People in small towns, nearly everywhere in this country, have access to national programming & news on television and online. As easily as one could subscribe online to something like the Janesville Gazette, one could subscribe to the Chicago Tribune or Washington Post. Imagine, then, a choice between editorials in the Gazette and the Post…
Economy
City, Economy, Local Government, University
How a Campus Masks Local Mistakes
by JOHN ADAMS •
Many small towns, looking for something to attract visitors and newcomers, probably dream about the possibility of a college campus. Whitewater has a public university campus, and the majority of the city’s residents are students at that school. Thousands of students in the city assure a steady stream of retail traffic we would not otherwise…
City, Economics, Economy, Education, Immigration, Trump
Anti-Immigration Measures, Wrong Yet Again
by JOHN ADAMS •
Embed from Getty Images An anti-immigration position is for economics something like a flat-earth position would be for natural science: one may hold it only through either ignorance or disorder. (The ignorance would have to be profound, as even the weakest grasp of economics would incline a rational person to acknowledge the benefits of a…
City, Culture, Economy
Whitewater, Cultures & Communications, June 2017 (Part 11: ‘Fiestas and Apple Orchards’)
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the eleventh post in a series considering related local topics of cultures & communications within the city. In the Wall Street Journal, Pennsylvanian Crispin Sartwell writes of Fiestas and Apple Orchards: Small-Town Life Before Trump (“My corner of Pennsylvania was thriving again—until immigration agents began carting people away”): I live in York Springs,…
City, Culture, Economy, University
Whitewater, Cultures & Communications, June 2017 (Part 9: Small-Town Harvards)
by JOHN ADAMS •
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…
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…
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…
Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville, Politics
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 10 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the tenth 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. Goldstein writes of the broader events of 2012 (the Recall election, Ryan running for vice president) and others that are more intensely individual (a graduate of a retraining program takes her own life…
Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville, Politics
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 9 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the ninth in a series of posts considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. In this post, I’ll cover remaining chapters from Part Four (2011) of Janesville. Part of this story is well-known to Wisconsinites: Gov. Walker introduces a Budget Repair Bill (since its enactment into law now-universally called Act 10 by Wisconsinites), Democratic senators leave…
Babbittry, Books, Culture, Economy, Janesville
Considering Janesville: An American Story (Part 8 of 14)
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the eighth in a series of posts considering Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story. In this post, I’ll cover one chapter from Part Four (2011) of Janesville (The Ambassador of Optimism). I’ll cover the chapter in detail because it’s so perfect in its account of boosterism, as though Sinclair Lewis’s protagonist George F. Babbitt overtook a Janesville resident and…