Whitewater has a public service announcement about leaf collection, to remind residents not to sweep their leaves into the street.
It’s a short, clever video. It does government a lot of good to remind someone of a policy without doing it in a heavy-handed way, but with a more light-hearted approach.
This does the trick nicely.
Leaves On The Streets? No! – PSA from Whitewater Community TV on Vimeo.
All people make plans for the future, even if that should be no farther ahead than for later the same day.
Why specifically, though, should government plan? Every city has plans for development, plans for budgeting, and many (as we do in Whitewater) have a public commission with lawful authority to approve or reject certain private construction or mercantile proposals.
Whitewater’s Planning Commission, I think, has a choice before it: will you establish fair rules by which private parties can engage in entrepreneurial activity, or will you pick and choose who succeeds and fails, at the outset?
It’s the oft-repeated distinction between planning for others to compete and planning to control competition. Watching Whitewater’s Planning Commission, it’s clear that some commissioners would like merely to establish fair rules, and others feel a right to engineer specific results, including preventing entrepreneurs from building and creating in response to consumer demand.
Commissioners who feel they have a right to stop projects based on their personal preferences, or even the authority to stop projects because as appointees they may decide the destiny of others rather than allowing consumers to decide for themselves, overstep legitimate, responsible authority.
Hayek, among so many others since, saw the difference between government planning to facilitate any number of private, voluntary possibilities and planning of a few to compel particular outcomes. Here, from his Road to Serfdom, are succinct expressions of his views:
“PLANNING” owes its popularity largely to the fact that everybody desires, of course, that we should handle our common problems with as much foresight as possible. The dispute between the modern planners and the liberals is not on whether we ought to employ systematic thinking in planning our affairs. It is a dispute about what is the best way of so doing. The question is whether we should create conditions under which the knowledge and initiative of individuals are given the best scope so that they can plan most successfully; or whether we should direct and organize all economic activities according to a “blue-print,” that is, “consciously direct the resources of society to conform to the planners’ particular views of who should have what.
One might describe this as a case for limited planning, and for expansive private activity. Hayek draws this distinction:
It is important not to confuse opposition against the latter kind of planning [of state-mandated outcomes] with a dogmatic laissez faire attitude.
The liberal argument does not advocate leaving things just as they are; it favors making the best possible use of the forces of competition as a means of coordinating human efforts. It is based on the conviction that, where effective competition can be created, it is a better way of guiding individual efforts than any other. It emphasizes that in order to make competition work beneficially a carefully thought-out legal framework is required, and that neither the past nor the existing legal rules are free from grave defects.
Liberalism is opposed, however, to supplanting competition by inferior methods of guiding economic activity. And it regards competition as superior not only because in most circumstances it is the most efficient method known but because it is the only method which does not require the coercive or arbitrary intervention of authority.
The case for a liberal, private order rests on arguments of efficiency and morality.
Conditions are better, in both ways, when one is free.
Whitewater will be more prosperous when planning returns to its proper, limited, responsible role. We’ll not have broad-based growth – we’ll not be both hipper and more prosperous – until then.
Many can achieve here, but only under conditions of political and regulatory restraint.
The presidential proclamation for Veterans’ Day 2013:
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
On Veterans Day, America pauses to honor every service member who has ever worn one of our Nation’s uniforms. Each time our country has come under attack, they have risen in her defense. Each time our freedoms have come under assault, they have responded with resolve. Through the generations, their courage and sacrifice have allowed our Republic to flourish. And today, a Nation acknowledges its profound debt of gratitude to the patriots who have kept it whole.
As we pay tribute to our veterans, we are mindful that no ceremony or parade can fully repay that debt. We remember that our obligations endure long after the battle ends, and we make it our mission to give them the respect and care they have earned. When America’s veterans return home, they continue to serve our country in new ways, bringing tremendous skills to their communities and to the workforce— leadership honed while guiding platoons through unbelievable danger, the talent to master cutting- edge technologies, the ability to adapt to unpredictable situations. These men and women should have the chance to power our economic engine, both because their talents demand it and because no one who fights for our country should ever have to fight for a job.
This year, in marking the 60th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice, we resolved that in the United States of America, no war should be forgotten, and no veteran should be overlooked. Let us always remember our wounded, our missing, our fallen, and their families. And as we continue our responsible drawdown from the war in Afghanistan, let us welcome our returning heroes with the support and opportunities they deserve.
Under the most demanding of circumstances and in the most dangerous corners of the earth, America’s veterans have served with distinction. With courage, self-sacrifice, and devotion to our Nation and to one another, they represent the American character at its best. On Veterans Day and every day, we celebrate their immeasurable contributions, draw inspiration from their example, and renew our com- mitment to showing them the fullest support of a grateful Nation.
With respect for and in recognition of the contributions our service members have made to the cause of peace and freedom around the world, the Congress has provided (5 U.S.C. 6103(a)) that November 11 of each year shall be set aside as a legal public holiday to honor our Nation’s veterans.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby pro- claim November 11, 2013, as Veterans Day. I encourage all Americans to recognize the valor and sacrifice of our veterans through appropriate public ceremonies and private prayers. I call upon Federal, State, and local officials to display the flag of the United States and to participate in patriotic activities in their communities. I call on all Americans, including civic and fraternal organizations, places of worship, schools, and communities to support this day with commemorative expressions and programs.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.
Good morning.
Monday will be a mix of rain or snow in the morning, with a high of thirty-eight for the day, and temperatures falling into the twenties by late afternoon.
Whitewater’s Planning Commission will meet at 6 PM tonight.
On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ends:
At 5 a.m. that morning, Germany, bereft of manpower and supplies and faced with imminent invasion, signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compiégne, France. The First World War left nine million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded, with Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France, and Great Britain each losing nearly a million or more lives. In addition, at least five million civilians died from disease, starvation, or exposure.
The Rolling Stones play in Milwaukee on 11.11.1964, and a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal is not impressed:
1964 – Rolling Stones Play Milwaukee
On this date the Rolling Stones first performed in Wisconsin, to a crowd of 1,274 fans at Milwaukee Auditorium. Although Brian Jones remained in a Chicago hospital with a high fever, the rest of the band performed. According to a dubious reporter for the Milwaukee Journal, “Chances are, few in the audience missed his [Jones’] wailing harmonica. Screams from a thousand throats drowned out all but the most insistent electronic cacaphony and the two-fisted smashes of drummer Charlie Watts.”The reporter continued, “Unless someone teaches guitar chords to chimpanzees, the visual ultimate has been reached in the Rolling Stones. With shoulder length hair and high heeled boots, they seemed more feminine than their fans. The Stones make the Beatles look like clean cut kids. You think it must be some kind of parody – but the little girls in front paid $5.50 a seat.” [Source: Milwaukee Journal November 12, 1964, p.14]
Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks about a letter. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)
What is the only letter that doesn’t appear on the periodic table of the elements?
Good morning.
Sunday will grow gradually sunnier, with a high of forty-five, and lighter winds than yesterday, at only 5 to 10 mph for today.
On this day in 1903, Mary Anderson receives a patent:
…the patent office awards U.S. Patent No. 743,801 to a Birmingham, Alabama woman named Mary Anderson for her “window cleaning device for electric cars and other vehicles to remove snow, ice or sleet from the window.” When she received her patent, Anderson tried to sell it to a Canadian manufacturing firm, but the company refused: The device had no practical value, it said, and so was not worth any money. Though mechanical windshield wipers were standard equipment in passenger cars by around 1913, Anderson never profited from the invention.
As the story goes, on a freezing, wet winter day around the turn of the century, Mary Anderson was riding a streetcar on a visit to New York City when she noticed that the driver could hardly see through his sleet-encrusted front windshield. Although the trolley’s front window was designed for bad-weather visibility—it was split into parts so that the driver could open it, moving the snow- or rain-covered section out of his line of vision—in fact the multi-pane windshield system worked very poorly. It exposed the driver’s uncovered face (not to mention all the passengers sitting in the front of the trolley) to the inclement weather, and did not improve his ability to see where he was going in any case.
Anderson began to sketch her wiper device right there on the streetcar. After a number of false starts, she came up with a prototype that worked: a set of wiper arms that were made of wood and rubber and attached to a lever near the steering wheel of the drivers’ side. When the driver pulled the lever, she dragged the spring-loaded arm across the window and back again, clearing away raindrops, snowflakes or other debris. When winter was over, Anderson’s wipers could be removed and stored until the next year. (This feature was presumably designed to appeal to people who lived in places where it did not rain in the summertime.)
People scoffed at Anderson’s invention, saying that the wipers’ movement would distract the driver and cause accidents. Her patent expired before she could entice anyone to use her idea.
Additional information about her patent is available online.
Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be partly sunny, and breezy, with a high of fifty-three. We’ll have west winds of ten to twenty mph, with gusts as reaching 30 mph.
What if, as a painter, one were to choose people, themselves, as both subjects and parts of one’s paintings? To be an artist like that would be to be someone like Alexa Meade:
On this day in 1989, the Berlin Wall opens:
East German officials today opened the Berlin Wall, allowing travel from East to West Berlin. The following day, celebrating Germans began to tear the wall down. One of the ugliest and most infamous symbols of the Cold War was soon reduced to rubble that was quickly snatched up by souvenir hunters.
The East German action followed a decision by Hungarian officials a few weeks earlier to open the border between Hungary and Austria. This effectively ended the purpose of the Berlin Wall, since East German citizens could now circumvent it by going through Hungary, into Austria, and thence into West Germany. The decision to open the wall was also a reflection of the immense political changes taking place in East Germany, where the old communist leadership was rapidly losing power and the populace was demanding free elections and movement toward a free market system….
On 11.9.1968, an earthquake in Wisconsin:
1968 – Earthquake Shakes Wisconsin
On this date one of the strongest earthquakes in the central United States occurred in south-central Illinois. Measured at a magnitude of 5.3, press reports from LaCrosse, Milwaukee, Port Washington, Portage, Prairie Du Chien, and Sheboygan indicated that the shock was felt in these cities. [Source: United States Geological Survey]
Disney’s announced a date for the next Star Wars film, the seventh in the series:
“Star Wars: Episode VII” has an official release date: Dec. 18, 2015.
“We’re very excited to share the official 2015 release date for ‘Star Wars: Episode VII,’ where it will not only anchor the popular holiday filmgoing season but also ensure our extraordinary filmmaking team has the time needed to deliver a sensational picture,” Alan Horn, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, said in a press release announcing the date. “Star Wars: Episode VII” was initially expected to arrive sometime during that previous summer. (All six previous “Star Wars” films were released during the month of May.)
In a separate press release from Disney regarding the move, it was also revealed that “Episode VII” will screen in 3D.
Should they keep making more? It’s hard to keep a series going. (I thought that the Lord of the Rings trilogy succeeded, but that the Matrix trilogy should have stopped after the first, good film.)
So what do you think about more Star Wars films? I’d like to see another good film (the first was very good, indeed) , but I’m doubtful. How about you?
Good morning.
Friday will be increasingly cloudy with a high of forty-six.
On this day in 1895, a profound discovery:
….physicist Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen (1845-1923) becomes the first person to observe X-rays, a significant scientific advancement that would ultimately benefit a variety of fields, most of all medicine, by making the invisible visible. Rontgen’s discovery occurred accidentally in his Wurzburg, Germany, lab, where he was testing whether cathode rays could pass through glass when he noticed a glow coming from a nearby chemically coated screen. He dubbed the rays that caused this glow X-rays because of their unknown nature.
On 11.8.1870, a first for America:
1870 – First National Weather Forecast Published
On this date Increase Lapham recorded the first published national weather forecast, calling for “high winds and falling temperatures for Chicago, Detroit and the Eastern cities.” [Source: History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers edited by Sarah Davis McBride]
Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks about a patent. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)
At Tuesday’s Common Council meeting, there was a brief presentation from two board members of Downtown Whitewater (DTWW), with others from that group also in attendance. In the life of a small town, success of merchants matters greatly. (I’m opposed to pitting local independent merchants against local chain stores, but I very much support local businesses generally.)
Years ago, when we first saw a Main Street program in Whitewater, there was considerable attention to the effort. The Great Recession later swept across all America, and despite it all, many of our local merchants survived where one might have feared they would succumb (difficult though that time was, and still is).
Now, with a national recovery slowly underway, and years since its founding, DTWW and her merchants look to the new year.
I’ll consider a few points from that presentation.
New Merchants. DTWW has new merchants moving in, and if there’s a single gain that a group could have, it’s the ability to attract and retain businesses.
Nothing kills the way emptiness kills. There’s a place for marketing, and a place for the look and feel that façade grants bring, but new merchants are the ultimate marketing, occupied storefronts the best façade.
DTWW’s ability to draw new merchants is an unalloyed gain.
Memorandum of Understanding. DTWW is under a clearer arrangement with the city, by the way, that makes accountability more easily reviewed.
Fundraising. Most of the money received for DTWW now comes from private sources or in-kind donations. That’s a key accomplishment: one may be rightly suspicious of many government-private partnerships, but by design and inclination this program moves toward greater self-reliance.
An Emerging, Entrepreneurial Business Culture. There’s a point in presentation where Dave Saalsaa, DTWW board president, mentions that DTWW is looking to encourage UW-Whitewater grads to stay and be part of an expanding business culture (such as along Whitewater Street).
He’s right to mention this possibility: there is a real possibility now of an emerging business culture for Whitewater, of independent restaurants and independent merchants. It has not come – and it will not come – from big grants, state or federal schemes, or big institutions’ heavy hands.
But we are starting to see it here, after many years of approaches that mostly made things worse, or at least no better.
After headlines, after exclamation points, after Big Ideas, there’s something better: the actual accomplishments of smaller, independent business people with good ideas.
Once a culture like this takes root, even in a few places, it can spread quickly and inspire others.
The efforts of an emerging group of small business people, striving mostly on their own, with a new, hip and more fashionable presentation to this town, may be an important development of the next few years.
Communications. How the group communicates among its leaders, members, and the community is something I’m sure they’ll sort out. If it goes well for them, they’ll advance their goals; if not, they’ll have difficulty meeting them. Communicating should, after all, be a simple routine, like respiration.
It’s only when one notices it that it’s a problem.
Whatever hard work it takes to get there, though, is something the group can and almost surely can accomplish.
Pig in the Park and the Jack Hanna Animal Show. Downtown Whitewater is planning two events, among others, for next year: Pig in the Park near Cravath Lake, and a return of Jack Hanna’s animal show (this time in collaboration with the university).
Events like this, if handled well, endear people to the city. They’re not a substitute for prosperity, but can advance an optimism that prosperity requires.
My youngest attended the Jack Hanna show when it was here, and very much enjoyed it.
DTWW is a small group, and these events are sure to be demanding to them. Whitewater can manage big, annual events very well (our Fourth of July celebration comes to mind), but it takes more effort and planning when the group is small.
One simple suggestion: each and every volunteer should carry a sheet with the behind-the-scenes work for the day, the public schedule of events, the mobile numbers of every other volunteer, and all volunteers’ designated responsibilities.
That way, whenever anyone asks about a given event or with a question, everyone volunteering will have access to information or a directory listing others of whom they can ask.
Full storefronts and a full calendar are both beneficial.
Façades. In the end, it seems to be that nothing matters more than occupancy, but I see that the ‘look and feel’ of a shop matters.
(About this topic, I’m thinking of Virginia Postrel’s excellent book, The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness. Postrel’s a libertarian and former editor at Reason who rightly sees that a free society and economy offer the best opportunities for creative, inspiring design. )
Style does matter, and so façades do matter. TID 4’s dried up; we’ll have to go on in any event. Fundraising from private sources to provide money for new façades certainly has its place.
2014. Lasting gains won’t come from big organizations or so-called big players: it’s been tried and it’s failed.
Whitewater will have to look toward gains from small entrepreneurs, often unheralded, yet truly meaningful to the town’s confidence and long-term prospects.
We have a good chance for a better year ahead.
