Tosa According to Nick

Did you miss the Concord Chamber Orchestra in March?  If so, then you have a chance to see them again next weekend, on Sunday May 18th at 3PM at St. Matthews Lutheran Church in Wauwatosa.  They'll be playing with the Master Singers of Milwaukee.  Among other things, there will be selections from Leonard Bernstein's Mass and Morten Lauridson's Lux Aeterna.

Tickets are $12 for adults and $6 for students and seniors.  This is a great event with a great group.  You definitely don't want to miss it.  See you there!

Just sayin...

As part of a large Earth Day push, the Milwaukee County Transit System scheduling information is now fully integrated with Google Transit.  For those that don't know, Google Transit is an interface into Google Maps that will provide you with routes and times for how to get to two points in a mass transit area.  For those who don't ride the bus very often and are confused by the myriad routes and schedules, this is a God send and makes trip planning a cinch.  Of course, for me it simply reinforces the reason why I drive my car to work every day.  The car trip that currently takes me less than 20 minutes would take about an hour according to Google Transit.  That's 40 minutes each way that I'd rather have for other purposes.

You can find out more from this article at OnMilwaukee.  This comes on the heels of the announcement that Google Street View is available in Milwaukee as well.  Via Dean.

Warm weather is upon us, which means a few things.  First, it means that I'm on my bike every other day doing training rides for my first triathlon of the year in June (and running on the other days).  Second, it means that the Underwood Parkway Literary Society is having its regular meetings again.  The society seems to consist mostly of an ad hoc gathering of men who sit in their cars on Underwood Parkway between Swan Blvd. and Watertown Plank Rd. to "read".  I ride on that section pretty regularly as part of my Oak Leaf Trail route, and see it all the time.

Now who knows... maybe they're just there to enjoy the warm weather and catch up on the Wall Street Journal.  Of course, I haven't seen any other literary societies crop up on other stretches of parkway like Menomonee River or Honey Creek (where I also ride frequently).  Of course, there is also a reason why Underwood Parkway has earned the moniker "Underwear Parkway".

Honestly guys... in today's day and age... aren't there bars where you can go for that?

So along with the recent news that I've joined Facebook, you can also follow me on Twitter.  One of the things that I kept hearing at Deeper in .NET a couple weeks ago was, "So what's your Twitter name?" and "Aren't you on Twitter yet?".  I heard it from so many people, that I finally decided to give it a try.  And if you're on Twitter and I should know about, feel free to drop your Twitter name in the comment thread so I can add you too.  Some of my blogs also feature my latest Twitter updates in the sidebar.

The steeple at First Congregational Church in Wauwatosa.  It's a Tosa landmark, and was rebuilt several years ago.  I was over there a while ago and took some pictures, while messing around with the different settings trying to understand how to take good low light shots.  Here are some of them:

Other than that, my camera has been fairly dormant lately.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Today was the first good day when I could get my bike off the trainer and out on the road.  Unfortunately the parkways around Wauwatosa are so horrendous, that it makes me want to put my bike right back on the trainer.  Menomonee River Parkway and Underwood Parkway are worse than last year, with even bigger and deeper potholes.  In fact, they're so bad, I don't think they ought to be legally considered part of the Oak Leaf Trail any more.  It's dangerous for anyone with a standard road bike to go on those streets.  You end up weaving in and out and around potholes so often, that you're out in the middle of traffic constantly.  And if you miss one, you could very well end up crashing.

But enough of my little road rant.  There were other things that I saw today that bug me, which I'll share here since I have no place better to share them.

Bikers Without Helmets:  How stupid can you be?  Honestly.  I don't think there should be a law, but that doesn't mean you're not a complete and total idiot for not wearing one.  They cost $30 and can save your life.  Get one, period.

Bikers With iPods:  Also not smart.  You need to be able to hear traffic and also pedestrians.

Bikers Without Helmets and With iPods:  Call this number now.

Pedestrians on Bike Trails with Dogs on Long Leashes:  Look... I love dogs.  I owned one for many, many years.  But those extending leashes are a killer, especially if the person walking the dog is wearing an iPod so they can't hear me calling out "On Your Left".  Your dog is running everywhere attached to a clothes line.  This won't end well.  If you're on a mixed use trail, you need to pay attention and keep your pooch under control.

Bikers Not Speaking Out:  When you come up on someone, call out "On Your Left".  Don't just blow by.  Come on folks, common courtesy.

And if you are a biker, take this moment in the spring to make sure you have an emergency pack with you in case you need help.  This should include everything you might reasonably need in the case of a break down.  You might not be able to fix your problem, but you should have the supplies with you so that someone else can help you.  Every time I've had a breakdown, I've always had at least one person stop and ask if they can help.  So what should your carry?  At a bare minimum, this is what I keep with me in a micro saddle bag:

• 1 Spare Tube
• Tire Levers (1 if you're good, otherwise 2 or 3)
• 1 Patch Kit (in case your spare gets a flat)
• CO2 Inflator
• Bike Multi-tool
• Cell Phone (the ultimate multi-tool)

Happy biking everyone!

That's right... it's election time again, and I find it ironic, and also fitting that we're voting on April Fool's Day.  Government makes everyone look like fools, and the people who run tend to fit this description very aptly as well.  It's nice to finally see a bit of synergy.  There are really only two issues specifically facing Wauwatosa voters tomorrow:  the mayoral race, and the fire station referendum.  As usual, neither of these questions are cut and dry, but I'll throw my analysis in your direction, and also how I'm planning on voting... though I reserve the right to change my mind once I step into the booth.

Mayoral Race:  I wrote about some issues concerning me several weeks ago.  I also emailed both candidates asking for clarification on the issues I brought up.  I was extremely disappointed to find that neither candidate responded to my questions.  Not a good start for either person who claims that they want to represent the residents of Wauwatosa when they can't respond to a concerned voter.

My concerns about eminent domain are still at the front of my mind, and are the major issue I'm taking into the voting booth with me.  I'm now even more concerned given the news that one of Stepaniak's major contributors is under federal investigation, and is also a major developer who was part of the new Crowne Plaza Hotel.  Given my grave concerns about Kelo style eminent domain takings, I find it even more troubling that Stepaniak has major developers contributing money to his campaign.

I also have concerns about other things he'd like to spend tax payer money on, such as surveillance cameras:

I will continue to push technology as a means to strengthen our monitoring and investigative capacity. I will also pursue the possibilities for camera surveillance at key locations within the city as a pre-emptive tool to combat crime.

There is simply no need for the expense of surveillance cameras, and in a city such as Wauwatosa, they'd provide very little value.  There is no need for this small suburb to turn into a 1984 style surveillance city.

In the end, all of Stepaniak's campaign postings leave me with the impression that he wants to plan city development from the Mayor's office in a way that is not compatible with a free society where private property ownership is the cornerstone of our nation.  So then I look at Jill Didier's website and her experience to see how much better she'd be.  I looked, and read all her campaign information and found.... *chirp*... very little... surprisingly little.... shamefully little.

Where Stepaniak provided enough information about his vision for me to discount him as a candidate a libertarian could be comfortable with... Jill Didier provides so little information that I have hard time thinking anyone could be comfortable with her.  From what I can tell, the only real accomplishment she touts is for sex offender restrictions in our city which I don't even agree with!  Other than that, there is just a lot of superficial ideas of being more open and more responsible with taxpayer dollars.  So now I feel I'm stuck between the devil I know, and the devil I don't.

In the end, I think I'll be voting for Didier, but I won't feel good about it.  Stepaniak's advertised zeal for urban design and renewal (at the cost of private property rights) is just too dangerous for us to live with.  I'd rather take a chance on Didier for four years.

Fire Station Referendum:  Another issue which is far from cut and dry.  I see the old fire station all the time in Wauwatosa, and understand that it needs to be replaced.  However, I look at the scope of the plans for what they want to replace it with, and I'm left to wonder whether we need everything they're asking for.  Most of the supporters of the plan keep shining the light on the current fire station, and seem to be using that to smoke screen the vast scale of the redevelopment plans.  I think they're irresponsible.  Any time... any time... you take people's homes from them, that should automatically create a very high bar that you must over come to justify the need.  The City of Wauwatosa has failed miserably in justifying the need for as large of a station as they want at the expense of people's hard earned private property.

This is not to suggest that a new fire station is not needed.  However, just because you need to replace something, doesn't give you the right to go overboard in what you replace it with.  I believe the city needs to re-evaluate their current plans and come back to the voters with a more responsible plan that does more to honor the rights of the citizens to keep as much of their private property as possible.

In order to force the city to re-evaluate, that means I'll be voting No on this referendum.

If you'd like to see a complete sample ballot for your district, you can visit the State Voter Public Access Site.

If you're looking for something great to do next weekend (March 8th), think about heading on over to St. Matthews Lutheran Church on 76th Street at 8PM for a performance by the Concord Chamber Orchestra.  It's their third this season, and will be featuring a Cello Concerto by the winner of a student competition, as well as selections by Edvard Grieg, and of course, the talents of one local blogger.  For full information, you can download this flier.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to begin to examine the pillars of each of the Mayoral candidates platforms on this blog.  Ironically enough, our mayoral election is April Fools Day, but we need to make sure that we don't vote like fools.  The two candidates are Jill Didier, and Jerry Stepaniak, and I will be examining their platforms in these posts.  As I looked at each of the websites, I was struck by the same typical vague political language that could mean any one of a dozen things.  However, one thing immediately struck me as being potentially disastrous for our community, and that was this statement by Jerry Stephaniak:

Expand the tax base by actively pursuing quality redevelopment of major, high visibility properties.
...
Target, acquire and remediate blighted properties to strengthen the community and uphold the property values of the surrounding neighborhoods.

For those unfamiliar with the reference in the title of the post, Kelo v. City of New London was a case before the United Supreme Court where they upheld the right of the City of New London to transfer property from one private owner to another using eminent domain, and not for a public purpose.  My personal opinion is that these takings are unconstitutional according to the 5th Amendment, though for reasons that I will never understand, the court majority found the opposite.

Nationwide, there were two general reactions to this ruling.  In some areas there was such an uproar of disapproval, that many states and communities enacted laws which restricted the ability of governments to take property through eminent domain.  Though in reality, many of those laws are merely window dressing around already liberal eminent domain laws, since they still depend on using the standard of "blighted" to take property.  The issue comes in because most communities define "blight" so broadly as to be nearly meaningless.  In other parts of the nation, communities saw this ruling as a green light to begin broader eminent domain takings for purposes of raising tax bases, and in my corrupt dealings, giving cheap property to developers who had connections in city hall.

And with all this in mind, when I read Mr. Stephaniak's plank in which he promises to acquire blighted properties and "uphold property values", it takes on a very dangerous twist.  It sounds to me like Mr. Stephaniak doesn't respect our basic constitutional property rights.  Even Jill Didier has the following on her website:

Jill Didier supports design standards for North Avenue, State Street, and other major corridors; encouraging thoughtful development that expands the city’s tax base while preserving its character.

Wauwatosa needs an updated vision—a vision that captures our vibrancy and furthers our potential. Proactive leadership in the mayor’s office will ensure that redevelopment occurs in a well thought out manner with neighborhood involvement. As mayor, Jill Didier will use the comprehensive plan and input received from the neighborhoods to develop a vision for each area of focus. Working together,we can grow the tax base while preserving our community’s character.

This is even more vague, and doesn't use the same dangerous trigger words that Stephaniak's website uses.  To be clear, I am not charging either candidate with any type of corruption, or shady dealings of any kind.  However, a policy of liberal eminent domain would be disastrous to this community, and would lead to corruption in our fair community.

I would love to see clarification from both candidates regarding their stances on eminent domain, with as much specific language as possible.  I would also ask that both candidates sign a pledge stating that, if elected, they will not allow eminent domain takings for the purposes of transferring property from one private entity to another.

To find out more about eminent domain abuse nationwide, visit the Castle Coalition.

Can you believe that you can have great Italian food on 69th and Noth Ave.?  If you've lived in Wauwatosa for as long as I have, you'd probably not believe me.  But I have to say, Il Mito is fantastic.  Actually, a lot of the changes that I see going on in Tosa impress me every time I think about it.  For instance, if you've gone walking through the village lately (now that the construction is complete), you'll see a lot of shops going in that are on a different scale than ever used to be there.  There is a high end clothing store, and even a store specializing in Olive Oil... go figure.  Of course, only time will tell in the village area since those shops tend to have very high turn over, as you only really get walk in traffic since very few people drive that one tiny street unless they're leaving the Starbucks parking lot.

But back to Il Mito, where I was for Valentine's Day.  If you didn't know it was there, I wouldn't blame you.  When I've mentioned it to people, most haven't heard of it, probably because the store front is very subdued, and it would be easy to drive by and not know it was there.  But once inside, it is very warm and inviting , and the food is simply fantastic.  They have a great menu, as well as a nice wine list.  Maybe it's a bit much to say that this is the center of a revival in Wauwatosa, but that's what I tend to think when I see a place like this in that part of North Ave.

What else is new to Wauwatosa that most people don't know about like this?

Happy belated Valentine's everyone, and welcome to my newest blog.  For those of you who haven't seen me elsewhere around the blogosphere, my name is Nick Schweitzer.  I'm a long time Tosa resident, and software consultant.  You may recognize me from my other blogs including The World According to Nick and The Coding Monkey.  You might have also seen my book reviews on BlogCritics, or some of my photography on Flickr.

I plan on using this space to talk about things going on specifically in Wauwatosa, from politics, to current events, to random happenings from the area.  I hope you will enjoy.  That's about it for now, but don't worry.  I'll be back soon.