At 11:37 AM -0500 6/25/08, Robbie Webber wrote:
defeatist,
throwing up our hands
all is lost,
--More aptly resembles the excuses Madison's alders come up with for
their unanimous votes for unsustainable highway expansions all over
the city. There is not one alder who is an exception to this.
Instead of pleading for people to come to your emotional rescue, it
might be time to gin up some courage and *gasp!* actually vote 'no'
on the routine highway expansion projects.
Leadership tends to produce followers. It is time for leadership on
the issue of efficient transportation. The people have been providing
that leadership by supporting and electing people who claim to stand
for change in our land use and transportation patterns toward a more
bikeable, walkable, transit-oriented future. (We still have the
campaign statements, btw.)
And still, the highways are expanded in a knee-jerk fashion.
Yet the City's Comprehensive Plan has enshrined the ideals of mixed
use, walkable, bikeable, transit-friendly places after much citizen
input.
And still, the highways are expanded in a knee-jerk fashion.
It isn't as if the people of the 5th District--or the 12th, or even
the majority of the city for that matter--are clamoring for expanded
highways.
On the contrary. Most of us are tired of paying for the waste and
inefficiency of such development. The mayoral election of 2003 was
essentially a referendum on sound land use & transportation. Remember
that the victor was once the executive director of the statewide
smart growth advocacy group. We simultaneously (and since) supported
& elected alders who claim sound land use & transportation as
priorities.
And still, the highways are expanded in a knee-jerk fashion.
Every new neighborhood on the periphery involves massive highway
expansion. It gets rubber stamped by this council every time.
The latest example is the Pumpkin Hollow Plan on the northeast side
of Madison. The plan is so ugly that development is platted to turn
*away* from the street! It is so shot through with so many big
highways that there is but one way in from the rest of the city: by
big highway. Not exactly a pedestrian, bike or transit-friendly
design.
It was approved by the council, unanimously.
And more anti-ped/bike/transit development just like it is on the way.
In your service on the Ped/Bike/Motor Vehicle Commission, every two
weeks you hear the pleas of neighbors from neighborhood after
neighborhood to bring the traffic volumes and speeds under control.
It isn't exactly a mystery as to why this happens: A neighborhood
built to the scale of the automobile will be dominated by the
automobile.
It is time for alders of the Madison Common Council to catch up with
history. Check out the foreclosure notices in the Wisconsin State
Journal sometime; virtually all of the foreclosures are out there in
the car-oriented 'burbs of Madison & beyond. Virtually none are
occurring in bikeable, walkable, transit-friendly places.
Car-oriented development is breaking people's finances. Why do you
(all of the council) continue to vote for economically unsustainable
places?
-Mike Barrett
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