Imagine that one sees a Rubik’s Cube for the first time, on a table nearby. Three sides of that six-sided object are visible, displaying small squares of red, blue, and white. Consider this initial puzzle: What colors are the other three sides? How would one determine, with confidence, the colors on those sides obscured from…
City
City, School District
Whitewater Chooses a New Administrator
by JOHN ADAMS •
This morning, the Whitewater Unified School District announced the selection of Dr. Mark Elworthy, currently administrator of the Wisconsin Heights School District, as Whitewater’s next district administrator. One wishes him truly the very best in our community. We have proud accomplishments, with some significant challenges ahead, but that work ahead is among the best work…
City, Culture, Sports, University
Two States of Mind in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s an easy way to see two different states of mind in Whitewater. Draft a list of eleven people for an athletic honor. Make nine of the honorees athletes or coaches, and two of them an administrator and his spouse. Now, watch and see which people receive the most prominent attention. Some will pick one…
City, Film
Film: Wednesday, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Son of Saul
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Culture, Economy, Politics, School District, University
The City Never Sleeps
by JOHN ADAMS •
In the broadest, figurative sense, Whitewater never sleeps. Like any other place, she’s constantly changing, either to her benefit or detriment, but changing nonetheless. (It’s only the parochial myth that she’s already achieved a level of perfection that obscures the obvious truth of constant flux.) Glance away, for one day or forty, and when one…
City, Elections, School District, Walworth County
Local Election Recap
by JOHN ADAMS •
Local elections affecting Whitewater went about as one might have expected. I’d guess there were, in the end, no surprises. There were three uncontested races for Common Council (Allen, Binnie, Langness), and two for the Whitewater Unified School District (Brunner, Stewart). That leaves two contested races in the immediate area: a Common Council race between…
Business, City, Environment, Hip & Prosperous, Lifestyle, Local Government
Places Trying to Cope
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Demographics
Data Around Whitewater’s Size
by JOHN ADAMS •
For today, some data around Whitewater’s size, and of Fort Atkinson’s size. The 2014 data are from the 2010-2014 American Community Survey, and the 2010 and 2000 data are from the decennial census counts in those years. (In all cases, these are the data for the cities themselves, omitting surrounding towns. Adding those towns would…
City, Economy
Parts and Wholes
by JOHN ADAMS •
If one were to look for Whitewater’s population, the U.S. Census Bureau’s report from 2010 would say it was 14,390, and that same bureau’s 2014 American Community Survey would say it was 15,040. Let’s call the total population 15,000, at least for a moment. Expressed this way, Whitewater seems like one place of a certain size.…
Business, City, Development
A Man, His Bad Monkey, and the Rest of Us
by JOHN ADAMS •
Embed from Getty Images A man walks through town with a small monkey on his shoulder. (A white-headed capuchin, Cebus capucinus, let’s say.) He walks with it about town, into meetings, focus groups, and visits with various officials of the local government. On many occasions, the monkey scratches, bites, or throws its feces at someone.…
Business, CDA, City, Development
About that Development Deal Near the Roundabout in Whitewater…
by JOHN ADAMS •
These last few months, I’ve watched the efforts of out-of-town developers to build a multi-use facility (by their account, a hotel, sports complex, and senior housing) near Whitewater’s east side roundabout. Two quick, easy points. First, this proposal was, in virtually every aspect, suspect and disreputable. Review of notes, recordings, and research into the developers’…
City, Culture, Misconduct, University
The Claims of Ongoing Incidents on Campus (Updates)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Update, Thursday afternoon, 2:30 PM. UW-Whitewater officials are now contending that a photo with students in blackface had a benign meaning. See, Image spurs concerns about race at UW-Whitewater @ Channel 3000. From that story: “Kopper later said the students said they just had a facial and took a picture. She said the students did not…
City, Culture, Local Government, Newspapers, School District, University
Whitewater’s Mentoring Gap
by JOHN ADAMS •
Looking back ten years (or nine in the case of UW-Whitewater), one finds at the helm of Whitewater’s public institutions leaders who so very much embodied Old Whitewater: Steinhaus, Brunner, Coan, Telfer (beginning in ’07). They were the perfect representatives of Old Whitewater, where Old Whitewater is an attitude, not an age: narrow, grandiose, mediocre, producing…
Blogging, City, Culture, New Media, Newspapers, Press, School District, University
Revisiting Kozloff’s ‘Dark, Futile Dream’
by JOHN ADAMS •
About a year ago, I wrote a post on an off-campus meeting at which local notables and a search consultant (Jessica Kozloff) discussed a replacement for Richard Telfer. A story on that meeting, published in the Daily Union, is one of the best accounts of insiders’ thinking. See, from that newspaper, UW-Whitewater chancellor session held, http://www.dailyunion.com/news/article_f042575e-a63a-11e4-bcd8-939679ffcc09.html.…