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Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Boosterism, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Culture, Development, Economics, Economy, Local Government, Trump, WEDC

‘But Not in Conditions of Their Own Choosing’

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It’s a truism to say that all people make history, but not in conditions of their own choosing: Admittedly and sadly, the local boosterism of the pre-Trump years is now in retrospect worse than one might have initially believed: across America boosters who peddled false descriptions & junk solutions during the economic hardship of the…

CDA, City, Culture, Local Government

More Predictable Than an Atomic Clock

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If one read beforehand the agenda for last night’s common council meeting (1.21.20), one would have seen the applicants for various boards (particularly the Whitewater Community Development Authority). Seeing them, and knowing what the last ten years on the CDA have been like, one could have confidently predicted which candidate would be recommended for appointment.…

City, Culture, Ethics, Philosophy, Religion

Perspectives Narrow or Wide

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One of the hopes for small-town living is that, among the residents of such a place, one will commonly find plain speaking and humility. Perhaps there are places like this, but sadly small towns, by themselves, are not enough to overcome unworthy pride. On the contrary, within such places, sometimes a tiny faction – confusing…

Art, City, Culture, Local Government

Newnan, Georgia & Whitewater, Wisconsin

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One reads, in the New York Times, about How 17 outsize portraits rattled a small southern town (‘Not everyone was ready for what they saw’). After a white-nationalist rally in Newnan, Georgia, that town put up 17 large-scale banner portraits, images of the ordinary people who make up the town. They hang from the perches of…

Aside

Low unemployment isn’t worth much if the jobs barely pay: Martha Ross and Nicole Bateman highlight one of the failures of public subsidies for businesses in places like Whitewater — Low unemployment isn’t worth much if the jobs barely pay (article linked in today’s Daily Bread post). Subsidized job-creation in those circumstances is more political point than practical achievement.

City, Education, School District

On the Dissolution of the Palmyra-Eagle School District, Reason Carries the Day

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Earlier today, a School District Boundary Appeal Board (Wis. Stat. §15.375) voted by a margin of 6-1 against the dissolution of the Palmyra-Eagle School District. The possible dissolution of that school district loomed for many months. Dissolving that district would have led to a significant reallocation of students, faculty, resources, and obligations to Whitewater or…

CDA, City, Culture, Politics

Local Candidacies in Whitewater, 2020

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There are six public seats up for election in Whitewater this spring (three on the Whitewater Common Council and three on the Whitewater Unified School District’s board.) It seems there are six candidates for these six offices (five incumbents and one former officeholder). This is what one would expect of government in Whitewater over these…

America, City, Never Trump, Politics, Trump

One Year

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For all the discussion of politics over these last three years, America now comes to a critical year ahead. In these next twelve months, we’ll see primaries, conventions, a general election, and thereafter possible challenges to, and necessary defenses of, the constitutional order. When was there another year so important to America as 2020 looks…

City, Film

Film: Tuesday, December 31st, 1:00 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Yesterday

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?? This Tuesday, December 31st at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Yesterday @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building: (Comedy/Fantasy/Musical/Romance) Rated PG-13. 1 hour, 56 minutes. (2019) Following a massive power outage, a struggling musician wakes up in an alternate timeline, discovering he’s the only person on Earth who remembers…

City, Television

Tuesday, December 10th, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, A Holiday Program of Three Classic TV Shows

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This Tuesday, December 10th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of three classic television shows (during a program of two hours in length) @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building: “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” a Honeymooners version of “The Gift of the Magi,” originally telecast live in black-and-white on December…