Children & Safety

Question:

Which municipality is most dangerous for children:  Milwaukee, West Allis, or Waukesha?

According to this article which refers to this study, the answer is likely to be Waukesha.  Apparently all those cars zooming around over longer distances have a nasty habit of creating crashes.  Which hurt children.

Light Train in other Cities

Regardless of what you think about High-Speed Rail, about light train, etc. in Milwaukee, this is an interesting look at what other cities are doing to build light train and to use it as an engine for further development.

There are very few major metropolitan areas in the country that aren't considering the installation of some sort of light rail system," says Robert Puentes, a transportation expert at the Brookings Institution. He stresses that the car is still king, but says politicians, businessmen and developers are looking to light rail to help guide development.

It's not just real estate development, but also employment and future economic drivers that have cities concerned:

More and more civic leaders across the country are talking about how cities need to become magnets for talent in order to become truly world-class cities. Many of those leaders see light rail as part of that transformation.


Puentes, of Brookings, says that American cities now have to compete globally.

"They're going to have to be able to attract young, qualified workers, and it's going to take a robust transportation system to move these folks around. In case after case, we're seeing that that is what these folks are looking for."

 

Homebuying and Accessibility

My agency occasionally will be contacted by landlords or Realtors who want to advertise the fact that they have an accessible unit.  While we're more than happy to share the information, the reality is that we don't always know everyone that happens to be, at that moment, looking for a unit just like that.

I've made it a hobby of mine to contact website administrators to encourage them to include accessibility options in their search features.  Some websites do include that option. For instance, the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) used by Realtors recently started offering that option.

Home buyers can go to Realtor.com, click on "Advanced Search" and end up with a list of options that a property can have.  Clicking on "Property Features" and scrolling down, the home buyer will see the option for "Disability Features" in the "Other Features" section.

Of course, you've got the other side of that equation.  A search for Waukesha homes or condos/town homes under $500,00 with disability features returned zero results for homes currently on the market.  It could mean that in all of Waukesha, there was not a single-family housing with accessibility features available on the market (although two were off-market for whatever reason).  Waukesha is hardly alone-the City of Milwaukee under $250,000 returned zero results (actually, 30 homes off-market).  That is quite implausible, so it could simply mean that most Realtors are not aware of that option when listing the property.

I am hopeful that with greater awareness, more and more people will be noting accessibility features when putting their unit on the market, whether it be a rental or a home for sale.  A significant barrier people with disabilities face today in their housing search is connecting with the units that match their needs.

Smart Growth, Farmland Loss & The Soul of the Community

An interesting report from American Farmland about the loss of agricultural land in the United States, mostly due to new development.

Despite a booming housing market during portions of the 25-year reporting period, the nationwide rate of farmland loss actually declined over time, thanks to growing awareness and smart growth policies that encourage more efficient development. And some states launched ambitious efforts to counter land development with permanent protection.

Although Wisconsin is not one of the states that lost the most farmland, the report indicates that Wisconsin, along with the upper midwest rustbelt states, lost more than average state.  As noted above, Smart Growth policies and efforts to protect farmlands have slowed the rate of loss.  Smart Growth has been opposed in some communities.  Farmers and pro-smarth growth advocates are probably keeping a keen eye on the changes that the incoming Walker administration may make that could impact sprawl patterns and farmland.

American Farmland suggested that people get involved locally, from working with the zoning boards and the planning commissions to shopping & dining locally through farmers markets, farm stands, dining locally, etc.  You know, get involved in your community..

In that vein, a foundation affiliated with a newspaper chain, Knight Foundation, teamed with Gallup to study the attachment people have to their communties, "The Soul of the Community".  Unfortunately, Milwaukee area is not one of the communities that has a Knight newspaper, but it's worth taking a look.

Surprisngly, money and the local economy isn't as big a factor as you'd think in the attchment people have to their community.   It may actually be the other way around-people's attachment encourages them to spend money locally, shop locally, be involved in activies, and be a driver of the economy.