Mass/Volume

Mike Ivey of The Capital Times has been doing his homework on the construction here in town. He's had two articles this week on the subject: "East Wash: How Tall Is Too Tall?" and "Weston Place woes". Reading them, I became slightly depressed because I now realize that sprawl is unstoppable. More and more stretches of open fields and farmland are going to be chewed up and spit out as sets from Edward Scissorhands with street layouts like this:



Urban planners of the 16th century were able to design and build the city of Valletta in a grid pattern but 20th/21st century Madison is seemingly unable to do the same. Instead we get the above mish-mash of curves and cul-de-sacs which render these areas impervious to public transportation. And so sprawl will continue. But why?

No urban planner I but reading Ivey's articles gave me a clue – density. Read the articles and you'll find that towns, villages, and neighborhood groups all bitch about density. From the one on East Washington:

"Just how far east-siders are willing to go is up in the air. Patrick McDonnell, new president of the Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood Association, has weighed in against greater density."

From the article on Weston Place:

"'Horeb's Corners' was to create a new front door to Mount Horeb from U.S. 18-151. The plan included 200 residential units, retail shops, offices and a commercial business park envisioning a new urbanism style where residents could easily walk to stores and businesses. But the project failed to draw support from the village board, was criticized for being too dense and was eventually abandoned."

"'The idea was to make it more of an urban feel, a small hub for the area, as opposed to a big old box with a parking lot wasteland,' said Frautschi, who has served on the Yahara Lakes Association, Friends of Pheasant Branch and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

While that Kmart site drew early support from Vern Kempfer, president of the Mayfair Park Neighborhood Association, it ran into opposition from neighbors and planners concerned about the density."

I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of these people who cry "too dense!" are also not particularly enthusiastic about sprawl. Yet it would seem that, when these people speak out against and/or help defeat proposals that are too large for their tastes, they are encouraging and perhaps hastening more subdivisions where, if I may paraphrase Chris Hedges, there are no community rituals, no community centers, often there are no sidewalks. People live in empty soulless houses and drive big empty cars on freeways to Madison and sit in vast offices and then come home again. Personally, I think the city should tell developers who won't build in a grid pattern and refuse to put in sidewalks to go fuck themselves. This brings to mind the developments north of the American Family business park. I have a friend who had a house there. It wasn’t a bad house excepting that the exterior was exactly the same as those surrounding it. I can did some housesitting for my friend and I can say that the neighborhood was as Hedges described – soulless. I'm sure there were lots of wonderful folks around but I never met any of them. I only ever saw them when they were leaving for or coming home from work. They'd drive by me, pull into their garages, and disappear.

Ivey refers to "no-growth types". With Madison's population increasing each year by 2,500-3,000 people, one has to wonder just how long a no-growth position will be tenable. Are these folks just following the NIMBY principle or are they following some quixotic dream of keeping Madison as it was before 1996 when Money magazine named it the best whatever kind of city? Perhaps there is some middle ground that these people would agree to but upon which the articles don't elaborate. I'd like to see more density in the city along major bus routes as opposed to throwing up sterile subdivisions out in the middle of nowhere where you have to drive if you want to visit your next door neighbor. East Wash needs more development, not only to make the city denser, but also because it is one of the ugliest boulevards in all of Madison. It's appalling right from the start when you get off the interstate. No amount of new pavement, fancy light fixtures, or new bus shelters is going to make the malls, car dealerships, and lumber yard aesthetically appealing. If views of the Capitol have to go, so be it.

In his new book, Stu Levitan outlines how planning decision made decades ago affect us today in 2007. The same is true today. Decisions made now are going to affect residents who aren't even born yet.