This is the ninth post in a series considering related local topics of cultures & communications within the city. Alana Semuels asks Could Small-Town Harvards Revive Rural Economies? Her contention, as she succinctly describes it: College campuses and educational institutions can bolster the economies of small towns that otherwise would be struggling like many…
Culture
City, Culture, Demographics, Local Government, Politics
Whitewater, Cultures & Communications, June 2017 (Part 8: Nearby)
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the eighth post in a series considering related local topics of cultures & communications within the city. Just beyond the Whitewater proper lie several towns that form the rest of the Whitewater Unified School District. They play a key role in life within Whitewater, far beyond school policies. A few observations: The New…
City, Culture, University
Whitewater, Cultures & Communications, June 2017 (Part 7: How It Was Supposed to Be)
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the seventh post in a series considering related local topics of cultures & communications within the city. Consider the contemporary town-gown conditions in Whitewater. Here I am referring to present-day conditions, over the last ten or fifteen years. Part of the solution to this, surely, was meant to come from university-connected residents serving…
City, Culture, Demographics
Whitewater, Cultures & Communications, June 2017 (Part 6: Divided)
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the sixth post in a series considering related local topics of cultures & communications within the city. Years ago (in 2010), I wrote of a red-blue divide within the city, where some elections favored red-leaning voters, and some blue-leaning voters. See, Why Whitewater Isn’t a Progressive City; Why Whitewater’s ‘Conservatives’ Hold the City…
City, Culture, Demographics
Whitewater, Cultures & Communications, June 2017 (Part 5: Working Age)
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the fifth post in a series considering related local topics of cultures & communications within the city. To love something truly is to see it clearly, with dry eyes. So if federal census data show that the largest group in the city – by far – is college-age residents 20-24 (5,300), and that…
City, Culture, Demographics
Whitewater, Cultures & Communications, June 2017 (Part 4: Demographics)
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the fourth post in a series considering related local topics of cultures & communications within the city. Take a look at impartial census data for Whitewater, from the federal government (using American Community Survey population estimates for 2016 now available, and otherwise 2015 measurements). Whitewater’s is a population that’s relatively young (where student-aged…
City, Culture, Local Government
Whitewater, Cultures & Communications, June 2017 (Part 3: Oasis)
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the third post in a series considering related local topics of cultures & communications within the city. So a blogger points out that the city’s population is mostly stagnant (with short-term decline), that the mean household income in the city is in decline, and that the city is beset with above-average child poverty…
City, Culture, Economy, Local Government
Whitewater, Cultures & Communications, June 2017 (Part 2: Population)
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the second post in a series considering related local topics of cultures & communications within the city. U.S. Census data show that Whitewater proper (the city) has stopped growing, and is, in fact, experiencing a population decline. From 2015-2016, the city lost about 1.1% of her population (168 people). Even over a longer…
City, Culture, Economy, Local Government
Whitewater, Cultures & Communications, June 2017 (Part 1: Introduction)
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the first post in a series considering related local topics of cultures & communications within the city. I’ll start with an introductory series of assumptions, some I’ll flesh out in greater detail in the series, but all of which state plainly my views. 1. In America’s current political climate, it’s national politics that necessarily…
Culture
What Makes Things Cool?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Although trends might seem completely random, there are well-documented patterns to what becomes popular. A 20th century industrial designer [Raymond Loewy], who created some of America’s most iconic looks, developed a theory of coolness that has been backed up by various scientific studies. Derek Thompson, senior editor at The Atlantic, explains the science behind why…
Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville, Politics
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 14 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the final post in a series considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. I can happily recommend Goldstein’s book, both for the tale it tells of a single city’s struggle after an auto plant closes, and for what readers may reasonably infer about a none-too-bright boosterism that has left Janesville (and other cities) divided…
Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville, Politics
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 13 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the thirteenth in a series of posts considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. In this post, I’ll cover one chapter of Part Six (2013) of Janesville (Chapter 54, A Glass More Than Half Full). Goldstein’s 54th chapter describes a 2013 dinner of Forward Janesville (a local “business alliance hell-bent on reviving the city’s economy”). Someone at…
Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville, Politics
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 12 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the twelfth in a series of posts considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. In this post, I’ll cover one chapter of Part Six (2013) of Janesville (Chapter 50, Two Janesvilles). Amy Goldstein is not, by style of writing, a polemicist (something that might be said, for example, of a blogger). Yet, for it all, she knows…
Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville, Politics
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 11 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the eleventh in a series of posts considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. In this post, I’ll cover one chapter of Part Five (2012) of Janesville (Chapter 47, First Vote). Amy Goldstein’s chapter about the November 2012 presidential election is a study in contrasts, between the polling-place experiences of first-time voter and vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan. Goldstein’s…