Scott Walker: Master Of Disinformation

In the wake of flip-flops, false starts and a general uproar at the Courthouse over furloughs and service cuts that Milwaukee County Exec Scott Walker wants to impose, the Journal Sentinel finds Walker guilty of poor communications with the County Board.

I disagree: Walker jumped out with his plan without informing the County Board, and maybe without genuine need, because he wanted to appear decisive - - something he needs as a candidate for Governor.

I say "without genuine need" because the numbers Walker had used to justify the 'plan' are grossly exaggerated, according to a solid piece of reportig by Steve Schultze.

So what's going on?

Walker wants to appear as a cost-cutter to separate himself from the fiscal and policy mess and strong scent of incompetence that surrounds his administration.

After all, the newspaper has done solid investigative work and found millions in fraud in the county's child welfare system, and official investigators found the county didn't even know where and how to find fraudulent payments.

It's always been difficult to run statewide from Milwaukee; antipathies to Milwaukee out-state are endemic, and the misspending of $20 million in state child-care funds will make advertising fodder lobbed at Walker-The-Executive by everyone from Mark Neumann to Jim Doyle to any number of Democratic party committees and independent groups.

So Walker's furloughing and service cutting 'plan' was a diversion; Now the County Board says Walker has hugely-overestimated the scope of the county's budget woes.

Walker will not care.

Labor has always been his target, so the goal is to demonstrate to the GOP base and independents that he is willing to 'take on labor,' cut wages and restore financial stability.

This is nothing but a ploy and a dodge.

Miscommunication? That misses the mark.

This is old-fashioned disinformation.

Highway Funding Still Stalls Budget - - With Highway Cuts Off The Table

The power of the highway lobby is so great in Wisconsin that how to keep funding road expansion - - a tax on oil companies that the driving public will pay directly or indirectly - - is one of two issues blocking State Senate budget approval.

Measures like scaling back unneeded highway expansions, such as 70 miles of new Interstate 94 lanes from Milwaukee to the Illinois state line, or the $25 million I-94 Interchange to Nowhere at Pabst Farms' cancelled upscale shopping center, and sending planners back to the drawing board to trim the fat out of the projected $2.3 billion Zoo Interchange reconstruction, would eliminate the need for the added tax collection.

So far, the discussion at the State Capitol is only about how to pay for more roads - - and, of course, the built-in collateral costs, such as maintenance, repairs, plowing and patrolling.

If any other special interest had this much say over billions of dollars in state spending, the word "scandalous" would be routinely used in the reporting.

Former GOP Michigan Governor Supports Clean Energy, Climate Change Initiatives

Former Michigan Governor William Milliken, (R), has some wise words about his state's economy and the advantages offered by the new technologies pushing clean energy and climate change improvements.

Bradford Beach, Getting Cleaner, Gets Special "Blue Wave" Status

Thanks to pioneering scientific work by the UW-Milwaukee WATER Institute, and remedial funding and improvements by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage Commission that prodded Milwaukee County into action, a cleaned-up Bradford Beach gets recognition today at an 11 a.m. news conference by "Blue Wave."

Ironically, Scott Walker, Milwaukee County Executive will participate, though his administration had to be pushed to clean up the region's signature beach by MMSD's fiscal generosity (it was not MMSD's pipes that were polluting the beach), and growing public awareness that the county was fouling its/our nest.

I believe the first media airing of the WATER Institute's findings that Milwaukee County was regularly dumping polluted stormwater onto Bradford Beach at five so-called "outfall" pipes appeared in an online column I wrote in 2005 for WisPolitics.com, here.

The good news: the beach is much-improved by swale filtration, as plantings near the outfalls act as mini-wetlands and clean the stormwaer before it hits the beach and lake.

Did you see the crowds at the beach yesterday?

Amazing.

A big victory for the public, and hats off to all who helped, including the Lubars, whose donations restored the lifeguard service.

Growing Congressional Support For Greenhouse Gas Controls

Virginia Democrat joins the fold.

Canadians Will Build First-Ever Sewage Treatment Plants at Victoria, BC

And all this time I thought Vancouver was some sort of progressive place.

The NY Times' Frank Rich Catalogues The Right's Obama Paranoia

Yet finds one Fox News anchor warning that things are seriously wrong.

Track Your Carbon Foot Print Here

Useful website sure to attract traffic.

And in that spirit, I used a battery-operated lawnmower today for the first time. Glad to have stopped using gasoline and emitting pollutants.

I've read that running a gasoline-powered mower - - notoriously polluting because they do not have catalytic converters - - for an hour is like driving a 1992 automobile 650 miles.

Privatizing Milwaukee Water - - Pro And Con - - And One Fresh Proposal

The Journal Sentinel devotes considerable space Sunday to the City of Milwaukee Comptroller's study of the possible lease of the Water Works to raise funds for cash-starved general city operations.

Aldermen, having heard from constituents opposed to the concept, put the study on hold.

Good, says The Sierra Club's Dale Olen and Riverkeeper's Cheryl Nenn.

Comptroller Wally Morics defends his planning and thinking in an op-ed, and the Journal Sentinel editorial board argues that despite some reservations, the study should go forward.

The editorial board concludes with this line:

"Critics of Morics' plan should explain how they would solve the city's financial woes. Just saying no isn't enough."

Well, solving the city's financial woes is a little too much of an assignment: that falls by law to the Mayor and Council, but I agree that opponents definitely need to get more involved in discussions about the city's fiscal and service-provision picture.

In a posting on May 30th, after aldermen moved to put the study plan on ice, I wrote this:

"It's clear that Milwaukee faces genuine hurdles financing its basic services, so if water privatization is off the table, community organizations and activists who helped shelve the privatization study should keep working on alternative revenue and service solutions."

So here's a proposal: the council and Mayor should name a Revenue Advisory Committee.

This citizen panel, with adequate city staff, should be given at least nine months to debate the issues, hold public meetings, and write a series of recommendations addressing the resource and revenue issues in time for the crafting of the city's 2011 budget to be written and approved in 2010.

The 2010 budget process is already underway.

But if everyone is serious about finding adequate revenues, and matching them to services, then let the critics into the process.

A Few Acres Here, A Few Acres There - - Wisconsin's Environmental Indifference

"What's the big deal? It's only an acre-and-a-half."

That's one way to look at the debate in Milwaukee over whether UW-M should be allowed to build on a narrow strip of land on the lakefront - - actually it's 1.67 acres - - between the Calatrava addition to the Art Museum and Discovery World, the lakefront and Lincoln Memorial Drive.

Environmentalists hear that argument all the time.

Development proponents will say, "there's plenty of land," and will point to some maps, or to data, or to a wide open vista somewhere and say, "hey, look at all that empty land."

Well, yes and no. Step back a bit, and look again.

We think of neighboring Kenosha and Racine Counties as less-developed than Milwaukee County because they have fewer people, but the Kenosha/Racine Land Trust in a report cited these jaw-dropping land losses over the last 150 years in Racine County alone:

100% of the savannahs;

99% of the prairie;

78% of the woodlands;

60% of the wetlands:

Kenosha County "has not fared much better," the report continues, citing published data showing that the triangle between Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago has suffered the third-fastest loss of agricultural land in the country.

And speaking of wetlands in Racine and Kenosha Counties, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation will fill in another 54 wetland acres in those counties as it widens I-94 between the Mitchell Interchange near Milwaukee and the Illinois state line.

Unable to find impaired wetlands near the project to restore as compensation for the losses, as required, WisDOT will probably go outside the construction zone - - perhaps to Walworth County.

Giving back no restored wetlands to Racine and Kenosha Counties.

So where do we draw the line?

When and where does an acre become one too many to build on, or pave over, or fill in?

Did Milwaukee County care enough to save the Monarch butterfly trail land on its County Grounds?

Apparently not, as it appears in the way of UW-M's engineering school expansion.

Butterflies?

Insects!

To the west, in Waukesha County, the line has been virtually erased.

Drive out to Retzer Nature Center and see how close the subdivisions have been allowed to build to the Center's property.

Or take a look farther west, at Pabst Farms' subdivisions, hospital, school and retail center, and multiple parking lots, and remember the Pabst Farms property totalled 1,500 acres recommended by the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission as off-limits to development.

Public tax increment financing got the utilities and streets and other amenities built there, and WisDOT wants to construct a $25 million interchange off I-94 into the site, though the shopping mall in the project the interchange was to serve has been postponed by two potential developers, and the mall's "upscale" definition definitely down-scaled.

And note that the City of Waukesha intends to add more acreage recommended by SEWRPC as environmental corridors to the Waukesha Water Utility's service territory if it is allowed to pump in Lake Michigan water.

As a region, we're suffering from environmental indifference.

And it's not an accident: it's policy.

And if a line in favor of preserving premier land in Wisconsin cannot be drawn on Milwaukee's lakefront - - even on a site where a now-closed restaurant was permitted to build on filled lake bed land in violation of the state's Public Trust Doctrine - - preservation will have suffered a fatal wound.

The Road To Sprawlville, Chapter XXVII: On The Way To Spring Green

This chapter in our ongoing series, The Road To Sprawlville, unfortunately now follows the map into Madison and points west.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Beltline through Madison, to Middleton and beyond into what used to be bucolic Cross Plains, Black Earth and beyond.

What the heck happened out that way? Has there been a mind-meld with Waukesha County?

Cities And The Green Dividend

The ongoing 17th Congress for the New Urbanism in Denver has heard a solid discussion of the value of cities to the environment.

Details, here.

With their emphasis on vertical development, fewer lawns to water and fertilize and focus on transit, walking and biking, cities save fuel, keep the air cleaner and save water.

Now if we only had policy-making that understood the need to preserve the urban environment with the same enthusiasm reserved for the North Woods and rural landscapes.

Field Museum In Chicago Opens Water Exhibit

Chicago's Field Museum opens a water exhibit aimed at kids that runs through September.

Details here.

Rally, Hearing On Milwaukee Water Privatization Study Monday, June 15th

There is a 12:30 p.m. rally at City Hall and a 1:30 p.m hearing where privatizing Milwaukee's water works will be discussed and debated.

Details, here.

McIlheran Distorts Krugman

Krugman deserves better than this.

Chicago Suburb Lied, Supplied Toxic Well Water For Years

Officials in Crestwood, IL repeatedly lied to its citizens and regulators about their water source while piping water contaminated with carcinogens, according to media and government sources.

Read a great piece in the Chicago Tribune that speaks volumes about the need for tough government oversight, transparency and investigative reporting.

Another Scott Walker Flip-Flop

Attention, state voters:

Our county exec, Scott Walker is running for Governor.

A few weeks ago, it was on whether to take federal stimulus funds.

The sequence: No, then maybe, then OK!

Now the change of direction is on his layoff plan to save the County budget.

First it was Yes!, then no - - for now.

Leadership? Hardly.

Harbor Commission Asks UWM For A Detailed Lakefront School Plan

Some logic is emerging in the rush to allow UWM to acquire the Pieces of Eight restaurant site on Milwaukee's downtown lakefront as the location for a new School of Freshwater Science:

Milwaukee's Harbor Commission, the first approval step in the process, has asked UWM for a detailed plan.

Final approval rests with Milwaukee city government because the land is city-owned.

The site is only 1.67 acres, is bordered by the lakefront and two existing structures - - Discovery World and the Calatrava addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum - - and would require the acquisition and transfer of the restaurant's lease to UWM by philanthropist Michael Cudahy, Discovery World's builder and prime mover.

Some space in the new building would be used by the M7's Water Council for private sector water activities.

UWM has said it can successfully build a two-story structure that would also provide public access to the lake and not impair the view and value of the Calatrava.

Let's be clear: there is universal enthusiasm and support for the creation of the new school.

But there are suggestions that alternative sites be considered - - the Transit Center almost across Lincoln Memorial Drive from the restaurant site, the UW-M Water Institute site on Greenfield Ave., the UWM Alumni center property (more than twice the size of the restaurant site) on the bluff above the city's Linnwood Water Treatment Plant.

There is also concern that the new school is too close to the Calatrava.

And there are arguments in favor or returning the restaurant site should be returned to green space, because as filled lake bed land, the restaurant site creation and construction was a violation of the state's constitutional Public Trust Doctrine.

And there are real questions about whether the site is large enough for the school's public-private purposes, meeting parking needs, and so forth.

Good for the Harbor Commission beginning to want answers to relevant questions.

And as I suggested in a recent Journal Sentinel op-ed on the subject, let's get busy creating a genuine Milwaukee lakefront plan so there is a blueprint for development and lakefront priorities going forward.

Here is a link that includes my op-ed with an alternative site suggestion - - the Alumni House and Conference Center - - and the Journal Sentinel's editorial in favor of the Pieces of Eight site for the school.

Waiting For That Delayed Evaluation Of SEWRPC: Is Godot Being Consulted?

November 10th was the closing date for the submission of public comments to the Federal Highway Administration's every-four-years certification review that allows the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission to remain a federally-approved Metropolitan Planning Organization.

More than seven months have passed, and no report: what's the problem?
Why ask for public input - - and in this case - - go through with a highly-publicized public meeting in October - - and take testimony and bring a clutch of officials to Milwaukee to walk around the room at the Milwaukee County Transit Center to urge people to give their input if the report won't be released.

It's an important process: without renewed certification from the feds as on crucial public participation measurements, SEWRPC would not have MPO authority to approve certain federally-funded highway and transit projects in the SEWRPC seven-county area.

So a successful review maintains SEWRPC's power and prestige.

And the 2008 review came at a watershed moment for SEWRPC: the Milwaukee Common Council had just passed a no-confidence resolution calling for fundamental changes by the state legislature to SEWRPC's structure.

The city wanted changes to resolve some of SEWRPC's taxation-without-representation and exclusionary deficiencies that harm Milwaukee and its low-income residents, and often favor suburban sprawl development and highway expansion over urban development and transit.

Separately in the fall, the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors had urged the state to carry out a performance audit of SEWRPC, and the ACLU of Wisconsin had filed two complaints with federal oversight agencies alleging discrimination in SEWRPC spending, hiring and committee operations.

I emailed the feds over the last few months asking about the report's release, as it was my understanding that the report was to be completed 90 days after the end of the comment period, or in mid-February, 2009.

So on February 13, 2009, I asked Carlos Pena of the Federal Highway Administration's Madison office by email about the report's release, and on the 17th, he emailed me and said "We expect to have the final report issued some time toward the middle of March."

When mid-March came and went, I emailed him again on March 22nd, and Pena said this in a reply on March 24th:

"The draft of the report has been distributed for review by all the
required channels. However, given the short period for implementation of the recently enacted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and the limited resources available to some of the reviewers we anticipate the final report to be ready for distribution sometime within the next two months.

OK - - I understood that - - so more than halfway through that two-months time frame, but with the earlier delay in mind, I checked in with Pena on May 5th.

This time: No response. And that was five weeks ago.

Now I'm wondering: Are the feds going to wait until the 2012 review?

Belling Disappoints

Mark Belling told his audience today that he will be using Twitter as a marketing device - - sparingly - - but will not be tweeting when he takes a crap.

Sigh...