Time to end the Pabst Farms fantasy

Tomorrow night Oconomowoc is going to have another meeting on the future of Pabst Farms. Oconomowoc Mayor Maury Sullivan is no longer drinking the developer Kool-Aid and no longer believes that Pabst Farms is being developed as a regional attraction with high-end retail.

Sullivan said the outdoor mall has been reduced to a “strip retail center” along Highway 67 and a pedestrian-oriented lifestyle center that has yet to be defined. Sullivan said Pabst Farms has also been unwilling to commit to a completion date of the lifestyle center. The developers have also promised public use areas and a 24-hour security service, but those features would not be in place until the lifestyle center is finished, Sullivan said.

Sullivan said he is withholding judgment until he sees the developer’s final plans, but he does not want the community to be duped into a bait-and-switch situation.

“I bought into the proposal, I supported the plan and I accepted the promise, so if they’re proposing something less than what they have proposed – and in effect promised – then I have some reluctance,” he said.

Although no Town Centre tenants have been officially named, Sullivan said retail recruiter Mid-America Real Estate Group sent him a list of potential tenants, including Target, Kohl’s, PetSmart and OfficeMax. Three of those retailers already operate stores at Highway 83 and Interstate 94 in Delafield.

Sullivan said there were no unique, upscale retailers mentioned in the letter, which he received in September.

This was, of course, predictable when the contract was signed with the developer in question back in 2007.

Now high-end retail is going into the tank along with the economy. High-end stores are looking to close locations, not open them. Meanwhile, a developer lacking experience working with high-end retail is experiencing a crash in its stock price, and yet they're still promising a mall opening in 2010. For its part, Waukesha County is still looking at a $24 million off-ramp construction project to support this development.

If this project is allowed to continue, it's very likely we will only see stores at the Pabst Farms location that are comparable (if not exactly the same) as the stores at the other exits along the same stretch of highway. Nobody has yet made a case that such a development assisted by the government makes good public policy.

It's time to put an end to the Pabst Farms fantasy. At a time when government budgets are tight already, there is no sense in continuing with the highway reconstruction to support Pabst Farms. There is no reason to continue to hope against experience that somehow we can re-create Madison Avenue in the middle of nowhere, especially with this developer in this economic climate at this time. There is no development plan. It's over.

Look at the Idiots that aren't in the football press box

Welcome to the Idiot Politician of the Week, where each week we sift through the politicians and pick the one stand out idiot that causes us to wonder how they feed themselves, let alone get elected.

This week we may have discovered how some of the idiots get elected, with their idiot party’s help. In the big state of Texas, wasn’t anybody in either party smart enough to change the rules ahead of time to make sure they’re on the ballot? Guys, LBJ may be still voting, but he’s dead in the ground. Either get the paperwork in on time, or change the rules.

As Grumps at the Happy Circumstance points out, you’re making Bob Barr look smart. I thought that was impossible.

When the going gets dumb, the really dumb look for places to shop. Proving that all politics are loco, Oconomowoc Mayor Maury Sullivan announced what he heard were the likely chains setting up shop at the “upscale” shopping community of Pabst Farms: Target, Kohl’s, PetSmart, and OfficeMax. Maybe PetSmart sells upscale dog dishes and beds. If this is the best they can do, do we really need to spend over $20 million on a new interchange? Or can we spend $200 at another local PetSmart for the doghouse Maury Sullivan belongs in?

Then there’s Mukwonago Clerk Steve Braatz complaining his job is more than he can handle.

Verifying voters’ identifications as far back as 2006 would be “virtually impossible,” said Village of Mukwonago Clerk Steve Braatz. “We have other work to do besides election work, and we are short-staffed as it is. There is no way we could do this.”

Braatz said that if required to do so, he would be forced to set aside his regular duties as clerk.

“It would affect my work with budgeting, water bills and taxes,” he said. “Those would have to be dropped. This would have an astronomical impact on the general public.”

Because in two years, voter registrations in Mukwonago must’ve exploded more than his abacus and his staff of monk scribes can handle. Psst. Hey Braatz. Did you ever hear of Microsoft? You know, Excel? Access? Databases and spreadsheets?

But to be a real idiot, you need a national stage. Senator Barack Obama has super-duper secret plan to solve the crisis on Wall Street. When The One is elected president, The Obama will part the East River and walk across to Wall Street. The Revelation of His Plan will not only calm the markets, increase credit availability and make everyone whole, His Plan will also cure the sick and cause the blind to see. His Plan is so powerful, it’s like the opening of Ark of the Covenant at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. He can’t reveal it to us now, because it would “roil the markets,” cause the sea to boil and the flesh to fall away from the faces of stock brokers everywhere.

Yeah, right.  Perhaps he should have his buddies at Fannie Mae explain it for him to soften the blow.  That's if they can be interrupted from their hard work writing checks to the Obama campaign. Congratulations Senator Obama. You are the Idiot Politician of the Week.