At last night’s Council session, City Manager Clapper mentioned two upcoming budget topics of particular interest: funding for Downtown Whitewater and for the Janesville Transit Bus. The two items could not be more different: expenditures for Downtown Whitewater support local merchants, while the Janesville Bus supports a bumbling, dissembling Janesville bureaucrat’s ambition for his town…
City
City, Local Government
Bad Policy’s Like Low-Level Radiation Exposure
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s seldom true that a single misstep ruins an official. With the exception of criminal conduct, most mistakes are ones from which a politician or bureaucrat can recover. And yet, and yet, some mistakes take their toll. They do so, however, with a cumulative effect – one after another debilitates as does cumulative radiation exposure. …
City, Local Government, Planning
Ordinances & Department Regulations @ Public Meetings
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater’s last Planning Commission meeting was a week ago, Monday (10.13.14). I’ve two suggestions: First, it would be a good idea to keep a copy of Whitewater’s ordinances and regulations available at the meeting. It may be that a city employee cannot recall a certain requirement or provision of our local law. That’s not surprising;…
City, Economy, Government Spending
The Proposed 2015 City of Whitewater Budget
by JOHN ADAMS •
The challenge of government is not fundamentally its cost, but its complexity, intractability, and most concerning of all its use of authority not as representative of residents but as self-interested action contrary to representation. A small rural town of fifteen-thousand, and it’s 289 pages just to list the town’s annual budget. There’s an anecdote about…
City, Local Government
Four Public Topics for the Fall
by JOHN ADAMS •
There are (at least) four predictable public policy topics in the Whitewater area between now and winter’s beginning on December 21st. The City of Whitewater’s Proposed 2015 Budget. It’s budget season in Whitewater. The city’s proposed budget is now under consideration, at weekly meetings to stretch into November. The Schools Referendum. Outside and inside the…
City, University
The Campus-City Gap
by JOHN ADAMS •
All these years, so much talk about closer ties, and there’s still a chasm between city and university. So much so, that for many residents in the city to learn about university-related crime, they’d have to look for an out-of-city station or publication. See, from Saturday @ 2:58 PM, Student reportedly called name, kicked, punched:…
City, Marketing
Forget Selling
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater can do much better than this. There’s a useful place for sales and marketing in commerce, but they’ve been applied mistakenly and ineffectually to Whitewater’s politics. It’s been years and years of selling the town, with every tired expression about being a destination community, exceptional place to live, work, and play, etc. Those who…
Beautiful Whitewater, City, Development, Government Spending, Hip & Prosperous, Local Government
Whitewater’s Independent Merchants: Supporting Small Bricks Over Bytes
by JOHN ADAMS •
A quick summary of my views on business would be to say that (1) private markets are typically superior to government regulation, subsidies, or game-rigging, (2) government should be impartial to different kinds of businesses, (3) government ‘business’ or ‘development’ efforts are often self-promoting efforts of officials, bureaucrats, and hangers-on who are parasitic of public…
City, Development, Marketing
One Reason a Comprehensive Marketing Plan Can’t Work (Now) in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s talk, about every six months or so, about launching a comprehensive marketing plan for Whitewater. (This must be version 17.0 by now.) I’ll set aside the problem of past efforts at marketing the city dishonestly, as though prospects were too dim to see through blatant exaggerations or omissions about life in town. (See, The…
City, Culture
The Fragmented Audience
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater’s a small town, but it has more than one culture within its nine square miles. (There’s a separate issue, suitable for another time, about whether it’s legitimate to have more than one culture or method from Whitewater’scity government. It’s not; unlike diverse private life, a representative government cannot legitimately allow its officials and employees…
City
Meteorology
by JOHN ADAMS •
Meteorology’s just the study of the atmosphere. Along the way toward of a better explanation of the atmosphere, however, comes the hope that an understanding will improve prediction: that we’ll not simply know, but know beforehand. Writing about a place like Whitewater – if one really tries – should be a mixture of both principled…
City, Law, Local Government
A Game It’s Not
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a story in the Gazette about a Janesville resident who’s looking for a litigation fund to support lawsuits against the City of Janesville. See, subscription req’d, Citizens group wants to mount legal offensive against City Hall. The story’s too funny – it’s part overwrought idea, and (I would guess) part effort of the Gazette…
City, Local Government, School District
The Bigger the Project, the Greater the Need for Substantive Justifications
by JOHN ADAMS •
It seems – to most people, I’d guess – that to say ‘the bigger the project, the greater the need for substantive justifications’ is simply reasonable and practical. In almost all public efforts, municipalities, school districts, and other public bodies should Lead Substantively, and Support Fiscally. The best way to win big is usually a…
City, Politics
How Conservatives Ruined Conservatism in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
There are plenty of conservatives in the City of Whitewater, a small rural town, that’s home to a medium-sized campus within the city limits, and is principally located in conservative Walworth County. In many ways, this rural town should be mostly conservative, mostly Republican, campus notwithstanding. After all, Walworth County is hardly a liberal place.…