Missing Links For Day 1 of 2014

some things I have been reading that may be of interest to the local community:

-BridgeMI: Traverse City’s growth draws attention

Communities that have vibrant downtown shopping districts, are pedestrian-friendly, offer numerous recreational activities and easy access to natural resources, and have a thriving arts community are magnets for young professionals and entrepreneurs, said Summer Minnick, the Michigan Municipal League’s director of policy initiatives and federal affairs. “Traverse City has done so much to become a community that is unique and offers reasons for people to want to be there,” Minnick said. “Regardless of the size of the community, urban areas that focus on the amenities that are attractive to the working class and retirees are the places attracting talent and creating jobs.”

-MLive: How a Traverse City brewery inspired a beer-friendly tweak to Michigan agriculture guidelines

The audacious plan grabbed the attention of the state agricultural industry leaders, who see the potential for operations like Terra Firma to spark a larger farm brewery trail system around the growing number of Michigan farmers planting hops... In December, the Michigan Commission of Agriculture & Rural Development added microbreweries to the list of retail uses approved under the state’s Right To Farm Act, which allows farms to incorporate markets into their operation in limited form

[will a farm brewery trail, the Ale Tail, work? See the next item]

 -WFPL: Kentucky Bourbon Trail Sets Attendance Mark 

 -MittenBrew: Right Brain’s new location becoming an “advocate for creativity” 

 -CallMeCal at: Short's and Right Brain and Brewery Ferment 

 -Planetizen: Density Reduces Driving (Even At Pretty High Densities) 

 -UniversalKilster: Fat Bike Biathlon: Chasing Snowshoe Hares on two wheels [more hunters should try hunting by bike] 

-ibid: Cogburn CB4 Hunting Bike review [this is the world's first bicycle specifically made for use by hunters]

-AtlanticCities: Flint Local 432 and the Remarkable Power of a Great Music Venue
[like in the last linkfest that mentioned a similar thing in Omaha. Related - I spent a lot of time driving to New Space in the 1990's. You wouldn't know it now, mainly due to the early death of Brainiac's Tim Taylor, but in the 90's Dayton was THE biggest punk scene in the midwest, all because they had the space and the will. See: Shocker in Gloomtown series. I have not seen anything since that is comparable] 

-CityJournal: The GOP and the City: Conservative policies have greatly benefited urbanites. Why won’t Republicans seek their votes?

-AdventureCycling: Benefits of Bicycling & U.S. Bike Routes [from 2012. A guest post from Kirk Steudle, director of the Michigan Department of Transportation and president of AASHTO in 2012]

-Urbanization Project: The City as Unit of Analysis

-Atlantic Cities: The Case Against One-Way Streets

"...cities looking to improve trip capacity in downtown areas have some options. Smaller cities, with shorter average trip lengths, should be able to reduce congestion by converting one-way streets into two-way streets (with a couple options for left turns). Larger cities, with longer trip distances, should consider a shift to two-way systems that ban left turns entirely. "

-On Point: Whiskey: The History And Today’s Industry
[as we wait for TC Whiskey to open at Cass and Fourteenth]

-PhysOrg: Transportation research finds roundabouts are the way to go for drivers of any age
lots of good things in this article.

"Drivers using the roundabout were classified into one of seven age groups: younger than 20, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70 and older. The researchers studied whether age, gender and cell phone use impacted the minimum time interval when an approaching driver could safely join the flow of traffic. They concluded a roundabout is a viable solution for intersections, regardless of their proximity to schools and retirement housing."  ...In the three years prior to the opening of the roundabout, nine crashes were reported at the intersection; four resulted in injuries and hospitalization was required in three instances. Damages associated with the collisions totaled $300,000, says Garder. In 2008–2009, three crashes were reported on the roundabout, none of which resulted in injuries. Damages associated with the accidents totaled $8,800, he says. The researchers computed that a driver who travels straight through 10 similar roundabouts daily versus 10 signalized intersections would annually save 14 gallons of gas. If every licensed driver in the country did the same, Garder says 2.7 billion gallons of gas would be saved annually."

-DrinkMichigan: Recap: Traverse City Microbrew and Music Festival

In the end, the cold was no obstacle for us and the Traverse City Microbrew and Music Festival met or exceeded our wildest expectations

-MLive: Craft beer panelists: Tax credits have helped Michigan breweries grow

"..Brewery Vivant in a retrofitted 1900s historic funeral home in the East Hills neighborhood business district, said he nearly inked deals in Traverse City and Ann Arbor before the Grand Rapids space captured his attention."  

-GearJunkie: Minneapolis ponders 'Greenway' street conversion (no cars allowed)

"Minneapolis... is working to develop plans to convert a low-traffic street in north Minneapolis to a no-cars-allowed “linear park.”

-Freakonomics: Parking Is Hell [podcast]

Everybody likes free parking, including me, probably you. But just because the driver doesn’t pay for it doesn’t mean that the cost goes away. If you don’t pay for parking your car, somebody else has to pay for it. And that somebody is everybody. We pay for free parking in the prices of the goods we buy at places where the parking is free. And we pay for parking as residents when we get free parking with our housing. We pay for it as taxpayers. Increasingly, I think we’re paying for it in terms of the environmental harm that it causes.

-Wa CityPaper: There Is No War on Cars - So why do we keep hearing so much about it?

-BW: Why Americans Are Driving Less Each Year -> article is based on report from AdvisorPerpectives.com with nice charts like this one: Vehicle Miles Driven: Population-Adjusted Hits Yet Another Post-Crisis Low

-MyNorth: Miracle on Traverse City's Front Street: As Michigan collapsed around it,
Traverse City flourished in the new
millennium. We take a look at the how.

-MyNorth: US-31 Program Makes Significant Progress

-PRWeb: "Virtual Birding Trail" Helps Traverse City Visitors Find Feathered Friends

-Wired: The entire human population would only take up 7% of Lake Michigan

-MomentumMag: How Bicycles Bring Business - The Infographic -Resilience.org: Energy Payback of Roof Mounted Photovoltaic Cells [a meta-analysis of studies to determine if solar panels created more energy than they consumed to manufacture and if so, how long that took. Answer = 2-8 years]

-appearing soon at a Craft Brewer near you: Michigan Mobile Canning

-R-E Forum by Commander Joe Buzzela: Serving Traverse City was a pleasure -> related by Rachel North @MyNorth: the vital importance of the change of command at U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City

-Liz Olson @HuffPo: Barefoot Freedom: Summertime in Northern Michigan

-Ticker: Northern Michigan Wineries in the Crystal Ball “We need 500 more acres of grapes to satisfy demand locally,”

-WHYY: Penn study finds safety in cities, more risk in rural areas

-Institute of Transportation Engineers: meta-analysis of multi-way stops [pdf] (via Michigan State Police Field Update) The research found that, overwhelmingly, multi-way stop signs do NOT control speed except under very limited conditions. The research shows that the concerns about unwarranted stop signs are well founded.

-Edward Glaeser in the Boston Globe: Parking minimums squander space, money, and the environment
-TheAtlantic: The Unsettling Link Between Sprawl and Suicide [higher youth suicide in less dense areas. Pattern seen all over the world]

-Planetizen/Michael Lewyn: The Side Effects of Property Taxes [NIMBYism]

-FilmingPeopleIsEasy: Best Film Festival Ever?

I left Traverse City hoping that I would make another movie soon only so I might have another chance to go back to Traverse City.

-ModernFarmer: 5 Public Libraries That Have Gone to Seed (Libraries)

-StrongTowns: Is traffic always bad? Fifth Avenue in New York, Market Street in San Francisco, Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, and Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills are all congested, but people keep coming back to shop or hang out. Maybe we should view congestion, in the urban context at least, as a symptom of success 

-Grist: Park raving mad: The junk science behind off-street parking quotas 

-Martin Prosperity: Tourism as a magnet for creativity: Insights for creative class attraction in a tourism-based region 

-PRWeb: Traverse City Tourism Posts 4.5 Percent Annual Growth Since 2006

In 2012, tourism generated over 3.3 million visitor trips to this Michigan resort community, producing nearly $1.2 billion in direct spending and supporting (directly and indirectly) more than 12,000 jobs across the Traverse City area – about 30 percent of all employment in the region -- and contributing about $67 million in state use and sales taxes.

-Leelanau.com: Juicy tourism information from Traverse City Tourism

-MLive: Rick Haglund: Is success spoiling booming Traverse City?

-MLive: Newly-Opened Traverse City Brewery Committed to Environmental Protection

Pete explained that one of the main reasons he and his family decided to move to Traverse City from Pennsylvania (where Pete opened his first brewery) is the widespread public support of the environment. “The Traverse City area and its people embody and put into practice what our family values: environmental protection and a strong sense of community responsibility. We looked at a lot of different places to move, we selected Traverse City, and we have never looked back.”

-TravelOregon: The Business Case for Being Bike Friendly [video]

-Modern Farmer: Global Guide to Local: Traverse City, MI

-NYT: Rentals That Let You Fly the Coop [Traverse City based Rent-A-Chicken is mentioned] -

-PSMag: Nearly 1 in 5 Adults Is Still Living at Home With Their Parents [this is why we need Accessory Dwelling Units allowed by right]

-NPR: In A Small Town With Big Events, Some Are Tiring Of Tourism

-the rapidian: Why Grand Rapids is skewing Y: Grand Rapids's amenities for Generation Y are far more comprehensive and designed to be so.

-Reddit: I am Joe Short, Founder of Short's Brewing Company. AMA

-Milwaukee Avenue Historic District: Minneapolis Seward Neighborhood's unique walker's paradise [this is a Minneapolis neighborhood that turned a street into a wide walkway in the 1970's. Today it is one of the city's most desirable neighborhoods.]
Also, see: Value of Closing a Street? 31 Percent.

-I've long followed the communities of Steamboat Springs, CO and Bend, OR to see how they enhance livability, now might have to add Eastport, ME to the list.
TheAtlantic: Building a Museum: Report From Down East

-What do stock analyst and traffic engineers have in common? Answer: neither one knows how to predict the future -Why is the St Francis church parking lot big enough to cover Thirlby Field?

Landsat Timelapse For Traverse City

via Google's Earth Engine

Not In My Town

Friday, July 5th. 7:45 AM. Eighth and Cass. 

An older black chevrolet pickup with the word "Knucklebuster" written in red atop the windshield drives south as I go north. I sneer and look in the rearview mirror to see a Monster logo sticker in the truck's rear window and ask myself a sarcastic "really?" 

Get to work. Check the news. Horrified by the tragedy only a few blocks away in the night. Do I know the victim? Oh god… 

Not in my town.

Saturday, July 6th.

More news comes in. Similar incidents. What was a terrible tragedy is now an ominous homicide. I'm angry. If I see Knucklebuster I'll smash it up with a baseball bat.  No reason really other than someone needs to pay and someone needs to do something. I'm scared too. How does this happen? 

Not in my town.

I did not know Kelly. But I could have. She could have been my friend; my wife; my daughter 20 years from now.

Days go on. I eye every dark colored pickup truck suspiciously - any signs of front end damage? A short bike ride is a victory lap. I shouldn't be this anxious. 

Not in my town.

Thursday, July 11th. 2 PM. F&M Park.

1500 celebration participants in a town of 14,000. A procession so long it is measured in minutes instead of miles - 9 minutes of cyclists. Many donors do do something. I ask myself a hopeful "really?" I cry. Because this town will not be angry; will not be suspicious.

Not in my town. 

(pic from UpNorthLive's Facebook page)

I was angry. I was scared. I was blaming.

But I won't. Not anymore. My town said Remember to Love. So I will. Our family will ride to the Pavilions for a concert on the lawn. We'll ride to get ice cream. We will all ride. And Remember. And Love.

This is my town.

I share this, because perhaps, like me, you have been angry and not known what to do. But we do know, don't we? 

Remember to Love. Each other. Our Town.

Thank you for your spirit Kelly. 

Thank you for your actions Pauly. 

Thank you Traverse City for saying "Not In My Town".

(pic via twitter @glhjr)

Into The Realm Of Absurdity (on social media)

It is the middle of the National Cherry Festival and in an odd coincidence Traverse City and northern Michigan are being mentioned at a ridiculous level just over the past few days.

Some examples:

Freep: Michigan becoming foodie, wine-lovers destination and Traverse City: Come on up, the dining's fine

MarthaStewart: Secret Michigan: Michigan's Leelanau Peninsula

ChiTrib: Go away with Carter Oosterhouse

Q. What are your five favorite cities?
A. Traverse City, Ojai, Calif., Jerome, Ariz., Palm Island, Grenadines and Capri, Italy.

Livability: Top 10 Best Small Towns, 2013: #8 Traverse City, MI

And from Ken Scott Photography, many folks are sharing this on Facebook:

My April, 2007 Letter To The Traverse City Commission In Support of Accessory Dwelling Units

[though I would not write exactly the same letter today, I still hope for legal ADU's. Here is the previously unpublished e-mail in support of allowing ADU's I sent to the City Commissioners who had e-mail access in 2007. ]

I support allowing people to do with their property what they see fit as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others. Therefore I support allowing Accessory Dwelling Units in Traverse City.
It seems opposition to ADU's falls into a few different camps: privacy, parking, people, and protectionism. I'd like to address these concerns.

Privacy:
many opponents of ADU's worry that a two-story garage in their neighbor's backyard will result in gawkers looking directly into their backyard. This is a legitimate concern. Although houses in Traverse City neighborhoods are very close together and I can easily see into all of my neighbors windows. I had no expectation of privacy when I moved into town. But many people consider their backyard as an oasis and a retreat therefore when building ADU's design considerations must be made to limit how windows face backyards. This is a matter for the language in the ADU code.

Parking:
Adding more people to the city may increase the need for vehicle parking. But on the flip side more people living in town will reduce traffic congestion because people will be able to walk and bike to their downtown location rather than driving into town from an outlying suburb. The parking issue is a matter for the language in the code. Keep the ban on overnight on-street parking and require anyone with an ADU to provide a parking spot for each bedroom rented.

People:
Although no one comes out and says it city residents don't like renters. Especially college age renters. And with good reason. Renters can be unruly, rude, offensive, and annoying - especially at 2 AM and they are playing Johnny Cash's 'Ring Of Fire' at 11 on their home stereo. From my experience of living in town it is the houses used as rentals that are the biggest headache. But I've also lived next to rentals where the house owner lived on one floor and rented the other. Without exception, instances where the owner has been on-site have been problem free whereas houses used as a rental have their share of problems. This is a matter for the language in the code by requiring anyone with an ADU to live on-site.

Plus, by having ADU's with only one or two renters it keeps young people from living together in a big house which is what seems to be so problematic.

Protectionism:
I've read in the Record-Eagle comments from an apartment owner who is against allowing ADU's because of the extra competition they would give the apartment. I was not aware that the role of government was to protect someone's business plan. Should TC prevent new B&B's until all the hotel rooms are occupied? Prevent new restaurants from opening until all the other eateries have their tables filled? Or is the right to private property more important? But just as hotels pay a tax I wouldn't mind adding a service fee or tax to ADU's when they are rented.

The argument regarding enforcement is a red herring. Who enforces current laws regarding in-home businesses such as childcare, or trash burning, etc. It is easy - if something happens at an ADU and law enforcement arrives and the investigation shows the owner does not live on site then there will be a fine.

The Good of ADU:

I want a town where young families walk their children to child to Central Grade School. I want a town where I may have a neighbor letting a player from the Beach Bums living above their garage. Or an owner of a local business who hires an intern who can live in town too because they found someone to rent them an ADU at an affordable price. ADU's and local schools go together.

Everyone knows living in town is expensive. If I or my wife lost our job we would have to move out of town. Taking a potential Central Grade School student with us. However, if we could have an ADU then because of that extra income it becomes a possibility that we can get by as a one-earner family.

The Bigger Issue

Ever since English Common Law it has been understood the people can decide what to do with their property. Although you may not like it that includes renting all or a portion of their property to others.
'Privacy' is not in the U.S. Constitution, but property is protected by four amendments (Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth). This is because it was well understood in the 18th Century that the right to property gives birth to a right to privacy. Those who would dictate to others what they can do with their own private property stand on a slippery slope of erosion of their own 'right to privacy'.

Bohemian Like You

For real this time - Hotel Indigo is breaking ground.



Years ago, when the idea of a boutique hotel was proposed my initial reaction was one of "don't do it! - let's not lose the warehouse district". Like what Chirstopher Hutchins felt about the West Village in Vanity Fair,

Every successful society needs its Bohemia, a haven for the artists, exiles, and misfits who regenerate the culture. With the heart of New York’s West Village threatened by developers, London, Paris, and San Francisco have a message for Manhattan: Don’t do it!

(See: Last Call, Bohemia)

Cities need an incubator. A sanctuary. Marine sanctuaries are a place of refuge to replenish fish populations. A city needs an area where ideas and businesses can be replenished. A place to grow. A space where failure is an option and success is a chance. Often this means low-rent areas. Often this means empty warehouses. Historicaly these were the bohemian areas. The sections of the city that may have looked downtrodden but flourished with the people who worked with their hands. What we now euphemistically call the creative class. And as those creatives aged they became productive entrepreneurs. And this is why every city needs a place for its misfits. Those who want to go in an unlikely direction.

Traverse City had a literal little bohemia 100 years ago. This spawned the institutions of Sleder's and Lil Bo's as well as the entire Slabtown neighborhood. Though "bohemian" is not much used today - a better term might be "little Detroit".

For all the sadness and desperation surrounding that once great American city there are creatives in the core who are using the low rent area to grow their ideas. They can take these chances due to the existing low cost infrastructure. And manufacturing is coming back there. Bicycles, watches, leather goods, and so much more. Yeah, it might lead to gentrification someday but is that better than the alternative?

Traverse City had a warehouse district. Hotel Indigo will change the warehouse district in a big way. Like a suburban street named after a forest that was cut down for cul-de-sacs. But that is not the end of a lamentable story. And this is why I changed my mind.

I think Traverse City has a next little-Detroit area. An area of the City for risk takers to make their experiments.

Woodmere Avenue and the area east of Boardman Lake. Maybe beyond.

The Woodemere Ave corridor has had its redesign. The Boardman Lake trail is in place on the east side of the lake. And there is warehouse space available such as "The Glacier Dome" (The Ticker has a story of 70's bands playing there.)

And now Traverse City is about to get its Hotel Indigo. I hope the Hotel Indigo is successful and the people it will draw to downtown and the bayfront support all of our local businesses. Plus, Ballantine restaurant sounds interesting ("an American Gastropub and Belgian Bier Bar"). My initial fears of losing some sort of "authenticity" were misplaced.  Traverse City still has room for bohemians, a little Detroit, and if some new development gentrifies that area then perhaps a new area will become the incubator.

I just hope we, as a town, never lose areas to serve as our sanctuaries and incubators.

The Dandy Warhols inspired the title for this post:







Additional reading:

Record-Eagle: Chain hotel in works for Grandview Parkway
TCBusinessNews: Major chain hotel proposed in Traverse City's Warehouse District
TV 7&4: Four-story hotel coming to Traverse City?
TV 7&4: Local businesses speak out about proposed hotel
Fox33: Upscale hotel planned for Traverse City's warehouse district
Record-Eagle: Letters to the Record-Eagle editor in opposition
Record-Eagle: Proposed Hyatt hotel divides opinions
Record-Eagle: Downtown hotel plans hit roadblock
Record-Eagle: New hotel planned for Warehouse District
MyNorth: Hotel Indigo – Warehouse District
ICH: About Hotel Indigo
IPR: Warehouse District Ready To Boom
UpNorthLive: Hotel plans move forward at GT Commons
Downtown TC: Garland St input
Ticker: New Shops, New Brewery for Warehouse District
IPR: Woodmere Renaissance

Detroit links:
Freep: Ad agency Campbell Ewald headed downtown, with 600 jobs
FasctCoCreate Remaking Detroit: Can Creative Companies Save an American City on the Brink? and Meet The Makers: Rebuilding Detroit by Hand 


 

Missing Links For 1-25-13

Long list of things folks in northern Michigan may find interesting; these have been accumulating for a long time.


-Atlantic Cities: When a Music Scene Leads to a Boom
[happened in Omaha, maybe to the Good Works Collective too?]

-Atlantic Cities: How and Why American Cities Are Coming Back

-Crain's Detroit: So why does a business leave northern Michigan for Florida? Sometimes, it's talent, not taxes

"I just couldn't hire people in northern Michigan," Harr said. "Honestly, I've hired everybody I can. There's just no more talent. I would interview and interview and interview, and I just couldn't come up with the talent that I needed."

-Atlantic Cities: Chicago's Ambitious Plan for Zero Traffic Fatalities

-Cruising Grand Traverse Bay

-Partners returning landmark Petoskey building to brewing roots [Petoskey Brewing]

-French Broad River Paddle Trail opens [Asheville, NC]
"...volunteers ...have created eight public campsites along the paddle trail, which connects a 140-mile stretch of the ancient river [French Broad River]"

 -Northern Express: A Boom in Bike Paths

 -Salon: Rust Belt chic: Declining Midwest cities make a comeback

-Lebanon Valley Rail Trail good exercise and economics [study indicated the 20 mile trail contributed $1.3 million to the economy per year]

-TraverseMag: Hemingway in Northern Michigan

-Planetizen: New Understanding of Traffic Congestion

-Arizona Dept Of Transportation Research Dept: Land Use and Traffic Congestion - Final Report 618 - March 2012

Researchers performed a detailed analysis of the relationships between higher-density land use and traffic conditions in four Phoenix transportation corridors. The corridors included three older, high-density, mixed-used urban areas and a more contemporary suburban area with lower density but high traffic volumes. The analysis showed that the urban corridors had considerably less congestion despite densities that were many times higher than the suburban corridor. The reasons were traced to better mix of uses, particularly retail share, which led to shorter trips, more transit and nonmotorized travel, and fewer vehicle miles of travel (VMT). Also recognized was the importance of a secondary street grid in the three urban areas, which allows for better channeling of traffic and enables walking.

-SciAm: Why do we hurry to wait? [as in waiting in line at the gate or hurrying to a red light]

-Atlantic Cities: Study of the Day: Planners Miscalculate Benefits of New Roads [regarding the disconnect between transport researchers and transport modelling]

-PerSquareMile: Urban Trees Reveal Income Inequality [via EcoGeek]

...for every 1 percent increase in per capita income, demand for forest cover increased by 1.76 percent. But when income dropped by the same amount, demand decreased by 1.26 percent

-Bloomberg: U.S. Auto Sales May Slow Through 2016, AlixPartners Says

Auto sales may also decelerate in part because younger people are less likely to have driving licenses and drive fewer miles than previous generations

-Placeshakers: Get Your Hotels into a Walkable Town Center

-Crain's Detroit: A year after a 'Most Beautiful' moment, popularity of Sleeping Bear region hasn't hibernated

-Midwest Energy News: Traverse City takes a lead on energy efficiency

-Forbes: Cities Expect Bicycle Boom

-PhysOrg: Research suggests denser development is good for single-family home values

The researchers found that not only did the value of single-family residential properties increase with density of surrounding development, but that the quality of neighborhoods, as defined by access to other land uses, including parks, increased with density as well.

-Marketplace: City planners warm to 'accessory apartments'

...turn unused space in existing homes into affordable housing. Accessory apartments require a separate kitchen, bath and entrance. And they help not only renters looking for a cheaper deal. They bring in extra cash for homeowners with fixed or low incomes.

-The Path Less Pedaled: Economics of Bike Touring

-PacificStandard: Bicycle Studies Pick Up Speed in Academia

-TED: Pam Warhurst: How we can eat our landscapes 
"we didn't ask for permission, we just did it"

-Placemakers: In Defense of ‘Vibrancy’ (And beer)

-Fremantle Doctor: Five car parking myths: Why we need to get smarter about parking 

-WSJ: A Surfer Waits for an Idea to Catch The Right Wave—In Idaho [river bungee surfing]

-Grand Rapids Residents Want A Whitewater Park Full Coverage at MLive

-Idaho Stateman: Two new Boise parks all about water [whitewater park is open - video]

-FastCoExist: Bikes Aren’t Just Good For You, They’re Good For The Economy, Too

-PhysOrg: 'Smart growth' strategies curb car use, greenhouse gas emissions

researchers at San Francisco State University found that a 10 percent increase in a city's smart growth features—including housing density, jobs per capita and public transit infrastructure—would lead to a 20 percent decrease in the number of vehicle miles traveled per household, per year.

-Bicycling: Iceman Cometh: An Old-School Adventure Race

-Quartz: America’s new subprime boom: This time it’s cars

-City of Chicago: Chicago Sustainable Backyards Program

-Chef Michael Ruhlman: Pigstock, Traverse City, Michigan
"one of the most inspiring days of my life"

-flickr: PigstockTC 2012

-Felix: The problems with measuring traffic congestion

-I Like Your Bike

-Jeff Smith @MyNorth: A Journey Down Traverse City's MicroBrew Canoe Trail

-Crain's Detroit: The 'boomerang' effect: Young people who left Traverse City find their future … back home

-SLC Tribune: Salt Lake City Council bans demolishing buildings to create parking lots

Surface lots cover about 20 percent of downtown – some 55 acres.

-Atlantic Cities: 4 Reasons Retailers Don't Need Free Parking to Thrive

-NYT: A Michigan City Bets on Food for Its Growth [Grand Rapids]

-Atlantic: Who Knew the Most Creative Seed Fund Was in Grand Rapids?

-Oregon Public House

OUR VISION Portland, Oregon is the craft brewing capital of America and supports an extensive, thriving pub culture. Portland also hosts more non-profit organizations per capita then any other city in America. our vision is to leverage these two unique attributes of our city by creating a family-friendly pub environment where our neighbors from the surrounding area can come to enjoy community around good food and craft beer while supporting great causes. To integrate this vision of pub with benevolent outreach, we have established relationships with a number of non-profit organizations to which our pub will donate 100% of net profits. The customer will purchase their food and/or beverage, and then have a change to choose were they wish their individual proceeds will go to from a short list of local charities. We've simply positioned ourselves to be the "fundraising department" for these charitable organizations, by providing the community with great food and great beer in a warm, inviting environment.

-TH: Study Finds Cyclists and Pedestrians Spend More In Stores Than Drivers

-Per Square Mile: Town, section, range, and the transportation psychology of a nation

-Ticker: Local Micro Distilleries On The Rise

-The Michigan Beer Film Teaser

The Michigan Beer Film Teaser - Rhino Media Productions from Rhino Media Productions on Vimeo.

-Grand Rapids Urban Forest Project

-USCG Air Station Traverse City Welcome Aboard Pamphlet (pdf)

-USCG: Great Lakes Shipmate of the Week: Chief Warrant Officer John Leaming, Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City

-Streetsblog: Road Diets Are Changing American Cities for the Better

Poughkeepsie’s treatment for Raymond Avenue involved the removal of one traffic lane in each direction and the addition of three roundabouts. The city also added a center median with pedestrian refuges, to facilitate safer crossing. That project led to a 50 percent decrease in traffic collisions and the opening of several new businesses in the area.

-Touring and Tasting: Beautiful, Bountiful, Traverse City

-Crain's Detroit: Ex-psychiatric hospital could become a nerve center for Traverse City's local-food movement

-Oryana: list of PLU's

-BattleCreekEnq: Dunes in northwest lower Michigan 2,000 years younger than once believed, MSU researchers say

-EasternSurf: Over the River and Through the Woods: South Florida’s Blake Burns Finds Empty Summertime Fun In Northern Michigan

No matter how many times I visit Northern Michigan, I’m still taken aback by the beauty of the area in the summertime.

Missing Links for May 4th

-NationalPost: Hampstead crash: Stop signs cause more harm than good, some experts say [this accident received a lot of coverage in the Canadian media]

-Iowa BiCycle Coalition: Economic Study Shows Bicycling Generates $364.8 million for Iowa

The study estimates that bicycling saves the State of Iowa $73.9 million in healthcare costs for those who cycle recreationally. Another $13,266,020 in health care costs is saved by those who commute to work.

-NYT: Can’t Park? Blame a Condo
[free parking is socialism]

...just as horses made room for cars, he said, cars are making room for humans.

-TheAtlantic: The Hub: A Promising Experiment in Food Processing for Small Farms: A solution for farmers that can't afford the big state-of-the-art equipment required to process, store, and distribute their meat and produce.

-TheAtlantic: Why Do People Oppose Development?

most of us do not want to say "I want to live around people who consume the same stuff I consume", or "I don't want to live near poor people", or "I would rather not have more families in town because they're just going to be a financial burden on me", or "I think it would be better if you had fewer alternatives to shopping at my store", so we talk about . . . noise, congestion, and traffic.

-PhysOrg: Roundabouts emerging as the ideal intersection between driver safety and efficiency [summary of traffic engineering research]

-TheAtlantic: New Playgrounds Are Safe—and That's Why Nobody Uses Them


-CoolTools: Raising Chickens for Dummies

-GOOD: Why Historic Buildings Are Greener Than LEED-Certified New Ones

-Burgh Diaspora: The Michigan Exodus Myth

-Strong Towns: No new streets

We need to start getting used to a world where there will be no new streets. What you see on Google Maps today is what is going to be there fifty years from now, if not fewer as many streets will be abandoned. The fact that we don't have the money to even maintain a fraction of what we have already built is a powerful constraint that we don't fully appreciate.

-The Atlantic Cities: Parking Minimums Promote Driving, Even in Transit-Friendly New York

-FastCompany: DeepRoot: A New Solution For Saving Cities Money By Planting Trees

-The Mercury (Pottstown, PA): New business was drawn to Pottstown by arts center

If you are excited by the news that a high-tech firm with more than 30 good-paying jobs plans to move from a farm field in East Vincent to High Street, you can thank Ralphie and his Christmas wish for a Red Ryder BB Gun with a compass in the stock.


“A Christmas Story,” the seasonal offering at Pottstown’s downtown TriCounty Performing Arts Center, was among the shows that first attracted VideoRay President Scott Bentley to Pottstown.

-Grist: World’s worst elected official makes the case for sprawl [Oakland County]

-Citizens in the D.C. neighborhood of Glover Park are fighting for MORE liquor licenses. See WashingtonCityPaper: YIMBY Uprising Over Glover Park Liquor Moratorium

-The Atlantic Cities: Chicago's Booming Beer Scene, Explained

So why is this happening in Chicago? Chalk at least some of it up to institutional memory. Across the street from Goose Island's original brewpub on Clybourn Avenue sits the Siebel Institute of Technology, founded in 1871 and the oldest brewing school in the United States...


Chicago is also home to the Craft Beer Institute, which trains beer servers, distributors and restaurant and industry professionals in the history, production, handling, and consumption of beer. The program recently issued its 10,000 certified beer server certificate, just four years after Chicagoan Ray Daniels created the program.

-The Atlantic Cities: How More Expensive Housing Can Actually Cost You Less
[more expensive housing often has lower commuting costs]

-MM: Public Schools Good for People Without Kids, Too
[better schools = better communities to live in]

-Autoblog: America's parking spaces cover more area than Puerto Rico

-Next American City: The Psychology of Sprawl

After using atomic weapons in Japan and witnessing the beginning of the Cold War conflict with the Soviet Union, US experts became keenly aware of the vulnerability of its densely populated cities as targets of attack, and advised that strong measures be taken to disperse urban populations.

-The Atlantic Cities: When it Comes to Parks, it's Not Just How Many, But Where

-Grist: Into the woods: Seattle plants a public food forest
[or, if a city is going to plant trees why not plant edible trees?]

-AtlanticCities: What Communities Should Do To Protect Against Climate Change

-NYT: When a Parking Lot Is So Much More

there are three nonresidential parking spaces for every car in the United States. That adds up to almost 800 million parking spaces, covering about 4,360 square miles — an area larger than Puerto Rico. In some cities, like Orlando and Los Angeles, parking lots are estimated to cover at least one-third of the land area, making them one of the most salient landscape features of the built world.

-The Atlantic Cities: The True Cost of Unwalkable Streets



-Crain's Detroit: Northern Michigan's local-food movement needs infrastructure to turn an idea into an industry

Douglas Luciani, president and CEO of the Traverse City chamber, estimates that more than $1 billion is spent a year in the area on events ranging from weddings and family reunions to luncheons and fundraisers. If all event planners and venue owners agreed to buy 20 percent of their goods and services locally, that's $200 million that stays in the local economy.

-ClimateProgress: Nine Low-Tech Steps For Community Resilience In A Warming Climate

-BloombergView: Why Does U.S. Build Roads If It Can’t Pay to Fix Them?

-Tactical Urbanism 2: Short-term action | Long-term change [e-book]

-Bridge MI: State attracts visitors of motor-less bent
[bicycle trails and tours have the capacity to replace Michigan's billion dollar snowmobile related economy as climate chaos melts our heritage away]

-National Association of Realtors: 2011 Community Preference Survey

Overall, Americans’ ideal communities have a mix of houses, places to walk, and amenities within an easy walk or close drive

-GL Echo: Demand high, supplies tight for some Michigan-grown organic foods

-NPR: Guerrilla Grafters Bring Forbidden Fruit Back To City Trees

-FastCompany: Making More Livable Cities With Shade Stands, Rainwater Collection, And Closed Streets

-The Atlantic Cities: Traffic Explained in Less Than 4 Minutes
- A Data-Driven Case for Walkability
-What Cities Gain When Their Airports Are Close to Downtown

-SeattlePi: In an old Chicago meat plant, greens and fish grow

-MLive: 'A Day in the Life' of chef Mario Batali in New York is hectic, no wonder he loves Michigan

related NYT: For Mario Batali, It’s Molto Michigan [from 2007]

-Grist: How demolishing freeways is reviving American cities

-AtlanticCities: Green Infrastructure Could Save Cities Billions
[in other words, by letting natural systems handle stormwater runoff a city can save big money in waste water costs]

-SciAm: Grid Unlocked: How Street Networks Evolve as Cities Grow

the researchers found a tendency for older streets to be the more central ones in modern times

The Traverse City Approved Trees And Shrubs List

I heard from a Commissioner that Traverse City had an "approved trees list" on the City web site.

I think I finally found it in a 2009 appendix to zoning map changes.

Source: http://www.ci.traverse-city.mi.us/zoningord/zoning.pdf

The following text comes from the source PDF except I have changed to formatting to make it easier to read which includes taking out the scientific names:

The following is a partial list of plant materials which is preferred to exotic plants when the location is visible from public rights-of-way or adjacent to areas of natural vegetation. This list is not necessarily a guideline for interior courtyards and single family residential development.

WET TO MEDIUM MOISTURE SITES:
LARGE TREES:
Balsam Fir
Red Maple
Sugar Maple
BlackAsh
Larch
Black Spruce
White Pine
Black Cherry
Black Willow
Basswood

SMALL TREES:
Serviceberry
Sweet Birch
River Birch
Alternate-Leaved Dogwood
White Cedar


LARGE SHRUBS:
Red Chokeberry
Buttonbush
Gray Dogwood
Redosier Dogwood
Common Witchhazel
Michigan Holly
American Elderberry
Highbush Blueberry
Arrowwood
Nannyberry
American Cranberry Bush

SMALL SHRUBS:
Common Juniper
Bush Cinquefoil
Canada Yew

DRY, SANDY SITES:
LARGE TREES:
Balsam Fir
Sugar Maple
American Beech
White Ash
Red Pine
White Oak
Red Oak

SMALL TREES:
Serviceberry
Cockspur Hawthorn
Downey Hawthorn
Dotted Hawthorn
Green Hawthorn
Eastern Red Cedar
Prairie Crab
Red Mulberry
Ironwood
Pin Cherry
Choke Cherry
Carolina Buckthorn
Mountain Ash
Nannyberry

LARGE SHRUBS:
American Filbert
Common Witchhazel
Michigan Holly
SmoothSumac

SMALL SHRUBS:
New Jersey Tea.
Bush Honeysuckle
Blackberry

Missing Links For 2-07-2012

[these links started collecting dust in November]

-Fortune Magazine, 1958: Downtown is for People

-WSJ: The Hidden Toll of Traffic Jams

Children in areas affected by high levels of emissions, on average, scored more poorly on intelligence tests and were more prone to depression, anxiety and attention problems than children growing up in cleaner air, separate research teams in New York, Boston, Beijing, and Krakow, Poland, found. And older men and women long exposed to higher levels of traffic-related particles and ozone had memory and reasoning problems that effectively added five years to their mental age, other university researchers in Boston reported this year. The emissions may also heighten the risk of Alzheimer's disease and speed the effects of Parkinson's disease.

-Steve Miller: Complete Streets As An Economic Development Strategy: The Green Beyond The Paint

-RecyclingToday: BHS Installs Solid Waste Processing System in Northern Michigan

-DetNews: Michigan wineries toast bumper crop

-CreativeClass: Bicycling and the Wealth and Happiness of Cities

-Grist: Why small cities are poised for success in an oil-starved future

-DetNews: Fishing for a living in Detroit

In less than a lifetime, the Great Lakes were depleted to the point where commercial fishing was no longer viable.

On a positive note, scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service discovered spawning lake whitefish and fertilized whitefish eggs in the Detroit River in the fall of 2006, the first documented spawning of the fish in the river since 1916.

-NYT: In the Shadow of Grand Resorts, a Town Hill Struggles

-Petoskey News: The mystery of the Elk Lake lake trout

The trout, like their century-old counterpart, spawn in more than 100 feet of water -- indicating that these trout are one of the deepwater forms that used to exist in Lake Michigan.

-Freep: More Michigan voyages ahead; 13 cruises to visit new Detroit dock
[notice that Traverse City is NOT a destination]

-Atlantic Cities: The Opera House Effect

-MedicalXPress: Study shows medical marijuana laws reduce traffic deaths

"Our research suggests that the legalization of medical marijuana reduces traffic fatalities through reducing alcohol consumption by young adults,"

-Michigan River News: Great Lakes salmon polluting Michigan’s stream fish
[this is why the Union St dam on the Boardman is being left in place]

-CT Mirror: Economic value of state's parks is more than $1 billion
[the state of Connecticut could fit into NW lower MI]

-M2: Why a Democracy Needs Uninformed People

-GCC: MIT researchers developing algorithms to predict more accurately which cars are likeliest to run red lights

-TheAtlantic: New Yorkers Now Live 2.4 Years Longer Than Other Americans

-Grist: The next small thing: How sustainable neighborhoods could reshape cities

-MLive: Michigan resumes stocking Atlantic salmon in Torch Lake

-NationalPost: Taking a u-turn on the one-way street

Two years ago, city crews went to St. Paul Street — the one-way spine of downtown St. Catharines, Ont. — took down the “no entry” signs, painted new lines and opened up the street to two-way traffic. According to planners, it would slow cars down, make the downtown more pedestrian friendly and spur retail development.

People, especially businesspeople, didn’t like it. And then they did.

-Atlantic Cities: The Case for Congestion

-Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland: Urban Growth and Decline: The Role of Population Density at the City Core

We look at four decades of census data and show that growing cities have maintained dense urban centers, while shrinking cities have not. There are reasons to think that loss of population density at the core of the city could be particularly damaging to productivity. If this is the case, there could be productivity gains from policies aimed at reversing that trend.

-Mlive: Owasippe an 'epic' destination? Mountain bikers say yes

-AAA: AAA Study Finds Costs Associated With Traffic Crashes Are More than Three Times Greater than Congestion Costs

-Cleveland.com: With apartments full, developers look for new rental opportunities in downtown Cleveland

With apartments nearly full and waiting lists piling up, a sense of rental euphoria has fallen over downtown Cleveland...

Young professionals... are driving the downtown market. So are students, empty nesters and people moving from other cities.

-Atlantic Cities: Why Portland's Public Toilets Succeeded Where Others Failed

-CNNMoney: Tony Hsieh's new $350 million startup-The Zappos CEO is trading shoes for urban planning -- and spending big bucks to rebuild downtown Las Vegas.

-NYT: The Death of the Fringe Suburb

Simply put, there has been a profound structural shift — a reversal of what took place in the 1950s, when drivable suburbs boomed and flourished as center cities emptied and withered.

The shift is durable and lasting because of a major demographic event: the convergence of the two largest generations in American history, the baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) and the millennials (born between 1979 and 1996), which today represent half of the total population.

Many boomers are now empty nesters and approaching retirement. Generally this means that they will downsize their housing in the near future. Boomers want to live in a walkable urban downtown, a suburban town center or a small town, according to a recent survey by the National Association of Realtors.

The millennials are just now beginning to emerge from the nest — at least those who can afford to live on their own. This coming-of-age cohort also favors urban downtowns and suburban town centers — for lifestyle reasons and the convenience of not having to own cars.

-LAMag: Between the Lines [longread about the history of parking lots in LA; congestion pricing for parking and turning over parking meter money to the owner of the lot next to the space]

Shoup is not opposed to all parking lots; he’s against cities requiring parking lots. “Would you require every home to come with a pool or every office to include a dining room because someone might want it?” asks Shoup. “Why not let developers build parking where the market demands it and charge its true value?”

-NewGeography: The Driving Decline
[discussion of possible reasons for the 5 yr decline in total miles driven in the United States]

-The European: Cities Are Making Us More Human: Interview with Edward Glaeser

The European: As an economist, you have a very pragmatic approach to cities. Let’s begin with one of your thoughts: Cities help preserve the environment precisely because they keep people away from it.
Glaeser: That is right. It is somewhat counterintuitive but all that is leafy is not necessarily green – living around trees and living in low density areas may end being actually quite harmful for the environment, whereas living in high-rise buildings and urban core may end up being quite kind to the environment.

-GearJunkie: Longest 'Urban' Mt. Bike Trail in USA

Duluth mayor Don Ness has ambitions to make Duluth “the premier trail city in North America.” The Duluth Traverse, which is being touted as the longest urban singletrack trail system in the nation, is a key part in the vision alongside new paths and trails for hiking and XC skiing.

-AdventureCycling: Becoming Bike Travel Friendly: Minneapolis Case Study

-M2: Traffic Solution: Make Drivers Less Lonely

More Surveys

or as Doug E Fresh might say - ain't no reason for teasin' because it IS survey season.

-planning for a new Discovery Center to host the Maritime Heritage Alliance, The Watershed Center, Great Lakes Children's Museum, and Traverse Area Community Sailing: Discovery Center Great Lakes Community Survey

-MyNorth: 2012 Red Hot Best of Northern Michigan

-Northern Express: 2012 "Best of Northern Michigan"

(you know you're from northern Michigan when the highlight of your year is the Northern Express 'Best Of' survey)

Drinker's Paradise

Sorry Asheville, I love you as a town but you're behind Traverse City again (and you're wrong).

First a little background...

Traverse City residents are familiar with our town perennially appearing on "up and coming" foodie town lists.

But the bigger story might be how the area is becoming known for adult beverages.

For example, in the Spring of 2011 I met a gentleman from Pennsylvania who read about Michigan and decided to drive out to experience the solitude of a cabin on Beaver Island. But first he was taking a tour of North Peak, Mackinaw Brewing Company, and Right Brain Brewery and stocking up on growlers.

And the Grand Traverse Resort offers walking Traverse City Craft Brewery Tours downtown with shuttle service back to the resort.

Now Draft Magazine puts Traverse City with OKC and St Louis as three emerging beer towns.



That's not fair to those other towns though. Like the Food Town lists that say Traverse City is "up and coming" I'd argue that Traverse City is the firmly established capital of the adult beverage aficionado.

Here's why...

Several years ago I took a trip to Ithaca, NY. Loved their Farmer's Market but was annoyed by signs proclaiming the highest restaurant density in the world - "even higher than New York City!" they said. It didn't feel right to me. When I got home I looked up the numbers and calculated that in fact Traverse City has a higher restaurant density than Ithaca.

What I found is Ithaca had 1.84 restaurants per 1000 people; Traverse City had 2.27 per 1000 people. I suppose I could infer from that that Traverse City has the highest restaurant density in the United States (but won't).

And that takes me to beer.

Asheville, NC proclaims itself as Beer City USA and boasts the "highest craft beer per capita in the world".

So I wanted to find the numbers and see if that was true.

Asheville, NC population = 83,393 (417,012 in the metro area)

Traverse City, MI population = 14,674

Craft breweries in Asheville = 10

Craft breweries in TC = 4 (I include Jolly Pumpkin on Old Mission but not the soon to open Brewery Terra Firma nor the rumors of 2 more coming)

14674/4 = 3668 people per brewery in Traverse City (dropping to 2935:1 once Brewery Terra Firma opens)

83,393/10 = 8339 people per brewery in Asheville.

So I could say Traverse City has more than twice the craft breweries per capita than Asheville.

I can then make it look worse.

Take into account the Old Mission Wineries, Left Foot Charley, Civilized Spirits, and the Grand Traverse Distillery.

And you get 1 drinking destination per 917 people.

Asheville. Beer Town USA.
-10 breweries
-5 wineries within an hours drive
-2 distilleries
=17

Which gives 1 drinking destination for 4905 people.

In other words, the density of breweries, wineries, and distilleries is 5 times higher in Traverse City than Asheville.

And that does not even include Black Star Farms and the wineries of the Leelanu appellation; Acoustic Mead; Shorts Brewing; or Tandem Ciders.

Nor does it include other destinations such as 7 Monks Taproom, Brew, Uncorked, or the fact that Blue Tractor has beer from every microbrewery in Michigan.

Add it all up and it is not a fair competition to any other region. This is a paradise.

Surveys Say

A couple of community surveys are available.

-The Traverse City Corridors Improvement Study has Questionnaires for Residents and Businesses.

-Vasa Trail Five- and Ten-Year planning process

Candidates 2011

Below are the Traverse City Commission and Mayoral Candidates for 2011.

I don't know who I am voting for yet. I know who I won't be voting for but that still leaves some vacancies. At this point I'll vote for whoever is the most reasonable person.

To help organize my voting decision I've linked to the candidate profiles in the Record-Eagle, their answers to the MyWheelsAreTurning.com survey, the 2011 Candidate Forum answers at the TC Chamber, and a meta search which will search for the candidate's name at local web sites (TCLP, City of TC, MWaT, PlanForTC, MLUI, GT County, UpNorthLive, TheTicker, TC Biz News, Record-Eagle).

*note that PDF's from the City of Traverse City are generally image files rather than text files and therefore are not searchable, which is a pain

At the bottom you can use my custom domain search if you'd like to search the above domains for your own queries. For more political insight you can also use the Fundrace tool which allows you to search political contributions by name and address.

Budros: TC Chamber forum responses / Record-Eagle profile / MWaT answers / meta-search

Carruthers: TC Chamber forum responses / Record-Eagle profile / MWaT answers / meta-search

Donick: TC Chamber forum responses / Record-Eagle profile / MWaT answers / meta-search

Easterday: TC Chamber forum responses / Record-Eagle profile / MWaT answers / meta-search

Ford: TC Chamber forum responses / Record-Eagle profile / MWaT answers / meta-search

McGuire: TC Chamber forum responses / Record-Eagle profile / MWaT answers / meta-search

Werner: TC Chamber forum responses / Record-Eagle profile / MWaT answers / meta-search

Estes: TC Chamber forum responses / Record-Eagle profile / MWaT answers / meta-search

Soffredine: TC Chamber forum responses / Record-Eagle profile / MWaT answers / meta-search

Search Traverse City news and government web sites:

Loading