It’s bracing to enter Whitewater from Highway 12: the initial sights are non-descript, with little to distinguish Whitewater from a smaller town. We are a city of fourteen thousand, with a university campus, but our problems become apparent when entering the city from the west. Here’s what a traveler would find, as conditions are now:
• A small sign indicating the direction along Highway 12 to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. So small, it might be the sign of the same size and type as that of a nearby creek, or roadway. It’s a small matter, but it says something of neglect that some, but not other, roadways prominently identify UWW.
• A cluster of decaying yellow motel buildings, with a cracked parking lot. Nothing says decline like an abandoned or ramshackle commercial property. It’s irrefutable evidence that there is no marketable, higher-value use for the property. An idiosyncratic owner might refuse an offer here or there, but most commercial property owners will sell for the right price. Unwillingness to deal in the market indicates either ignorance, sentimental attachment, or a soft market and declining market where sellers are unsatisfied with current offers (and hope for an upturn, or are aware that a current sale will result in a loss).
• A faded advertisement for McDonald’s painted on the side of a silo.
• A few new homes on a lot. The homes are variously modest or large, but the surrounding area is undeveloped and undistinguished. It’s neither developed with sidewalks and other commonplace improvements, nor possessing a true natural beauty, as wooded surrounding might.
• A Taco Bell and a Movie Theater.
• Beyond lies a large medical office, a lot for U-Haul trucks, an auto dealership, Mound Park Acres, and the community-famous, but unsightly, Hawk Bowl.
The question for someone thinking about Whitewater’s economic health is what this all means. Is it an invitation to public works (larger signs, sidewalks, tree-plantings, parks), evidence of a need for more private residences, or a need for more businesses (service, retail, light industrial)?
Next: What does the scene driving into Whitewater from Highway 12 suggest?