The citizens of Shorewood are the recipients of the royal proclamation that “your environment IS IN for a change for the BETTER.”

A master plan is doing this for us? The plan has “CHARTED A COURSE ( like a water stream) to make life in one of the best suburbs in the state even BETTER?   Is the plan doing this for us or has someone initiated a plan and already taken action for us? (How sweet!).

How can a plan make life “even better” for us? Is it going to change the climate, “your environment” or something of that great significance? (Oh! my God, a plan can do that)?

Did we ask for this change in climate? Did we initiate the super plan? How many of the 10,000 adults voted for this, (less than 1%)? Or are we simply using the term “master plan” for someone, or less than 1% of someones, to superimpose their mastery over the rest of us?

Are we now being told what is GOOD for us? Your lives SHALL NOW be improved. YOU SHALL “BE part of the exciting changes the master plan has in store.” (Which store?)   Are we now going to discover it and become a part of it and get absorbed into the tactical maneuverings of the master plan?

Obviously this has been a well-held secret, kept from the the citizens to whom it will now be revealed as a GREAT surprise.

For the past 4 years or more, I've focused my planning and local community attention on Shorewood. I've begun writing on Shorewood from a very practical perspective and some of this has from time to time slipped into my day to day writings.

Obviously my book deals with much more than Shorewood, but Shorewood has evolved into a real model for various practical reasons, as did London when doing my PhD. thesis.

Sometime ago, I was employed as an urban designer and planner at the London County Council for several years, while working on my doctor's degree. I was able to augment my thesis based on this practical experience, completing my PhD. dissertation at London University, (LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science), where I was a Fulbright Scholar.

When I returned to the U.S. with my English ancient and my PhD. in my back pocket, I became UWM's first Director of University Planning in charge of planning and construction, one of my duo-role tasks at UWM was to develop the first city planning and urban design courses taught in the Department of Urban Affairs (my original position was that of assistant professor).

I convinced President Harrington that the School of Architecture should be located in Milwaukee instead of in Madison and he set the wheels in motion before retiring. Urban planning was later placed in the School of Architecture as was intended.

In my role as Director of Planning, I developed the concept of a central plaza with underground parking in the center of the UWM campus. I supervised the planning of the three high-rise dormitory buildings with a central concourse and dining room and two-floor community units. This at the edge of Downer Woods on Maryland Avenue.  And we got the towers built in spite of some conventional concerns. .

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My work in urban affairs got me involved in neighborhood redevelopment and planning in Milwaukee and in local communities.

While teaching planning and urban design in the School of Architecture, I was asked by several communities to serve as planning consultant. This lead to establishing my own consulting firm where I was able again to function professionally. I even did some work with our neighbor, Whitefish Bay.

I could study the development of local communities and local government, directly involving my students in the real thing.

This indicates that my observations are based on a rather long-time period of both practical and academic involvement.

After receiving my master's degree in economics at Nebraska University, where I learned that I wanted to become a city planner, I applied for my first job in the field as a “city planning technician” in the engineering department, in my home town of Omaha and later became Director of City Planning there.

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My closest friends have known me more for my interest in philosophy and political science and discussions in those areas rather than for my actual professional pursuits as a planner.

Sometimes, I've been asked who I am. This is part of who I am. I also find myself asking about those I deal with on a day to day basis, who are they? We never know who anyone really is. But perhaps that is the way it is meant to be.

My wife Ebbie and I, have lived here on the lake for the past 35 years. We designed and built our house here, which might also explain our interest in Shorewood and in all things having to do with its planning and development.

This is not meant to be my resume'. I'm not applying for a job. This is intended to make more obvious why I have a POINT-OF-VIEW. .

It might also give context to why this POINT-OF-VIEW about Shorewood often comes out into my comments and writings from time to time.

Obviously this is my own partial perspective of who I am. It has also given me the opportunity to talk about myself. So if anyone really wants to know what inspires my interests in Shorewood, and my point of view, there it is.

Now more to the POINT, not on what I've done for Shorewood lately, but what we can all do together and I'm working on that.

How about developing a concept of a central place, a public plaza, like the UWM plaza that can become the CENTRAL PLACE for Shorewood at Capitol and Oakland, not for parking below but for car movement?

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to cross the street at any point at this intersection, the cars below, out of sight and out of mind? I think that I shall develop a model for discussion so all citizens can get involved.   More later.

We've produced goal-oriented plans in order to avoid opportunistic development in Shorewood. Yet we seem to be following the polices of opportunism.

It seems that we're cherry-picking projects rather than working toward unified spacial designs, overall, completed and integrated cells that function together as total units or elements, at least in terms of the immediate surroundings.

Considering several projects at one time, is that project integration? And street lighting, is that enough to unify spot-type development?

Much of Shorewood's residential property is of the highest of quality and we should be proud of these major elements of our community. We are now engaged in upgrading our “business district.” We should expect that here too, we shall aim toward the highest quality.

We are not only interested in improving our tax base, for the engine that drives our renewal of Oakland and Capitol is the Tax Incremental Financing programs of the state and of our community, but we should always keep in mind that we want to achieve the highest quality center of community possible.

In a sense we should be very selfish about this basic goal. Of course, without private developers to make this possible, we would not be able to begin accomplishing this basic goal. However, we must make them partners in bringing about a high quality community center and business district.

I believe that in the long run, high quality will be more valuable to our tax base than merely occupying this land with passing market opportunity development.

We should take advantage of the system that is allowing us to move toward this renewal and toward modifying these linear areas into a series of high quality focus points, what I've referred to as “ping points” in the discussion on “the ping effect.“

In the planning process over the past few years, it was difficult to get citizens to involve themselves in the various professional approaches and different opinions. It became more important to get a consensus so that we could get started and develop a momentum.

The plans that developed therefore were not driven by a forceful artist or urban designer. They became the basis for an organized start. Plans are not sacred in themselves nor can they take into consideration all contingencies I taught my students that plans are meant to be changed. They are the start of a “hypothetical.”

Every community to function as a community must have a central magnet. Our center is a natural. At the crossing of Capitol and Oakland. This point at the present time is a highway intersection. But it needs to be converted into Shorewood's community center. This becomes a three-dimensional project.

The dominate interest here is the community, not the movement of traffic nor improvement of tax base. All these elements are there, but a community center is dominate. The linear development on Capitol and Oakland all leads to this main central point. The traffic, if it is to remain, as in all likelihood it will, must be placed under a platform forming the basis of our center.

Here we move beyond the “ping point” to a big “bang”. All of our development along these two streets should be dominated by these objectives: high quality development, a number of small focus points and finally the center of our community itself. These concepts could not be fully expressed until will had arrived at this point.

Now that we have come this far in our planning, operations and management, we must give real emphasis to community and there is no denying that the physical structure is the most important element as it must facilitate the social interaction of a community on a daily basis. All our plans can now be aimed at these goals set out here and citizens can evaluate our progress based on these positive objectives. I certainly will.

Shorewood seems to be marching forward into the past. With few modifications our land assembly is being used to accommodate the past but clad in progressive rhetoric. Traditional practice often hides mistaken concepts, while the market accommodates the lowest of tastes.

Meanwhile politicians lie in wait until forced to act or better to flow with the stream. Plans are often another form of rhetoric serving as cover for politicians' inactions or faulty actions.

Where are the innovations that create, what we refer to as the future, coming from; business as usual, tradition, the market place? Shorewood's Village Board is so constructed and established that we can only expect to see that business is as usual, that only traditional approaches are taken to new problems and that we can view market solutions only by seeing to it that they don't fall off as they creak along on old tracks.

Stream patterns produce linear elongations and movement toward distance points. On the other hand, clustering is a form of natural or natural-like concentration. Linear units are usually essential to transportable needs.

Roads and highways as streaming patterns tend to irritate people as the more forward objects restrict following objects and followers pressure those in between, characteristic of flow and forward movement. Flowing object patterns indicate momentum and an element of uncontrolled movement toward distant places.

Social clusters are place-creating and non-directional human “pinging stations” where people tend to interact as they socially “bump-into.” It is in “bump-into” places and “pinging stations” where people tend to engage in interaction, where they can shop for products as well as for human contacts or interaction. These pinging places, places of interaction tend to create the atmosphere for shopping and for socializing.

Shopping that requires access by car, where large box distributing places are themselves the destination points seldom function as clustering points, they don't ping. High density areas especially in Europe tend to cluster around squares or other human pinging points.

Elongated shopping districts are usually the result of domestic rail movement, like street cars. Street car stops or loading points tend to create clustering places. Buses generally do not have the place-creating effect that street cars do. There are some theories that explain the anti-pinging effect of buses in the urban setting..

Shorewood's development seems to have been the result of street cars and street car stops, especially along north Oakland avenue. Without the street cars, the elongated business district becomes the stretched out road system, taking one out of Shorewood, with no real cluster points, no human pinging points, no places of enclosure.

Oakland needs to become a series of cluster points, somewhat like beads on a necklace. These small squares will attract people who will shop and socialize. The experience of Europe and European oriented cities proves that the linear pattern will not work unless it is regularly interrupted by small public spaces, pinging points.

Slowing down the flow of elongated places may require a great deal of pinching back at the ends of the elongated element. Ground floors should not necessarily be commercial in these end areas where renewal is taking place. These end point could contain more open elements as residential units next to flowing traffic are not desirable habitats. Pitching back the ends will also serve to create a more intense cluster at the center and aid in developing a functional community central point, with concentrated pinging. .

The present thought processes reflected in the numerous plans obviously for Shorewood's redevelopment are the result of what we usually refer to as “common sense” thinking, which usually doesn't make scientific sense therefore, usually makes “good” political sense. Those of us who want to see the success of our present redevelopment efforts should begin to understand the social effect of elongation and clustering..

Shorewood is made up of residents who chose to live here for one reason or another. Very few live here from birth until death as in many small towns still today.

They way people live in these circumstances determine the way particular communities develop.

Few if any suburbs develop and grow over long periods of time in the same manner as small towns, even though, if after development they take on many of the appearances of small towns.

Without going into the tendencies that small towns have for becoming communities, we must take many of the natural tendencies of community development and insert them into the process of what is referred to as urban renewal, which includes neighborhood or community renewal.

Without the basic knowledge of what community is, it becomes difficult if not impossible to artificially direct community renewal. Subdivision development is the result of that lack of knowledge.

Fundamental to that understanding is one basic unit that might be referred to as “clustering.” Subdivision housing is linear because it is related to the street and living units are spread out because of the availability of the farm land on which the development takes place. This is the opposite of clustering.

Once we know about the characteristic of clustering, it easily observed in naturally forming small towns but is usually absent in suburbs.

In the formalized processes of urban renewal especially in the redevelopment of commercial districts, the attempt to develop these areas on a linear basis almost always results in failure. A good example of clustering can be seen in the Glendale shopping development.

Clustering is basic and characteristic to Glendale. 
 

The redevelopment of Time Square in New York was aided by the fact that it is a square. Like a town square it is a place we commercial and social clustering takes place. Glendale tends to reproduce the characteristics of the small town square.

The so-called Magnificent Mile in Chicago is not really a mile and although the term mile may indicate a line, this area has evolved by the clustering of significant businesses on both sides of the street, most within easy walking distances.

This urban scale of clustering is not possible in small towns nor even in most large suburbs.

Basic to the redevelopment of commercial districts then, is the way by which we introduce the principle of clustering. Once this principle is understood, it can then be easily designed into new projects creating conditions and the atmosphere of the small town square.