The Forum

I happened to order from China Palace tonight.  In the bag with my food was this note.

The owners of China Palace own the building (4511 N. Oakland) that contains the restaurant. As such, their closing may be an indication that a sale of the building is pending.  Also located in the building with China Palace are a small grocery store, and the North Star Bistro. 

At this time, I have no specific information on who the new tenants or owners might be.  Rumors were flying back in November of 2007 regarding a potential sale of the building, but I have not heard anything since.

Lawsuits are still underway in relation to last fall's dismissal of senior executives in the accounting and insider trading probe.  The one described in the Washington Post Story below was filed in September of last year.  This lawsuit is getting more and more salacious by the day, with Sunrise now alleging that the former CFO, Mr. Bradley Rush, had "more than 25,000 unique pornographic images" on his company owned computer.

Former Sunrise Executive Sues Firm
Ex-Finance Chief Says He Was Fired Out of Retaliation

By Cecilia Kang
9/19/07, Washington Post

Sunrise Senior Living's former chief financial officer, Bradley B. Rush, yesterday sued the McLean assisted-living company, claiming that it fired him in May in retaliation for his uncovering improper accounting practices.

In a complaint filed with Fairfax County Circuit Court, Rush claimed breach of contract and defamation. The complaint alleges that Sunrise's senior management "initiated a public and private campaign to defame Mr. Rush directly and through innuendo." It says the company suggested that he destroyed documents to make it appear as if he was responsible for the accounting troubles. (READ FULL STORY)

I will have much more on Sunrise in the days and weeks to come.  Village Manager Chris Swartz and CDA Chairman Pete Petrie spent over an hour going over the history of the river front site with me in fine detail.  I have also filed an open records request with the Village for all communications related to the site going back several years.  I will have much more detail on all of this very soon, and will post as many of the documents as I can.

For reasons passing understanding...

Shorewood Village Code
409-6. Fortune-telling

Every person or corporation who or which shall keep or permit to be kept on his, her or its premises within the limits of this Village a house of fortune-telling, clairvoyance or palmistry or who or which shall engage in fortune-telling, clairvoyance or palmistry and every person or persons who shall be an inmate of or found in any house of fortune-telling, clairvoyance or palmistry within the limits of this Village shall be punished as indicated hereinafter.

The controversy regarding the development of the riverfront site continues to grow.  I caught up with Shorewood Village President Guy Johnson prior to last Monday's Village Board meeting (1/7/08), and we talked at some length about where the potential Sunrise deal came from, its chances for approval, and other topics related to the development. 

President Johnson agreed to have his comments posted.   By way of full disclosure, the only editing I did was to my own question text, to make the questions more clear.  I also reordered some of the paragraphs to group together comments on similar topics.

Do you see any specific concerns regarding the proposal Sunrise has submitted?

"I guess if I were thinking of reasons of concern it would be, it is single usage.  But it is a single usage that is going to be necessary as the baby boomers age that could go to the next 30 years, 40 years.  You can't turn it into apartments at any time because the units are too small."

What do you think the barriers are to a more mixed use type of development on this site?

"Well, some of it's probably the fact that it's a tougher economic decision because of the housing market right now.  And we thought we would probably have something for the second half and the whole Milwaukee PC piece, but the one that was looking the best on it is pulling back right now because they want to wait and see what happens with the market.

"I hear some people saying 'get somebody else in.' Well you don't just get somebody else.  That's not the way it works.  It was for sale, and all of the sudden this came out, and it was decent.  But I would rather see a nice mixed use with restaurants on the first floor...but nobody bid on that. 

"I talk to some people, and they just think the Village has control and we can do what we want.  But that's not the way it works. We can't just make it happen."

What incentives are we offering to Sunrise Senior Living for developing this site?

"We'll do some infrastructure with the roads, and plus that half a property.  It's three properties.  You've got the restaurant, the apartments, and Milwaukee PC.  So the first two, they only want one and a half of them.  So they're going to do the option on the whole second property, but they want a guarantee that we'll buy it back from them.  We'll buy the half of the piece.  So what it is, it's not really an incentive, it's just a protection.

"If we go through with it, we told them this is what we will do."

Do we have any flexibility on these incentives, if a better development were to emerge for this site?

"The CDA and the board are for it.  If there is something better that came up, but there is not going to be something better.  This was advertised to all of the developers that know anything about developing know about that property.  They all knew about it before too.  They come in and they start talking about it. 

"Originally, the other possibility was Advanced Health Care.  I mean they wanted to just put a big parking lot around it.  And we were trying to force them to go underground with most of it because we didn't want it to look like a suburban parking lot."

If we decide this development is not in the best interest of Shorewood, what power do we have to change the outcome?

"The CDA wants it.  The CDA is recommending it and the Board is moving in that direction right now.  Everything we have been doing so far is for the transaction.

"I mean if what we are trying to do is increase the tax base in Shorewood, this is what we're doing.  That's not a good location for school aged children.  I am just talking about the location.  And that's the thing that's the hardest too.  You know, there is an apartment building there, and some people have lived there for many years too.  But you've got an apartment owner that wants to sell.  I mean, if they've got a gripe, it's against the owner."

No, I do not mean they exploded in number.  I mean they actually exploded.  These boxes deliver the AT&T Cable Service.  With the recent passage of the "Cable Competition Bill", these boxes will be coming soon to a neighborhood near you.  There already is one of these boxes on Stowell, near the Shorewood Animal Hospital. 

Explosions mar AT&T video service cabinets

JSOnline, 1/16/08

AT&T Corp. (T) is replacing thousands of batteries in outdoor cabinets that provide U-verse video service after several cabinets have exploded or caught fire, including one in Wauwatosa.

No one has been injured in the explosions, although the force of the Wauwatosa blast, on Christmas morning, sent the cabinet's steel doors flying about six feet.

U-verse, a combination of TV and music channels plus high-speed Internet access, has been available in selected areas of Wisconsin for about 10 months. The cabinets provide U-Verse to neighborhoods where the service is available.

There are more than 240 cabinets in the City Milwaukee, according to a recent Journal Sentinel analysis.

In a statement released this morning, AT&T said: "As we gained experience with these batteries, we found they no longer met our stringent performance and safety criteria. As a result, we have decided to move forward with the removal of all Avestor batteries as quickly as possible. Since these batteries are used only as a backup to commercial power, we do not anticipate any interruptions to U-verse service during this process. It's important to understand that this issue is solely related to batteries used for backup power in some of our cabinets. It has nothing to do with our service or core U-verse technology in any way. Our U-verse deployment and strategy remains on-track and we're very pleased with our progress."

I wish this story were being written about a new development project in Shorewood. 

Aloha, green
Pabst brewery redevelopment takes ecological cues from Hawaii project

By AVRUM LANK
alank@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Jan. 14, 2008

Milwaukee is more than 4,000 miles from Hawaii, but knowledge can move between the two places quickly.

Consider an ecologically friendly luxury house recently completed in the mountains of Maui by a subsidiary of Milwaukee's Zilber Ltd.

The structure, dubbed the "Good Home," cost $2.5 million and was a research and development project of Towne Island Homes, a Zilber company based in Hawaii, spokesman Michael Mervis said.

Some of the knowledge gained in Hawaii will be used in Milwaukee as part of the 21-acre Pabst brewery redevelopment being carried out by another part of the Zilber organization.

The goal in Milwaukee as well as Maui is to make the development as ecologically friendly as possible.

The Maui project was designed by Zilber personnel, who also supervised its construction. The idea was to "take the kinds of thought patterns we used there and apply them to Pabst," Mervis said.

In both places, Zilber hooked up with the United States Green Building Council, which has a LEED program rating system. That is an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. In Hawaii, the house meets the requirements for a LEED gold rating, the second highest possible. The top platinum rating was out of reach because the house is not well enough integrated in an urban neighborhood to allow for saving of energy on things such as mass transit and nearby shopping.

The Pabst development also is striving for a LEED gold rating, Mervis said.

Water considerations

Zilber is serving as master developer for the Pabst project, bringing in other firms to work with individual parcels at the old brewery. The city is providing about $28 million for infrastructure financing and, as part of that effort, the Milwaukee Common Council is considering zoning changes that would require developers to sign off on an agreement to abide by several environmental guidelines.

However, because the other developers will not be required to meet the highest LEED standards, a gold rather than a platinum rating is the best that can be expected, Mervis said.

In Milwaukee as well as Maui, water is a big consideration in making the project environment-friendly.

The "Good Home," which sits on about a third of an acre, is set up in such a way that all rainwater is captured before it runs off. It then goes through a bioswale, which is part of an underground collector system where suspended matter falls out. The liquid itself is then returned to the water table.

A similar system is contemplated for the Pabst development, only on a much larger scale, Mervis said. While structures will continue to be connected to the city's sewers, storm water will be directed to bioswales on N. 9th and 10th streets. There, suspended matter will be removed and the water eventually released to the city's combined sewers.

Recycled, local materials

Use of materials also is important for a good green rating, said Shane Jackson, director of environmental projects for Zilber Ltd. in Honolulu.

"As much needs to be recycled as possible," he said. The ratings also approve of material that is procured within 500 miles. That is a challenge in Hawaii, where most of that circle is ocean. The "Good Home" used local rock and hardwood, and kitchen counters were made on site by mixing concrete with recycled glass and polishing the result so it looks like terrazzo. That was a lot more environmentally friendly than shipping in granite.

Fulfilling the recycling requirement is "a lot easier to achieve on the mainland," Jackson said.

For street paving and the like, the Pabst project is recycling stone from buildings that are being demolished or extensively remodeled. Crushing machines have been shared with the nearby Marquette Interchange project, greatly cutting down on trucking costs and emissions.

Reflecting on windows

One lesson from Hawaii was how and when to glaze windows to get the most efficient use of energy, said Kevin Mantz, Milwaukee-based director of design for Zilber Ltd., who was the architect for the "Good Home."

Different kinds of glaze should be used depending on the relationship of windows to the sun, he explained. Western windows need to be mirrored so that not too much afternoon sun comes in to stress cooling systems, whereas there is no need to worry about that on other exposures.

The Pabst project also is considering ways to tap wind energy through the use of small turbines on common buildings such as parking structures.

How all this will translate to commercial advantage is yet to be seen, although Mervis reports that some prospective tenants are interested in being in a green structure.

Back in Hawaii, meanwhile, the "Good Home" has sat unsold since it was completed in October, just as the real estate market was turning sour all across the United States.

But that is not too concerning to Zilber officials, who feel they have learned a lot by building the house. The downturn also let them use corporate resources that in more hectic times might not have been available.

"This is when to be innovative, at the bottom of the market, not at the top," Mervis said.

The internet is changing everything, even local government.  The Village of Shorewood is slowly but surely moving in the direction of more services available over the internet.  You can already view your tax bill online on villageofshorewood.org, and more services are slated for online accessibility in the near future.  Today, however, I believe there is another huge leap forward which we could explore as time goes on. 

My idea would radically upgrade the accessibility of local government meetings to Village residents.  The challenge with accessing Village Board meetings currently, is that you have to do one of three things:

1. Go to the meeting and listen to what happens
2. Read the minutes, which often are not published for weeks after the meeting
3. Go to the library and check out the audio recording, and listen to the whole thing

This combination means citizens are often weeks behind in terms of their information, and many just choose not to participate at all. 

I propose creating a podcast of all meetings of the Village Board.  According to Wikipedia's definition, "A podcast is a collection of digital media files which is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers."  I believe that a well-organized audio podcast would bring our local government much closer to the citizens they represent. 

How would it work?  All Board meetings would be recorded in audio form, and posted online.  The audio would be broken up into sections, which would reflect the sections outlined in the meeting agenda.  So, for instance, this last weeks meeting would have had separate audio files on The Parks Commission, the Asst. Village Manager position, the intersection on Morris & Menlo, and the SHS National Award.

In this fashion, listeners would not need to listen to the entire meeting to get the to the section of interest.  So, for instance, if I only wanted to listen to the part of the meeting specifically related to The Parks Commission, I could click on that part of the meeting rather than having to search through the whole audio file.

Audio content could be further organized through the use of "Tagging," a user-friendly technology gaining wider and wider use on the internet.  The clouds of words you see in the right hand margin is an example of tagging.  If you click on any of them, you will get all posts I have written on that specific topic.  Village Board audio content could be similarly organized by topic, so citizens could click on a tag, and automatically see all audio content relating to a specific topic from current or past meetings.  So this week's files might have had tags for "Local Parks," "Street Reconstruction," and so forth.

The final product would be a set of audio files that would be:

1. Accessible online for anyone with a web browser
2. Accessible by specific topic
3. Searchable by topic, so Shorewood residents could easily find all instances where a specific topic was discussed

Is it practical?  I am not sure yet.  What do you think? 

The audio clip I posted on January 8th of the Village Board discussing Sunrise was bothersome to me in one specific way.  The comments made by members of the Board conveyed the notion that the Board is really not yet engaged with Sunrise in relation to the upcoming purchase of the riverfront property.

It is probable, in my view, that the members of the board were being truthful that they actually are not privy to the precise details of the negotiations between Sunrise and the owners of Riverbrook and the Touhy building.  However, their comments left the impression that they were just waiting on the sidelines to see if Sunrise does buy the riverfront site, at which point they will get involved. 

In fact, the Village is working to land the Sunrise development with a package of infrastructure improvements and incentives, including the offer to repurchase land from Sunrise. Documents produced for the December 3rd closed session of the Village Board list the following potential incentives.  (View the document) 

• $870,000 for the re-purchase by the Village from Sunrise of ½ of the lot that the Touhy property currently occupies.
• $2.2 million in infrastructure improvements for the Riverfront site.  Some of these will also enable future developments of the back lot of the Riverfront site.

I believe the Board is acting in what they believe to be good faith with the developer by refusing to comment on the negotiations.  However, in this case, there is plenty of information about the transaction which is public information, and about which the Board could have legitimately commented. 

The smoking ban debate in Shorewood brought spirited arguments on both sides.  But hey, it could always be worse.  At least we do not live in St Charles, MO.  It is from there that we draw today's strange ordinance of the day.

Bill would ban swearing in bars
AP, 1/8/07

ST. CHARLES, Mo. - What the ...? A St. Louis-area town is considering a bill that would ban swearing in bars, along with table-dancing, drinking contests and profane music.

City officials contend the bill is needed to keep rowdy crowds under control because the historic downtown area gets a little too lively on some nights.  City Councilman Richard Veit said he was prompted to propose the bill after complaints about bad bar behavior. He says it will give police some rules to enforce when things get too rowdy.

But some bar owners worry the bill is too vague and restrictive, saying it may be a violation of their civil rights.  Marc Rousseau, who owns bar R.T. Weilers, said he thinks the bill needs revision.

"We're dealing with adults here once again and I don't think it's the city's job or the government's job to determine what we can and cannot play in our restaurant," Rousseau said.

The proposal would ban indecent, profane or obscene language, songs, entertainment and literature at bars.

A meeting to discuss the proposal is set for Jan. 14.

At the beginning of tonight's Village Board meeting, Dan Peterson, Building Manager of the apartment buildings on Sherburn Place (see map) asked about the status of the Sunrise Development.  His question was intended to gain enough information to allow residents to have sufficient warning before having to move out of the building if a sale is pending.

The exchange that followed between Mr. Peterson and members of the Board was somewhat strange, though informative as well. 

Click on the play symbol on the image below to listen (you will not leave this page). The recording is approximately 5 minutes. 

Note:  This is also a test to see if audio files work.  Let me know if you have any problems.

The Village Board is planning to conduct a community survey this Spring.  According to committee discussions, it will be administered by mail, and may also be available over the internet.  It will explore the sentiments of Shorewood residents on various issues facing the Board. 

An RFP will likely be generated and sent to interested Marketing Research companies and university groups who  have expertise in this area.

I have not posted anything on AT&T for a while (see previous posts).  In case you missed the headlines, the battle is over.  Just before Christmas, Jim Doyle signed a bill into law which will allow AT&T to compete with cable providers.  He vetoed some of the most offensive provisions of the law.  I have not seen full text of the final law, so I am not clear on how the new legislation will affect Shorewood in terms of current cable franchise revenue and the placement of boxes in our public rights-of-way.

Doyle signs 'cable competition bill'
12/21/07 - BizTimes Daily

Doyle Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle today signed the "cable competition bill," which opens the door for AT&T Inc. and other entities to bypass having to negotiate contracts with local communities when they seek to provide video content that will compete with cable television.

Instead, the bill grants statewide licenses to video content providers.

Doyle said he preserved protections for cable customers through several vetoes.

Doyle said he vetoed language from the bill that limited consumer protections and prohibited state agencies from drafting administrative rules regarding the new franchise application and revocation process.  Under the new law, video service providers will still pay a fee to municipalities set at no more than 5 percent of the company's gross receipts and public, educational and government (PEG) channels will continue to broadcast, Doyle said.

The new law clears the way for AT&T to launch its U-Verse video programming statewide.

The bill, which presumably ends a public relations flap between AT&T and cable providers such as Time Warner Cable, had plenty of critics, who said municipalities will lose control of local programming. Critics also said providers such as AT&T will be able to pick and chose the areas they serve, and they will be inclined to ignore rural areas or impoverished neighborhoods.

Mark Miller (D-Monona) said, "I would have preferred a veto of the entire bill, but I am pleased Gov. Doyle vetoed the worst parts of the bill, particularly the 'in perpetuity' language that would have granted a video franchise forever. The governor's vetoes improve consumer protection and provide for more industry accountability. I remain very concerned about the continued viability of local public access programming. However, the vetoes provide a window of opportunity to address these issues in the next legislative session."

Scott VanderSanden, president of AT&T, released the following statement: "Gov. Jim Doyle's signing of AB-207 launches a new era of video choice in Wisconsin, bringing the important benefits of competition to consumers and workers. Real video competition provides consumers with real choices, better prices, improved service and new products - as demonstrated by competition for other telecom services. In addition to creating a new, state process for video franchising, the final bill improves consumer protections, formalizes revenue sharing arrangements with local governments, retains municipal control over rights-of-way and preserves PEG channels. The bill, first introduced by 43 co-sponsors, received strong bipartisan support along the way, with the combined Assembly and Senate voting, 91-39, and the two utilities committees voting, 16-1, in favor. Numerous community groups, businesses organizations and labor unions supported the bill, including the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The people of Wisconsin have shown solid support for the bill because they support competition and the benefits it will bring to residents, workers and businesses."

Sunrise is in the news again, closing a Senior Living facility in Philadelphia due to high operating costs and heavy financial losses to the building owner.

Mill Run building to be sold

By GEMA MARIA DUARTE
Bucks County Courier Times

BRISTOL - The Mill Run building is up for sale.  Gordon Simmons, executive vice president of RHA/Mill Run Inc., said Thursday afternoon that The Flynn Company, a Philadelphia commercial real estate broker, has been hired to sell the Bristol building that most recently served as a senior independent and assisted living facility.

"We are still waiting," he said.

RHA/Mill Run, based in Atlanta, owns the building and said the decision to close last fall came after losing nearly $8 million in the last eight years. Sunrise Senior Living, based in Virginia, manages the senior living facility at 1201 Wilson Ave.

At the Shorewood Village Board meeting where the Sunrise development was discussed, a local architect noted that, due to the layout of the proposed Sunrise building in Shorewood, it would essentially be a "single use" building.  By this she meant that, if the assisted living center were to shut down, there is really no other use for the building because of the way it is built. 

The limitation is the very small individual apartments (no kitchen included) and large common areas offered by Sunrise.  This format is intended to promote community living in the assisted living environment.  This format would likely not be suitable for conversion to standard apartments if Sunrise were to close the facility, given the small apartment sizes.  The speaker at the meeting noted this as a "green building" issue, since if the building cannot be reused, it would have to be torn down to make way for something new.

Given today's story out of Philadelphia , this is an issue we should explore closely.

Both the Village Board and School Board races will be unopposed this year.  Very disappointing.