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WDAC News
American Farmland Trust
Farmland Protection and Sustainability, Scaling Up Conservation, Local Food for Clean Water - Mon, 16 Mar 2009
Welcome to the March edition of E-news. In this issue: read about how a new farmland protection program in Wisconsin is helping the state be economically sustainable, learn how local food could lead to cleaner water, and see how we plan to scale-up conservation in the Chesapeake Bay.
Farmers and Foresters Help Save Salmon and Farms Through Statewide Grant Program - Fri, 13 Mar 2009
The Pioneers in Conservation program makes salmon recovery grants available for farms that develop projects that save salmon while also strengthening the farm or forest business.
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City of Sound
City Parks Blog
Some news from around? - Fri, 03 Sep 2010
Five design plans were unveiled to connect St. Louis’ downtown park to Gateway Arch. The highlight of the plans: all proposed covering Interstate 70 and its accompanying 10 lanes of traffic (The New York Times) And speaking of decking highways, Dallas is hard at work covering the Woodall Rodgers Freeway and plans to reveal a brand new [...]
Dumpster Diving on New York?s Park Avenue - Thu, 02 Sep 2010
Source: Alan Miles NYC (Flickr Feed) Of the many unique activities New York is known for, the most entertaining this summer involved closing roads and opening pools, specifically dumpster swimming pools. For the third summer in a row, New York’s Department of Transportation presented the Summer Streets program, closing almost seven miles of posh Park [...]
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Commuterpage.com
5 Red Line stations closed throughout weekend - Fri, 3 Sep 2010
Metro officials will replace a track switch to improve rail system safety and conduct several additional projects between the Takoma and Glenmont Metrorail stations, which will necessitate the closure of five Red Line stations throughout Labor Day Weekend, (Sept. 3-7). -- September 2, 2010, WMATA
Transit schedules for Labor Day - Fri, 3 Sep 2010
Transit schedules for Monday, September 6, 2010, Labor Day, are as follows. -- September 2, 2010, WMATA
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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel > Business
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Investing in New Orleans’ Past Brightens its Present – and Future - Fri, 03 Sep 2010
The Pontchartrain Hotel stands 14 stories above St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans’ Lower Garden district and was the tallest building in the city when it was constructed in 1927.
Battle Lines Drawn Over Gettysburg Casino Plan - Thu, 02 Sep 2010
Hundreds turned out to speak at the two-day hearing of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board on the application for a casino within a half mile of Gettysburg National Military Park.
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Next American City
Does Vallejo Deserve Stimulus Dollars?
The idea that another economic stimulus bill might pass is patently absurd, but there is a new, more targeted bill in committee on the Hill right now, and even if we’re just spinning our collective wheels, it’s worth some consideration.
The Local Jobs for America Act, introduced by the Honorable Rep. George Miller, chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor, aims to keep local and state governments from cutting back on essential services, like fire and police departments, and education. For a $75 billion price tag (split between two fiscal years), the spending bill will put 1 million people back to work while preventing state and local tax increases.
State and local governments, faced with shrinking tax bases, have no option but to trim the fat from their services. From a conservative standpoint, this is great; a chance to starve the beast, without having to actually enact any new policies. And to a certain extent—at least in my home state of California—there might be something to this. Massive, early pensions for city employees are starting to cripple localities that don’t have any way of raising funds on their own. For example, recall the famous Proposition 13 of 1978, when Californians capped property taxes at low rates, but retained the unique ability to get voter referendums on spending on statewide ballots. They can compel Sacramento to take out bonds for big spending projects—like the high speed rail—but they won’t pay taxes to cover it. This is the glaringly obvious reason that California is in fiscal trouble, but apparently no one can do anything about it (I personally find it hilarious that California just may patch up this insurmountable problem by legalizing pot and collecting vice taxes on that; there’s a certain lazy-stoner logic to it).
It is therefore worth noting that the Honorable Representative George Miller represents California’s 7th District, which consists of the Northeast quadrant of the Bay Area. It’s essentially Northern California’s Rust Belt, with Richmond, Vallejo and Pittsburg being the largest cities in the area, all down-and-out, high-crime rate cities, nothing like San Francisco and Marin just across the water. Vallejo, a city of 100,000 which people may recognize as the (maybe) home of the Zodiac Killer, Marine World, and a few popular rappers, but little else, is actually a scary picture of things to come in cash-strapped states and municipalities. It makes perfect sense that their representative would introduce this bill.
Vallejo is the first municipality to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in the state during this recession, way back in 2008. According to the Cato Institute—whose conservative slant means we might want to take this with a grain of salt—74% of Vallejo’s budget went to firefighter and police officer salaries, overtime, and pension obligations, while the average for the state is 60%. While I agree that it’s a good thing to provide a safety net for those who put their lives on the line, and work for the good of the community, earning 90% of your salary for every year of your life past 50, without working a day for the public good doesn’t strike me as fair to taxpayers. And worse yet, the city hasn’t been able to work out a new deal with the unions, even after two years in bankruptcy.
So instead, they’ve cut back on public services. While they can’t change their pension obligations to the police union, they can cut back on hiring. And that’s precisely what they’ve done. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Vallejo PD might be reduced to just 89 officers, or about one officer for every 1300 citizens. For contrast, New York has one uniformed officer for every 230 civilians. At some times of day, there are less than six cops on active duty in the whole city, a city with a higher crime rate than Compton or Richmond, CA.
While it’s irresponsible for the Vallejo politicians to make promises to police and firefighter unions that it is unable to keep—probably for political gain—it is also irresponsible for those unions to abuse their political clout at the expense of the community they serve. This lack of responsibility is twofold in California, where public service unions seem to want one half of a good welfare state—their pensions—but refuse to pay the taxes commensurate with such a system. This, I think, is why those on the left should not be afraid to criticize these unions, at least in California; I wouldn’t call it a waste of taxpayer money to reward honest public service with good compensation and pensions, but when it cripples the municipality so horribly, something needs to change, be it the tax code, the collective bargaining process, or what, I’m not sure.
So that’s what makes me wary about an otherwise smart spending bill. Not only will cutbacks lower the standard of living in many municipalities, it will hurt our fragile economy even more. The targeted spending is smart, but in Vallejo’s case—and perhaps the same is true for many other cities—it might prevent them from working out a more permanent fix to their fiscal woes (though, to be fair, they have tried going into bankruptcy, and even that hasn’t worked) that will better guarantee long-term prosperity, or at least solvency. Please note, this is different from saying—as Right-wing radio hosts do, I’m told—that the money from Miller’s bill will go straight to pensions. What I’m saying is it will provide much-needed support to local governments, but it will possibly act as a band-aid to cities like Vallejo, allowing them to keep chugging along without fixing fundamental flaws in their policies.
Miller’s bill sits in his committee, and one suspects House Republicans aren’t going to let much new spending pass, nor will House Democrats push for a big spending bill with so many seats up for grabs in the midterms. But, California’s somewhat broken legislature is working on a fix for the pension “spiking” schemes—in short, unpaid vacation is paid out at retirement, and public employees were allowed to count that bonus as “salary”, bumping their pensions even higher—that public employees used to inflate their pensions. So there’s hope for California yet, but odds are the federal government won’t come to the rescue; perhaps I’m overly critical of my home state, but I think that for California, that might need to happen.
City / Culture: Burning Man?s Philanthropy
At the hot, ecstatic end of every summer – at least based on the back-to-school if not quite Solstice definition – tens of thousands of visionaries, revelers, seekers, sharers, and, yes, stoners gather in the Nevada desert for the annual, ephemeral city-building exercise, art party, and all-out release known as Burning Man.
The attendees, known as “burners,” famously build Black Rock City, then burn down its iconic sculpture and are expected to haul out everything else they’ve hauled in.
Most of the burners then return to their hometowns and their daily lives – at least for the next 51 weeks.
Some, though, attempt to keep the Burning Man cooperative community vibe alive year-round. Carmen Mauk is very much one of those folks.
Mauk is the executive director of Burners Without Borders, a group en route to non-profit status that launched in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and has since included people working in places such as Pisco, Peru; Gaborone, Botswana; Guatemala; the Gulf Coast; Reno, Chicago, San Francisco, and Detroit. Mauk says she’s been volunteering for Burning Man for twelve years, and is BWB’s sole paid staffer.
City / Culture caught up with Mauk by phone from “the playa” – the Black Rock City’s geological nickname – the week before the formal beginning of the annual event. The following has been edited for space and clarity.
City/Culture: Your website says that Burners Without Borders grew out of burners’ reactions in 2005 to Hurricane Katrina.
Carmen Mauk: At Burning Man, people were practicing being in community and already helping each other. When Katrina struck, it just seemed natural that people would carry that to go out and help New Orleans and Mississippi. Today, [Burners Without Borders] is people really just deciding, “Hey, I want to help, I can do something, I’m going to go.”
City/Culture: If Burning Man was a year-round event, or Black Rock a year-round city, how would that effect Burners Without Borders?
Carmen Mauk: Burning Man is very specific to the area that we’re in, being on a dry lakebed, and with the heat, it would be pretty impossible for it to be a year-round city. But what we’re finding is, we want the ethos to continue on year-round. Burners Without Borders, Black Rock Art Foundation, and Black Rock Solar are examples of [organizations] that started with Burning Man.
City/CultureSo what are the larger questions that BWB addresses?
Carmen Mauk: What would happen if everybody brought this creativity to their community that we allow ourselves at Burning Man? What would be possible if we dared to dream? Is Burning Man a physical place that we have to build a city for it to be there? Or is something that we all take responsibility to bring back to our communities?
City/Culture: What percentage of burners participate in BWB?
Carmen Mauk: I don’t know, because there are 50,000 people who come and they are not the same people each year. Most of the projects that we start, or that come to me, are from people who go to Burning Man. But for example, of the people who are in Peru right now, almost all of them had not heard of Burning Man. We have a lot of people on our projects who don’t have any idea – until we tell them the origin story – where this came from. So we’ve jumped beyond the community.
As far as people who start projects, last year we opened up a grants competition and we gave away $100-$1,000 for community projects. And what we want is for people to help learn from those projects. So they can be like, ‘Hey, I didn’t realize you could take over a crummy bathroom in a park and change it to an art gallery.’ Work with a city and it will only cost you $1,000.
There are different things that anybody can do without going to Burning Man. Being a burner is just being creative and going outside the box and solving the things you care about in your community.
City / Culture What can a group of burners do that a municipal government can’t or shouldn’t? In some of the places you go, there might not even be a functioning government.
Carmen Mauk: The truth is, Burners Without Borders really shines in places where there is not a lot of infrastructure. Like we saw in Haiti, there was so much militarization and occupation of the non-profits and everyone there that it made it very difficult for a group like ours to get in and take care of people the way we normally would. But a place like Peru – where we’ve had an action for three years – we can kind of do what we want. We do a lot of alternative building, we do wetlands restoration. And we’re doing things that the government is unwilling to do.
And these are things we are working with the community on – so its not like we’re coming in with our own ideas without asking anybody. But we’re really trying to figure out, in the face of a government or a system that doesn’t want to help you after an earthquake, what can we do?
City/CultureYou recently spent six weeks in Pisco. Can you talk more about what you and your colleagues are doing there?
Carmen Mauk: A steel company had been throwing away its wood crates. We went to the company and said, ‘We could use something like that if you want to give it to us.’ And they were like, ‘Yes, great, please take it.’ So we figured out a way with our carpenters to make a modular house out of the wood, and we decided to give the first one to a really hard-working family. The mother is a nurse; she works in the mountains. The father works two jobs. They have three children, and for three years they all have been living in a tent.
We decided to do an extreme homemaker version – have you seen that show? – and we filmed it and everything. All the family knew that we were building it except for the mom. It took a week to build, and after we did it, we surprised her.
When the family walked in it was incredible. You could see the looks on their faces and they could not imagine they were going to be in a house. It was occurring to them that now they get to lock their door, that their kids are going to be safe. It’s a big space for them. Their neighbors and everyone came in and were crowding into the house. The mother was crying and talking about how important it is for us all to help each other. And how we’d just come and gifted our work and we didn’t ask for anything back.
After she finished, her 12-year-old son burst into a song in Spanish, and it was the most beautiful thing that any of us had ever heard. It was all about how, ‘We’ll always be in each other’s hearts, we’ll never forget you, we’ve come such a long way together.’
[Mauk chokes up.] That’s why we’re doing it. When you do these organic acts, then everything just comes from that. We’re not trying to go in with our agendas, we’re just trying to help people. And we know that we can.
Read past City / Culture columns here. Email the columnist at lathinktank [at] gmail [dot] org.
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Planetizen
Cities With the Most Pedestrian Deaths - Sun, 05 Sep 2010
GOOD Magazine has an infographic illustrating the world cities with the most pedestrian fatalities per 100,000 residents. Unsurprisingly, 3 American cities are at the top of the list.
Cash for Clunkers Program A Dud, Say Economists - Sun, 05 Sep 2010
A new study says that the bump in sales brought on by the Cash for Clunkers program was immediately followed by an equal plunge in sales, effectively wiping out the economic benefit.
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Post Carbon Cities
Getting Out From Behind the Wheel - Tue, 19 May 2009
The New York Times' "Green Inc." blog explores reactions to a previous article on the Vauban car-free development in Freiburg, Germany. Post Carbon Cities author Daniel Lerch is quoted in this article.
Berkeley Energy Descent 2009-2020: Transitioning to the Post Carbon Era - Thu, 09 Apr 2009
The final report of the Berkeley Oil Independence Task Force, to be presented to the City Council in May 2009.
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Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Sep 1, 2010 - Prestigious Fellowship Brings Real-World Health Experience to Capitol Hill - Wed, 01 Sep 2010
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announces new Health Policy Fellows
Aug 31, 2010 - Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Northwest Health Foundation Announce New Initiatives to Build the 21st Century Nursing Workforce - Tue, 31 Aug 2010
Nine local foundations join Partners Investing in Nursing's Future (PIN).
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Small Business Times
NOW: High-speed rail draws a line in governor's race - Fri, 3 Sep 2010
Did You Know?: Manpower predicts shortage of skilled labor - Fri, 3 Sep 2010
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Smart Growth Online
COLORADO: Black Hawk Bans Biking on Most Streets
- Tues, 1 Sep 2010
Despite being set in the middle of a key scenic bike touring route through the Rockies, Black Hawk, Colorado, has banned bicycling on its main streets. ''It's an important issue to us, and we believe that Black Hawk should have the right to control its streets,'' said City Manager Mike Copp in a report.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Transit-Oriented Development Must Consider Families with School-Age Children
- Tues, 1 Sep 2010
Smart growth is increasingly proving its broad adaptability for mixed-use, diverse and sustainable neighborhoods. Still, many middle-class families with school-age children struggle to find apartments that are large enough, affordable, and located near good public schools. ''Unsubsidized apartments built today are almost exclusively designed for and marketed to people without school-age children,'' says University of Maryland Professor Emeritus of Architecture Roger K. Lewis. Lewis calls the situation ''a bit of a dilemma for anti-sprawl advocates'' in their work to locate ''a significant amount of future metropolitan growth'' in compact, walkable, transit-served urban areas, with jobs and affordable housing.
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Urban Institute
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Juneau County seeks forest land trade with cranberry grower
- Fri, 03 Sep 2010
DNR West Central Region - EAU CLAIRE. - Juneau County is proposing to withdraw 265 acres of county forest land from the state's County Forest Law Program in order to trade these acres, with an additional 39 acres of county ...
The Waukesha County Land Conservancy seeks grant for acquisition of land
- Fri, 03 Sep 2010
DNR Southeast Region - SUMMIT, Wis. - The Waukesha County Land Conservancy has applied for a 50 percent matching grant from the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program to assist with the purchase of 52 acres of land in the ...
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Wisconsin Historical Society Highlights
'Wisconsin's Own: Twenty Remarkable Homes'
The exquisite craftsmanship, detailed embellishments, and imposing silhouette of a notable historic home inspire our awe, but also conjure questions of the story behind the structure. We want to know who built this house, what brought them here, why they...
Exploring the Eclectic Harold Gauer Collection
A wildly eclectic collection of more than 220 photographs documenting the life and times of Milwaukee political campaign operative and promoter Harold Gauer provides the fodder for a gallery of surprising images from Wisconsin Historical Images. Trying to explain the...
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Wisconsin State Journal > Business
World Changing
Upcoming Events in Design and a Call for Reader Reports
Amanda ReedThere are three interesting conferences coming up in the design world this month (see below for details). If you are planning to go to any...
Arctic Round-Up: New Sea Routes Opening Up, New Infrastructure Imagined, and Canada's Taking Action
Amanda ReedMelting and thinning ice in the Arctic has proceeded so rapidly that new sea routes are opening up, infrastructure is being imagined, and countries like...