I’ve written before about Whitewater’s tech park and Innovation Center, and some of the coverage it’s received. The groundbreaking ceremony for the Innovation Center, held this Tuesday, is another opportunity to review officials’ flimsy claims. Statements at the event were sadly, but predictably, empty.

Prior Posts. I’ve written about the Tech Park and Innovation Center before. See, On Whitewater’s “Advancing” Tech Park, Part 1, On Whitewater’s “Advancing Tech Park, Part 2, On the Innovation Center’s Anchor Tenant, and On the Innovation Center’s Anchor Tenant, Part 2.

Press Release and Story. There’s both a press release and a story, Ground broken for Whitewater Innovation Center.

A 125-Acre Park. One learns that the Innovation Center will be the first building in a “125-Acre Whitewater University Technology Park.” It certainly sounds impressive, until one realizes that the 125 acres are empty, and that the large size of the field is no assurance, or even probability, that the rest of the space will fill up.

Of course it’s the “first building,” but similarly, the presence of one does not show — no matter how much the use of the word “first” is meant to imply — that there will be others.

There should be other buildings — millions of dollars in taxpayers’ stimulus money and public debt went into financing this project. That kind of subsidy at taxpayers’ expense should have led by now to lots of tenants!

There’s mention of “preliminary talk of a second building.” There might just as well be preliminary talk of cold fusion, for all the difference it makes. Repeating the insubstantial and unsubstantiated claim serves an official line, while revealing not the least skepticism.

If I put a postage stamp on an open, green field, I’d still have a postage stamp on an open, green field.

The Business Park Nearby. Look less than a thousand yards from the site of the new tech park, and you’ll find our old business park. They have lots of space, too; quite a few acres, actually.

Go to the corner of Prospect & Endeavor, and here’s what you’ll find:

That’s a lot of space, too, but those expansive plots didn’t lead to buildings; they lead to a bumper crop of weeds and grass.

I’m not sure how many jobs these now-ignored plots were supposed to produce, but they’ve probably been good for at least one job — someone has to mow the grass now and then.

Jobs Mentioned Repeatedly, but Quantified Never. Look at coverage of the groundbreaking, and one hears claims of that the project will “create jobs and foster economic development,” but one never hears an estimate of how many. All these clever people, and not a single concrete number. One assumes that job creation is meant to be more than jobs for the contractor, etc., from the public dime.

When these politicians, bureaucrats, and sycophants talk about all that’s being spent, it’s not their money they’re investing . They didn’t contribute a dime of this — they took tax receipts and incurred public debt for this project.

Google, 3-D Television, Whatever. Imagine being at an event like this, where everything’s about “the future,” “jobs,” and “economic development,” and as concrete an idea as one hears is that

I understand that Google is looking for new headquarters, and wouldn’t this be a wonderful place for them. I tell you this because so many of us use technology, and technology is just zooming in places we cannot imagine, like 3-D television.

Too funny — “so many of us use technology” — not all, but at least so many!

Nice Digs. The Innovation Center’s anchor tenant, CESA 2, is rather thrilled: “…. a tremendous opportunity to partner with a university.”

Yes — much nicer than CESA 2’s current building in Milton, Wisconsin, I’m sure. I know that CESA 2 does good work — still, it was unnecessary and laughable that a publicly-funded educational agency would get upgraded accommodations as an anchor tenant in this tech park.

Collaboration. One learns, finally, that this is a “collaboration,” that there were individual thanks offered to “city and UW-Whitewater staff members, architects, consultants, state and federal personnel, and construction companies who have helped in the process of creating the Innovation Center.”

Every one of those named is either on the public payroll as an employee, or receiving federal funds or money from local debt for this project.

This collaboration was hardly a private, charitable venture, and speaking of it as though it were a community charity drive, or a church fundraiser, is both arrogant and misleading. There’s a common practice among managers, bureaucrats, and politicians, to talk about collaboration, etc.

By the way, there’s a place where there are millions of collaborative transactions each hour — it’s called the free market. Buyers and sellers come together, and freely decide whether to sell or purchase goods at a mutually agreed upon price.

It’s not collaboration to take money from productive private citizens, by power of taxation or issuance of debt, then spend it on flashy public projects, while mugging for the camera.

Where’s the Community? The photos of the groundbreaking are unintentionally funny. The closest that Whitewater will come to its own version of A Chorus Line: a group of mostly aging politicians, bureaucrats, and hangers-on, wearing ill-fitting construction hats, and posing as those they might possibly know how to did a proper hole.

For all the talk of innovation, this is a conventional group shot, dull and predictable, a staple of every groundbreaking one might ever see — hats and shovels, coats and ties.

The line of officials looks little like the city itself. They could scarcely be more unrepresentative as a sample.

Where are ordinary people, gathered to celebrate a supposedly epic event? If this project is all that these town squires say it is, why has the community not poured out in interest and appreciation? I’m sure one bureaucrat or another will whine that people just don’t understand, or need to be led, etc.

Nonsense, twice over. These self-important few are no better than anyone else in talent or accomplishment. They’re likely less so, because common people aren’t airy in their descriptions.

It’s also nonsense because most people know where to look to see how this grand project of tomorrow is likely to turn out.

They need go no farther than the corner of Prospect & Endeavor, where they’ll find the remains of yesterday’s grand project of tomorrow.