In 2010, the City of Whitewater considered an ordinance to publish video recordings of principal public meetings. The first reading of the proposal was in August, and a second reading led to its approval in September. One may find the ordinance at Whitewater, Wisconsin, Municipal Code, Chapter 2.62 (Whitewater Transparency Enhancement Ordinance). This ordinance did not…
City
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, March 13th, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
by JOHN ADAMS •
This Tuesday, March 13th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building. Martin McDonagh directs the one-hour, fifty-five minute film. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a crime drama about a mother who personally challenges the local authorities to solve her…
City, Local Government
3 Conditions of a Worthy Process
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Culture
The Seats in the House
by JOHN ADAMS •
At public meetings, people who are hard of hearing or weak of eyesight should receive preference to sit close to the meeting’s speakers. People who have difficulty walking should receive a preference to sit near an exit. Otherwise, in a well-ordered environment, leaders will sit in the back, allowing non-leader residents to sit closer to…
City, Demographics
As We Are
by JOHN ADAMS •
One begins – with optimism – from where one is. A community is much more than demographics, of course, but we are much less than we could be if we do not consider our circumstances using the best available measurements. Acting by and for a part, rather than the whole, is a common-yet-debilitating policy mistake.…
CDA, City, Development, Local Government, Marketing, Planning
Hey, CDA: What About the Existing Marketing Plan?
by JOHN ADAMS •
At tonight’s Community Development Authority meeting, agenda item number 14 surprisingly calls for “Discussion and Possible Action on Community Collaborative Marketing.” Perhaps this means a change to Whitewater’s existing community collaborative marketing plan. Our city leaders have been clear, for many years, about how to market the community. Indeed, other parts of the municipal government…
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, February 27th, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, The Florida Project
by JOHN ADAMS •
This Tuesday, February 27th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of The Florida Project @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building. Sean Baker directs the one-hour, fifty-one minute film. The Florida Project is a drama “set over one summer, [as] the film follows precocious six-year-old Moonee as she courts mischief and…
City, Culture, Local Government, Politics
Wisconsin Supreme Court Primary, Whitewater Results
by JOHN ADAMS •
Wisconsin’s spring primary in Whitewater saw three candidates vie for two spots on the April ballot for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Statewide in preliminary numbers, conservative Michael Screnock had a plurality, followed by liberals Rebecca Dallet and Tim Burns. (It’s Screnock v. Dallet in April.) Look, however, at how different the statewide, Jefferson County & Walworth…
City, Local Government, Police
A Job in a College Town
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater’s looking for a new police chief, and our small city has two candidates from which to choose. There’s a time to consider all this in greater detail; for today, two simple observations are enough. 1. Competency, Not Ideology, Has Always Been Key. Whitewater’s policing challenges have not been between left and right, or between…
City, Local Government, Politics, School District
The Limits of Community Surveys
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s expensive to survey opinion, scientifically, using standard statistical principles. Whitewater, like many small places, understandably relies on community surveys (for the city proper, for her school district). Surveys of this kind are an approximation of overall sentiment. One wouldn’t expect an end to these surveys, but they have obvious, significant limitations. (This is true of…
City, Conflicts of Interest, Local Government, Press, That Which Paved the Way
Before Devin Nunes, in Whitewater & Small Towns Across America…
by JOHN ADAMS •
One reads that GOP Congressman Devin Nunes of California has launched his own news site: LOS ANGELES — House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a relentless critic of the media, has found a way around the often unflattering coverage of his role in the Trump-Russia investigation — by operating his own partisan news outlet. Resembling…
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, February 13th, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, The Big Sick
by JOHN ADAMS •
This Tuesday, February 13th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of The Big Sick @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building. Michael Showalter directs the two-hour film. The Big Sick recounts how “Pakistani-born stand-up comedian Kumail Nanjiani and grad student Emily Gardner fall in love but struggle as their cultures clash.…
City, Culture, Demographics, Development, Economy, Free Markets, Good Ideas, Local Government, Planning, Politics, Poverty
Dane, Not the WOW Counties
by JOHN ADAMS •
For many years, Republicans have railed against Madison, and against Dane County, as bastions of dysfunctional liberalism. Indeed, this impulse has been strong even after the GOP gained control of both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s office. Funny, though, that it’s Dane County – not the WOW counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee, or Washington – that’s…
City, Development, Economy, Laws/Regulations, Local Government, Planning
What a Print Advertiser Means (and Doesn’t Mean)
by JOHN ADAMS •
So, if one lives in Whitewater, he or she may find a shopper-advertiser in the mailbox, with ads from (mostly) out-of-city advertisers. Even if one omits the publisher’s own ads, and public service announcements, the ratio of out-of-city to Whitewater ads is something like 3 to 1. Indeed, the largest ad, on the front page,…