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City, Film

Film: Tuesday, June 8th, 1 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Nomadland

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This Tuesday, June 8th at 1 PM, there will be a showing of Nomadland @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building: Drama Rated R (Nudity, profanity) 1 hour, 47 minutes (2021) A woman in her sixties, losing everything financially, embarks on a journey through the West, living as a van-dwelling, modern-day nomad. Oscar winner: Best…

City, Local Government

Whitewater Common Council Meeting, 6.1.21: 6 Points

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The Whitewater Common Council met last night, Tuesday, 6.1.21. Updated 6.3.21 with meeting video. The agenda for the meeting is available electronically. The council reviewed and approved, among other items, a draft audit of the city government’s finances, a settlement with a local bar that will permit the bar to continue operating, a contract with Bird…

City, Local Government

Whitewater Common Council Meeting, 4.20.21: 7 Points

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?? The Whitewater Common Council met on Tuesday, 4.20.21. The recording of the meeting is embedded above. The amended agenda for the meeting is available. A few remarks on selected items of the agenda —  1. Council Officers. Council re-elected unanimously Lynn Binnie as council president and Jim Allen as president pro tempore. (Video, 04:00.) 2.…

City, Culture, Education, Local Government, Politics, School District, University, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021

Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: The Limits of Local Politics

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This is the final post in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. Earlier posts at FREE WHITEWATER have addressed the limits of local politics in the community: local public (or powerful private) institutions have a limited power of action (with harmful actions likely to be more immediate than helpful ones). It’s certain that a…

City, Coronavirus, Culture, Education, Politics, School District, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021

Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: Majoritarianism

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This is the tenth in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. The contested April school board election has now come to a close. An animating concern of many parents was that the Whitewater public school should not have suspended face-to-face instruction for as long as it did, and that, in doing so, the…

Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Blogging, Boosterism, City, Confidence Schemes, Coronavirus, Culture, Local Government, Mendacity, Politics, School District, Special Interests, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021

Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: Marketing

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This is the ninth in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. Through all the difficult events of the last two decades (a Great Recession, an opioid epidemic, economic stagnation, creeping nativism, a pandemic, a pandemic recession), Old Whitewater has responded with the same question: how can we market the town to others? If…

Blogging, City, Coronavirus, Local Government, Politics, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021

Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021 — COVID-19: Skepticism and Rhetoric

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This is the eighth in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. Why would a local politician publish statistics on a pandemic? Why would he write now and again with reports of the reach of the pandemic into his city? He’d write this way out of concern for his community. If that’s not plain,…

City, Culture, Democrats, Local Government, Politics, School District, University, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021

Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: The Subcultural City

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This is the sixth in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. There’s no politically predominant group in Whitewater. Strictly speaking, a subculture implies a dominant culture, but it’s less dramatic to describe Whitewater as several subcultures than as balkanized. One might call the city multicultural, but that term often implies an acceptance of…

City, Local Government, Politics, School District, University, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021

Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: The Campus

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This is the fifth in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. Whitewater, Wisconsin is a small town where about half the residents are university students. Town-Gown conflicts here aren’t the most in all North America, but they’re not the least, either. The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is beset with challenges apart from politics: long-term structural…

City, Local Government, Politics, School District, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021

Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: The City’s Few Progressives

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This is the fourth in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. The largest political gathering in Whitewater in 2020 was a rally for racial justice in Whitewater following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. Hundreds attended. It was not, however, an allowedly progressive event – the small local group Whitewater Unites Lives invited…