The Forum

My blog will be quiet for a while. 

I have accepted a temporary position with a company called "Brilliant Corners Research & Strategy", a Washington DC political polling and strategy company associated with the Obama campaign.  I currently work in marketing research, so the job I will be doing is very similar to what I already do in terms of the technical skill requirements. The engagement lasts until November of this year, at which point I intend to return to Shorewood.  

I am always interested in what is going on in Shorewood, so please do not hesitate to email me with interesting Village happenings.  Until then, take care and be safe. 

This Wednesday, the Village Board appointed Drive to Distinction (D2D) Chair Sean Cummings to the Trustee position vacated by Michael Phinney.  Now Trustee Cummings previously petitioned the Village Board for a $600,000 grant for the D2D athletic field renovation.  The Board eventually approved the request, at a lower amount of $465,000.

His term will run through April, 2010.  A total of 11 other applicants put in their names for the open position. 

According to a recent ShorewoodNOW article, the others who applied include Mark Clingaman, Daniel Daemmrich, Peter Grimes, William Kohl, Patrick Linnane, Brady McMonigal, Tim Ryan, Ryan Scott, Brad Simenz, Niki Skinner and John Toutenhoofd.

I saw with a mix of disappointment and interest that 12 people had put in their names for the open Village Trustee position.  Disappointment because at some level, I find it troubling that so many are willing to apply for the position, but so few are willing to run for it in an election.    Interest because there are some names on the list who are new to Village political life.  Hopefully, they will continue to participate after the appointment process is over.

The last Trustee election was unopposed, but now we have 12 people lining up for an open seat.  The election before that had 3 candidates.  As soon as it was over, we had 9 people lining up for Guy Johnson's open seat.  Why do so few run for the office of Trustee, but so many seek appointment to it?

Passers-by are reporting seeing Shorewood Police Officers on the east side of Lake Drive this morning with their weapons drawn.  According to the account, two officers were pointing their weapons at a man lying face down on the ground. 

If you saw this incident, or have more information, please email me or leave a comment. 

I attended a meeting last week on the various options for rebuilding Capitol Drive.  There are two main options, one with bike lanes, and one without.  In designing the options, the engineers considered tradeoffs between bike lanes, driving lanes, sidewalks, trees, medians, turn lanes, and other design components.  Needless to say, bike lanes change the amount of space available for other components. 

For more information on the two working designs, visit the Capitol Drive reconstruction information website. 

Rumors have been circulating that up to 50 trees may be removed in the course of this reconstruction no matter which option they go with.  In viewing the website, I do not count this number when viewing the various options.  If anyone can tell us conclusively either way, please go ahead and post a comment. 

Low-flying plane spraying for gypsy moths

THURSDAY, May 29, 2008, 6:44 a.m.
By Linda Spice

Callers expressing concern about a low-flying plane over Shorewood and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee about 6 a.m. today learned from Milwaukee County Sheriff's dispatchers that the pilot is spraying for gypsy moths in the area.

"There is no cause for alarm," a dispatcher told deputies on the road over the scanner this morning, noting television news reports of what was occurring.

Sheriff's dispatch raised concerns that neither the department nor Milwaukee police were informed of the plane's intentions and found themselves with citizen phone calls questioning what was happening. They received information from TV choppers in the air this morning but were attempting to get more details from airport officials.

The plane this morning is moving further south toward the downtown Milwaukee area, according to the sheriff's office.

Shorewood Village President Guy Johnson will be running for Rep. Sheldon Wasserman's open WI State Assembly seat this fall.  According to the WI State Elections Board website, Johnson has filed papers to run in the election as a Democrat.  The current slate of candidates includes 5 Democrats and 1 Republican.

Wasserman is vacating his seat to challenge Alberta Darling for her State Senate seat. 

At this Monday’s Meeting, the Village Board decided to appoint a Village Trustee to fill the seat vacated by Michael Phinney.  Other options would have been to hold the seat vacant until a special election could be held, or for the duration of the unexpired term. 

The appointment process for the new Trustee will be identical to what was done in 2006 for Trustee Dawn Anderson.  Anderson was appointed to fill the balance of then Trustee Guy Johnson’s term after his election to Village President.

An application process will be open to interested and eligible Shorewood residents.   The process will include a questionnaire, interviews, and then a vote by the board.   Last time, the questionnaire included several open ended questions, as well as an attached resume.  Following the application process, the Board will conduct 30 minute interviews of all candidates at a Village Board meeting in June.  The Board will then vote on the applicants and make their choice that same evening as the interviews.

Interested residents should call the Village Manager's office at (414) 847-2700 for more information.  The application forms will be posted on the Village Website in the near future. 

At last night’s meeting, the board approved two new consulting projects worth $26,000. 

1. The first ($16,000) is for a plan related to bluff improvements near the Sunrise Facility.  While the details of the study were not at all clear to me, it has something to do with planning for bluff stabilization and foot/bike bath construction.  The purpose of the study was similarly confusing to the members of the board, prompting 30+ minutes of discussion between members of the Board and Village Manager Chris Swartz.  Vote passed: 6-0. 
   
2. The second ($10,000) is for a consultant to create a village-wide plan for bicycle traffic.  This study is prompted by the upcoming changes to Capitol Drive, and the desire to study the possibility of including bike lanes.  This study may not actually occur, since the vote yesterday was to authorize the Village Manager to commission such a study, if necessary, rather than a vote to make the study happen.  Vote passed: 6-0.

A number of streets over here have been in complete darkness for the last few nights.  Driving home tonight, I noticed the lights were out on Congress, Kensington, and the 4400 block of Woodruff.

I mentioned in a previous post that Shorewood shows a slight but distinct political pattern in terms of the relative likelihood to vote for conservative or liberal candidates.  I checked a few of the recent election results which are shown below.  Although the pattern is not perfect, there is generally about a 10-15% difference between the most liberal wards (7-8), and the most conservative (11-12).  The chart below shows the % of the vote that each candidate received in the Feb and April 2008 election cycles. 

Ward Number	BUTLER	TAYLOR	OBAMA
Wards 7-8	78%	68%	63%
Wards 3-4	72%	59%	61%
Wards 5-6	73%	57%	61%
Wards 9-10	69%	57%	57%
Wards 1-2	71%	56%	55%
Wards 11-12	68%	53%	54%

As a side note, the wards on the bottom of the list are West of Oakland Ave.  (View Ward Map)

I apologize for being a bit slow on the blogging as of late.  

I thought this headline and picture from 620 WTMJ's website would make you laugh.  What seems out of place to you?

Source: http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local 

A few highlights from Tuesday's election.

1. Overall turnout was 34%, significantly lower than the 53% who turned out for the February presidential primary.
2. The highest turnout wards were 5 and 6, located along the lake, at 40% of registered voters, . 
3. The lowest turnout areas were wards 1 and 2, the southwest corner near SIS, at 27% of registered voters.
4. There is an interesting bit of political geography going on here in Shorewood, which I will cover in a future post.  Generally speaking, those who live west of Oakland voted more conservatively in this election cycle than those who live east of Oakland.  More on that later.
5. In other elections, not already covered on ShorewoodNOW, Shorewood residents voted as follows:

CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE BRANCH 40

REBECCA DALLET	82.52%
JEFFREY NORMAN	17.48%

COUNTY EXECUTIVE

SCOTT WALKER	41.68%
LENA C TAYLOR	58.32%

STATE PARTIAL VETO REFERENDUM

YES	68.98%
NO	31.02%

I attended a presentation today on Carbon Offset for vacation travel.  Expedia offers TerraPass carbon offsets already, as do several of the major rental car companies (view full list). 

In case you are scratching your head wondering in the world a Carbon Offset is...

What is a Carbon Offset?  (From TerraPass)

A carbon offset is a certificate representing the reduction of one metric ton (2,205 lbs) of carbon dioxide emissions, the principal cause of global warming.

I am interested if any of you have purchased carbon offsets as a part of one of your vacations.  If so, what drove you to purchase them?  Generally speaking, what do you think of this idea? 

Don't forget to vote tomorrow!

Here are the YouTube videos with the school referendum tour again, in case you missed them the first time.

1. Intro to the referendum tour
2. SHS pool renovations
3. SHS PE building renovations
4. SHS Library renovations

If you are unsure where to vote, here is a map showing Shorewood polling places, by ward.

I believe TIF funding can be a potential problem for other reasons, but disagree with Dave’s overall assessment that declining residential property values necessarily spell trouble for the TIF.  What would spell trouble would be if the Ravenna developer, the Lakewood Developer, and Sunrise all decided to cancel their projects, and no other developers decided to build or renovate anything in the TIF district.  If none of the commercial properties in the district appreciate, we will indeed be in trouble.  I see that as unlikely, given the genorisity we have shown with public funding, and the several high profile new developments that are now in the works.

We have funded some public improvement, activities, and developer incentives with TIF funds, and have more that we are targeting.  We are planning to pay these off with the tax revenues from the expected rise in the value of the properties that fall within the TIF. 

These will come both from renovation, and new development.  Sunrise, for instance, will bring in a stream of tax revenue well in excess of what Riverbrook and Touhy provide.   The Ravenna will increase the amount that was offered by the Gores house and the office building that was previously on the site.  The Lakewood building will provide a larger stream of tax revenue once the planned renovation is complete.  Other surrounding buildings will likely also appreciate, as the district as a whole grows and improves.  These increases in tax revenue will be used to repay the bonds we have taken out for streetscaping and other TIF activities.

The problem would come if we spent millions on public infrastructure, and saw no rise in the total assessment of the properties within the TIF.   In this case, we residential tax payers would indeed be responsible for funding the improvements we paid for with TIF supported bonds, as Dave suggested.  Given the developer commitments and interest we have seen in the Oakland and Capitol areas, this seems unlikely to me.  

I would argue that there are other dangers of heavy TIF usage, including impact on School Funding, and overpaying current owners for their properties, once the word gets out that the public wallet is open.  But I do not believe that declining residential values necessarily spell trouble for the TIF district. 

This comes by way of a friend at the Legion Post (hat tip, Joe). 

The AB Data Building in Shorewood is now advertised on the CB Richard Ellis website. 

• Sale price: $3.5 million
• Listed as a: "OFFICE BUILDING FOR LEASE OR SALE / REDEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY." 
• Building size: Approximately 28,609 square feet
• Lot size: Approximately 45,750 square feet or 1.05 acres

Here is the full advertisement.

The AB Data building on Port Washington Rd in Fox Point is also for sale through CBRE. 

From this week's Village Manager's Memo:

AT&T Boxes: AT&T has requested installation of one of their new cable boxes in the public right-of-way on the west side of N. Cramer Street, just north of Edgewood Avenue. Letters were mailed to neighboring property owners for comments.

 

Several Updates, 3/14/08

1. There is now a For Sale sign in front of the building on Wilson Dr.  Prior to placing the sign, AB Data had, within the past several weeks, made indications to Village officials that they intended to keep the Shorewood location open.  
2. The Village officials I have spoken with did not know that AB Data was planning to put the building up for sale.
3. The real estate agency is CB Richard Ellis, the same agency that executed the sale of the Riverfront site to Sunrise Senior Living.
4. Back when AB Data first announced that they were purchasing the former Manpower Building, I wrote a post on the possibility of AB Data leaving Shorewood.  After that post, I heard from several Village officials reassuring me that AB Data was not closing the Shorewood location, and instead would simply relocate certain staff to the new location.
5. As of this moment, the Village officials I have spoken with have no knowledge of specific transactions in the works related to this property.
6. AB Data is located in the Tax Increment District.  As such, transactions involving this property could potentially include developer incentives, as in the case of the Ravenna, Sunrise, and Lakewood projects.

3/17/08

I have received new information that AB Data may be leaving Shorewood.  Updates to follow.

This winter in WI has been particularly cruel and nasty.  To warm my frozen bones, and hasten the coming of Spring, I am headed to warmer climates for a few weeks.  See you when I get back.