Jurist Roscoe Pound once famously observed that “the law must remain stable yet it cannot stand still.” What is true of the law is true of communities – including Whitewater. Among some (but not all) of the few who have held sway in this town for the last generation, changes are unwelcome, and change itself…
Hip & Prosperous
Charity, City, Culture, Good Ideas, Hip & Prosperous, Local Government
More on the Right Social Conditions in a Small Town
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I posted yesterday that Gentrification Requires the Right Social Conditions, contending in part that a small city like Whitewater remains divided (and by consequence limits its own attractiveness to newcomers) because it remains divided by town and gown (and divided within the town, itself, too). Whitewater’s problem is not that different factions do not have a…
Charity, City, Culture, Hip & Prosperous
An Oasis Strategy
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
There’s a wide difference between believing that we’ve difficult national or local times ahead and losing confidence. I’m as confident today as ever that Whitewater has a bright long-term future. There’s simply hard work ahead between now and then, and more hard work now than we might have hoped (national trends being what they are). What to do?…
City, Culture, Hip & Prosperous, Local Government, Marketing, New Whitewater, School District
How Big Averts Bad
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
If it should be true that small-town Whitewater faces a choice between difficult times now or an extended decline before an out-of-town-led gentrification, that her decline will otherwise be slow but no less signficant as a result, that stakeholder (special interest) politics grips the city, and that this stakeholder politics is really an identity politics…
City, Development, Economy, Hip & Prosperous, Politics
The Middle Time, Part 2
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
Over two years ago, I described Whitewater as being in a ‘middle time,’ between former conditions and future ones: While Whitewater is in a time of transition, from one way of life to a more diverse and prosperous one, she is only at the ‘end of the beginning’ of that transition. It’s a middle time now, and…
Business, City, Environment, Hip & Prosperous, Lifestyle, Local Government
Places Trying to Cope
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Business, City, Hip & Prosperous
Brief Remarks on Downtown Whitewater, Inc.
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I promised a post on Downtown Whitewater, Inc.’s search for a new, full-time leader. They’ve a committee that drafted a job description. Of that committee, there are truly impressive members : smart, talented people. How their search will turn out I do not know – one hopes for a good outcome. I do know, however, that Whitewater’s success doesn’t…
Business, Economy, Free Markets, Hip & Prosperous, Poll
Friday Poll: Preferred Shopping Times, 2015
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
Preferred Shopping Times, 2015 View image | gettyimages.com The Friday FW poll asks about how you’ll shop over the weekend. It’s third year that I’ve run this poll (versions of it ran in 2012 and 2013). Let’s see how this year’s answers compare with those earlier versions. (Multiple selections are possible for those who’ll shop in…
Business, Economy, Free Markets, Good Ideas, Hip & Prosperous, Restaurant
Shop Small on Saturday, November 28, 2015
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
If you’re out and about on Saturday, I hope you’ll shop at some of the many independent, small merchants of Whitewater. You’ll find a wide selection of items for purchase as gifts, and good restaurants at which to eat while shopping during the day. Best wishes to all for a happy and prosperous season —…
Beautiful Whitewater, Business, Food, Hip & Prosperous, Restaurant
Restaurants Transform a City
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Whitewater is a small city, not a California metropolis, but even a prosperous place like San Francisco benefits from a growing restaurant culture: SAN FRANCISCO — For decades, as this city polished its reputation as an essential food destination, a stretch of Market Street just a short stroll from the groundbreaking Zuni Café remained stubbornly…
City, Good Ideas, Hip & Prosperous
Today @ the Whitewater City Market, 3 – 7 PM
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
If you’ve not had the chance, today would a fine day to visit the Whitewater City Market, at the Cravath lakefront. They’ve an impressive lineup, and you’re sure to find something you’ll enjoy. MUSIC Andrus & the Mariners 5:30-7 p.m. VENDORS BeefN’Beaks grass-fed beef, farm-fresh chickens and eggs Bluff Creek Nursery plants, produce, painted…
City, Enforcement, Food, Hip & Prosperous, Local Government, Marketing, Regulations, Restaurant
Vulnerability of a Restaurant Culture
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
View image | gettyimages.com Whitewater’s publicly-driven marketing may not have amounted to much, these last ten years, but there are few better advertisements for Whitewater than thriving restaurants and taverns. Good restaurants, doing well, are a sign of a successful community. Some of Whitewater’s newest restaurants also reflect a sensibility that’s significantly more contemporary than…
City, Good Ideas, Government Spending, Health, Hip & Prosperous, Planning
Arguments on Cost & Flexibility Under a Complete Streets Ordinance
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There are two questions that I promised yesterday that I would take up today about the Complete Streets ordinance recently passed at Council on 1.20.15. The first is whether the draft ordinance was flexible enough, and the second about the costs of new roads or reconstruction that would include sidewalks or bike paths. I read…
Business, City, Cycling, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, Health, Hip & Prosperous, Local Government, Planning
The Common Council Session for 1.20.15: Complete Streets
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I posted briefly yesterday on Tuesday’s Common Council meeting, and in that post mentioned that I would look a bit more at some of the remarks for, or against, the Complete Streets ordinance that passed Tuesday night. (I supported the ordinance.) Council discussed this issue previously, on December 16th. See, Common Council 12/16/2014. I’ve included…