bolds-barred examination of the region's housing history, problems and potential solutions, and the connections between housing, transportation, land-use, economic development and other large planning areas, SEWRPC should:

1. Post the draft work plan on its website. Then publicize that it is there and distribute it far and wide - - including to groups, elected officials and to regional planning agencies in Wisconsin, and nationally - - and take comments and suggestions from the public.

SEWRPC and its Environmental Justice Task Force should together review those comments.

2. Public meetings to take additional comments on the proposed work plan should be held, much like charettes and other open and welcoming participatory sessions have been held in Milwaukee, and elsewhere, in advance of the beginning of plan writing and advisory committee work.

This would define the creation of the work plan, which is also sometimes called the scope of work, as a key component - - perhaps as the most important step - - in the development and writing of the overall plan itself.

That is because it would define the public's participation as central from the beginning.

In that fashion, SEWRPC could demonstrate that it is determined to make up for a nearly 40-year silence of major work on the region's housing issues with a bold and comprehensive approach from the beginning.

Yes - - this might add a few months to the study's beginning, but it also might produce a quicker final product - - because so much of the focus would have been clear intentionally from the outset, making buy-in and acceptance by taxpayers, businesses and government at the end much easier.

And after four decades, what's another month or two?

Hard Times For Newspapers, Here And Elsewhere

Big cuts at the L.A. Times and Journal Sentinel announced on the same day.

Most interesting piece of the story is that a large number of pages at the LA Times are being eliminated because with the economic downturn there are fewer ads, and readers are complaining there's too much to read.

Wow.

Torture Techniques Used Against US Troops In Korea Now Used By...US

Do you need any more evidence that this administration is truly depraved?

Call Summerfest And Thank Them For Removing Killing Game

Give Summerfest a call at 414-273--2680 and thank them for removing the Army's killing game from the grounds. I just called. It takes but a minute.

It was inappropriate to begin with, but good for Summerfest to remove it.

What Does Milwaukee County Expect From Its Hefty Annual Payment To SEWRPC?

In its 2007 annual budget, Milwaukee County transferred $845,525 to the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, making up 36% of SEWRPC's 2008 annual operating budget, records show.

Grants, contracts and other payments bring the 2008 SEWRPC budget to more than $7 million - - all from public entities.

SEWRPC is comprised of seven counties; Milwaukee County's payment is by far the largest among the seven.

As I've noted many times on this blog, and in op-eds, City of Milwaukee property taxpayers accounted for about 48% of that payment, or just over $400,000 - - and though it has no representation on the SEWRPC board of 21 commissioners, the City of Milwaukee residents' $400,000 payment exceeds the individual county payments from five of the other seven SEWRPC counties (only Waukesha County's is higher).

Each of the seven counties has three seats on the SEWRPC board.

What does Milwaukee County ask for in return for that annual payment on behalf of county taxpayers, among them city residents who make up about two-thirds of the county population?

If SEWRPC were an $845,000 consultant or vendor to the county, or a $400,000 consultant or vendor to the city, wouldn't there be basic contract performance to be documented, and delivered?

Wouldn't there be diversity and affirmative action standards to be met and detailed, and penalties, perhaps cancellation, if that performance were fumbled?

According to SEWRPC, there are no minorities or City of Milwaukee residents on SEWRPC's 11-member management team.

This is not a new situation surrounding these key SEWRPC staff positions.

It's time for Milwaukee County government, on behalf of the city and county taxpayers who are paying the biggest share of the freight out at SEWRPC, to begin to hold the agency more accountable for how it spends public dollars and whom it hires to manage them.

Dave Dempsey Goes After Michigan's Water Bottlers

In a tightly-written and compelling op-ed in the Detroit Free Press, author and activist Dave Dempsey takes the Michigan legislature to task for continuing to enable water bottlers to take the states' waters and divert them in unlimited amounts - - in bottles.

The so-called bottled-water exemption is among the biggest loopholes in the Great Lakes Compact, inserted there during the eight-state, two-country negotiations that created the draft compact in 2005.

As Dempsey points out, there are multiple controls on diversions of water in pipes, but as long as the bottles are no larger than 5.7 gallons each, Nestle and others can remove as much Great Lakes water as they want.

Bottling is a powerful industry in Michigan because nearly the entire State of Michigan is in the Great Lakes basin, so the source is relatively plentiful.

That's hardly an excuse to waste it, but that's the unfolding story in Michigan, which just approved the Compact and companion legislation that industry weakened substantially so it could continue its easy access to the state's water supplies.

Expect this all to go to the courts.

Summerfest Cancels Killing Simulator

Folks in Summerfest management must have been helping themselves to generous freebies at the beer tents to have forgotten their new commitment to family entertainment when they allowed the Army to set up a Humvee simulator from which kids could shoot life-size people on a screen.

Congrats to Peace Action Wisconsin for urging Summerfest to come to its senses.

We await the loud squawk from right-wing talk radio/bloggers/politicos...

Michael Savage Knows His Rotten Tomatoes

There's news today that tomatoes may not be the culprit in the national salmonella outbreak.

I doubt that, and I think this is more liberal bias in media, because Dr. Michael Savage told his 'nation' about two weeks ago that it was definitely Mexican tomatoes that caused the outbreak.

Paul Hayes, SEWRPC Advocate, Defends Agency

Paul Hayes, the Milwaukee Journal's former environmental reporter, wrote an op-ed for the Journal Sentinel's Crossroads on June 29th that is in support of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, (SEWRPC), and I am happy to post a link to it, here.

It is essentially a response to a Crossroads op-ed I wrote on June 8th, linked here.

I have known Paul for a long time, as we both worked at the long-gone Journal.

He has a commanding voice in environmental reporting; the history of SEWRPC he is writing for the agency that he mentioned in his op-ed will be rich in detail and value.

I understand that Paul is coming at the SEWRPC debate from a different perspective than mine, and I'm fine with that. It's a disagreement.

And I'm raising issues with the agency's direction and priorities and management, not with individual staffers' technical work or expertise.

I believe that the City of Milwaukee's lack of representation on the Commission board - - which is a failing of the state law that created it, not of the agency - - is a severe problem that constitutes taxation without representation.

Without a constant and internal pro-city, pro-urban, Milwaukee-immersed perspective, SEWRPC has not been pushed to make Milwaukee issues the high priority they need and should be if regional cooperation and regionalism are going to have genuine and inclusive meaning.

Not has SEWRPC focused on making Milwaukee/minorities hires for top jobs, or made meaningful minority participation on its advisory committees a priority, either.

Examples?

The water supply advisory committee has 32 members, of which but one is a minority (Hispanic) individual;

No minority individual or City of Milwaukee resident is a member of the management staff, yet Milwaukee County pays the largest share among the seven SEWRPC counties to the agency's annual operating budget.

SEWRPC has not completed a regional housing study since 1975 - - and that one had its origins in the 60's. Housing is integral to land use, transportation, job creation and other planning and quality-of-life basics.
The freeway expansion plan written by SEWRPC, and being implemented by the state department of transportation contains no transit spending in, or parallel to, the freeway corridors.

I'm not talking about transit plans that are written and sit on shelves without clients or advocacy.

I'm talking studies that are moved to implementation.

Excising transit from that study was a short-sighted decision rooted in a one-dimensional mind-set when the recommendations were made - - and in the light of gas price spikes, a decision somewhere between serious and calamitous, especially for low-income people or those without automobiles.

These gaps and orientations and preferences are long-standing at the agency, and I see no urgency on the part of SEWRPC management to embrace a new ways of doing things.

One final note:

I did not propose terminating the agency.

I proposed that the City and or the County of Milwaukee use their shares of the agency's operating funding they provide automatically from local property taxes to create a new agency to partner with SEWRPC to change the definitions and dynamics of regionalism and planning in this part of the state.

Perhaps other jurisdictions with urban populations would care to join in.

It was meant as a constructive and creative suggestion, and I hope this discussion keeps on going with a conclusion that reforms SEWRPC and makes planning a better deal for Milwaukee.

A new agency is the best way to do that, in my opinion.