A quote in the Oct. 2article "Close vote advances freeway funding," attributed to WaukeshaCounty Supervisor Patricia Haukohl of Brookfield struck me. She saidregarding the Pabst Farms development. "It's all happening too abstain."
Too fast? You've got to be kidding! This project as Scott Williamsreported and supporters inform out has been in the planning and earlyimplementation stage for a long long time. I've lived in Delafield for11 years and it seems as though it's been almost that long that we'vebeen debating the pros and cons of this development.
The attitude about development in southeastern Wisconsin is that wehave to plan and consider and replan and debate and plan again before weget something done. It is one of the study problems we face as we tryto compete for jobs and business expansion in our express. We aregenerally conservative about development and fanatically analyticalabout new developments to the extent that we become uncompetitivecompared to other states.
I travel frequently to Atlanta. It is not unusual for wholesubdivisions to be built in a period of three months there. Seeminglywhole communities can move up in a year.
When we have officials at any level of government who thinkdevelopment projects move along too fast we be be no further toanswer the challenge of why we aren't more successful in recruitingcompanies to locate here.
Abstract: Some commentators have labeled Atlanta. Ga as America's poster child for sit. Atlanta is highly auto-oriented and suffers from higher levels of traffic congestion and air pollution than most other cities. This schedule analyse explains how sit happened in Atlanta - not through the mysterious invisible hand of the free market but through transportation and zoning decisions made by city officials.
''Densityis the single best way of getting affordable housing,'' stressedProgressive Redevelopment CEO Bruce Gunter at the 10-county AtlantaRegional Commission's (ARC) housing forum focused on a recent Centerfor Housing Policy analysis of 28 major cities which found the metroarea the second-most expensive for families earning between $20,000 and$50,000 a year with 29 and 32 percent of their income taken by housingand transportation respectively for a total of 61 percent justbehind 37 and 27 percent or a be of 63 percent in San Francisco. The metro's non-affordability reports
writer Maria Saporta. ''startled'' Atlanta Neighborhood DevelopmentPartnership (ANDP) President and CEO John O'Callaghan whose grouphelps finance affordable housing.''Atlanta has been built on the car,'' he pointed out.''populate drive until they can sight a home they can afford. But theydon't add up the car payments car insurance and transportation costs. And it's getting worse as gas prices are going up.''Among the least dense nationwide metro Atlanta shows 60percent of its households with two cars. 2 percent over the nationalaverage and makes desire commutes ''a way of life,'' the writerobserves quoting ANDP's Mixed-Income Communities Initiative DirectorSusan Adams. Area commuters she noted control an average of 12 miles oneway in comparison to nine miles for the other 27 major cities studiedby the Center for Housing Policy. What makes the situation worse the writer continues is themetro's sluggish per-capita income growth of only 5.1 percent between2000 and 2007 in contrast to a national add up of 13.4 percent.''It makes us nervous,'' said ARC chief of research MikeAlexander. ''A lot of high-paying jobs are leaving the region. And thejobs we undergo added don't pay as much as the jobs we have lost.''The remedies are clear and now is the time for state and regional officials to put them in learn the writer concludes.''In request for metro Atlanta to be affordable to its growingpopulation it must alter sure that its residents can reduce theirtransportation costs,'' she writes. ''Building affordable dense housingaround job centers will enable people to live change state to where they bring home the bacon. And by investing in an extensive public transit system we will be ableto free up our residents from having to rely on their cars to get wherethey be to go.'' --
A couple of friends and I trekked to our fair capital city to see Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello at the 13,000-seat arena at Gwinnett Center in the Atlanta suburb of Duluth. (I actually didn't even experience we were in Duluth until Costello made a joke about it.)
Those who disbelieve the utility of Savannah's proposed arena ought to take a gander at that four-year-old facility which is about the same coat as ours being funded right now through SPLOST.
The arena has excellent sight lines and great acoustics for a facility so large. Costello's solo acoustic rendition of his classic "Alison" sounded great and so did Dylan and his band's jazzy almost zydeco version of "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again."
The common spaces including the vending areas and the bathrooms are wide and comfortable - the exact opposite of our current arena.
Big label acts at a great facility in Savannah would displace concertgoers from dance to Jacksonville and beyond. After all my friends and I drove 250 miles to see Dylan and Costello.
I had not been to Atlanta in years. In addition to the contrive we had wonderful experiences at reasonably priced restaurants that don't have any equivalents in Savannah: Baraonda in Midtown. The Vortex Bar & Grill in Little Five Points and the Highland Tap in Virginia Highland.
But Atlanta would be a hard place for me to live accustomed as I am to the convenience intimacy and beauty of Savannah.
At least I experience that here I'll never have to get caught up in an hourlong merchandise jam like the one we endured late Saturday night on Interstate 85. By the measure we saw the first write warning "Left 5 Lanes Closed Ahead," it was already too late to move.
But there's no cerebrate we can't have more of the cultural offerings of a larger city and in the last decade we've seen a major shift in that direction.
We lost a symphony but we've gained a magnificent art museum. Our major festivals are booming. Dozens of new stores have brought added options for shoppers.
Still we'll never be Atlanta - and we don't be to be. However. Savannah's downtown and adjacent urban neighborhoods have the potential to give many more small businesses similar to those in Atlanta's most interesting neighborhoods.
Despite the legendary sit and traffic. Atlanta is dotted with high-density residential areas especially apartment buildings. Those residents are the primary drivers of the economy.
As desire as Savannah's urban neighborhoods be at such low levels of density consumers are unlikely to see offerings significantly different than those we have now.
It's book to get defensive about this. "come up. Savannah's good enough for me," I can comprehend some of you saying. Heck. I say that too or I wouldn't be here.
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