Wisconsin Lead Poisoning Prevention Week

Sorry about the late notice, but I just found out that it's currently Wisconsin Lead Poisoning Prevent Week, Oct 25-31. The Department of Health Services has some helpful information and resources for people concerned about lead in their homes.

For a look at what areas are impacted, there are maps of communities in Wisconsin impacted by lead, including Waukesha and Waukesha County.

If only there was some kind of-I don't know, a trust fund?-to help fund lead removal efforts. Oh, wait, one has been proposed for Waukesha County!

Trust fund or no, if the building was built before 1950, you should get your home/property tested.

Concrete Change Video

An old video from Concrete Change back in the 1990's, but the message is enduring. It's called Building Better Neighborhoods and here's Part 2.

This has been done in many parts of the country-Visitability and Universal Design isn't some radical concept that will cost a fortune to implement, it's a common-sense approach to housing and honestly, why not incorporate it in every home now? What is it about those two or three steps that are so magical?

Why can't builders just do it automatically? Why can't buyers make sure that homes have this?

Credit Conditions across the U.S.

A great map courtesy of Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It shows the credit conditions of United States, and it’s set to mortgages when you get to the site, but there’s other credit types you can look at (auto, credit cards, student) at http://data.newyorkfed.org/creditconditions/. It’s set to the recent quarter, but you can also look at changes from last year. You can also enter a specific county to look at.

Fine print I should really stress here; the vast swath of gray in the Great Plains state is because the population is so low, so they don’t map it (due to extreme changes a low number of people can have on the statistics).

Sobering look at foreclosures

Looks like we're not done yet. Story here. The question is, how will this affect the Milwaukee metro area?

But Hudson & Marshall and its rivals say they are gearing up for more (auctions) in the coming months, convinced that a moratorium on foreclosures earlier this year only postponed what they believe is an inevitable avalanche of new repossessions.

"The foreclosures are going to explode again," said Webb.

Cameron's House for Sale!

Remember the house Ferris Bueller's friend Cameron lived in? The one where Cameron crashed his father's Ferrari through the picture windows?

It's for sale.

Own a piece of Ferris Bueller history for only $2.3 million! It comes with its own Facebook fan page but the infamous Ferrari isn't included.

Universal Design in public space

Saw this blog today at Planetizen about incorporating Universal Design into everyday designing & planning. Although the author specifically talks about sidewalks and streets in Buenos Aries, this type of public accessibility are covered by federal laws in United States. But still, the basic concept as described is why I and other advocates for people with disabilities promote Universal Design in planning and design:

What do these failures cost? A lot, in reduced productivity and lost dignity. People who lack basic mobility (link is from original article)are unable to participate in activities that most of us take for granted: schooling, employment, shopping, recreation and socializing.

Even if the streets and sidewalks are 100% accessible (which ideally, they should be), failure to use Universal Design in other areas such as housing, both multi-family and single-family, can limit the options available to people with disabilities. People may not be able to get in & out of their homes if they suddenly acquired a disability (accidents happen everyday, you know). They might not be able to live where they want, close to their families, friends, church or job. They may not be able to visit their friends & families whose homes are inaccessible to them.

This is why I am working to ensure that housing that a Waukesha County Housing Trust Fund provides funding for incorporates Universal Design or Visitability.

National speaker shows the way to a housing trust fund

Wednesday evening, Mary Brooks spoke at La Casa de Esperanza about finding funding for a county housing trust fund. She is the Director of the Housing Trust Fund Project, a project of the Center for Community Change in Washington, DC.

Mary showed the audience how other communities across the country have funded housing trust funds using electronic filing fees, document recording fees, and real estate transfer fees, among dozens of other funding sources. Mary Peschel, Co-Coordinator of the Waukesha County Affordable Housing Task Force, also identified some potential funding options in Waukesha County, such as a portion of interest income.

Mary Brooks reminded us why creating a housing trust fund is such a good way to address affordable housing needs. A housing trust fund provides ongoing public revenues to continue to support affordable housing development over time. And both Marys pointed out that housing trust funds benefit the whole community that they're in, by adding to the property tax base, creating construction-related jobs, and stimulating funding from other sources (like federal and private funds).

A big thank you to those who attended! The audience included task force members, a city planner, foundation leaders, and representatives from nonprofit organizations, a major employer in the county, and a state agency. City and county officials were in attendance, as well, including County Board Supervisors Fritz Ruf and Jean Tortomasi, City of Waukesha Mayor Larry Nelson, and County Director of Administration Norm Cummings.

Downtown focus revitalizes Milwaukee

I know, I know, Milwaukee isn't in Waukesha County, but I thought many Waukesha communities could draw some lessons from Milwaukee's resurging downtown.

Read all about it here at the Urban Engagement Blog.

Lesson 1 seems to be: Don't separate the residents from downtown; make sure there's housing in your downtown area as that increases the streetscape vitality and help support the downtown businesses. There's a good number of new luxury housing such as the towers on the lakefront and the beerline condos, but there's also affordable housing in the form of tax-credit properties and subsidized housing nearby (redeveloped public housing authority properties into mixed-income housing).

Lesson 2: Redevelop! If something isn't serving its purpose well, don't be afraid to get rid of it & use that land for something else. Of course, the article doesn't mention that the majority of the land from the former Parkeast freeway is still empty.

Lesson 3: Embrace your assets. Milwaukee used the river, which it ignored in the past, as a tool to revitalize the downtown. Many communities in Waukesha County have rivers and lakes. Don't have a watery asset? Think Central Park (OK, parks are not in the article-my two cents).

Remember This Week's Event!

Our next big event is coming up this Wednesday, October 7 at 5:30-7:00 p.m. at La Casa de Esperanza in Waukesha. Show your support for a housing trust fund in Waukesha County and learn more about it at Finding Funding for County Housing Trust Funds.

We are very excited to have Mary Brooks in town from California as our guest speaker. She is the Director of the Housing Trust Fund Project at the Center for Community Change, and she is widely known as the national expert on housing trust funds. She will be telling us about what other communities around the country have done to support affordable housing through housing trust funds. And our own Mary Peschel will be talking about how we could do the same here, and how it would help the people who live and/or work here.

If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Mary Peschel at maryp@cacscw.org.

New WI Senate Bill

A new Senate bill, S 314 relating to traditional neighborhood development and conservation subdivisions. I haven't read it closely yet, but I thought I'd throw it out for discussion. Your thoughts? At first glance, it seems to try to provide for a greater transparency by having communities report to the State if they're in compliance with an existing law, and to promote greater cooperation between various agencies on the state housing plan to promote model development.

Leave your thoughts in comments. Don't embarass me with zero comments!