At Tuesday’s Common Council meeting, there was a brief presentation from two board members of Downtown Whitewater (DTWW), with others from that group also in attendance. In the life of a small town, success of merchants matters greatly. (I’m opposed to pitting local independent merchants against local chain stores, but I very much support local…
Economy
Development, Economy, Film
What a Film About Janesville Really Says
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Much has been said about Brad Lichtenstein’s As Goes Janesville, and it’s usually about how the film depicts Gov. Walker. There’s much more to the film, though, and particularly interesting to me is how Janesville tries to entice a startup to locate in that city by offering millions in public incentives. The startup, Shine, promises a new…
City, Development, Economy, Local Government, Poverty
Assessing the Poverty Data for Our Area
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
On Friday, I posted on child poverty in our area. The Great Recession took a toll on many cities, but undeniably so in ours: from 2007 to 2011, the number of children aged 5 to 17 in families in poverty rose from 9.89 to 17.9%. The number nearly doubled. Beyond that group, state measures classify an…
City, Economy, Poverty
A City’s Most Important Economic Measure
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Yesteday, I asked, “What’s Whitewater’s Economy?” If it should be true – and it is – that a genuine economic discussion is more than a budgetary one, then what economic measures should matter most? There’s no single measurement that explains it all, but what would one say about an economy if one were compelled to pick…
City, Development, Economy, Government Spending, Local Government, Taxes/Taxation
What’s Whitewater’s Economy?
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Like many others, I read the news each day, about our city, online and in print. When one reads about Whitewater, of its local government, one likely reads about one of two topics: (1) the city or public schools budgets, or (2) municipal development projects. They’re both important, sometimes very much so, but they’re only…
Business, City, Development, Economy
Today in Whitewater: Business Improvement Districts Workshop @ 6 PM
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
City, Development, Economy, Laws/Regulations, Planning, Zoning
No Resolution
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There was a Planning Commission meeting last night, and the principal topic was a proposal to extend a zoning overlay on North Fremont from the existing overlay in the Starin Park neighborhood (those few streets to the west of Fremont, and between Main and Starin). The zoning overlay would prohibit more than two unrelated persons…
City, Development, Economy, Government Spending
Council and the East Gateway Project
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Earlier this week, among other topics, Common Council considered additional spending, amounting to hundreds of thousands, for burial of lines underground as part of the two-million-dollar East Gateway project. City Manager Clapper presented his summary of the benefits of the underground installation, of the alternatives, and his recommendation to spend additionally for the installation. There’s…
Economy, Federal Government, Gluttony, Government Spending, Local Government, State Government, Taxes/Taxation, Walworth County, Wisconsin
The Crazy-Wrong Argument on Taxes
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
A succinct truth: money doesn’t grow on trees. Local government funds municipal projects in one of three principal ways: through local taxes & fees, local borrowing (debt in the form of bonds), or public money from other jurisdictions (grants from the state or federal government). These grants of state or federal public money are, themselves,…
CDA, City, Economy, Gov. Walker, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Technology
The New Whitewater Start Up Grants (in Proper Perspective)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Whitewater’s Community Development Authority has been working on a seed capital fund (working on this fund for some time), and today the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation has announced a $150,000 matching contribution to the CDA, and two grants – each in the amount of $10,000 – for entrepreneurs from that fund. The matching grant from…
Economy, Immigration, Libertarians, Liberty
Immigration as Voluntary Exchange
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
It’s not only markets in capital and goods that should be free. It’s markets in labor, too. What’s immigration, at bottom? It’s a voluntary and peaceful transaction between employer and employee. Government interference in these many transactions is presumptuous, oppressive of individuals, and stifling of economic growth. One hears, more often since Gov. Romney’s defeat,…
Economy, Free Markets
Free markets as the secret to Sweden’s success?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Yes, Sweden. And yes, they have been, as Stefan Karlsson observes: …Sweden during its most free market oriented era, from 1870 to 1950, had the highest rate of per capita economic growth in the world. After massive tax and spending increases during the 1950s and 1960s, Sweden stopped outperforming other countries….However, free market reforms implemented…
Economy, Free Markets, Labor
Immigration Myths
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
City, Economy, Local Government
Differing Accounts
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
From the Janesville Gazette, June 5, 2012: Brunner credits team effort for successes at Whitewater. From the Daily Union, August 22, 2012: Whitewater council mulls dismal budget assumptions. One might try to reconcile these accounts, of course, but the effort would be pointless. The former’s just an odd history, an ill-timed goodbye gift to Whitewater’s…