[Bikies] Eminent domain: Car culture literally strikes home

[Alison Dwyer, Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin]

Eminent Domain: Car culture literally strikes home

By Mark Parman

Susan heard about it at work in the middle of a surgical procedure. One of the anesthesiologists said he heard the city planned on putting a road through the middle of our house. Susan laughed, and said that was a good joke. Sick, but good. The doctor didn't laugh, so Susan got nervous.

Later that day she came home and told me. My response was "No way. Why would the city put a road through here?" Just to be on the safe side, I said we should go see Tony the next morning.

Tony is the city engineer, a friend and also a cyclist. From him, we found out that the doctor Susan had worked with the previous day wasn't joking. Tony showed us a large, detailed map, like the kind Army generals plot their battles on. A red line ran right through our living room, over the Jotul woodstove and the couch, exiting our bathroom, into the backyard razing several red oaks nearly 200 years old. Tony explained road grades and why the road bed had to be moved west, toward our home, to accommodate the steep drop off at the corner.

To say we were dumbfounded would be an understatement. We left I was shaking and Susan looked like she could cry. She did later, several times.

I got mad, ranted and raved. After the initial shock, we started to feel like refugees, a feeling that has yet to wear off.

A few weeks later, we received a letter from the city, this time showing a thick black line through our cape cod. It informed us that there would be an informational meeting for all interested parties at city hall. It also asked how this road could "facilitate our development plans."

The good/bad news we learned at this meeting was that the city probably won't eminent domain our home. They simply want to carve a four lane frontage road right next to our property line, possibly slicing off a back corner of our lot. So instead of losing our home, all we have to cope with is listening to the steady hum of traffic, while the neighborhood gets "developed."

At this meeting, the city planner outlined his master plan, the 20th Avenue extension for the town of Maine, the area the city wanted to gobble up. You see, all of the affected property owners live in the town of Maine, with little or no voice, little or no representation, in this matter. The city of Wausau plans to annex about three square miles of real estate, thereby increasing its tax base and facilitating development, in turn increasing the tax base even more. Ultimately, the city plans to move in north in our direction, no matter the consequence or the lives affected.

One town of Maine dairy farmer asked at the meeting why we needed the road; after all, the city has another four lane road set for construction less than a half a mile away. The city planner answered, "Because there's nothing there." When that "nothing" happens to be your home, your sense of place, your life, well, those words were hard to swallow.

We left that meeting even more bewildered, angrier than ever. I don't think I've ever felt this way in my life. I feel like a refugee, a pawn, a peon. We had several house projects planned this summer, a new deck and landscaping. But now I don't even feel like mowing the grass. Part of me wants to put a match to the place and light out for the West.

I feel jaded, cynical. While the rest of the country and the media spout off about freedom, liberty and united we stand, I can't help but think of the Constitution, of "due process" and "the right to pursue happiness." Now I can truly sympathize with my friends who own land along the Arrowhead Line powerline project, ordinary citizens threatened with eminent domain as well. Century farms, beautiful land chewed up and spit out all because we can't turn off the lights. When push comes to shove, we really don't have property rights in this country.

By now, readers may be wondering what my ranting has to do with cycling. A whole lot, as I see it.

One effect of our car culture is the roadway asphalt, tarmac, the concrete ribbon. More cars, more roads. More people, more cars, more roads in an endless vicious cycle.

With the road will come development. Now, we wouldn't mind homes sprouting in the neighborhood, although that would clearly increase traffic because a very small percentage of those moving in, if any at all, would think of leaving their homes without driving. But the city planner had no answers for my questions about zoning and expected traffic rates. Would there be a McDonald's down the way, a Quik Trip, a Sprawl Mart? Will the fumes and noise from 9,000 cars per day force us to keep our windows closed and live like caged birds?

I asked if there were plans for a bike/walking path? The city planner said they'd consider that if the "contingency arose." In other words, are you crazy? We barely have enough money to build the road.

Right now, the road past our place is a major silent sports thoroughfare. Everyday, people walk it, run it, cycle it. I see Gary Fisher a couple of times a week. Not the bike guru the guy who just retired from his job at a window factory and spends part of his day walking off all the ice cream he claims he's eating. He walks with a listing gait that I can spot half a mile away.

J.T. walks by swinging a golf club, which always accompanies him on his walk. Erin runs by, so does Pepsi Man. The old lady from the condos around the corner does her morning workout in her good clothes. She looks like she's over 80, but she hammers away pretty much every day. The track teams from West and Newman high schools run intervals up the grade past our front door. Several neighbors walk their dogs, kids ride their bikes here. It's a well used road well used meaning that not only cars use it.

But this will all be a memory in a few years, after the frontage road comes through, after the "development." Few will dare to fight the traffic on a major thoroughfare, and the neighborhood will be forced to find an alternative route. Or simply drive. Once again peace, health and quality of life will be sacrificed to commerce. It's an old story in this country.

Unfortunately, I don't know what I can do to fight this expansionism. I don't have an alderman to represent me. At a recent city council meeting, a dozen or more town of Maine residents tried to be heard, but the mayor tabled the road issue, one she admits is on the fast track. We will fight the road, but our fate seems decided. After all, Americans want more roads, a frightening thought in a democracy.

We have already decided that we want no part of a community that grabs without asking, that plans without consulting, that builds regardless of the consequences. Wausau doesn't seem even faintly interested in promoting any sort of alternative transportation. Nobody from city hall has approached us and asked us our thoughts. Wausau doesn't seem interested in designing livable communities. We can take a hint.
 

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