Anyone betting locally on the supposed prestige and success of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation has placed a bad bet. That corrupt and incompetent agency is in the news yet again for its failures and lies: WEDC award recipients outsourced Wisconsin jobs to foreign countries — WKOW 27: Madison, WI Breaking News, Weather and Sports…
City
City, Local Government
Administration, Council, and the ‘Tenth Man Rule’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Prompted from a recent written exchange, here’s a post on the relative suitability of the ‘Tenth Man Rule’ for different parts of a local government. The Tenth Man Rule is simply the idea that “if nine in authority agree on a course of action, it’s the duty of the tenth to adopt a contrary approach,…
City, Film
Film: Wednesday, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Kon-Tiki
by JOHN ADAMS •
Business, City, Development, Government Spending, Local Government, Planning
Local Government’s Vendor Problem
by JOHN ADAMS •
The risk of reliance on a big outside vendor for a big project in a small town is easily described: The vendor will be everywhere initially, will purr contentedly during work, but disappear quickly after the final check clears. It will want the money, will say anything to get it, but without any respect for…
City, Development, Open Government
Show Your Work
by JOHN ADAMS •
#172284535 / gettyimages.com We’re in a new round of big-project proposals for Whitewater. Here’s a suggestion, that this municipal administration would do well to follow, for any large-scale proposal: (1) Release any feasibility study, analysis, or performance contract on the city’s website a month (thirty calendar days) before Council consideration. (2) Hold a public hearing…
City
Feasting on Wholly Unjustified Insecurities
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Development, Government Spending, Local Government
Why Not Build Another Los Angeles (by the Bridge to Nowhere)?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Typical Los Angeles Resident Los Angeles is America’s second-largest city, and is world-renowned for her diverse economy and global role in commerce, entertainment, and art. All its people are reputed to be exceptionally beautiful, talented, and clever (at least by their own, uniform accounts). If Los Angeles should be so valuable – and it is…
City, Politics
Looking to Rehabilitate Someone Politically? You’re Going to Need a Better Patient
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ve written previously of one of my favorite political quotes, from Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt was asked if, somehow, Herbert Hoover might play a role after Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt accurately assessed the impossibility of political rehabilitation: Not even the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor could bring Hoover back into the mainstream of official Washington, D.C. Within…
City, Development, Government Spending, Local Government
Public Spending on Infrastructure
by JOHN ADAMS •
A simple rule about public spending on infrastructure, that some forget, and others would prefer remained that way: adding infrastructure is only beneficial if a resulting economic gain (should there be one) is greater than the cost of its acquisition (capital, labor, etc.). There is no way around this. Just about everything one hears about…
CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Local Government, Marketing, Politics
‘The Future Writes the History of the Present’
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s an oft-repeated truism that the future writes the history of the present. That’s true in Whitewater as much as anywhere. It is a truth (like the most important truths) apart from both independent present-day commentary and contrasting, mendacious marketing and press-flacking. All the marketing in the world cannot shield against this simple question from…
Business, CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Politics, University
Local Crony Capitalism via the WEDC (and similar schemes)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater’s had a decades-long problem of a few town insiders manipulating government and public resources for their own private ends. That time is drawing to a close, but there are yet some years ahead in which aging, mediocre town figures will push their self-promoting lies. As their chief motivation is personal vanity and pride, they’ll…
City, Film, Good Ideas
Film: Today @ 12:30 PM at Seniors in the Park, The Great Beauty
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a screening today at 12:30 PM of The Great Beauty @ Seniors in the Park, in the community building. The 2014 winner of Best Foreign Film (at both the Academy Awards and Golden Globes) will be shown in Italian with English subtitles. The film runs two hours, twenty-two minutes in length and is rated…
City, Crime
An Evening Not Worth Having
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s video online from a security camera of two people stepping into the Birge Fountain, climbing on the statue, tugging on it until a piece comes off, and (presumably) stealing that piece. (For prior FW posts against vandalism, see The Crude Illegitimacy of Vandalism and Update: Vandalism, of Property and Opportunity.) Watching the video, it…
City, University
The Town-Gown Divide, Simply Illustrated (in Forty-Four Seconds)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater is a small town, of about fifteen thousand people. From east to west, the main road in town is about three miles long. Our town is lovely, but not a big place. For years, this small town has struggled with town-university conflicts, despite myriad committees, projects, task forces, and commissions. There’s no quicker illustration…