This Tuesday, November 8th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of The Legend of Tarzan @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building. In The Legend of Tarzan, a 2016 film, “Tarzan, having acclimated to life in London, is called back to his former home in the jungle to investigate the…
City
City, Holiday
Boo! Scariest Things in Whitewater, 2016
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s the tenth annual FREE WHITEWATER list of the scariest things in Whitewater for 2016. The 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 editions are available for comparison. The list runs in reverse order, from mildly frightening to truly scary. 10. It’s Gremlins. Ordinarily, people assume that the success or failure of government policy rests…
America, City, Development, Economy, Free Markets
Small Towns in America Can Thrive
by JOHN ADAMS •
I posted recently about James Fallows’s Eleven Signs That a City Will Succeed. (See, from FW, James Fallows on ‘Eleven Signs a City Will Succeed’ (Part 1) and an assessment of those signs for Whitewater, James Fallows on ‘Eleven Signs a City Will Succeed’ (Part 2).) In the video below, James & Deborah Fallows talk…
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Young Frankenstein
by JOHN ADAMS •
This Tuesday, October 25th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of Young Frankenstein @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building. In Young Frankenstein, an “American grandson of the infamous scientist, struggling to prove that his grandfather is not as insane as people believe, is invited to Transylvania, where he discovers…
City
James Fallows on ‘Eleven Signs a City Will Succeed’ (Part 2)
by JOHN ADAMS •
I wrote yesterday about James Fallows‘s ‘Eleven Signs a City Will Succeed.’ Today’s post considers whether his list applies to Whitewater, and how Whitewater fares if items on the list – at least in part – apply to our small city. One word of caution applies to Fallows’s list: it was compiled after he visited cities larger than Whitewater.…
City
James Fallows on ‘Eleven Signs a City Will Succeed’ (Part 1)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at The Atlantic, and connected to that publication’s American Futures series, James Fallows writes about ‘Eleven Signs a City Will Succeed.’ Today, I’ll list Fallows’s eleven signs, and tomorrow, I’ll write about whether the list applies to Whitewater, and how Whitewater fares to the extent that the list is applicable. (The list is sure to…
City, Culture, Local Government, Politics
Twenty-Five Years On: School Board & City
by JOHN ADAMS •
Alternative title: Culture Advances While Beyond Politics Far Lags Behind. Over at the Banner, there’s a new feature entitled, “A mini-look at local history – a new Banner Monday project!” The 10.10.16 entry is about two public actions from twenty-five years ago. I’m all for history (local or otherwise), but the entry is telling coming from a…
City, Education, Politics, School District
At Whitewater’s Common Council Meeting, 10.4.16
by JOHN ADAMS •
There are a few moments from last night’s Common Council meeting that I’ll consider briefly today. Budget. It’s fall, and so for Whitewater’s local government that means a proposed budget rollout, and Council sessions principally occupied with that subject through November. On efficiency of government services, City Manager Clapper remarked that one can expect municipal…
City, University
Preliminaries on Private Parties in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
Last night Common Council discussed, but took no formal legal action on, a possible ordinance to regulate large private parties in Whitewater. I wrote a bit about this yesterday (see, Paradise is just one regulation away…). City employees, along with others, will consider options, but took no other, formal action last night. Some observations: Few Big Events. There…
City, Elections, Law
Absentee Voting in the Whitewater Area
by JOHN ADAMS •
One often hears that a given election is important, and that each person’s vote matters. That’s been true so many times in our history, and it seems particularly so this year. Absentee voting – by mail or in person – is a part of our law, and the window for in-person voting will open soon. Immediately below readers…
City, Regulations, University
Paradise is just one regulation away…
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater’s had a problem with occasional crowds, as at Spring Splash, and so now a few from the Old Guard are sure that yet another regulation on private property will bring a city of order, harmony, and smiling-faced residents. They’re confident it’s the answer, relying on the old adage that the twelve thousand, four hundred,…
City, Politics
Bike Lanes & Entitlement
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Government Spending, Local Government
Local Government’s Not a Profession of Faith
by JOHN ADAMS •
Local government, in its existence, is not a profession of faith, the way a credal religion is. It’s a limited delegation of popular sovereignty to produce definite, specific results. Words alone are insufficient. (Needless to say, that’s true of religious belief, too: the Church rightly expects that faith leads to care for the poor and…
City, Politics
The Web Has Changed Local Politics, Too
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at the Wall Street Journal, there’s a story about how e-commerce has changed rural life: MANGUM, Okla.—Vince Bledsoe, a United Parcel Service Inc. delivery man in this remote tiny town, remembers the exact moment he knew that e-commerce had changed the way rural America shops. He was taping up a package a few months…