After spending Thursday with the County Board Audit and Finance Committee in hopes of overriding the county executive's transit budget, it seemed a little odd to spend the lunch hour today with Scott Walker.

The event was a leader's lunch sponsored by the Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee and hosted by the Milwaukee Center for Independence. Walker discussed transit, mental health, and the parks. Then he took questions from the audience. The first was about the Bucks--a way to touch on enhancing trade relations with China.

Then Dick Vogel, executive director of Kathy's House on 103rd Street, raised the issue of Wauwatosa's taxing of nonprofit communities for older adults such as San Camillo. Kathy's House offers a place to stay for families of adults receiving treatment at the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center. It rents the building from St. Camillus, and it too will be affected by tax increases there. That doesn't seem right.

Walker expressed sympathy and said he preferred finding other ways for a city to get revenue from non-profits. But it isn't his issue to solve. 

Just as transit needs to find a new approach that's neither the city's nor the county's but something that works for both, it seems that this tax issue needs to find an approach that's not all or nothing. Parts of continuing care communities serve different functions and can be treated differently. The fairest solutions don't usually lie on either extreme of the spectrum.

I hope Walker's proposal for an independent Parks Board goes through. It seems like a solution, not just a partisan posture.

And though I don't like many of his other ideas, they are at least logical. He's smart, hires good people, and seems to be an honorable man. And he's much more circumspect about slamming the board than they are about slamming him.

You learn a lot more listening to both sides than you do seeking the comfort of the one you think you're on.
 

 

 

When my kids were little, it seemed like my entire life was lived in a 2.5 mile radius. Home, school, work, church, grocery store. Sometimes it still seems that way, only now I have the pleasure of three Sendiks stores in the same circle.

We're suddenly blessed with an abundance of great grocery stores (but no "low-price leader"). So why Sendiks? It's just a Sendiks kind of day.

Elm Grove
And then there's news: a reader wrote that October 4-10 is grand opening week for the newest Sendiks near Tosa, the old Sentry store at 13425 Watertown Plank Road.

I shopped there yesterday: it’s a great store, even though the check-out lines are set up “left-handed.” You’ll just have to go to see what I’m talking about.

Backstory
Sendiks has a lot of emotional resonance for me. I practically grew up in the Oakland Sendiks store, owned by my friend Mary Jane’s father, Ignatius, and then by her hunky older brothers Ted and Steve.

It’s because of the Balistreris that I'm a foodie. There may be exceptions to this rule, especially in this generation, but Italians love good food and they love to feed people. I won’t start in on the fragrant groaning table this family set because I’ll start drooling on my keyboard.

86th and North
The new Elm Grove store is run by the same branch of the Sendiks/Balistreri family who run the Tosa store on 86th and North, the old Silver Spring Sendiks family. This is the store I visit most often. I love the smaller size, the hustle bustle of businesses around there, and the chance of running into someone I know. Another lure: dog treats next door at Wisconsin Garden and Pet--and mom treats (gelato) at Stam Chocolate down the street.

Brookfield: 124th and North
To the Sendiks store at 124th and North in Brookfield, run by the Downer Avenue bunch, I owe a special debt of gratitude. Son George worked there from the time he was a little under 15 years old until recently. And as he says in the college essay he’s working on, the people there helped raise him.

Good grocery stores make good neighbors--and better neighborhoods.

Tonight is West High School's homecoming dance. I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the beautiful young women in pretty dresses and the also beautiful, but perhaps a bit more awkward, young men in their shirts and ties this year. Fortunately, another mom promised me copies.

A miracle led into the weekend Friday: the Trojans won the first game of the season.

West kids and their parents are great at having a good time in the company of each other and keeping things in perspective. Most of the girls are wearing short dresses, most of the boys are not wearing suits, and most of the kids aren't riding in limos.

I was in Chicago yesterday for a meeting but got home in time for the last minute search for shoes. After deciding that most of The Shoes of Death Liz tried on looked good but were crippling, we found The Perfect Pair: hot looking, yet walkable. Good leather: classic black heels with a little modern zing.

And another miracle: the kids had left some tiramisu custard for me.

This year, I took the Metra to Chicago from Kenosha. You park at the station for $1 a day. Weekday fare is just over $6; all weekend fare is $5, for as many trips as you want.

And the trip was fun. If you want to see how to develop Tosa -- and how not to do it-- take notes along the way. Each town has its own character and lessons. Waukegan is possibly the ugliest city I've ever seen, whereas any of the towns with Lake in their name are charming.

But the people watching is the best. Going down, a group of young girls sang songs in clear, bell-like voices. Coming back, the Northwestern students heading to Evanston at 10:30 a.m. were drinking Bud Lite and eating homemade chocolate chip cookies. There was something sort of endearingly human and stupid about that, something so only-the-young.

And at Great Lakes, the conductors had to shout at the young seamen on leave to remind them the train was headed NORTH to Kenosha, not SOUTH to Chicago. And if they were looking for excitement, they'd better get off and turn around.

I'd ridden back from Ravinia with the Great Lakes crowd after a rowdy night in Chicago--their rowdy night, that is. Mine was totally taste-ual and cultural, of course. That time, the conductor had to rouse them to get them out, too. My mom-heart was so glad they weren't behind the wheels of automobiles.

Wouldn't it be great if the Metra extended not just to Milwaukee, but all the way to Waukesha? The Little Red Store in Tosa would make a fine station.

And the world of shopping, museums, jobs--and okay: partying--would open up wider for us.

Tosans tend to be passionate about their city. So it’s surprising that only about 40 – 50 people have shown up for the three comprehensive plan visioning sessions to date. And that’s the total number, not the number for each meeting.

Tonight (September 25) is the last session before Vandewalle and Associates begins huddling to develop the draft that will guide the city’s future. Please take this chance to share your most important ideas about Wauwatosa.

Although tonight’s meeting is for the “east south side,” people from anywhere in Tosa are welcome to attend.

I’ll just quote Janice Kayser’s article from September 19 for more information:

City still seeking input on comprehensive plan

Residents on the city's east side south of the Menomonee River are urged to attend a meeting on the development of the city's comprehensive plan from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 25, in the Tosa Room at the Muellner Building at Hart Park, 7300 Chestnut St. (emphasis added)

The city's community development department hopes to encourage public input on the city's long-range land use plan and have been split up into sections of the city. . .A map showing how the city was divided into sections for the purposes of the meetings can be found on the city's Web site at wauwatosa.net.

Community Development Director Nancy Welch said attendance at the prior meetings has been "abysmal" and hopes residents will step up to the plate at this last meeting to provide needed input.

North Avenue. Just saying the name of this major artery opens a rush to memory and sometimes judgment.

Mayfair was the only Tosa place on North Avenue Barbara Miner mentioned in last week's Journal Sentinel article "Heading West," a bus ride from poverty to affluence.

The article spawned lots of politically polarized responses, some of which appear in today's opinion letter page. Most were of the Patrick McIlhern "make yourself middle-class and relentlessly affluent" variety.

But how to do that? Minus the "relentless" part, which may be a problem, not a solution.

"Fixing" North Avenue is a major concern for Wauwatosa's future, one that will be addressed in the comprehensive planning process. You still have a chance to weigh in next Tuesday, September 25, 6:30-9:00, at the Muellner Building in Hart Park.

When I was a kid, North Avenue was a place of prosperous small businesses. My dad drove there from Glendale in search of incredible German bakery and to have his blueprints developed. And small business still seems to be the way to go there.

Some prosper on North Avenue now, many in Tosa. My favorite hang out, McBob's, is in the dreaded "east of 60th Street" area, and across the street is the best place around to buy cheap vegetables and rice, a Vietnamese grocery store.

Even in an area that gives most of us Tosans pause, there's the venerable Jake's Deli.

And Damon Dorsey's converting a crack house into an upscale custard stand, Scoopz. "Until we move to a culture of entrepreneurialism, Milwaukee will be an uncompetitive city where people are sitting around, waiting for something to happen," he said.

My guess, the same is true of Tosa.

At last week's comprehensive planning meeting for Tosa's east side, there was much consensus around doing something to shore up the small business there and improve safety, but few specific suggestions. Neighbors with houses near the street don't much like the idea of buildings even as large as the Locker's building on 92nd and North. They'd rather keep the scale small and low, so as not to be dwarfed.

I wonder if more flexibility and entrepreneurialism might not be called for. Could we accommodate places that make the far eastern part of the avenue thrive? Places like Cush, a "swank, upscale cocktail lounge specializing in martinis"? That means more liquor licenses, traffic and noise.

And maybe prosperity.

I don't have the answers. If you do, make sure you weigh in with them Tuesday!

This west sider infiltrated tonight's east side visioning meeting for the city's long-range planning process.

My intentions were honorable: I only wanted to discuss the two major ideas I had after cogitating on the west side meeting. One of those, the need for a center for this side of Tosa, I've already mentioned.

The other was a riverwalk for the village, and, by extension, walking/bike trails all along the river and Underwood Creek. Making the west side walkable, too, is a noble idea.

Inspired by the east siders, a few more ideas popped up. One was an overpass to get folks, especially kids, across Highway 100. Nobody liked that. But it seems a lot cheaper and easier than my more brilliant idea: build a deep tunnel and run the whole highway underneath its present location so pedestrians and light traffic can coexist more peacefully above.

Some intriguing ideas from this meeting were using the Little Red House for a train/rapid transit stop and moving through traffic off of North Avenue and onto Burleigh.

It was no surprise: everyone wanted the Eschweiler buildings preserved and the green space behind them preserved. But then, nearly everyone but developers has been saying that for as long as I can remember.

Everyone wants to invest in small business development along North Avenue.

And everyone liked the suggestion to put sidewalks all the way east along State Street.

The area of no agreement was tax base development. But surprisingly, lots of people favored spending tax money on needed services. Some people, in other words, thought that taxes were okay if used for good things.

One person mentioned the importance of maintaining neighborhood integrity. Apparently, Wisconsin Lutheran College has already bought some properties in Ravenswood. Taking a bite out of that neighborhood would cut into its neighborhoodiness, something we Tosans value very much.

My group mentioned the need to grow and sustain the population of Tosa. There's a lot a city of 50,000 can do that a smaller one can't.

The coolest thing was learning about Google Alerts. Someone said that's how he'd learned about this meeting. He'd created a daily alert for "Wauwatosa Plan Commission." Google Alerts updates you regularly on the search terms you tell it to look for.

But you don't have to do that. I'll tell you.

The last of four area visioning sessions as part of Tosa's long-range planning process is next Tuesday, September 25, 2007, at Hart Park Muellner Building, Tosa Room, 6:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. It's for the south quadrant, but people from any part of Tosa can attend.

Don't say "I wish they'd asked me." Tell 'em! And if you tell me, I'll share your ideas here.

Scott Walker plans to sell off another chunk of county land in Tosa, this time 8.6 acres, to Wisconsin Lutheran College, according to the Shepherd Express and the Business Journal.

The asking price? $100,000 an acre.

I don’t know what the going price of land is, but there’s an acre of land divided into six lots for sale at about 49th and Bluemound in Milwaukee's Story Hill neighborhood. The asking price? $149,000. Per lot.

Six-and-a-half times higher than this prime land in Wauwatosa.

An acre in the Research Park across the street from the land that now is a county greenhouse goes for $150,000, with one plot valued at $400,000/acre.

In July, HSA bought 24 acres of the former warehouses for Kohl's Food Stores Inc. in the Burleigh triangle for $9 million. My math isn’t great, but doesn’t that come to over $300,000 an acre?

The parcel being discussed is behind the county garages on Watertown Plank Road and next to the athletic complex land the school bought a couple years ago, also for $100,000 an acre. The College holds an option to buy the land at that price for 5 or 10 years from the date of the first deal, depending on whose report you read.

Someone looks to be a shrewd bargainer here. I'll leave it to you to guess who.

Last night I attended the long range planning “visioning” meeting for Tosa's west side area. A small group of folks pored over maps in the basement of the police department, drawing colored lines and pasting colored stars to show where we thought things in Tosa should change.

At our table was Helmut Toldt, developer, who is resubmitting plans to develop the Walnut Street site. (I’m not breaking this story: it’s in today’s Business Journal. But you can still say you heard it from me first!)

For the most part, he came to listen. After all, this was the neighborhood that would be most directly affected by site development on the landfill.

We had no strong ideas about the site, and he didn’t press us.

But at one point he asked quietly, “Is there any development that’s happened around here that you like?”

It was a good question. We’re awfully good at what we don’t want and what we fear. But not so good at embracing new things. None of us had an answer, though now I might say the new Locker building and the posh Mandel condos in Elm Grove.

And after I did my homework, I might point to Toldt’s own SixPoints Neighborhood development at 66th and Greenfield. I’d seen it earlier in the day when I visited the Farmer’s Market, and thought “whoa! Where did that come from?”

The more I look at the dense and thoughtful development, the more I like it, once I get used to the scale.

When I first heard about Toldt’s earlier proposal for the Walnut Street site, some 400 units of mixed use, I thought it was too dense. But then I got to thinking how badly the west side needs a center, and how it might start there, a mixed use higher density area.

The SixPoints development includes a community center. For the west side of Tosa, that’s where our planning should start, too.

This is not a paid or unpaid advertisement for Toldt, who I didn’t consult in writing this, by the way.

A concerned Tosa citizen called me on cranky writing and failure to do research. He was responding to the August 27 blog "Government and mall watching," in which I may have ever so vaguely hinted at favoritism in banning check cashing businesses in the Village--but not along Highway 100.

Only he said it much more gently.

I have watched the process on the new ordinance somewhat carefully,and I have spoken a number of times with Mayor Estness, City Attorney Kesner, and other members of the Common Council. I do not believe the new ordinance is a result of "what's good for eastern Tosa doesn't matter out here in the wild west", but rather the best compromise that can be reached today in the current legal climate to restrict as much as possible the proliferation of convenient cash businesses in Wauwatosa. It is my opinion that the Council, if it thought such an ordinance would stand up in court, would ban the businesses entirely.

He then suggested that I contact Mayor Estness and City Attorney Kesner to get a better understanding of the disparity. I did, but their e-mail replies got stuck in my filter.

Isn't it strange that e-mail from the government gets trapped but all those messages about various alterations to people's boyfriends' anatomy don't? But I digress.

At any rate, Mayor Estness graciously invited me to view the city maps with her and city planner Nancy Welch to see the big picture. And Mr. Kesner gave a thorough explanation, the whole shebang of which I'm including in italics below.

The bottom line: it's all about zoning and distance from residences.

Cities don't have the power to restrict exorbitant interest rates, which are the culprits in payday loan predation. Wisconsin needs to restore interest rate limits for consumer loans. That would include credit cards, and it's hard to imagine that 18%, the old limit, wouldn't be enough.

And while it wouldn't address the loan issue, banks certainly could offer check cashing services for modest fees. It would be a great community service, and they'd still make money.

Now, "the rest of the story," with thanks to Mr. Kesner.

The important thing to remember in putting these restrictions together is that we cannot prohibit such businesses entirely, although we can place certain restrictions on their locations, as we did. There have
been court cases in Wisconsin that say specifically that they cannot be prohibited entirely. These "distance from residential" and "distance from each other" restrictions were of the type specifically approved in court cases in Racine and Madison.

They are specifically restricted from being in "Trade Districts", and coincidentally, the only two "Trade Districts" are the Village and the East end of North Avenue. The proposed location in the North Avenue Trade District is what started this whole controversy in the first place.

These types of businesses can be located in AA Business and AA Commercial Districts, if they receive Conditional Use approval from the Common Council, but only so long as they are on a parcel that is more than 250 feet from any residentially zoned parcel. That distance from residential parcels applies the same on the East and West sides of the City. There are simply more AA Business and AA Commercial zoned parcels on the West side of the City anyways, which might allow for some potential locations, but this is true for any business or commercial venture, not just these types of businesses.

It may simply be a consequence of the geography of Wauwatosa that, if you have to allow a business to run, they are more likely to find locations on the West Side, since there are just more business and commercial areas in certain areas of the West side. But there is no difference in the fact that "convenient cash businesses" still have to be more than 250 feet from residential parcels, no matter which side of town they are on.

How—and where—seniors will live is a lively discussion topic for communities with aging populations. And that would be almost all of them, including Wauwatosa.

“Housing for elderly sparks protest” was a front page headline in the August 27 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, as one Mequon neighborhood digs in to oppose an 8-person assisted living group home among their half-million dollar homes.

Just a day earlier, we read “Condos find niche in Grafton: new projects helping attract seniors to walkable downtown.” The article profiles a Mequon couple who wanted to avoid the traffic congestion in their neighborhood, so they moved into Grafton’s “rural-urban downtown, where you can walk to get some coffee or walk to the river or walk to a restaurant. You don’t always need your car anymore.”

What’s going on here?

On one hand, we see smart developers going after the affluent “young” senior population. On the other hand, we see communities objecting to assisted living "homes" in suburban neighborhoods.

Wauwatosa has been pretty forward thinking about community-based residential facilities (CBRFs) like the one proposed for Mequon. Still, each time one is proposed, debates go on about property values, school age populations, and “the fabric of the neighborhood.”

One alderman, not young himself, suggested that elderly people should use “facilities like Luther Manor and San Camillo instead of taking up single family residences,” according to the minutes from a Plan Commission meeting last year.

Of course, not everyone wants to go to or can afford those fine places.

It looks like the idea of moving seniors “out” of where they now live is strong, whether it’s to chic and pricey housing in revitalized downtown areas or to larger community-based residential facilities in more commercial parts of town.

Move them, but don’t put ‘em in my back yard is the message in Mequon. “I think it’s a great thing. I just don’t think they should be in the middle of a neighborhood with 30 kids around,” a woman said.

You’d think we were talking about sex offenders.

Of course the story’s more complicated than that. It seems that the Mequon CBRF owner neglected to talk to the neighbors about her plans, and that’s always a huge mistake. The first principle of creating a great community place is “the community is the expert,” the place you start.

Still, it seems there's a huge disconnect between what people in the aging field and those in the rest of the community are thinking. Staying in your home or at least your community and non-institutional group living is the direction we're headed. But the trends don't seem to have filtered into the way the community at large sees aging.

For many seniors, the best place to live is home, or a place like home. And some of those places should be in the neighborhoods in which people raised their families.

No better place to explore the “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” rule.

The August 23 WauwatosaNow reports that the Common Council check-cashing store amendment only pertains to “neighborhood and village trade districts. . .A store coud be located on Capitol Drive near Home Depot, and some could also pop up on Highway 100 from Potter Road north to across from Mayfair Mall.”

Some???

Pop up???

We aren't talking about mushrooms after a wet spell.

Or are we?

Apparently, it hasn’t occurred to the Council that right behind those stores on Hwy 100 are. . . neighborhoods. Just as there are on North Avenue.

I’m a total NIMBY (not in my back yarder) when it comes to check cashing stores. Come to think of it, I'm a NIABY (not in ANYBODY'S back yarder) when it comes to check cashing stores. The state needs to put some strong interest-charging limitations in place as other states have done to keep these stores from leeching off of the vulnerable--and to help communities like ours keep the predators out.

Meanwhile, I'm wondering why the Council feels that what’s good for eastern Tosa doesn’t matter out here in the wild west.

I thought we were getting over that. Apparently not.

* * *

This weekend, the hunt for pants that fit a guy whose vertical measures are greater than his horizontal ones led us to Brookfield Square.

That’s partly because my 17-year-old son, who’s been working 40 hour weeks this summer, can’t buy his business casual pants at Mayfair during the hours he can go there.

Even though I was along as a suitable escort, we felt disinclined to go to Mayfair. I’m betting we aren't the only ones who've lost our affiliation with Mayfair. And that’s too bad for the mall.

In Brookfield, we found the two pairs of pants in the western suburbs that fit, one at JC Penney and one at the Gap. Kudos to Penney’s staff, who actually help you and do it graciously. Why, you’d think they were paid to do that. . .

Meanwhile, if you’re a men’s clothing buyer for a bricks-and-mortar store, you’re missing a bet. Lots of 30-34s—even 28-34s --out there. At least offer to order the needed size for us if you don’t want us to do all our shopping online and lose the store-shopping habit altogether.

I'll wait for the smoke to clear before I go back to affordable housing in Wauwatosa. Which I will. But here's something for nearly everyone who likes to play online.

Walk Score touts itself as “helping homebuyers, renters, and real estate agents find houses and apartments in great neighborhoods.”

You type in your address and up pops a “walk score;” a map; and a list of stores, parks, schools, fitness ventures, and more within walking distance of your house.

You can click on each category (coffee shops, say) and the list expands to show everything nearby—and how far it is to walk there. Clicking on each icon gives the name and address of the destination.

My neighborhood in western Tosa gets a dismal walk score of 32/100—not so good. The Tosa Public Library gets a score of 63, much better, but not as good as the Walker’s Point address of my office: 73. With all those Mexican restaurants, I'd give it a 90.

Why does having a walkable neighborhood matter? Well, we know now that city dwellers in places like New York and Chicago are living longer than suburban and country dwellers, and some say it’s because of walking.

Walking Score adds, “A study in Washington State found that the average resident of a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood weighs 7 pounds less than someone who lives in a sprawling neighborhood. Residents of walkable neighborhoods drive less and suffer fewer car accidents, a leading cause of death between the ages of 15 - 45.”

Who knew?!

Just for the heck of it, I scored Lowe’s on Burleigh to get a sense of walkability in the soon-to-be-developed Bermuda—I mean, Burleigh, Triangle. Same as my house: 32.

Wouldn’t it be great if development here factored in the “great neighborhood” characteristic of walkability?

Another big developer has bought a piece of the Burleigh Triangle pie (the area bounded by West Burleigh Street and Hwy 45).

HSA Commercial Real Estate’s acquisition of 23 acres is expected to yield more than $390 million in development value, with the earlier purchase by Icon expected to yield another $130 million, according to the August 17 Business Journal.

Mixed use is the mantra for the developers. That means offices, condos, retail, parking structures, and more. (Remember that 20 story building Icon is planning? I'm still shuddering.)

Just what $500 million in “development value” means for us neighbors and taxpayers is unclear. But I don’t need a crystal ball to predict traffic nightmares. And I don’t need one to predict that unless the community steps in, the condos will all be high end, out of the reach of the average Tosa retiree who everyone claims to want to keep in town.

One way to mitigate that problem is to require a set-aside of 10-20% of living units for workforce and senior housing (aka “affordable” housing) in a Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) district. That would mean that a small portion of the condo units would have lower prices that teachers, firefighters, and the average grandparent could afford.

Icon is already lobbying for a TIF district to help pay for roadway improvements along West Burleigh Street. Seems like the time is right for adding a TIF for affordable housing.

The city’s comprehensive planning process is just getting underway. I’d love to hear from anyone who was involved in the public vision workshops scheduled for late July, or the focus group/leadership interviews scheduled for August.

My name is on the list (hint, hint), in case anyone in the City Planning Department is reading this.

You know it’s a slow news week when TosaNow reports that a Tosa company completes two projects. And neither one in Wauwatosa. It might be newsworthy when your kids actually complete something they started, but I’m guessing Selzer-Ornst does that with all the projects they start.

* * *

The rain is nice and needed. But I’m stuck in a house with an excessive amount of vegetative matter from this morning’s farmers market in Brookfield and a stir-crazy dog.

I can do things with the tomatoes and basil, but the dog wants exercise. Bark. Bark. BARKBARKBARKBARK!!!

For now, a furious tongue workout with a peanut butter-filled kong will have to do.

* * *

Even with a car full of sweet corn, green beans, and red onions, I had to stop at the new Fresh Foods store at Brookfield Square. I’m not often tempted by the mall, but resisting this will take some self-control.

The best part was the engaging staff, scores of animated and friendly folks.

Oh: and the great jazz trio. I’m not sure why the store's management stuck them in the entrance where you could only listen in passing. If they’d been playing in the store, I’d have stayed all morning and impulse-purchased more than $19.56 worth of foccacia, "artisanal" cereal, and herb-roasted chicken.

Still, in aiming to make grocery shopping an “experience,” they seem to have hit a new note for this side of town.

Yesterday, Liz and a bunch of friends from Tosa and beyond got back from New Orleans, where they were doing cleaning and gutting work in the city’s poorest area. The 9th Ward is essentially untouched since Hurricane Katrina two years ago, and both kids and adults were shocked.

The most poignant moment for Liz was recovering a family’s photo album from what remained of their house. Most of the images were damaged, but there was a picture of the little girl who had lived there once upon a time, and happily by the looks of the photo.

Where is she now? Is her family together? Have they made a good new life? Do they long for their own homecoming?

The kids from Unitarian Universalist Church West in Brookfield and Lake Country Unitarian Universalist Church in Delafield did gut-busting work. They also had a chance to let the world —or at least the readers of the Times Picayune and anyone who walked past the Monticello Canal last Saturday--know about their concerns for the lack of progress in the area. Along with residents, they formed a human levee 120 people strong and 3 blocks long, holding hands.

That might not hold back the water that continues to overflow the streets whenever it rains hard. But it might raise awareness about the need for the government to join its hands with the residents and volunteers there.

***

August 1 is the 716th birthday of the Swiss Confederation, aka Switzerland and before either, Helvetia. This is the day the nationals gained their freedom from the Franks and the Germans.

I know this because one of Tosa’s great hostesses is Swiss and will be celebrating in style. Apples will be involved, but not arrows. The Swiss seem to have gotten the appropriate use of artillery, including the handheld variety, down.

Happy independence day, Switzerland!

Sex. Race. Class. Most of the social shifts in American culture have been mirrored in the waters of municipal pools. So how the story of the Hoyt Park pool plays out may hold a bigger place in history than any of us imagined.

If you’ve been eavesdropping on the conversation in the Tosa Town Square, you’ll know that the Hoyt Park pool is a contentious issue for some.

There’s worry about crime and violence. Some imagine an influx of unnamed sinister groups or persons, while others suggest "you must mean black teenagers" (my words, not theirs). Then the debate swerves off into disputations about who is racist and who is not, whether this is about race or. . . something else.

There’s nothing new about this conversation, according to Jeff Wiltse, author of Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America.

Throughout their history, municipal pools served as stages for social conflict. Latent social tensions often erupted into violence at swimming pools because they were community meeting places, where Americans came into intimate and prolonged contact with one another. People who might otherwise come in no closer contact than passing on the street, now waited in line together, undressed next to one another, and shared the same water. The visual and physical intimacy that accompanied swimming made municipal pools intensely contested civic spaces. Americans fought over where pools should be built, who should be allowed to use them, and how they should be used.

According to Wiltse, rather than resolving racial tensions, people began retreating from public places in the 1950s. By the 70s and 80s, backyard pool building took off, and the decline of public pools began.

I know about this because I heard Wiltse inteviewed on National Public Radio, without which I would have no life.

The real question we're debating is whether we want to sustain a rich community life and the ongoing conversations among us. Or would we rather retreat to our fenced back yards and listen to conversations on the radio or in electronic forums?

There's a place for both. But kudos to everyone involved in the movement to rebuild the pool. Whether you know it or not, you’re making a historic statement about faith in civic life. Half naked and warmed by the sun, lying side by side, we just may get to know each other again.