Our signs say that Whitewater, the city proper, has a population of around fifteen thousand. We do.
What they don’t say, and what we know but don’t always mention, is that a significant portion of that population is attending the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
So much, when looking at data from the ACS Demographic and Housing Estimates (2013 Table), that the adult population in college is unquestionably the largest cohort by daily activity among all adults in the city. Not every young person in the city attends university, but so great is the group of young men & women that those attending college is the largest vocational group in the city.
(The city’s median age is 21.9 in the same table. In nearby Fort Atkinson, it’s 37.9.)
Those many students are vital to the city’s economic life. There’s not the slightest chance Whitewater would have the same economic prospects without them.
But if college students are the largest vocational group in the city, their presence means that news, marketing, etc., directed to non-student residents reaches a much smaller part of the city than some wish to admit.
In this city of thousands, many of whom are at school, how far does the influence of our local notables really reach?
I have a guess that readership of local papers is poor, considering the health of newspapers, generally. The only way to be certain would be for the local press to release independent, audited circulation figures that had numbers for Whitewater, specifically. Even then, one would like to know about the age of those readers.
Print publishers aren’t rushing to discuss those numbers. One doesn’t have to guess long to conclude correctly why they’re not rushing.
Looking at election results, attendance at public meetings, and the probable circulation of press accounts that herald officials’ accomplishments, the reach of Whitewater’s local notables isn’t very wide.
Some officials are popular, but others not so much as the pages of the Daily Union would suggest.
By contrast, there are lots of people in Whitewater interested in city life, including its politics, who are in no way insiders. They are among the most vibrant residents in the community. Their numbers dwarf the number of town fathers.
In a city disproportionately young, and with a higher Hispanic population than our census figures state, most meetings skew older and whiter than the city’s averages.
(There’s nothing wrong with being white; I’ve been white my whole life. There’s nothing wrong with being older; I’ve been older than the city’s median age for quite a while. Then again, this blog is the work of just one person, not a city committee or representative sample.)
Almost no ordinary residents attend local WEDC meetings, CDA meetings, etc. The only way the Community Development Authority could get an ordinary crowd to the Innovation Center would be to change the city’s street signs so that people passing through town would accidentally land at the Tech Park.
Reaching all Whitewater is a bigger job than reaching what a few wish to describe as Whitewater.
As Whitewater is changing, those unwilling to see that what worked won’t keep working will find themselves surprised and frustrated.
Tuesday in the Whippet City will be sunny with a high of sixty-five. Sunrise is 6:13 and sunset 7:36, for 13h 22m 42s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 24.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Parks & Recreation Board meets today at 5:30 PM.
It’s the 155th anniversary of the Pony Express, and Google has a doodle to commemorate that mail service. More than that, they have a video describing the Express and making and animated graphic about it —
On this date the Milwaukee Braves made their official debut in Milwaukee, at the newly constructed County Stadium. They defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2, in 10 innings. Bill Bruton hit the game-winning home run. [Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online]
Here’s the Tuesday game in Puzzability‘s Capital Gains series:
This Week’s Game — April 13-17
Capital Gains
We’ve got filers all over the globe this week. For each day, we’ve taken the name of a world capital, added a letter, and scrambled all the letters to get a new word that is a type of person or people. The answer phrase, described by each day’s clue, is the capital followed by the longer word. The clue includes the lengths of the answer words in parentheses.
Example:
Simpletons from Scandinavia (4,5)
Answer:
Oslo fools
What to Submit:
Submit the phrase, with the capital first (as “Oslo fools” in the example), for your answer.
Tuesday, April 14
Pigment-deficient people from western Europe (6,7)
Here in our small town, Whitewater’s city manager, wastewater superintendent, and the business interests behind them would like a waste digester into which they would import waste from other cities. They contend that this would be a green, commercial success for Whitewater.
In fact, they boast that other cities would somehow envy our city’s position as a repository for their municipal waste.
(This is one reason that Whitewater City Manager Cameron Clapper’s recent effort to describe the two-million-dollar digester project – part of a twenty-million dollar wastewater upgrade – as merely an increase in efficiency is easily refuted. By his wastewater superintendent’s own, excited account, this project fundamentally transforms Whitewater into a waste-importer. To claim otherwise is inaccurate, to put the matter charitably.)
After this importation, they insist that we’ll have clean energy. In City Manager Cameron Clapper’s words, trucking others’ filth in and out Whitewater would be “probably the greenest process we have in the city.”
That’s unlikely.
I’ve followed the progress of this project, read the available (but tellingly incomplete) information the city and vendors have put forward, and watched as local big-business insiders have none-too-subtly pushed for the project.
There’s a great deal here to consider: the fiscal, economic, environmental & health aspects of the plan, and the signs of local cronyism behind the project.
There are myriad questions that this city government hasn’t answered, presentations for over a year notwithstanding, and more than a few claims that are dubious to the point of absurdity. There’s been almost no serious public scrutiny of the project, least of all from Whitewater’s city manager or wastewater superintendent.
(All of the presenters on behalf of this project, both from the city and vendors, have shown a strong confidence that they can get what they want. That may be true, of course. The harder task, however, is to get what one wants, when it’s good to want it, while avoiding what no one wants.)
Having read what’s available, I’d say there’s a strong chance that the project will be useful as an example for communities beyond our own. It’s not simply a local matter. Friendly people inside and outside the city have convinced me that there’s use in a longer written work, and a documentary account of this project.
This wouldn’t have occurred to me, but their suggestions have proved persuasive.
Beginning on these pages, but ending elsewhere, I will publish the results of an examination into this project, under the title, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN.
Here’s a general plan:
1. I will publish here each Monday (and other days if necessary). Each post in this series will have a category tag and a small logo for easy identification.
2. I will publish my notes, questions, memoranda, etc., openly on these pages. Those advocating this project have withheld much (as I will demonstrate); I will, by contrast, publish openly.
This is not because I consider my work better than others’; it’s not. It’s because I am confident that relying on a open method of inquiry is a better method, as markets are better at allocation than command economies, or as open government is better than a closed regime.
The advantage lies not in the man, but in the method.
3. In our small town, a project like some of these wastewater improvements, along with subsequent, needed changes to our water system, will cost tens of millions, and require years.
Critically, unlike erecting a single building and advancing numbers of jobs supposedly gained, this project’s effects on the community will only grow over time. Long tail consequences may be present here in a way they haven’t been for other projects, even expensive ones.
4. I cannot say how long this series will last, but I’d roughly estimate at least a year, with time after that to complete a written account and accompanying documentary. (I’ll rely on others’ guidance in that regard; I’ve never undertaken a project like this.)
5. Candidly, I didn’t expect to undertake a project like this, about a small city’s program to import waste for supposed commercial gain. This is the city administration’s idea; it would never have occurred to me even two years ago that anyone in Whitewater would push for this project.
6. The city administration wants a completed local project, but those goals are more narrow than my inquiry. They want to be done, presumably, and have their project to show the city.
I’d rather take whatever time is necessary, and consider several aspects of this project, and show my results to the city and others beyond. My approach is especially suited to a project like this, because its consequences will build over time.
In this effort, I’ll make three promises:
First, I will write and speak openly about the whole review: my questions, the results of my inquiries, what leaves me uncertain, and thoughts on where the inquiry will lead. While proponents likely want to sell a plan, showing some parts and concealing others, I’ll advance my ideas and views openly through the whole of this.
I am convinced that an open presentation of ideas will prove superior to marketing, selling, plotting, and positioning, etc.
Some posts in the series will skip from topic to topic, but this project will progress with an underlying method.
Third, I’ll do my best to use varied media and means to support an inquiry: posts, video clips, short-form video documentaries, audio clips, an ongoing journal of the inquiry, with formal requests and actions, all as needed. These several means won’t begin at the same time, but will come along as I move through an inquiry.
Some of these are new for me; others are familiar. I’ll post here, but use other media (beyond FREE WHITEWATER’s sister blogs) to convey a common message to different audiences.
I’ll unite all of these media about the topic under a common logo, so that they will be easy to identify.
Much has been withheld from public review, but a fair amount about this importation plan has been slowly published online. By the city’s account, that information should be enough to form a judgment. (City government cannot simultaneously contend that they’ve been adequately transparent and yet haven’t offered enough for others’ critical inquiry.)
This project is notable because it’s not simply about processing local waste, but about much more: importation of waste from other places, into this small place, and how a few may profit from that importation at the expense of many others.
WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN: Mondays @ 10 AM, here on FREE WHITEWATER.
Next Monday: Preliminary Questions about the Digester Proposal.
Monday brings a rainy morning, with gradual clearing and a high of sixty-four. Sunrise is 6:15 and sunset 7:35, for 13h 19m 55s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 35.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
At 3:30 PM, a city committee meets to consider Bicycle and Pedestrian System Way Finding. Later, at 6:30 PM, Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets.
The third of ten children, Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 (April 2, 1743 OS) at the family home, in a one and a half story farmhouse in Shadwell, not far from Richmond and the Virginia wilderness. According to his autobiography, Jefferson’s earliest memory was being handed to a slave on horseback and carried 50 miles away to their new home which overlooked the Rivanna River, Goochland County, Virginia, now part of Albemarle County. Much of his correspondence to relatives makes mention of this memory. His father was Peter Jefferson, a planter and surveyor who died when Jefferson was fourteen, never getting the chance to measure up to him as an adult. Jefferson’s facial appearance resembled that of his father, but his slim physical form resembled that of his mother’s family.[2] He was of English and possible Welsh descent, although this remains unclear.[3] His mother was Jane Randolph, daughter of Isham Randolph, a ship’s captain and sometime planter. Peter and Jane married in 1739.[4] Thomas Jefferson showed little interest in learning about his ancestry; on his father’s side he only knew of the existence of his grandfather.[2][3][5][b]
Before the widower William Randolph, an old friend of Peter Jefferson, died in 1745, he appointed Peter as guardian to manage his Tuckahoe Plantation and care for his four children. That year the Jeffersons relocated to Tuckahoe, where they lived for the next seven years before returning to Shadwell in 1752. Peter Jefferson died in 1757 and the Jefferson estate was divided between Peter’s two sons, Thomas and Randolph.[6] Thomas inherited approximately 5,000 acres (2,000 ha; 7.8 sq mi) of land, including Monticello, and between 20 and 40 slaves. He took control of the property after he came of age at 21. The precise amount of land and number of slaves that Jefferson inherited is estimated.[7]
Puzzability has a new, geography-themed series this week:
This Week’s Game — April 13-17
Capital Gains
We’ve got filers all over the globe this week. For each day, we’ve taken the name of a world capital, added a letter, and scrambled all the letters to get a new word that is a type of person or people. The answer phrase, described by each day’s clue, is the capital followed by the longer word. The clue includes the lengths of the answer words in parentheses.
Example:
Simpletons from Scandinavia (4,5)
Answer:
Oslo fools
What to Submit:
Submit the phrase, with the capital first (as “Oslo fools” in the example), for your answer.
Sunday brings a high of sixty-seven, and a one-fifth chance of afternoon showers. Sunrise is 6:16 and sunset 7:34, for 13h 17m 07s. The moon is a waning crescent with 46.1% of its visible disk illuminated.
On Friday, April 12, 1861, at 4:30 a.m., Confederate batteries opened fire, firing for 34 straight hours, on the fort. Edmund Ruffin, noted Virginian agronomist and secessionist, claimed that he fired the first shot on Fort Sumter. His story has been widely believed, but Lieutenant Henry S. Farley, commanding a battery of two 10 inch siege mortars on James Island fired the first shot at 4:30 A.M. (Detzer 2001, pp. 269–71). No attempt was made to return the fire for more than two hours. The fort’s supply of ammunition was not suited for the task; also, there were no fuses for their explosive shells, which means that they could not explode. Only solid iron balls could be used against the Rebel batteries. At about 7:00 A.M., Captain Abner Doubleday, the fort’s second in command, was given the honor of firing the Union’s first shot, in defense of the fort. He missed, in part because Major Anderson did not use the guns mounted on the highest tier, the barbette tier (where the guns could engage the confederate batteries better), where the gunners would be more exposed to Confederate fire. The firing continued all day. The Union fired slowly to conserve ammunition. At night the fire from the fort stopped, but the Confederates still lobbed an occasional shell into Sumter. On Saturday, April 13, the fort was surrendered and evacuated. During the attack, the Union colors fell. Lt. Norman J. Hall risked life and limb to put them back up, burning off his eyebrows permanently. A Confederate soldier bled to death having been wounded by a misfiring cannon. One Union soldier died and another was mortally wounded during the 47th shot of a 100 shot salute, allowed by the Confederacy. Afterwards the salute was shortened to 50 shots. Accounts, such as in the famous diary of Mary Chesnut, describe Charleston residents along what is now known as The Battery, sitting on balconies and drinking salutes to the start of the hostilities.
The Fort Sumter Flag became a popular patriotic symbol after Major Anderson returned North with it. The flag is still displayed in the fort’s museum. A supply ship Star of the West took all the garrison members to New York City. There they were welcomed and honored with a parade on Broadway.
Saturday in town will be sunny with a high of sixty-two. Sunrise is 6:18 and sunset is 7:32, for 13h 14m 18s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 57.2% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1814, Napoleon is exiled to Elba, although he returns to make more trouble shortly thereafter:
In 1812, thinking that Russia was plotting an alliance with England, Napoleon launched an invasion against the Russians that eventually ended with his troops retreating from Moscow and much of Europe uniting against him. In 1814, Napoleon’s broken forces gave up and Napoleon offered to step down in favor of his son. When this offer was rejected, he abdicated and was sent to Elba.
In March 1815, he escaped his island exile and returned to Paris, where he regained supporters and reclaimed his emperor title, Napoleon I, in a period known as the Hundred Days. However, in June 1815, he was defeated at the bloody Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon’s defeat ultimately signaled the end of France’s domination of Europe. He abdicated for a second time and was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena, in the southern Atlantic Ocean, where he lived out the rest of his days. He died at age 52 on May 5, 1821, possibly from stomach cancer, although some theories contend he was poisoned.
[f]ire-breathing, building-stomping Godzilla was welcomed to Tokyo on Thursday, but as a sign of prosperity rather than destruction. The violent radioactive monster was appointed special resident and tourism ambassador for Shinjuku ward, known for its bars and noodle restaurants.
A Godzilla-size head towering 52 metres (171ft) above ground level was unveiled at an office of Toho, the Japanese film company which produced the original monster, in 1954. Toho is shooting a comeback film this year after a decade-long hiatus.
Godzilla’s standing as an icon has had its ups and downs, but its stature was reinstated with the Hollywood science fiction film directed by Gareth Edwards that became a global hit in 2014.
The biggest star in Japan’s movie history is now predicted to lure tourists; a market-opening strategy will be launched by the prime minister, Shinz? Abe.
At an awards ceremony, where the giant Godzilla head was present, an actor in a rubber suit waddled over to the Shinjuku mayor, Kenichi Yoshizumi. But a Toho executive had to accept the residency certificate for ambassador Godzilla – since the suit’s claws were not designed to grab anything.
The belief is that any place Godzilla ruined in films would be sure to prosper in real life, Yoshizumi said. “Godzilla is a character that is the pride of Japan.”
We’ll have an even chance of afternoon showers, on an otherwise cloudy day. Sunrise is 6:20 and sunset 7:31, for 13h 11m 29s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 68.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
On April 10, 1866, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is founded in New York City by philanthropist and diplomat Henry Bergh, 54.
In 1863, Bergh had been appointed by President Abraham Lincoln to a diplomatic post at the Russian court of Czar Alexander II. It was there that he was horrified to witness work horses beaten by their peasant drivers. En route back to America, a June 1865 visit to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in London awakened his determination to secure a charter not only to incorporate the ASPCA but to exercise the power to arrest and prosecute violators of the law.
Back in New York, Bergh pleaded on behalf of “these mute servants of mankind” at a February 8, 1866, meeting at Clinton Hall. He argued that protecting animals was an issue that crossed party lines and class boundaries. “This is a matter purely of conscience; it has no perplexing side issues,” he said. “It is a moral question in all its aspects.” The speech prompted a number of dignitaries to sign his “Declaration of the Rights of Animals.”
Bergh’s impassioned accounts of the horrors inflicted on animals convinced the New York State legislature to pass the charter incorporating the ASPCA on April 10, 1866. Nine days later, the first effective anti-cruelty law in the United States was passed, allowing the ASPCA to investigate complaints of animal cruelty and to make arrests.
Bergh was a hands-on reformer, becoming a familiar sight on the streets and in the courtrooms of New York. He regularly inspected slaughter houses, worked with police to close down dog- and rat-fighting pits and lectured in schools and to adult societies. In 1867, the ASPCA established and operated the nation’s first ambulance for horses.
As the pioneer and innovator of the humane movement, the ASPCA quickly became the model for more than 25 other humane organizations in the United States and Canada. And by the time Bergh died in 1888, 37 of the 38 states in the Union had passed anti-cruelty laws.
Bergh’s dramatic street rescues of mistreated horses and livestock served as a model for those trying to protect abused children. After Mary Ellen McCormack, 9, was found tied to a bed and brutally beaten by her foster parents in 1874, activists founded the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Bergh served as one of the group’s first vice presidents.
Here’s the final game in Puzzability‘s Cross Talk series:
This Week’s Game — April 6-10
Cross Talk
We expect to have a series of guessed hosts this week at the Daily Post. For each day, we’ll give a three-by-three letter grid in which we’ve hidden the name of a TV talk show host with 10 or more letters. To find the name, start at any letter and move from letter to letter by traveling to any adjacent letter—across, up and down, or diagonally. You may come back to a letter you’ve used previously, but may not stay in the same spot twice in a row. You will not always need all nine letters in the grid.
Example:
Answer:
Jimmy Kimmel
What to Submit:
Submit the host’s name (as “Jimmy Kimmel” in the example) for your answer.
Thursday will be a day of thunderstorms in town, with a high of sixty-eight. Sunrise is 6:21 and sunset 7:30, for 13h 08m 39s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 76.8% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Alcohol & Licensing Committee meets at 6 PM, and her Common Council at 6:30 PM.
War Department, Washington, April 9, 1865- 9 o’clock P.M.
This department has received the official report of the SURRENDER, THIS DAY, OF GEN. LEE AND HIS ARMY TO LIEUT. GRANT, on the terms proposed by Gen. Grant.
Details will be given as speedily as possible.
Edwin M. Stanton,
Secretary of War.
Headquarters Armies of the United States, 4:30 P.M., April 9.
Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War:
GEN. LEE SURRENDERED THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA THIS AFTERNOON, upon the terms proposed by myself. The accompanying additional correspondence will show the conditions fully.
(signed)
U.S. Grant, Lieut. Gen’l.
Sunday April 9, 1865,
General- I received your note of this morning, on the picket line, whither I had come to meet you and ascertain definitely what terms were embraced in your preposition of yesterday with reference to the surrender of this army.
I now request an interview in accordance with the offer contained in your letter of yesterday for that purpose.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
R. E. Lee, General.
To Lieut.-Gen. Grant, Commanding United States Armies.
Sunday, April 9, 1865
Gen. R. E. Lee, Commanding Confederate States Armies.
Your note of this date is set this moment, 11:50 A.M., received.
In consequence of my having passed from the Richmond and Lynchburgh road to the Farmville and Lynchburgh road, I am at this writing about four miles West of Walter’s church, and will push forward to the front for the purpose of meeting you.
Notice sent to me, on this road, where you wish the interview to take place, will meet me.
Very respectfully, your ob’d’t servant,
U.S. Grant,
Lieutenant-General
Court House, April 9, 1865.
General R. E. Lee, Commanding C. S. A.:
In accordance with the substance of my letters to you of the 8th inst., I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on the following terms, to wit:
Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate, one copy to be given to an officer designated by me, the other to be retained by such officers as you may designate.
The officers to give their individual paroles not to take arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged, and each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their commands.
The arms, artillery and public property to be packed an stacked and turned over to the officers appointed by me to receive them.
This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage.
This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their parole and the laws in force where they reside.
Very respectfully,
U.S. Grant, Lieutenant-General.
Headquarters Army of Northern Virginia,
April 9, 1865
Lieut. Gen. U.S. Grant, Commanding U.S.A.:
General: I have received your letter of this date, containing the terms of surrender of the army of northern Virginia, as proposed by you; As they are substantially the same as those expressed in your letter of the 8th inst., they are accepted. I will proceed to designate the proper officers to carry stipulations late effect.
Very Respectfully, Your Obedient Servant, R. E. Lee, General.
Union forces led by General Ulysses S. Grant caught up with Confederate forces commanded by General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. The 5th, 6th, 7th, 19th, 36th, 37th and 38th Wisconsin Infantry regiments were among the troops that had helped corner the enemy there. The 36th were present at the court house and witnessed the formal surrender ceremony.
Puzzability‘s Cross Talk series continues with Thursday’s game:
This Week’s Game — April 6-10
Cross Talk
We expect to have a series of guessed hosts this week at the Daily Post. For each day, we’ll give a three-by-three letter grid in which we’ve hidden the name of a TV talk show host with 10 or more letters. To find the name, start at any letter and move from letter to letter by traveling to any adjacent letter—across, up and down, or diagonally. You may come back to a letter you’ve used previously, but may not stay in the same spot twice in a row. You will not always need all nine letters in the grid.
Example:
Answer:
Jimmy Kimmel
What to Submit:
Submit the host’s name (as “Jimmy Kimmel” in the example) for your answer.
