Sunday Fact Fest, Episode 01: Racism is "The Lingering Legacy of America's First Cookie-Cutter Suburb."

Looks like Hell for Certain, at least to me.

The Lingering Legacy of America's First Cookie-Cutter Suburb, by Winnie Lee (Atlas Obscura)

... While the Levitts successfully turned their business plan into a quintessential symbol of family values, Levittown also was a symbol of exclusion. William Levitt, in charge of the housing development’s marketing and sales, did not sell houses to families of color. A clause in the standard lease for the first Levitt houses baldly stated that the homes could not “be used or occupied by any person other than members of the Caucasian race.” Government policies at the time, such as those of the Federal Housing Administration, supported such racist practices, blocking Black Americans and other people of color from the new suburbs and homeownership. An opposing group, the Committee to End Discrimination in Levittown, formed to fight the racism with protests and leaflets. The Supreme Court ruled in 1948 that house covenants with racial restrictions were “unenforceable” and unconstitutional, six years before the ruling on racial integration in Brown v. Board of Education.

The Growth Ponzi Scheme -- or why the State Street Chain Ghetto and Summit Springs suck.

It's not a perfect analogy, but I'm sticking with it; urban "leadership", suburban thinking.

One fundamental fact about Jeff Gahan's unnecessary infrastructure expenditures is that future maintenance costs aren't considered amid the self-congratulatory stroking of his personality cult.

For once Deaf Gahan is right: The hilltop Fairfield atrocity is a "perfect fit" with maximum pay-to-play monetization.

The articles were written by Charles Marohn and published at Strong Towns.

The Growth Ponzi Scheme, Part 1

The underpinnings of the current financial crisis lie in a living arrangement—the American pattern of development—that does not financially support itself. 

The Growth Ponzi Scheme, Part 2

If you want a simple explanation for why our economy is stalled and cannot be restarted, it is this: Our places do not create wealth, they destroy wealth. 

The Growth Ponzi Scheme, Part 3

Our development pattern is not productive enough to sustain itself.

The Growth Ponzi Scheme, Part 4

Our national economy is "all in" on the suburban experiment. We cannot sustain the trajectory we are on, but we've gone too far down the path to turn back.

The Growth Ponzi Scheme, Part 5 (finale)

How did we build such an amazing place before the home mortgage interest deduction? How did we accomplish this before zoning? What created this place before we had state and federal subsidies of local water and sewer systems?

We began writing about the Growth Ponzi Scheme in 2011 with a prominent series of articles that outlined the way American cities, towns and neighborhoods were growing themselves into insolvency.  Since then, the Growth Ponzi Scheme has been discussed in numerous publications. The term, as we've defined it, continues to be widely used and cited.

New Albany knows all too well how highways ruined cities.

"If a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced it is left standing then that rationality will simply produce another factory. If a revolution destroys a government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves...There's so much talk about the system. And so little understanding."
-- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Interstate 64 and the Sherman Minton Bridge severed New Albany's west side and destroyed the city's first public park. Whether "ruined" is the best word to describe the situation, it can be posited with confidence that the interstate irreparably altered for the worse this place where we live, while enabling suburbanization out yonder.

We've managed to take back some of what was lost, though the interstate's perpetual noise and visual blight is always there to remind us of the price we've paid.

Philly Fed economists: Here’s how highways ruined your city, by Darryl C. Murphy (Plan Philly)

No one should be denied a good taco, but the Vine Street Expressway has often deterred Jeffrey Lin from visiting a nearby taqueria for lunch.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia economist channeled that frustration into a working paper about the negative effects of highways on cities.

“Just the experience of getting there is so unpleasant,” he said. “That was kind of one early inspiration for thinking what are the effects of highways on cities.”

Lin and senior economist Jeffrey Brinkman took a broad look at how highways have contributed to suburbanization, and the subsequent decline of U.S. cities during the 20th century ...

Today's must-see video: "The traditional development pattern outperforms the suburban development pattern every time."

“In the new, experimental style of development, you have a building pattern that is not very financially productive and is really, really fragile. In the traditional style of development, you have a building form and approach that is financially really productive and highly adaptable and resilient over time.”
— Charles Marohn

I've nothing to add to this. It's as clearly stated as this can be done, and it's only four minutes of your time.

The traditional development pattern has tremendous financial upside and limited financial downside. In contrast, the suburban approach has limited financial upside and a downside that can literally go negative.

The following video explains why the traditional development pattern outperforms the suburban development pattern every time. It's part of a series called the Curbside Chat. If you've been a member of Strong Towns for a while, you're probably familiar with it. If not, it's time to acquaint yourself.

Your Sunday MUST READ: "My city is unlike any other. My city is not a thru street."

If Deaf Gahan would have paid attention the first time ... thick, ain't he? Our campaign finance aggregator-in-chief will read this sentence and ask, "but isn't pass-through logic why I'm here?"

"We let the idea of high volumes of through traffic become our identity."

In terms of specific circumstances, Lebanon, Ohio is not the same as New Albany, Indiana. But shared universals are another matter entirely. Go to Strong Towns and read the entire essay, excerpted below.

The member who sent us the following essay about their hometown of Lebanon, Ohio, wished to remain anonymous, but is hopeful that it will spark discussion in Lebanon about how the city sees itself and its future. We hope so too. The history of Lebanon related here is familiar: it echoes those of hundreds of other American towns and cities that have mortgaged their futures on unproductive patterns of growth... but that have a history and identity to be proud of, if they can embrace it anew. Is yours one of them?

Are you paying attention, Deaf Gahan?

Are you paying attention, 3rd council district?

My City is Not a Through Street (Strong Towns)

... Lebanon is a strong and beautiful city. We hold an identity wholly apart from either nearby metro. This isn’t the kind of place where you travel between indistinguishable suburbs and forget what city you’re in. This place shows that it is different, from the unique Broadway streetscape to the fast pace of business on Mulberry, and from the vast attendance of the Carriage Parade to the humble but everlasting presence of our farmers' market. Lebanon was once a place, a destination for all kinds of people, and it can be so again.

Lebanon doesn’t need the through traffic. Lebanon doesn’t need the "through" mindset. We don’t need more bedrooms for commuters to spend ten hours of their days. We don’t need to draw tourists from Cincinnati and Dayton. We don’t need huge, silver-bullet developments like Union Village to increase downtown patronage. We already have the bones of a great downtown; we have since our forefathers started building it in 1803. What we need is bottom-up growth; more businesses that are uniquely Lebanon; more reasons to work here and spend our free time (and dollars) here. Fears of the loss of "small town feel" are misguided. Our downtown is an authentic expression of who we are.

We don’t need more endless bedrooms communities and chain retail to steamroll through our beautiful countryside. And we do not need one more development of detached single-family housing.

We need to be a city growing from the center outward, unafraid to grow taller and busier—busy with people going about their lives here, not passing through in their cars to somewhere else. We need more residents who are invested in the community and want to live and work in the heart of Lebanon.

My city is unlike any other. My city is not a thru street.

Illicit Summit Springs Phase Two work, redux: Can't Team Gahan's lickspittles get their damn stories straight?

Earlier:

Scott Wood and Shane Gibson predictably duck the newspaper reporter, leaving deputy mayor Mike Hall to explain ceasing, desisting, and Summit Springs Phase Two work.

Let's take another look at the latest installment of the Gang That Can't Get Their Fibs Straight. Seems their stories are changing by the minute.

UPDATE: Work has stopped in phase two area of Summit Springs, by Danielle Grady (Tom May Hyper Content Generator)

NEW ALBANY — A neighbor of Summit Springs in New Albany is worried that the developer is overstepping boundaries by working in an area of the project that hasn’t received city approval, but the project’s team says that they’re doing everything according to plan.

Summit Springs IN LLC was sent a cease-and-desist letter from New Albany’s plan commission director Scott Wood after workers began clearing trees in April for a new water line that will connect to a hotel.

The hotel is in the first phase of the project, which has already been approved by the city, but the tree removal occurred in a second phase area of the project, which has yet to gain city approval. As a whole, the 60-acre-plus development will contain restaurants, medical/office buildings and a 14-story residential tower.

The letter called for the halting of "all construction activities" in the phase two area.

David Ruckman, the surveyor working on the Summit Springs project, said that Wood verbally rescinded the cease-and-desist letter the day after Summit Springs IN LLC received it. Ruckman said he called Wood and explained that the tree clearings were for a part of the project in phase one.

Hmm. Ruckman didn't deny working in the phase two area, did he? In short, he's commenting in the breach, implying it's okay to work in the unapproved "phase two" area so long as the work benefits phase one -- and no one notices.

Work on the water line resumed as early as April 18, when the subject was discussed at a New Albany Board of Works & Public Safety meeting. But it was on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the New Albany Plan Commission tabled the developer’s phase two application at a meeting, that neighbors noticed that Summit Springs IN LLC was removing trees cut down in April in the phase two area. The developer was moving around trees to stockpile excess dirt from the phase one area, said Ruckman.

Same circular argument. Same violation. Same city non-enforcement.

Wood, who initially directed the News and Tribune to Mike Hall, New Albany's director of City Operations, for comment, later said there is no written document rescinding the cease-and-desist letter.

Fawcett Hill resident Aaron Hellems saw the tree clearing occurring Wednesday and contacted Wood, who told him the cease-and-desist letter was still in effect. Wood confirmed this.

Still, Hall stated in an email late Wednesday that the city was unaware of any violations by the Summit Springs developers.

Wait, is Wood somehow getting his groove back?

He'd best be careful, because to contradict Hall -- the city's chief propagandist and royal court food taster -- might well to bring the wrath of Dear Leader down upon him.

In response to neighbor concerns, construction crews for Summit Springs IN LLC have stopped work in the phase two area anyway, Ruckman said. Construction crews are now stockpiling dirt in the phase one project area. Work should is on hold until developers get through plan commission hearings.

No kidding?

"Now that we're doing what we should have been doing all along until we got caught red-handed," commented Ruckman, "can you please start looking the other way again?"

"I mean, shit -- this fix is in, right? Gahan's got it down. Can't we just get on with it?"

Hall's email also stipulated that the city is not the property owner or developer of Summit Springs, and it said that Wood would be meeting on Thursday with "all parties" involved. Both Hellems and Ruckman said on Thursday that they were not planning to meet with Wood that day. Ruckman did say that he expects to meet with the city and neighbors as the application process for phase two of Summit Springs continues.

Plan commission and board of works members were unable to shed light on the situation. New Albany City Attorney Shane Gibson also did not return a call and email for comment.

Bless Ms. Grady for including this section. A total of at least four or five city functionaries and appointees, and as many as nine or ten, have refused to comment for attribution. There you have it; with bootlickers and sycophants fleeing in all directions, down in flames goes Gahan's protests of transparency.

Again.

Hellems said that Summit Springs IN LLC's actions were part of a pattern of attempting to speed up the development process without going through the proper channels. He pointed to a situation in April 2016 when Wood gave Summit Springs developers permission to cut down trees without obtaining secondary approval. Wood said he was trying to help the developers meet a deadline to cut down the trees before Indiana bats made their home in them.

As we've consistently pointed out, the city was adamantly opposed to Summit Springs, inclusive of first and second phases, right up until it wasn't.

Then Hall orchestrated the press releases, and voila -- the city was partnering with the developers, who could not have achieved anything profitable without the city's eager TIF-impelled hillside road-building.

The fixes, corruption and kickbacks.

Aren't you getting tired of them?

#FireGahan2019

Scott Wood and Shane Gibson predictably duck the reporter, leaving deputy mayor Mike Hall to explain ceasing, desisting, and illicit Summit Springs Phase Two work.

The little people?

They're the ones who can't afford to play the game -- right, Scott?

Did the developer of Phase 2 at the Summit Springs Luxury Mudslide Strip Mine Fun Park violate a cease and desist order yesterday?

If isn't as if we don't know which side the city's on. Hall himself probably wrote the press release about Team Gahan partnering with Kelley Greed Inc. on this bountiful environmental catastrophe.

As such, does anyone really think the city is interested in the enforcement of agreements and covenants when it'll be primary election day, like, tomorrow?

Work is happening in phase 2 of Summit Springs. Should it be? by Danielle Grady (Tom May's Rolltop Desk)

NEW ALBANY — A neighbor of Summit Springs in New Albany is worried that the developer is overstepping boundaries by working in an area of the project that hasn’t received city approval, but the project’s team says that they’re doing everything according to plan.

Summit Springs IN LLC was sent a cease-and-desist letter from New Albany’s plan commission director Scott Wood after workers began clearing trees in April for a new water line that will connect to a hotel.

The hotel is in the first phase of the project, which has already been approved by the city, but the tree removal occurred in a second phase area of the project, which has yet to gain city approval. As a whole, the 60-acre-plus development will contain restaurants, medical/office buildings and a 14-story residential tower.

The letter called for the halting of "all construction activities" in the phase two area ...

Did the developer of Phase 2 at the Summit Springs Luxury Mudslide Strip Mine Fun Park violate a cease and desist order yesterday?

Photo credit: Tyler Stewart.

On Tuesday evening, the Plan Commission decided not to appear unseemly.

New Albany Plan Commission: Phase 2 of Summit Springs needs more detail, by Danielle Grady (Tom May Mimeograph Machine)

NEW ALBANY — Plans to start a phase two of the Summit Springs commercial and residential development are not detailed enough for New Albany’s plan commission yet. At a Tuesday meeting, the voting body tabled requests by the developers to consider plans for a 14-story residential tower and more on top of a hill overlooking State Street.

The usual suspects yawned.

David Ruckman, a land surveyor for the project, said that the request from the plan commission for more details was “expected.”

“It’s a process,” he said.

Had Ruckman said, "it's just a game," he'd have disqualified himself for duty by telling the truth, and on Wednesday, less than 12 hours after the meeting, there were questions about the willingness of developers to observe a cease and desist order pertaining to clearing land for the next stage of the environmental atrocity.

The Green Mouse was told:

A neighbor on Fawcett Hill emailed us today saying he saw a dump truck and a flatbed truck hauling something up Fawcett Hill. Some of us have called Scott Wood. Scott said he sent out Larry Summers. Says they were removing old dead trees. When asked if they were removing more live trees, Scot said he "didn't know." If they are, the construction firm is violating the cease and desist order. Also, did you see the picture News and Tribune took? It shows the hill sliding down behind Taco Bell.

It's a wonderful photo, indeed (see above).

At a time when public housing residents face daily insults from their colonial overlords as a prelude to demolition, Team Gahan brags about million-dollar condos in the middle of a strip mine.

Amid the blather and propaganda, we can be sure of one truthful eventuality: the volume of stormwater runoff coming from Summit Springs will be matched only by the amount of kickbacks flowing into the mayor's campaign piggy bank.

A 2016 reprise: "High atop Summit Springs with friends (and relatives) in low places."

They're in it for the money: Team Gahan and its Plan Commission's cowardly and abject capitulation to the Kelleys and their Summit Springs development atrocity continues tonight.

Plan Commission to consider phase two of the Summit Springs Kelley Enrichment cluster muck development atrocity.

Buffalo Dis-Trace: White folks dress up like their bison-killing ancestors as we glance at Jacobi, Toombs & Lanz's big role in Gahan campaign finance.

They're in it for the money: Team Gahan and its Plan Commission's cowardly and abject capitulation to the Kelleys and their Summit Springs development atrocity continues tonight.

As we've noted previously, Summit Springs would not be possible without taxpayer subsidies for its infrastructure.

Plan Commission to consider phase two of the Summit Springs Kelley Enrichment cluster muck development atrocity.

That's because it is a development that shouldn't happen in the first place.

The city opposed Summit Springs until Dear Leader reasoned that kickbacks from those entities benefiting from the development's approval far outweighs assurances given to neighbors or environmental consequences.

Consequently, the greed-driven monetization of Summit Springs proceeds apace, and the spoils stand to be divvied like they always are, because at present, in Year Seven of Bubonic Gahanism, there's little justice on tap in New Albany.

But there's lots and lots of money.

In future years, Summit Springs will become symbol of greed and corruption, forever inseparable from Jeff Gahan and those sycophantic fat cats, vendors and contractors feeding him scented grapes while stuffing their pockets as the mayor is fanned with palm fronds, lounging on the royal chaise lounge.

Too bad about Scott Wood. Then again, in a former age when integrity still mattered, he'd have resigned in principle long ago over Gahan's Summit cash flip. Integrity, trees, ethics -- in Clear Cut City, they all form perfect, orderly queues to await the chainsaw's ritualistic hum. 

Phase 2 of Summit Springs appearing before New Albany Plan Commission Tuesday, by Danielle Grady (Best Loved Tom May Columns Dot Com)

NEW ALBANY — Phase two of the 60-acre plus Summit Springs development will go before the New Albany Plan Commission Tuesday night for preliminary approval.

The fix appears to be cemented tightly into place.

A New Albany planning and zoning staff report gives the plan commission assurance that they can favorably recommend the PUDD to the New Albany City Council, which will also be voting on the rezoning.

Of course, the Kelleys -- a local synonym for avarice -- have already helpfully started the necessary process of deforestation. Money can't grow on trees, you know.

The plan commission meeting will take place at 7 p.m. in the Assembly Room (Room 331) of the City-County Building at 311 Hauss Square.

Documents show that the Kelleys were sent a cease-and-desist letter in April from the city telling them to stop cutting down trees in the Summit Springs phase two area. In 2016, the city faced the wrath of neighbors when they cut trees from the hills before phase one of the PUDD was approved.

Plan Commission to consider phase two of the Summit Springs Kelley Enrichment cluster muck development atrocity.

Ah, yes -- our beloved Mayor Ceausescu's concrete hilltop maze, with an awesome Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott, and a Taco Hell, and ...

The City of New Albany assisted on the project by completing about $3 million in infrastructure improvements for sidewalks, utilities and a road extension of West Daisy Lane.

DUH -- of course the city assisted.

Do you really think anyone would bear the brunt of the cost to develop in the wrong place if not eased by public subsidies?

Equally obvious is the connection between those public subsidies, the mayor, and a firm like Jacobi, Toombs & Lanz.

Smart growth?

For the Gahan campaign finance effort, perhaps, but at least now we have suburban ornamental white bison to ease the sting of future mudslides.

The fix may well be in; still, opponents who have relevant information to share are welcome to post it at NA Confidential. After all, the News and Tribune is unlikely to bother. After all, the city advertises with the newspaper, and a judicious discretion is the watchword.

Here's next week's Plan Commission docket.

MEETING NOTICE

To: New Albany City Plan Commission

From: Scott Wood, Director

Subject: Regular Meeting, July 17th, 2018

Date: July 12th, 2018

TENTATIVE AGENDA

The regular meeting of the New Albany City Plan Commission will be held on Tuesday, July 17th, 2018 at 7:00 p.m., in the Assembly Room (Room 331) of the City-County Building, New Albany, Indiana, at which time a Public Hearing will be held to consider the following petitions:

Public Hearing Item(s):

Docket P-02-18: David Ruckman, for Summit Springs IN LLC requests a Preliminary Planned Unit Development District (PUDD) to permit mixed use, including restaurant/event center, office/medical, nursing home, single family and high rise tower in the R-1, Suburban Residential, R-2, Urban Residential district and OS (ss), Open Space (steep slope), at 2303-2307 State Street, 220 Woodbine Drive and 2301-2320 Fawcett Hill Road.

Docket C-01-18: David Ruckman, for Summit Springs IN LLC requests a Primary Plat approval for a seventeen (17) lot subdivision in a PUDD, Planned Unit Development District, at 2303-2307 State Street, 220 Woodbine Drive and 2301-2320 Fawcett Hill Road.

Will it park in Peoria? Or, "Why is it that parking offers so little value in our cities, yet takes up so much space?"

NA, not Peoria.

How does all that low-value pavement impact economic productivity?

PEORIA'S PARKING PROBLEM, by Rachel Quednau (Strong Towns)

Peoria is a central Illinois town of about 114,000 with a profile typical of many small Midwestern cities: pockets of poverty, reliance on one major employer, seen better days... But we're highlighting it today because it illustrates a common problem that most American cities have—a problem with parking.

Not too little parking, too much.

The highest value areas are those traditional downtowns with mixed-use developments and walkable streets, where residences, businesses and people are concentrated in productive clusters and prioritized over parking and roads. Why is that? Because land is used to its highest potential in this pattern of design and the utilities (i.e. roads, pipes, etc.) needed to service productive land are not very far apart and thus not very costly.

Whereas downtown Peoria's buildings are valuable, not so much property that does nothing except warehouse unused cars.

In fact, Peoria is so full of parking that the amount of land devoted to surface parking in the county actually surpasses the amount of land devoted to buildings. If you factor in another big form of pavement that dominates our cities—roads—the amount of buildings in Peoria makes up a mere half of all the paved areas in Peoria. That's a problem, because parking lots are worth very little.

Alas.

Peoria is a particularly egregious example of excessive parking, but it's probably not terribly different from your own town. It's startling if you've never given it much thought, but next time you're at a mall or a big box store, take a look around. Recognize just how much land is occupied with pavement and how much is occupied with buildings. Heck, do it in your downtown. Then check out the site on Google Earth and the imbalance will become even more clear ...

Follow the story link to read the entire article.

It's all about crop yield: "Our urban environments are out-performing our suburban ones by three-to-one."

It's only 16 minutes, and not one of them is wasted. Previously we encountered Craiglow here:

Once again: "The design of a street, more so than any posted speed limit sign, invites drivers to go fast or slow."

Craiglow suggests it’s time for traffic engineers, who tend to put car movement above all else, to share the stage with smart designers. “We have to drive home design, and what design means to our community,” he says. “We have to tell the engineers: You have to ride shotgun for a little while. You’re still in the front seat. You’re going to navigate. We’re going to do it together. But you can’t drive all the time.”

Alas, no Craiglows in these parts.

NON-TYPICAL CITY PLANNER THINKING (Strong Towns)

“I made the connection between designing a great city and actually having the resources to build one. It’s all about crop yield.”
— Wes Craiglow

Wes Craiglow is the Deputy Director of Planning and Development for the City of Conway, AR. He's also the creator of the popular 20 mph street meme.

In the following TEDx talk, he discusses his recent transition from city planning to city managing. He advocates for the radical concept of considering city revenues and expense on a per acre basis, instead of just as line items in a budget. If you've been around Strong Towns for a bit, you know this is something we advocate for too. Wes does some great per acre analyses in his town of Conway and advocates for more productive land use in true Strong Towns fashion.