The risk of reliance on a big outside vendor for a big project in a small town is easily described: The vendor will be everywhere initially, will purr contentedly during work, but disappear quickly after the final check clears. It will want the money, will say anything to get it, but without any respect for…
Business
Business, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Politics, University
Local Crony Capitalism via the WEDC (and similar schemes)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Whitewater’s had a decades-long problem of a few town insiders manipulating government and public resources for their own private ends. That time is drawing to a close, but there are yet some years ahead in which aging, mediocre town figures will push their self-promoting lies. As their chief motivation is personal vanity and pride, they’ll…
Business, Corporate Welfare, Free Markets, Good Ideas, Government Spending, Technology
A Tech Company That Seeks Private Support
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
What does a small tech company that seeks private support look like? Often, we’ll not know, because those private companies seek the support of private venture capital, in thousands of encounters and presentations across America each day. Sometimes, though, one sees more because a private tech startup looks to something like Kickstarter to win backing…
Business, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Local Government
Rand Paul on Chamber of Commerce Republicans
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Sen. Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, often moves (sometimes quixotically) between libertarian and conventionally conservative, Republican positions. Still, there’s unquestionably some libertarian in him, and in his libertarianism he shares a dynamic philosophy (if not party label) with a huge number of other Americans (about 22%, or just under one-in-four people). Here’s what Paul, speaking…
Business, Science/Nature, Technology
WATCH LIVE @ 9 pm CT: SpaceX Unveils 1st Manned Dragon Spacecraft
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Business, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government
What’s an Entrepreneur?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I would think, and perhaps you would think, too, that an entrepreneur is a man or woman who runs a private business, bearing the risks and demands of his or her enterprise. For this reason, Americans are sympathetic to entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial efforts – we admire the creativity and effort of business men and women…
Business, Film
“The Shawshank Residuals”
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
An enduring, deserved success: Bob Gunton is a character actor with 125 credits to his name, including several seasons of “24” and “Desperate Housewives” and a host of movie roles in films such as the Oscar-winning “Argo.” Vaguely familiar faces like his are common in the Los Angeles area where he lives, and nobody pays…
Business, Free Markets, Laws/Regulations, Local Government
Because, you know, it’s government’s job to manipulate results among private businesses
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The presumptions of a local government pol: This ordinance has been an attempt to require the food trucks to put some skin in the game,” [Fort Atkinson city councilmember] Lescohier said. “That skin is through a fee structure, through an appropriate place for them to operate and to control the noise. Right now if you…
Business, Technology
Public Goals Through Private Enterprise
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Business, Local Government, New Media, Press
Three Key Insights for Local News
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I grew up reading and loving newspapers. I didn’t aspire to write in that field; like so many others, I wanted to read what others carefully and insightfully wrote. Love doesn’t sustain an industry; sound perspectives and tenacity sustain an industry. The trends for newspapers are inauspicious. See, only the latest in a long string…
Business, City
November 30th: Small Business Saturday
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I’ve long been opposed to government’s role in picking winners between big and small businesses, but there’s no doubt that Whitewater’s local merchants – including many small, independent businesses – have much to offer. Why not make this Saturday (and other days, too) their days, choosing them for your destination?
Business, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending
The New Address
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
One reads a press release at Walworth County Today (http://walworthcountytoday.com/article/20131122/WC/131129921) about the relocation of an existing private business, iButtonLink, to the Innovation Center. Here’s where they were: Here’s where they’ll be: That’s a nice upgrade, to taxpayer-funded accommodations. It’s also a different definition of private accomplishment, I’d say.
Business, City, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Government Spending
The Bus: Bad for Whitewater Now, Far Worse for Whitewater Later
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
As I write – these last eighteen months now offering ample evidence – Janesville Transit’s bus to Whitewater has been a failure. It’s been used too seldom, at considerable public expense, mostly for a vast corporation that could easily pay its own way. And yet, and yet, conditions might be even worse were the bus…
Business, City, Free Markets, Good Ideas, Hip & Prosperous, Local Government, New Whitewater, Planning
The Planning Commission Meeting for 11.11.13
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Whitewater’s Planning Commission met last night, and among the topics was consideration of re-zoning and a conditional use permit for Casual Joe’s, a new restaurant, tavern, and distillery to operate at 319 W. James Street (at the site of a long-unused commercial building, the former Fort Auto Body). On 4-3 votes, a majority of…