Sunday Reading

Washington Post Mistakenly Tells Readers There Are Shortages Of Workers
Milwaukee ParkScore 2018 - The Trust For Public Land
Milwaukee County Board Approves Marijuana Legalization Referendum On November Election Ballot
Crony Capitalism Of Walker, Hammes, Foxconn
CEOs Paid 1,000 Times More Than Average Workers
We Can't Forget About Mass Transit When We Talk About The 'Future of Transportation'
Debate: Build Up Or Build Out?
Actually, The 1 Percent Are Still The Problem

Underfunding Tarnishes Milwaukee County Parks

The Journal Sentinel reported, Neglect tarnishes county jewel Boerner Botanical Gardens. Saying Boerner Botantical Garden is "neglected" implies malicious intent. As if the Parks administration is aiming to hinder and tarnish Boerner.

As with almost every other issue facing modern society, this, too, is a taxation issue. Just as diminishing taxation (of corporations and the wealthy) has led to increasing income inequality and crumbling infrastructure, declining funding has restrained park maintenance and upkeep.

The article talks of "limited staff...a dramatic drop since 2003 in the number of hours worked by seasonal staff at Boerner, declining from more than 26,000 hours in 2003 to 7,000 in 2014, according to the audit."

[source]

It's awfully tough to overcome losing almost 20,000 hours of work each year.

As a Public Policy Forum report discovered:

The county’s financial commitment to parks, recreation and culture was two-thirds of what it was in the 1970s, after adjusting for inflation. Spending for these functions peaked in 1975 at $77 million and reached a low point of $43 million 20 years later.

In current dollars, tax levy support for parks was $30.6 million in 2000, less than half the $65.8 million in 1975. The tax levy supported 47% of park spending in 2000, down from 78% in the 1980s. The difference was made up by other sources of revenue, including privatized park functions and increased user fees. This outside revenue nearly doubled between 1975 and 2000, to more than $16 million.

As we can see from a study done by the Trust For Public Land, Milwaukee County Parks spending per resident is below the median ($73) of the 50 largest cities. Milwaukee spends $71 per resident. Detroit, the lowest, only spends $10. The highest, Washington D.C., spends $287 per resident.

[source]

It's also very tough to uphold certain standards with a comparatively low and declining budget.

The title of the article should have been Underfunding Tarnishes Milwaukee County Parks.

Sneakers And Hardwood Over Fresh Air

In Scott Walker's Wisconsin, public dollars should be spent on a basketball arena, but state parks aren't as deserving.

State parks, which enhance communities throughout the state and can be enjoyed by all, have had it too easy. Park-users need to pay higher fees.

As the Wisconsin State Journal notes:

As part of his 2015-17 state budget, Walker is proposing to remove all general-purpose revenue to operate Wisconsin state parks, trails and recreation areas — a cut of $4.6 million, or nearly 28 percent, of their current $16.7 million operational budget, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

Here's some history on Wisconsin state parks:

The state park system in Wisconsin includes both state parks and state recreation areas. Wisconsin currently has 66 state park units, covering more than 60,570 acres (245.1 km2) in state parks and state recreation areas. Each unit was created by an act of the Wisconsin Legislature and is maintained by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Division of Parks and Recreation. The Division of Forestry manages a further 471,329 acres (1,907.40 km2) in Wisconsin's state forests...

Wisconsin became the first state to have a state park in 1878 when it formed "The State Park". The park consisted of 760 square miles (2,000 km2) in northern Wisconsin (most of Vilas County). The state owned 50,631 acres (205 km2), which was less than 10% of the total area.

Yet another Wisconsin tradition Scott Walker is dismantling.

Why can't we just increase the price of basketball tickets to pay for the new arena? Following the  increased park-user-fee logic, let the basketball game attendees pay for the arena.

Walker has proposed bonding over $200 million for a new basketball arena, but $17 million for our state park budget is too much?

State tourism spending is increasing. People are increasingly visiting to see Wisconsin's beautiful coasts, forests and lakes. The park system is an integral part of Wisconsin's allure. Cutting funding makes absolutely no sense.

US Infrastructure Is A Disaster

• 1 in 9 of the country's bridges are rated as structurally deficient, meaning they require significant maintenance, rehabilitation, or replacement. 
• Of the 84,000 dams in the U.S., 14,000 are considered "high hazard" and 4,000 are deficient. It would cost $21 billion to repair these aging dams.
• 42% of the country's major urban highways are considered congested, and 32% of major roads in the U.S. are in poor or mediocre condition.
• Even though a third of Americans don't drive cars, 45% of households lack access to transit. 
• There are 240,000 water main breaks in the U.S. each year, and many water mains and pipes are over 100 years old.
• The Federal Aviation Administration anticipates that the national cost of airport congestion and delays will nearly double from $34 billion in 2020 to $63 billion in 2040.
• 90% of locks and dams experienced an unscheduled delay or service interruption in 2009. Barges being stopped for hours can prolong transport of goods and drive up prices.
• Congestion on rail lines is costing the U.S. economy about $200 billion a year, or 1.6% of economic output.
• Although public school enrollment is gradually increasing, national spending on school construction declined to $10 billion in 2012, about half of what was spent before the recession.
• National Park Service facilities saw 279 million visits in 2011 and has a deferred maintenance backlog of $11 billion.

10 Signs That US Infrastructure Is A Disaster

Ranked 19th - Milwaukee County Parks

ParkScore, from the Trust for Public Land, recently ranked the Milwaukee County Park system 19th. 

Minneapolis (1st) was the best, followed by New York City (2nd). Fresno (50th), Louisville (49th), Indianapolis (47th) and Charlotte (47th) were the worst.  Fresno's low score was 27.5. Minneapolis scored 81. Milwaukee scored 57.5. 

City Stats
City area: 154,497 acres
Median park size: 8.07 acres
Park land as % of city area: 10.4 %
Spending per resident: $70.67
Playgrounds per 10,000: 1.2
Population density: 3.8 per acre 

Park Facts
Park acreage: 16,085 acres
People served per park acre: 32
Oldest park: Cathedral Square Park, est. 1835
Largest park: Whitnall Park, 625acres
Most-visited park: Veterans Park

America's 50 Best Cities

Milwaukee

Rank: 26
Population: 593,545

Milwaukee’s got good air quality and better brews. In the 1970s, America met the fictitious "Shotz Brewery" of Laverne & Shirley. In real life, the Miller Brewing Co. maintains its regional headquarters in the hometown of the “Brew Crew,” the nickname for local major league baseball team the Milwaukee Brewers. With fewer than 600,000 residents, the city still boasts 390 bars, which is a lot per capita. And did we mention the sausages?

Bars: 390
Restaurants: 947
Museums: 20
Libraries: 30
Pro sports teams: 2
Park acres per 1,000 residents: 16 (countywide)
Colleges: 12
Percent with graduate degree: 5.4
Median household income: $44,113
Percent unemployed: 9.4

[source]

Most Exciting Cities In America: Milwaukee

7. Milwaukee

Anger: The Easiest Emotion

I was just looking at comments from an older Journal Sentinel article on the good work Sue Black is doing for the County parks. One particular rant gave me an unexpectedly jovial chuckle, "More union thuggery in Milwaukee. I am so sick and tired of people crying and moaning about how the parks need more money and they are crumbling. What a crock! First of all, do we really need to have 30+ swimming pools in the county that the taxpayer has to foot the bill for. Second, why do I have to subsidize the golf courses in the county? Finally, have any of you ever known an employee of the parks system? Is there an easier job in the world that has such lavish benefits? The whole system should be privatized."

First, the population of Milwaukee County is 959,921. Having 30 pools to service this population means having 1 pool for every 31,997 people in the County. Hardly an overabundance of water parks.

Second, the golf courses (roughly $6 million annual revenue) bring in a comparatively large portion of the Park system revenue. The golf courses essentially, partially subsidize the rest of the system.

Thirdly, the Park system has many jobs. The Park system is vast and contains golf courses, picnic areas, parking garages, tennis courts, historic buildings, pavilions, gardens, sports facilities, trails, community centers, beaches, and animal care. To claim Park employment is one job and is the easiest job is really just erroneous slander.

Finally, proponents of privatization, please tell me one example of the various sectors of our economy, over the past 40 years, which has been privatized and is better off. Airlines, health care, 401Ks...none have shown any improvement to the cost and quality of our lives. In fact, for the majority, privatization has made things worse. It has caused an upward redistribution of the gains from productivity.

Yet, I still support the right of the unhinged, uninformed, and those generally too enraged to pause and think about about what they are saying before making blanket statements and viciously attacking others, to speak their mind.

Milwaukee Parks

Even though we've been starving our parks of funding and slowly diminishing their amenities, we've still got some of the best parks in the country.