Let’s assume that a city decides to give thousands (and that the state and federal government give tens of thousands more) in taxpayer funds to subsidize a multi-billion-dollar corporation’s bus line. It’s a strong drink of crony capitalism, of course, and someone might even say as much. (See, for example, A Local Flavor of Crony Capitalism.)
Still, it could be worse: a city official might describe that sudsidized, gift-to-one-big-corporation in a ridiculous way, as something it’s not.
It is worse, as one sees when one reads how Whitewater’s city manager described the new bus:
Innovation Express Commuter Bus Service Coming to Whitewater Beginning April 29th
The commuter bus service that will be coming to Whitewater from Janesville and Milton is scheduled to begin on Monday, April 29th. The new service, which has been christened “The Innovation Express” will primarily serve Generac Power System employees but will be available to the general public as well.
The Innovation Express will depart Janesville at 5:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., and 9:00 p.m. daily, Monday through Friday and will also operate on Sunday evening. The bus will drop off and pick up riders in Whitewater at four stops: 1) in front of the Municipal Center on Whitewater Street; 2) Whitewater Innovation Center; 3) on Enterprise Boulevard in front of Generac Power Systems; and 4) in front of the UW-Whitewater Visitor’s Center on Starin Road. Bus stop signs will be installed next week.
There you have it: the Innovation Express.
The Problem.
It’s unconvincing to call a bus tailored to generator-maker Generac Power Systems an Innovation Express because
1. the taxpayer-funded bus really serves not the Innovation Center, but an already-flush manufacturer outside the Innovation Center and Tech Park,
2. there are unemployed people in Whitewater who are either overlooked or in Generac’s estimation not good enough for their employ,
3. the name reminds people that, despite bureaucrats’ endless claims that Whitewater is the ‘center of opportunity’ – with skills worthy of a government-funded tech park — the city somehow has to bus workers in from other places, and
4. Whitewater’s own city manager insisted this bus was for Generac, in print, in interviews, and in an open council session.
It’s as though, if the Generac bus stopped at a tattoo parlor, it would be called the Ink Express, or if at a hotel the Holiday Inn Express.
It’s still the Generac bus.
Really, the bus doesn’t need a name at all — it would have been better to say nothing than call it something inapt and foolish.
Naming it doesn’t change what it is, but it does show how little the name’s originator must think of people, to assume that a name transforms a poor idea into a good one.