Whitewater Planning Commission – A High School Sign from John Adams on Vimeo. Anyone who thinks that small town politics is simple hasn’t watched small town politics. In the video above, the Whitewater Planning Commission took 28 minutes to approve conditions for the local high school to place an electronic sign on school property. (Whitewater…
City
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, January 9th, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park: Dunkirk
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
This Tuesday, January 9th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of Dunkirk @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building. Christopher Nolan directs the one hour, forty-six minute film. Dunkirk recounts ‘the dramatic and true evacuation of Allied soldiers from Belgium, England and France, who were cutoff and surrounded by the German Army,…
Bad Ideas, City, Culture, Local Government
Thanks, City of Jefferson!
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s something funny, and something sad, about the City of Jefferson’s decision to host for five more years a Harry Potter festival with the same mediocre promotional leadership the festival’s had while in Edgerton and (more recently) in Jefferson. See Attack of the Dirty Dogs (“If vast numbers are disappointed, it matters not at all…
City, Local Government, Open Government, Politics, School District
Candidates and Candidacies
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Small towns have reputations for being plain-speaking places, but the less so, in fact, than reputation suggests. One will hear much about who’s running, who’s in, who’s out, but not as much – if anything – about what candidates believe. Longtime readers know that I comment on politics, but know also that I’m opposed to…
America, City, Politics, Trump
Whitewater’s Outlook for 2018
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
City
Review: Whitewater’s Outlook for 2017
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
On January 4th, I posted Whitewater’s Outlook for 2017. Here’s a review of that post. Original from 1.4.17, with comments from 12.31.17 in blue italics, paragraph by paragraph — A year like 2016 – nationally – should leave a prudent person cautious about making predictions. I’ll not overlook the lesson from last year’s national scene,…
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, December 26th, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park: Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
This Tuesday, December 26th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building. James Gunn directs the two hour, sixteen minute film. The Guardians must fight to keep their newfound family together as they unravel the mystery of Peter Quill’s true…
City, Law, Laws/Regulations, Local Government, Open Government, Public Records, School District, University
Daylight (Part 3 in a Series)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
One finds oneself with a question, when there are gaps in a public record, when there are easily-avoidable deficiencies of open government: What will one do about it? A good method in this matter is deliberate, dispassionate, and diligent. A few thoughts: 1. Foundation. One looks at state and local provisions for public records and…
City, Law, Laws/Regulations, Local Government, Open Government, Public Records, School District, University
Midnight (Part 2 in a Series)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Open government is right both in itself and in consequence: a free society confers political power only for limited & enumerated purposes. Those who confer this power have a right of oversight and a sensible obligation to assure that power’s exercise remains limited & enumerated. The right derives both naturally and by positive law. In…
America, City, Culture, Local Government, Politics, Religion, School District, That Which Paved the Way, Trump, University
Rabbi Sharon Brous’s Advice for Small Towns (and Everywhere, Really)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Over at The Atlantic, there’s an interview with Rabbi Sharon Brous, the senior rabbi at IKAR, a non-denominational synagogue in California. See ‘I’ve Spent My Life Studying These Books That Say Decency Actually Matters.’ Rabbi Brous describes religious belief among progressives in contemporary America, and two of her observations are particularly suited even to Whitewater…
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, December 12th, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park: Almost Christmas
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
?? This Tuesday, December 12th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of Almost Christmas @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building. David E. Talbert directs the one hour, fifty-one minute film. During a family’s “first Christmas gathering since their mother passed away, Dad begs the family to suspend their differences…
Babbittry, City, Demographics, Economy, Poverty
Contrast
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Consider the contrast between how the Janesville Gazette‘s publisher want his city to be seen, and how an economics reporter describes the Janesville area: Janesville Gazette editorial, A question for Janesville to consider: [James] Fallows and his wife learned the differences between success and failure during a 54,000-mile journey across the United States in a single-engine…
City, Culture, Local Government, School District, University
Old Whitewater and Populism
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Most of the figures who represented an Old Whitewater outlook have faded from the scene. Their high water mark was several years ago; they’re receding now. Their like won’t be seen again. Their decline, however, comes in the immediate conditions of an impatient populism. That populism doesn’t represent a New Whitewater, but replaces Old Whitewater’s…
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, November 28th, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park: Wind River
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
This Tuesday, November 28th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of Wind River @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building. Taylor Sheridan directs the one hour, forty-seven minute film, in which a “veteran tracker with the Fish and Wildlife Service helps to investigate the murder of a young Native American…