Leverington Warns About Over Development

Submitted by Gary Leverington, Fitchburg

Dear friends and representitives,

I've grown increasingly concerned regarding the recent discussions of the NE neighborhood development.

What I hear mostly are concerns (quite valid) about the negative impact that building a large number of houses will have on the environment and animal habitat - what's missing are concerns about the impact on housing values.

Certainly current residents (if more informed and aware of the risks) would not be happy to see additional new housing being permitted in Fitchburg. Most are not in favor of it anyway!

And for those listening to the developer's point of view - rather than doing their own due dilligence to learn the true state of affairs about the health - or lack thereof - of the housing market in the Madison area - perhaps the following data linked below will serve as an information source.

Please remember - many people bought at the top in Florida and are now getting their heads handed to them (with a 29 month supply of homes for sale in some areas and home auctions with zero bidders)! They also mistakenly believed (at one point) that they were immune from a decline.

The facts are: Lending standards have tightened dramatically, and many would be buyers can no longer qualify for a loan - additionally - smart buyers are choosing to be prudent and wait for lower prices - and an increasingly large number of owners are facing mortgage resets that will raise their payments by 20-40% and give them little choice but to bail out and place their homes on the market.

Note: The majority of mortgage resets (subprime, ARMs, zero down) will occur in the latter part of this year and in 2008, thus placing additional downside pressure on an already weakening housing market.

Please become informed and refrain from adding additional housing supply into a market at precisely the wrong time (amid slowing demand and a slowing economy).

Just look in the Madison Sunday paper homes for sale section and see the increasing number of ads with the headline "Price Reduced" - do you still think Madison (Fitchburg in particular for purposes of this discussion) is immune from a down turn in prices during a period of falling demand and too much supply!

With more houses potentially on the way - with developers (example NE neighborhood that the public does not want or need!) promoting their own agenda regardless of the facts?

Some of you may choose to go along to get along with the developer crowd - and put your housing values at risk - but I for one do not appreciate the obvious naivete regarding this matter.

I'm aware you do not have an easy job amid developer pressures to continue adding more houses/condos. But the time has come to stand up and support the facts, not pie in the sky wishful thinking that our community is somehow immune to oversupply and slowing demand. It is not.

The evidence is below and the data speaks for itself. Please do the right thing for the people that already reside here - not to mention the land, the deer, the lake, traffic issues and infrustructure costs!

All the best to you in making your decisons.

Gary Leverington / Fitchburg

Here is the link - please print and distribute. Keep in mind - the information in the report is objective. (See Market Wrap Up for Thursday, Sept 27 titled "Markets Betting on More Fed Rate Cuts" by Gary Dorsch.)

Current supportive data is below as well (or read link):

S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index Falls 3.9% in July

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell the most on record in July, indicating the threat to consumer spending was rising even before credit markets seized up in August, a private survey showed today.

Values dropped 3.9 percent in the 12 months through July, steeper than the 3.4 percent decrease in June, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index. The index declined in January for the first time since the group started the measure in 2001, and has receded every month since then.

Stricter lending standards and reduced demand are prolonging the housing slump, now entering its third year. Prices may continue to fall as homes stay on the market longer, economists said. Diminished housing wealth may spur households to pare spending, hurting economic growth.
The housing slump "doesn't seem like it will go away any time soon,'' said Michael Gregory, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto, who forecast the index to drop 4.1 percent. "As far as consumers go, this is another sort of pall over'' their ability to borrow against the value of their homes, he said.

Economists forecast the gauge would slide 4 percent, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey.

After the report, 10-year Treasury notes stayed higher, with the yield falling to 4.59 percent at 10:13 a.m. in New York, from 4.63 percent late yesterday.

The group's 10-city composite index, which has a longer history, dropped 4.5 percent in the 12 months ended in July.

Summer Declines

Compared with June, home prices in the 20 areas fell 0.4 percent after a 0.4 percent decline the month before. The figures aren't seasonally adjusted, so economists prefer to focus on the year-over-year change.

"The housing market has been weakening now for a couple of years and it just continues on its trajectory,'' said Robert Shiller, chief economist at MacroMarkets LLC and a professor at Yale University, in an interview.

Shiller and Karl Case, an economics professor at Wellesley College, created the home-price index based on research from the 1980s.

The index is a composite of transactions in 20 metropolitan regions. Fifteen cities showed a year-over-year decline in prices, led by a 9.7 percent decrease in Detroit. The area showing the biggest gain was Seattle, where prices rose 6.9 percent.

Prices for single-family homes in the New York metropolitan area were down 3.8 percent compared with a year earlier.

Other Reports

Separately, the Conference Board said today that its index of consumer confidence fell more than forecast in September to the lowest level in almost two years, as declining home values and tougher borrowing standards took a toll on Americans' spirits.

The National Association of Realtors, in a report today, said sales of previously owned U.S. homes fell in August to a five-year low. Purchases were down 4.3 percent, less than forecast, to an annual rate of 5.5 million, the Realtors group said in Washington. Sales dropped 13 percent from a year earlier and median home prices rose 0.2 percent to $224,500.

Existing homes account for about 85 percent of the market and sales of new homes make up the rest. The report on new-home purchases, which are calculated based on signings and are considered a more timely indicator, is due from the Commerce Department tomorrow.

Rate Cut

The measures from Commerce and the Realtors group can be influenced by changes in the types of homes sold. Because the S&P/Case-Shiller index and another gauge by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight track the same home over time, economists say these more accurately reflect price trends.

Most economists expect housing to extend its two-year slump and continue to be a drag on economic growth as loan foreclosures rise and tougher lending standards make borrowing more difficult.

The Federal Reserve, cut its benchmark interest rate on Sept. 18 for the first time in four years and said the credit meltdown "has the potential to intensify the housing correction, and to restrain economic growth more generally.'' Weakness in the housing market was part of the reason U.S. payrolls fell by 4,000 last month.

The number of Americans who may lose their homes to foreclosure more than doubled in August from a year earlier, according to a report Sept. 18 by RealtyTrac Inc.

'Heavy' Discounts

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, on Sept. 20, repeated the central bank's intention to issue new consumer-protection rules by year-end. He also told the House Financial Services Committee that the subprime turmoil has spread through financial markets, ``raising concern about the consequences for economic activity.''

Bernanke made his comments at a Congressional hearing that also included testimony from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson.

A glut of homes on the market adds to pressure for sellers to lower prices. The inventory of single-family existing homes on the market represented a 9.2-months' supply in July, the most since October 1991, the Realtors group said on Aug. 27.

Earlier today, Lennar Corp., the largest U.S. homebuilder, reported the biggest quarterly loss in its 53-year history. Revenue at Miami-based Lennar fell 44 percent to $2.34 billion, the lowest in more than three years.

"Heavy discounting by builders, and now the existing home market as well, has continued to drive pricing downward,'' Lennar Chief Executive Officer Stuart Miller said in a statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Courtney Schlisserman in Washington cschlisserma@bloomberg.net Last Updated: September 25, 2007 15:25 EDT

No Substitute for Water

Here’s a great line from one of my favorite comedians:

"You never know what you have until it's gone, and I wanted to know what I had, so I got rid of everything." - Steven Wright

Maybe that’s not such a bad idea. What would we really miss? What would we put in its place?

I certainly wouldn’t miss the closet full of project files that I ended up with after I sold my business. Come on… admit it… you also harbor a different, but equally useless, stash. Let’s face it; nobody alive today will ever ask for papers that are already 5 to 25 years old even if we did manage to remember we had them! (Exception: This excludes all documentation required by guys with guns… the IRS.)

In addition to the cardboard-clad “files” of paper, consider all those plastic-encased tubs of trinkets. It probably amounts to quite a pile of stuff weighing us down and not a collection of treasures that lifts our spirits. In fact, this assortment often distracts us from more important things. Oh sure, you have it closeted all right, but how many times are you going to move it from dwelling to dwelling or room to room over the course of your life?

Wouldn’t it be better to clear some of the clutter to create an opening for new thoughts and room for new interests (ok, new stacks of paper and plastic)?

I think Fitchburg residents have an equally useless and distracting set of clutter. (You knew I’d somehow relate this to the Blog’s theme… right?) We seem to shelter tattered ideas and drag them out from time to time instead of tossing them into the recycling bin. Sure we need to preserve some history (those breadcrumbs showing where we have been) but, above all, we need to pay attention to new information.

In case you haven’t guessed where I’m headed, this new input should serve as the basis for our revised vision of Fitchburg in the year 2030 or beyond. Instead of harping about the previous versions of the Future Urban Development plan, let’s listen to experts as they guide us in a new direction. We have more tools and more facts now than at any time in the past. This is both bad and good. We have more ways to destroy our habitat, our environment, our home. But, we also have more ways to measure this destruction and evaluate how to reverse the trend.

(1) One such reversal is to restore wetlands and protect streams and creeks through buffers and stream bank projects. (Water Quality)
(2) Another is to create (and live within) our Water Budget by knowing how much water we extract from the aquifer and how much we put back. (Water Quantity)

Although the Plan Commissioners have looked at farmland preservation and many other factors as they create a new Urban Growth Boundary, they have yet to factor in these two related concerns.

During his presentation on Sept. 4th (described in an earlier entry here), Professor Cal DeWitt recounted a conversation with someone at the Fish Hatchery. He described his research showing that adding a new municipal well probably reduced the flow of an old artesian well one mile away at Nevin Springs Fish Hatchery. The person responded to this discovery by saying “That well’s already built. Right? Then, we can’t do anything about it.” But, as Professor DeWitt pointed out, that’s the way our whole environment deteriorates, of course.

Let’s not destroy this wonderful area by a thousand tiny cuts to our support system.

Instead of only caring about the “top quality” wetlands, streams and lakes, we should be doing everything we can to restore all water resources to their original state. It is foolish to let some resources die an unnatural death at our hands just because we’ve let them degrade up until now. There are ways to protect them from further harm and also to slowly restore them to health.

Creeks and streams have a purpose and we need to appreciate their role. I was amazed to learn that once we’ve degraded a creek to certain level, the city no longer offers it the same protection as one that managed to escape that level of damage. Isn’t this backwards? Shouldn’t we be doing more to protect the one that needs it the most?

Wetlands help clean and regulate the water in our area and we need more of them not less. Our current guidelines protect the “high quality” wetlands more than those we’ve degraded to a greater extent. Again, this is backwards or at least short-sighted. Let’s strengthen the regulations to protect them all (when feasible). We should also identify areas that were once wetlands by evaluating the telltale hydric soils and restore them whenever possible to help prevent catastrophic floods and purify our water for decades to come.

A recent study, Strategic Watershed Restoration and Protection Plan for the West Waubesa Wetlands, by a UW–Madison class evaluated hydric soils in one watershed covering a large portion of Fitchburg along with parts of the Town of Dunn. The map below shows hydric soils identified in the study. For orientation, Hwy 14 runs north and south through the center of the map from McCoy Rd (top) to north of Hwy M (bottom). Click here to view a larger version of the map and for more information about the study, please email me at fitchburgvoices@gmail.com.

Although groundwater recharge has been considered by the Planning Commission, it has been analyzed under the assumption that we want the most “recharge” per acre so areas were considered more valuable if they scored in the top 25% based on infiltration criteria. Although their definition of good infiltration is debatable, even if it’s accurate it misses the point. Dr. Ken Bradbury, Groundwater Expert and Hydrogeologist, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, gave a presentation last week explaining the hydrogeology system which underlies the Yahara Basin, including Fitchburg, and describing how scientists model and predict underground water movements. During the Q&A discussion, he indicated that although some recharge areas may be considered more important than others, all are important because some areas recharge different water features than others.

See the problem? If we recharge areas that affect X and not those that affect Y, Y will suffer.

In addition to recharge, the quantity of water we pull from the aquifer is also a big concern. As reported in recent newspaper articles, Dane County is now drinking from a couple of its lakes because numerous high capacity wells in the area are drawing down the aquifer enough that the water is no longer flowing into some lakes and is instead seeping from the lakes into the aquifer.

Dr. Bradbury also stated that in all of Wisconsin there are two areas that are having serious problems with groundwater (Green Bay and Waukesha) and two others that are designated as Groundwater Attention Areas to be watched – the Little Plover River (which recently dried up for the first time ever) and… you guessed it… Dane County.

I recently saw the new documentary film The 11th Hour. Without giving away the “plot” (which you probably already know), I was struck by one very unusual and startling calculation; it would cost the world about $35 trillion a year to perform all of the functions that nature does for us free of charge. That’s something like twice the size of all the world’s economies! Talk about externalities! This free service includes things like turning carbon dioxide into oxygen and pollinating plants. I assume it would also include flood control and water purification.

So, shouldn’t we use the *Precautionary Principle as we plan for our city’s future? The natural world is not just priceless from an aesthetic standpoint but is way beyond reach in economic terms. Will we miss it when it’s gone? Of course! What would we put in its place? The truth is; we can’t afford to replace it even if we knew how!

Please let your Plan Commissioners and Alders know that you want them to protect all of our water resources as they plan for the future of Fitchburg.

Footnote:

* (From Wikipedia) “The Precautionary Principle is a moral and political principle which states that if an action or policy might cause severe or irreversible harm to the public, in the absence of a scientific consensus that harm would not ensue, the burden of proof falls on those who would advocate taking the action.”

FLOWCHART: Are you a resident of Fitchburg, WI?

Sure, I'm guilty of saying that I'm from Madison when I travel outside of Dance County. But some folks seem to be genuinely confused about their city of residence, so I thought this flowchart might help. Click on the link below and when it opens, you may have to enlarge it by clicking near the top of the chart (if you see a "plus sign" or other "expand" symbol when you move the cursor over it).

I just noticed that sometimes, I'll get a message in Internet Explored indicating that it couldn't find the file. But, if I click "refresh" after the file fails to appear, it finds it! No, I don't understand why it works the second time, but you might give a try!

FitchburgResidentFlowchart1.jpg

P.S.
This is my first attempt to link to my own file so please email me at fitchburgvoices@gmail.com if it doesn't open for you. It would help to know what kind of computer and OS you are using. Thanks.

Website for Southdale-Rimrock

The Southdale-Rimrock Neighborhood Association has a new website (here). The home page includes the introduction below. Please share this with anyone interested in the area or the new re-development project:

"The neighbors, homeowners and tenants of the Southdale-Rimrock Neighborhood have renewed our Neighborhood Association and are ready to take an active role in the development and implementation of the neighborhood plan now being drafted. We are looking to work in partnership with our elected officials in shaping the future of our streets, homes and public places. We are becoming better-informed citizens and are proud to be active participants in developing our neighborhood character and quality-of-life.

We have been meeting regularly in an effort to get to know each other, share information, and form a neighborhood association. There are significant plans and changes being proposed that will impact our neighborhood, but very few of us seem to know in any detail what the true proposals and changes are. We want to be involved in the planning process and feel that the time has come for an open dialog with our elected officials and the major stakeholders about all aspects of the redevelopment of the Southdale-Rimrock area."

Water, Water... Anywhere?

The word is out. Professor Cal DeWitt has sleuthed some amazing and disturbing facts out of the recesses of our aquifers. At Tuesday night’s Planning Commission meeting, he explained the relationship he discovered between Fitchburg’s deep-aquifer, high-capacity Well #10 (located on Granite Circle) and the 125-year-old, upper-aquifer, cased artesian Well #8 (located at Nevin Springs Fish Hatchery). It had been assumed that both wells were drawing from separate aquifers based on their depth profiles (800 feet or more for Well #10 and 180 feet for Well #8), and one mile distance from each other. However, Professor DeWitt found a significant correlation between them that changes the original assumptions.

Nevin Springs was producing 400 gallons of water per minute (gpm) for a number of years until late 2001 when it started dropping. It has since continued at a lower rate of 300-350 gpm. A mile away, Well #10 started pumping in 2001 and within a year was pumping around 600k gallons per day.

As shown in one of his graphs, a pattern appears when comparing the flow volume drawn by the new, municipal well and the decreased flow, about 12 months later, from the artesian well.

The bottom line? About 10% of the pumpage of Well #10 is equal to the losses at Well #8 that show up after a 12-month lag. So, there is a connection between these wells in the upper and lower aquifers and water is traveling at the rate of 14.5 feet per day from Nevin Springs in the direction of the Granite Circle well.

The fact that Professor DeWitt was able to find this relationship buried in the data from many area wells is surprising enough but I received another shock when he told us that we don’t really know how this happens. It appears that, at least sometimes, the upper and lower aquifers are indeed connected even though they separated by an aquitard (made of layers of sedimentary rock) which limits vertical waterflow except in cracks. To complicate matters, the horizontal flow between these two wells is 10s of thousands of times greater than the vertical rate of water flow through the aquitard, perhaps because of long horizontal pipes that formed over the years.

What does this mean? Professor DeWitt urges us to consider the entire groundwater hydrology system before we do something that would stop the flow of water to important springs and lakes in the area. For example, if we turn off Deep Spring and other groundwater resources that refresh Lake Waubesa, the entire southern boot (most of the lake) would die (eutrophy). And distance does indeed make a difference when dealing with solutions. The farther away we stay from precious water resources, the better chance we have to protect them. So, locating any new well in the vicinity of the NE Neighborhood is more of a threat to Lake Waubesa and the natural resources because of its impact on groundwater flow to the watershed.

Although this bombshell was dropped during the agenda item for the NE Neighborhood and Stormwater Plans, it also must be considered for all well drilling activity and increased water use (ie. development) in Fitchburg and beyond. If we fail to consider how new high-capacity wells will draw groundwater from the surrounding area, other springs or wells (including private wells) could dry up. This has happened with many of the famed springs of Waukesha and the Little Plover River in Stevens Point, among others.

[Side Track: According to Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (link here), one entrepreneur wanted to pipe water from a Waukesha spring on his property all the way to Chicago to supply the 1893 World’s Fair. But, Waukesha residents didn’t want the water to leave the city and they showed up with guns, knives and pitchforks to stop the pipeline workers, returning at 2 am with a cannon (!) to drive away them away again. For the rest of the story, see the Lake Lore article on page 4 of the Alliance for the Great Lakes newsletter here.]

Fast forward to Fitchburg 2007.

Professor DeWitt explained the concept and vital need for Groundwater and Watershed Budgets which he likened to other budgets. Simply put, we need to know how much we are depositing (infiltration) into each aquifer and withdrawing (wells and springs) from each aquifer to be sure that we don’t overdraw our account and live beyond our means. To protect against this, he suggests that the City of Fitchburg recommend to Dane County and CARPC (Capital Area Regional Planning Commission) that:

1. they place high priority on developing a policy for a Groundwater Budget for the region; and
2. they work with Fitchburg on procedures for monitoring and evaluating diminished well and spring flow to the city and region.

I am happy to report that, after the presentation, applause (normally against the rules at these meetings) was allowed to acknowledge Professor DeWitt’s efforts, and the Planning Commissioners wisely responded to these sobering data by asking for more information before making a decision about the NE Neighborhood. I’m not sure if they actually ordered a Groundwater Budget but I think that prospect is at least on the radar if not the table.

(NOTE: FACTv recorded the entire meeting including Professor DeWitt's presentation. So, you can contact them to have a DVD made of all or part of the meeting or to rebroadcast it during their Thursday morning request slot. If that doesn't work for you, drop me an email at fitchburgvoices@gmail.com to borrow my copy.)

Calling All Localvores

Localvore -- A person committed to eating foods grown within their local food shed. (No, not a building!)

In case you haven't already heard about this, here's an event to seriously consider that was sent to me by a Sustain Dane Board Member (http://www.sustaindane.org/). What better way to support your local producers/growers and reduce your carbon footprint to boot? --- Terry

Eat Local Challenge – a 10-day challenge for you – and your organization

Join us in the challenge of eating locally for 10 days in September.
Fresh, locally grown food doesn’t just taste delicious, it can be better for our health, for our communities, for the Earth. When we eat locally grown food we support local farmers and our own community. The challenge is to have at least 10% of our food be local during the 10 days September 14 - 23. Go to http://www.cias.wisc.edu/eatlocal to register or for more information.

The challenge is to spend 10% of your food budget on locally grown or produced food during the 10 days from Friday, September 14 through Sunday, September 23.

What is “local”?

Buy food that is grown or produced as close to your home as possible. It could be from your own garden. Or it could be from your local Farmer’s Market. For the purposes of this Eat Local Challenge we are counting any food from Wisconsin or within 100 miles of your home as local.

Local also includes foods prepared or processed by locally owned companies or restaurants, preferably from locally grown ingredients.

The Trouble With Happiness

I’m finishing up the last chapters of “Stumbling on Happiness” by Daniel Gilbert (link here), an entertaining and thought-provoking book about how the mind works. What does the mystery of the mind have to do with Fitchburg? Plenty!

Gilbert explains that based on various studies “Starting points matter because we often end up close to where we started.” So, it was inevitable that after a maximum growth rate for Fitchburg of 75 acres per year was voted in, it would be seen as a target instead of a maximum. (Those of you who follow Council and Commission meetings may remember that I predicted this danger at the time. But admittedly, it was intuition not research that led me to that conclusion.) Every time I’ve heard it mentioned since then, the statement includes a comparison such as “we have enough land already identified in the Urban Service Area to last for X years at 75 acres per year.”

However, back on Feb. 20th, before this “maximum” was established, a presentation to the Planning Commission by city staff included the statement that, as of 2005, we had about 1,000 acres left to develop within the current Urban Service Area (USA) so we only need to add 250 acres from outside the USA to take us from 2005 to 2030. The assumption was based on a growth rate of, not 75, but 50 acres per year.

I don’t want to stray too far, but the February presentation also included an example of what would happen if we continue to develop at 100 acres per year which is close to the 104 acre average since 1990. The result when factoring in a “50% flexibility factor” is that by 2060, we’d use up roughly 10,000 of the remaining 11,000 acres that could be developed outside of the current Urban Service Area. If you aren’t alarmed, reread the last sentence! Let me put it another way. Under this scenario, all but a small portion of our entire 36 square mile city that isn’t preserved as a park or someone’s lawn could be covered with roads and roofs by 2060.

What if we want to protect more farmland and open space and “only” pave over 50 acres per year… or even 25 acres? Those amounts are still less than the maximum established (so they meet that criteria) but they are no longer even being considered as options at any of the meetings I’ve attended (and I haven’t missed many in the last six months). Was silencing all other discussions about Fitchburg’s rate of growth the intent of the 75 acre per year maximum or was it one of those unintended consequences?

This brings me back to the happiness problem. It turns out that it is quite difficult for us to predict what will make us happy in the future partly because, as Gilbert explains, “we use our present feelings as a starting point” and we “expect our future to feel a bit more like our present than it actually will.” So, when Steve or Hans or Phyllis describe a future with fewer car trips, we can’t imagine it since that’s not what most of us are currently experiencing.

Remember being warned that you should not grocery shop when you are hungry because you’ll buy things you don’t need? Similarly, we shouldn’t shop for Fitchburg’s Future with gasoline in our veins. It’s going to sway our judgment.

Instead, what if we used the gas shortages of the 1970s as our starting point when talking about the future of Fitchburg? (You may need to ask your parents or the all powerful Google about this if you are under 50.) How would being able to walk or bike to work, or the convenience of taking a commuter train or an express bus, compare with being stalled in traffic jams and waiting in line for hours every time you had to buy gas at ever increasing prices?

I contend that if you walked up to someone, who anticipated an hour or more wait to buy gas (like the picture below), and offered them an instant ticket on the Fitchburg Express (and a convenient way to get to the terminal), you could probably convert an unhappy driver into a happy passenger.

Line at gas station on Sept. 15, 1979 (from Wikipedia)

Another limitation of our brain, that affects our happiness, is described by Gilbert this way: It is “so much easier for me to remember the past than to generate new possibilities. I will tend to compare the present with the past even when I ought to be comparing it with the possible.” In this case, the past is not the 1970s but the more recent past. We have a hard time generating new possibilities going forward. This takes vision and requires a willingness to consciously remove some things from the table to make room for new ideas. By design, most of us are not gifted in this area. (More about this later.)

Our lack of vision also means that we often “fail to realize that our future selves won’t see the world the way we see it now.” I believe our inability to recognize that our future selves will be living in a different world, (with a different set of facts, and therefore a different set of values and beliefs), hinders our ability to make the changes necessary to create a better future.

It turns out that we are programmed to pay attention to the things we want to hear, to remember details that support our views, and to accept a lower standard of proof for facts with which we agree. While that seems like a rather immature way to act, it’s all in the name of happiness. In Chapter 8 - Paradise Glossed, Gilbert explains that people have a “Psychological Immune System that defends the mind against unhappiness in much the same way that the physical immune system defends the body against illness… A healthy psychological immune system strikes a balance that allows us to feel good enough to cope with our situations but bad enough to do something about it.”

Yes, there is trouble with happiness. We need to happily cope with today’s problems. But, let’s not let things get bad before we do something about them, because today’s solutions (including inaction) could create irreversible problems in the future. And that’s a place that we (or someone we love) must live.

Kurt Questions City's "Diversity"

I like the following comments, stolen from a newsletter by Jim Kunstler:

In the natural course of things, new buildings command premium prices precisely because they are new. Affordable housing, in the natural course of things, is prime housing that has gotten older. Historically this occurs in cycles. However, that cycle was interrupted after the Second World War -- and with it, the natural course of things...

If affordable housing is the gripe, there's one way that the city could create a lot of affordable housing, without any government subsidies, at the stroke of a pen: change the bylaws that restrict accessory apartments and rental out-buildings in the neighborhoods. This way, someone who is not in the market for a house -- a young single teacher or fireman -- could live in-town, and the homeowner-landlord would get an income stream to help cope with a high mortgage. You can specify that the landlord has to live on the premises. The idea that apartment dwellers destroy housing values in a neighborhood is not consistent with reality. It's another perverse hold-over from the last real-estate cycle during which there was so much demolition and little was replaced, except by one-story strip mall-style retail structures with no rental apartments in them. Another ironic result of all this is that government is now required to supply an artificial commodity called "affordable housing" to make up for the fact that almost no traditional downtown rental market housing was built in this country in the second half of the 20th century -- so it's not there getting older and becoming more affordable.

There will always be better and worse neighborhoods. An ideal of absolute social equality in all neighborhoods is probably unrealistic. There will be better and worse renters, too, and better and worse apartments. The cycle of home ownership may even change a lot in the years ahead. The relatively high rate of individual home ownership of recent years will very likely fall as the current mortgage mess works itself painfully out over the years ahead. It will become more normal -- less of a stigma -- to be renter. The benefits of home ownership for everybody have been over-hyped in recent years, especially as an unprecedented real estate up-market turns steeply down and property taxes go up.

-------------

Fitchburg’s near total focus on new development – partially understandable, I suppose – attempts to foster more diversity, but it’s a very limited spectrum. We want diversity if it’s a marketable, risk-free commodity with some cachet.

Fitchburg officials occasionally tout the city’s diversity, but it’s an empty boast. The city is heavily segregated by economic status and the new developments promise more of the same. There seems more potential for diversity in older neighborhoods, but the city’s focus is elsewhere.

I remembered an era when houses decayed along with their owners, adding a mosaic of diversity that would simply not be possible today. Get old or poor here and you have to get out. That is, I suppose, characteristic of most places in the U.S.

The thought of growing old in Fitchburg is still pretty depressing. Yes, we now have more places to eat, more places to live, and good sanitary sewers. It’s a good place to excavate, eat and evacuate.

Fitchburg's Grand Opportunity

Phil Lewis, "retired" Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture, shares with us a revised version of the comments he recently submitted regarding Ruekert-Mielke's proposed "Northeast Neighborhood" Plan. [Emphasis and clarification in brackets are mine.] -- Terry

To Ruekert-Mielke and Fitchburg's Planning Commission:

The option to integrate the two plans (on the rail corridor) of Kelly and Wall appears to be taking shape. Truly high-density economically viable development at this location should be considered. A design providing opportunities for such high-density development, starting with a foundation framework than over time can be added to as demand for more facilities increases, is required. Such a design could also assure that future development would occur over first-phase surface parking lots. Ideally, such a design would look to underground parking now and in the future.

Based on information presently available to me, development of the Sveum property [in the Northeast Neighborhood] should be postponed until the necessary transit-oriented density on the rail corridor is achieved. This requires a major effort by all to improve and utilize the rail corridor for transit. Consideration should be given to moderate-density adjacent to high-density development and organic food production opportunities should be pursued (see Sveum property) along with E-Way expansion at this time. I have presented such ideas publicly on a number of occasions.

I have also noted that a large percentage of the people in Dane County live within one mile of a rail corridor and Fitchburg has a grand opportunity to put into practice the kind of development that supports mass transit and higher liveable densities, that provides greater amenities for daily living, local food production, preservation of natural and cultural resources, and avoids mindless sprawl.

Since a high percentage of Dane County people live within a corridor, one mile either side of a rail line, and since this percentage uses electricity, doesn’t it seem reasonable to locate proposed new [ATC] transmission lines within this rail corridor, placed within or attached to higher density structures, or beneath them, as is possible in Fitchburg? As part of urban structures (easily accessible for repair, less susceptible to weather and other damage, grounded to eliminate stray voltage problems, and well insulated for protection of their surroundings), electricity for magnetic induction motor propelled personal rapid transit or other applications with minimal line losses would be available. Towers that unnecessarily disrupt our magnificent landscape would not be needed.

Philip H. Lewis, Jr.

Check Out This Blog

There's a new blog in town called Healthy Future for Kids. I consider this a local blog because one of the authors is a Fitchburg resident. From their blog:

"2 Moms, Melinda, a journalist, and Rosanne, an MS Environmental Health Scientist, discuss health articles, information and ideas with the goal of healing our kids and saving our nation's future from big-ag, big-pharm and others who make money off of sick people."

Now that's a great goal for us to support!

I've benefited (via email) from the research by these two energetic and internet savy women for a number of months now. So, I'm glad to see them reach out to a broader audience through the blogosphere.

Please check it out and spread the word.