Historical Site Damage At Pabst Farms Echos Earlier Destruction

Call this chapter IX in our continuing series, The Road To Sprawlville:

Rare Native American effigy mounds, some in the shape of panthers, have been damaged at Pabst Farms, the Journal Sentinel reports.

Turns out it's not the first time this has happened out Waukesha way. More on that through the links above.

WisDOT Coming Under Increasing Fire Over One-Sided Highway Spending

The refusal of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) to consider transit services in its $1.9 billion plan to rebuild and widen I-94 from Milwaukee to Illinois has led to detailed, written objections from the City of Milwaukee Department of Public Works.

Since this is agency-to-agency, engineer-to-engineer, bureaucrat-to-bureaucrat disagreement over a major state project, the DPW letter has genuine significance.

The state wants to spend more than $20 million on an bells-and-whistles interstate interchange in rural western Waukesha County - - as access to an upscale mega-shopping mall that might not be built.

 Details here.

Wednesday's collapse of the I-35W span in the Twin Cities underscores the need for a major change in the way federal and state transportation funds are spent.

The solution: Stop adding more highways and widened lanes, and instead aggressively maintain the facilities we have.

In our state, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, and CASH - - Citizens Allied for Sane Highways, led by Story Hill neighborhood activists Gretchen Schuldt and Robert Trimmier - - have been making this case for years, but politicians and the highway lobby and the regional planning commission (SEWRPC) have been going in the opposite direction.

What Causes Job Creation Far From Where Job-Seekers Live

A little while ago, I suggested that people check in with bloggers Rick Esenberg and Paul Soglin as they debate urban issues.

Rick, my colleague and the durable, conservative punching bag on Eric Von's "Backstory" Thursday afternoon drive-time roundtable on AM 1290 in Milwaukee, blogs here.

The liberal Paul, for whom I worked in his first incarnation as Madison Mayor, blogs here.

I tend to stay out of much of the bloggers' back-and-forth: a great deal of it is goofy-talk among journalist wannabees, but the Soglin-Esenberg discussion is worth reading because they both have something to say.