As readers of this blog know, I have written "ad nauseam"  :-)  about the lack of consideration for small business parking in areas where there is No Construction Work being done, but No Parking signs are left posted --- and tickets are written for patrons of businesses and residents who might have "logically" thought if there is No Work going on, parking for a few minutes should be ok --- Wrong !!

 

Contacting the Officials that Be had not been very productive, as the finger pointing (Construction Crews, DPW, Administration, Police, BID) invariably followed a circular pattern, 

 

I am happy to report that Guy Johnson, the Shorewood Village President, as he promised,  has taken an interest in this situation and is reviewing it with the Village Administration and DPW.

 

Will there be an immediate change to the current practices ? 

 

I don't know ---- but I am encouraged the process is being reviewed ---- and that the plight of the hapless small business owners is now a consideration.

 

WHAT DO YOU THINK.  PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT BELOW.
 

 Frequent readers of my blog --- both of you :-) --- may recall that last fall when the Village was starting the Streetscape project, they had NO PARKING signs all along Oakland Avenue --- for days at a time when NO WORK was being done.

 

This week --- AGAIN --- on the 4400 block of North Oakland, which is heavily concentrated with small businesses that rely on walk in traffic --- the street has been marked NO PARKING all week although there has been NO WORK done.

 

Obviously, when they are working in the area, the construction crews need to have the street cleared of parked cars.  

 

But when they are not working in a retail area --- even if it is for one day only !!!! --- why can't they take the signs down or cover them.

 

Again --- let me ask of the  Village Government --- the Village Board Members --- the Administration ........... do ANY OF YOU REALLY CARE ABOUT THE SMALL BUSINESSES IN SHOREWOOD ????

 

WHAT DO YOU THINK ?  PLEASE LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW ! 

Just about 10 years ago the merchants on North Oakland had to endure a disastarous summer of (non) business as Shorewood tore up the street and sidewalks and made North Oakland the "Jewel of Shorewood" !!

Now Shorewood is at it again (obviously they didn't get it right 10 years ago) as the street is a two lane mess, sidewalks and crosswalks are torn up --- and the business owners are Hurting .....

But according to recent comments from the Shorewood BID reported in Shorewoodnow.com  ---

"We are turning what could be somewhat of an inconvenience into an exciting way to attract customers and keep them coming back for the quality products and personal service that Shorewood is known for," BID member Barb Caprile said."

Barb --- you just Don't Get It !!!  It is NOT an "inconvenience" for the merchants on North Oakland --- it is a Financial Disaster. 

Talk to the guys at Mautz Paint -- this should be one of their busiest times -- and their business is way down.  If you don't have GPS with the optional topographical map feature --- trying to patronize the Wick Family's store is all but impossible. 

And just in case the project moves along too quickly --- according to the Village Website, construction will be suspended for most of the month of July to accomodate the 4th of July parade and the Criterium Bicycle Race.

Hmmmmm --- did the BID ever think of re-routing the Bike race so that the Oakland merchants can get back to business as soon as possible ?  As I noted in my blog last year, the Bike Race actually Hurts the Majority of the Businesses on Oakland -- yet the BID keeps it going, and against all evidence otherwise, the BID claims they do it for the Businesses !!!

Why not relocate it to another business area in Shorewood and let them enjoy all the boost to business the Bike Race brings -- NOT !

And since the 4th of July parade is Mobile by Nature --- how about a different route so work can continue on the Oakland Construction. 

I think most of my business neighbors would agree we with me when I say --- Let's Get the Damn Thing Done and Give Us Back our Customers ----  Please !!

 WHAT DO YOU THINK ?  YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS BELOW !

 

  

  You Paid for It: A Shining Shorewood

 For some thoughts on issues other than Shorewood, visit my other blog at

http://nonconventionalwisdomperspectives.blogspot.com/

In today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, was a proposed Light Rail plan by Michael  Cudahy. 

I won't repeat his reasoning for Light Rail here.  If you are interested and don't have today's paper, you can look it up online at http://www.jsonline.com/

The initial line he proposes, in part, comes from downtown up Farwell and Prospect (one way on each), joining up on Oakland Avenue, to terminate at the Shorewood / Milwaukee boundary line.

Now let's imagine that the line would continue up Oakland Avenue, through Shorewood to Hampton, then west Santa Monica, north to Silver Spring, and then west on Silver Spring to Bayshore.

Since we are going to tear up Oakland Avenue anyway, wouldn't this be the ideal time to explore the Light Rail option ?

If the plan goes ahead as Michael Cudahy proposes, and the heavy infrastructure costs are covered by the Federal Money that he has identified, perhaps Shorewood can participate at not much more of a cost than including the rails in the Oakland Makeover. 

I would be willing to bet that  Mr. Cudahy and Mayor Barrett, would be very interested in working with Shorewood --- and perhaps our neighbors in Whitefish Bay and Glendale.

For Whitefish Bay and Shorewood, Light Rail would help their shopping districts compete with Bayshore ---  even as folks  ride the rail to Bayshore, they will have the opportunity to shop Shorewood and Bay's more boutique offerings along the way. 

For Glendale, it would make Bayshore a more viable destination for shoppers from the East Side and Downtown.

If we are serious about increasing Shorewood's residential appeal, and building up our retail markets, I believe Light Rail will do much more than our current plans for new street lights and garbage cans along Oakland and Capitol ---- or  artificial turf  and a second dome at the high school.

 

 

 

 

Well --- did that headline get your attention ? If it did, then I succeeded in doing what the Village Board is so successful at – only in reverse.

I had maintained throughout the recent trustee campaign that the Village Board was overly obsessed with “business” in Shorewood, to the detriment of the “residential” component of the Village.

Focusing on business makes the Village Board look good. We all traverse the main streets of the Village --- and the business facades are prominent and easy to visualize. In contrast, there is not the same visualization factor of the residential infrastructure --- which is actually the Backbone of Shorewood.

In Steve Koczela’s critique of the Legion Post debate, in his blog he posted ( in part):

“While Michael Phinney insisted that he has been a champion of business in Shorewood, Eckman pointed to her vote against the smoking ban as evidence of her pro-business stance…..

Eckman also claimed credit (somewhat dubiously) for some of the new businesses in Shorewood, at least one of which is actually located in a building owned by Dave Tatarowicz.”

Knowing that *Success has many Fathers, but Failure is an Orphan* --- I thought it would be interesting to note the businesses that have recently closed, and/or left the village, and/or moved and the landlords have not been able to quickly fill the spaces. With the loud rhetoric emanating from the Village Board on how well it is doing for business, through its own actions and vis-a-vis the BID ---- I wonder who will offer to adopt the following Orphans !

4517 N Oakland Stone Age Jewelers
4144 N Oakland Carriage Cleaners
4522 N Oakland ???
3575 N Oakland 8,000 SF Street Level Retail
1808 E Capitol Cajun Food
1926 E Capitol Irish Dance Studio (moved to larger quarters, space still vacant)
1522 E Capitol Phone Store
3801 N Oakland Coffee Café
4013 N Oakland Shorewood Wine Bar
4022 N Oakland Red Rock Café

The BID does have an excellent section on its website, under the Business Opportunities Section, for Space Available --- but it has never listed any of these spaces for potential businesses to find !

PLEASE NOTE: I am not advocating that there is really a lot that the Village or the BID can or could do in relation to these businesses closing, or the spaces that remained vacant so long. Actually, just the opposite --- businesses will come and go, when it is in the best interests of the business owners, landlords, and patrons. And the effect of Village government in exactly how those dynamics work out, is extremely limited.

Unfortunately, as long as there is the “wow” factor involved in such highly visual projects as the Streetscape Program, the BID, and now the threatened diminution of Wilson – that is where the efforts and our taxes will go.

At its last meeting the Village Board voted to authorize bids for the new Streetscape Plan. Preliminary estimates for the first phase are in the $3 million range.

Many of Shorewood’s residents probably remember the last time Shorewood had a major renovation project, It was the streetscaping of North Oakland Avenue in 1996. That renovation replaced the street, sidewalks and all the streetlights. Also installed were sidewalk pavers, benches, planters and trash receptacles.

We now find, barely more than 10 years after spending all that money on North Oakland Avenue, that all those nice new street lights, pavers, benches and trash receptacles are obsolete !

Apparently everybody involved failed to notice that we have winters in Shorewood, we use salt on our streets, and all those nice new fixtures, made of cast iron, are prone to rust. Reportedly, they have rusted to the point that they need to be replaced.

Our weather has not been especially kind to all of those pavers that were installed along the sidewalks either. Walking on what is left of the pavers, is taking a risk to breaking an ankle ! Patterned cement, in hindsight, would have been much more economical to install and maintain, while achieving the same decorative look.

The average taxpayer probably imagines that when the Village Board was informed that all the tax money that was spent 10 years ago has rusted away --- literally --- the Board was upset, and determined to find out how and why such a major mistake was made, and that the Board decided to get those answers and to thoroughly examine the new proposals, before committing to any new multi million dollar projects.

Unfortunately, the average taxpayer would be wrong !

The only Board Member who dared to rock the boat during the discussion to approve the bid process was Jeff Hanewall. He brought up concerns about the designs that were being proposed for the new streetscaping, and asked questions as to whether they were appropriate for Shorewood. It is noteworthy that Trustee Hanewall is an architect and is well versed in such matters, albeit that design is always of a subjective nature.

In the following discussion, it appeared that all the other trustees and village management considered the plan, as presented, to be a “done deal”, with no room for discussion or dissent.

When the slide show presentation of the plan was made to the board (you can view the same presentation on the Village’s website), there was a heavy emphasis on the fact that the CDA conducted a number of public meetings, and that Shorewood citizens in study groups, actually voted in favor of the plan that was presented.

That story, however, quickly changed upon questioning.

Trustee Hanewall questioned how the process was actually run. He questioned whether the design firm involved limited the selections available to the participants of the groups, and whether the selections were made without the context of viewing the elements as a whole. He pointed out that a popular vote of approximately 20 volunteers was going to be the deciding factor for a multi million dollar project for a village of 13,000 plus residents.

This was when a whole new description of the process by the CDA was quickly offered.

The new line given was that although there was a popular vote of citizen volunteers, the CDA and designers didn’t “really” let that be a deciding factor. They said that they had actually limited the information available to the volunteers, and that they never intended to, nor did they, abide by the consensus of the study groups.

Going on the appearances and actions at the Board meeting, it would be a good guess that the project is pretty much a “done deal”. There does not seem to be any appetite on the Board to study what went wrong with the North Oakland project --- nor to examine in any depth, the proposed elements for the new project.

And that begs the question of whether we in a rush to more obsolescence ? Are all those street light and poles rusted beyond redemption ? Have any restoration experts been contacted to examine the existing poles and assess whether there are any methods which can restore them --- and how that would compare in cost to replacing them with new ones ?

It has been said that we live in a “throw away” society. And perhaps all those nice “10 year old new” light poles are destined to our landfills.

But shouldn’t we expect better in Shorewood --- shouldn’t the Village Board examine this issue much more carefully before actually committing the millions of dollars it will cost --- with at least a minimal expectation that the new streetscape will have a useful life of more than 10 years before it is obsolete ?