Post 7 in a series. 3.16.15 Wastewater & Waste Importation Presentation to Whitewater Unified School District from John Adams on Vimeo. Jump ahead almost fifteen months, from 12.3.13 to 3.16.15, and City Manager Clapper and Wastewater Superintendent Reel are at the Whitewater Unified School District. Months later, and millions in spending requests, but still lots…
Health
City, Health, Waste Digesters, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN
Question Bin
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
Post 6 in a series. A list of questions, updated as new ones arise, from When Green Turns Brown. Find this post, and you’ll have found all the questions from the entire series as they’re added . (Every question in this series has a unique number, assigned consecutively based on when it was asked. All…
City, Health, Local Government, Waste Digesters, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN
Parsing a Presentation (12.3.13)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Post 5 in a series. What happens when one looks closely, line by line, and sentence by sentence, at a municipal presentation? Last week, I gave an overview of a 12.3.13 presentation on a plan to use Whitewater’s digester to import waste from other cities into Whitewater. Today, I’ll go through that presentation closely, and…
City, Government Spending, Health, Waste Digesters, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN
Looking at the 12.3.13 Digester Presentation
by JOHN ADAMS • • 7 Comments
Post 4 in a series. 12.3.13 Whitewater WI Common Council Digester Importation Discussion from John Adams on Vimeo. I promised last week a look at the December 3, 2013 digester presentation, from Whitewater’s Wastewater Superintendent Tim Reel, and City Manager Cameron Clapper. In that presentation (not so long ago, only about a year-and a-half) and…
Health, Misconduct
The Tragedy of Dr. Oz
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Dr. Mehmet Oz is a cardiothoracic surgeon and vice chairman of the surgery department at Columbia University’s medical school. Most people know him, sadly, as a celebrity, television star, or as a promoter of quack remedies. Other prominent physicians across America, at leading institutions, have had enough of the embarrassment that Oz’s sales pitches are…
City, Good Ideas, Government Spending, Health, Hip & Prosperous, Planning
Arguments on Cost & Flexibility Under a Complete Streets Ordinance
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There are two questions that I promised yesterday that I would take up today about the Complete Streets ordinance recently passed at Council on 1.20.15. The first is whether the draft ordinance was flexible enough, and the second about the costs of new roads or reconstruction that would include sidewalks or bike paths. I read…
Business, City, Cycling, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, Health, Hip & Prosperous, Local Government, Planning
The Common Council Session for 1.20.15: Complete Streets
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I posted briefly yesterday on Tuesday’s Common Council meeting, and in that post mentioned that I would look a bit more at some of the remarks for, or against, the Complete Streets ordinance that passed Tuesday night. (I supported the ordinance.) Council discussed this issue previously, on December 16th. See, Common Council 12/16/2014. I’ve included…
City, Cycling, Development, Economy, Good Ideas, Health, Hip & Prosperous, Planning
In Support of the Complete Streets Initiative for Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
This Tuesday, January 20th at 6:30 PM, Common Council will consider a Complete Streets ordinance (item O-3) for Whitewater. A Complete Streets program simply requires planners to consider bike and pedestrian travel, for example, when either building or reconstructing streets within our city. (I listened closely to discussion of the idea at our 12.16.14 Common…
City, Government Spending, Health, Waste Digesters
The Wastewater Facility Upgrades and a Digester
by JOHN ADAMS • • 5 Comments
On Tuesday night, Common Council heard the proposed cost of wastewater upgrades ($18.7 million) and the separate possibility of large digester. Let’s be clear about what a big digester’s “solids treatment” truly is: a process of importing other cities’ unwanted manure, human excrement, and industrial filth into Whitewater. A few quick comments, as there is…
Health, Lifestyle, Nature
The Health Benefits of Going Outside
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Animals, Health
Why It’s Hard to Swat a Fly
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
It’s not easy to swat a fly. Although almost brainless by human standards, recent observations at the University of Washington reveal that flies have “well-developed, rapid-firing sensory motor circuits [useful] in order to register and respond to the visual threat of predators so fast and effectively.” See, Fruit flies show why swatting at flies is…
Animals, Health, Poll
Friday Poll: Australian Has a Beer After a Snake Bite
by JOHN ADAMS • • 6 Comments
Crime, Health, Walworth County
The Long, Hard Roads
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Over at the Gazette, there’s a story entitled, Walworth County officials hope drug court for heroin addicts will start in June (subscription required). The story, from reporter Andrea Anderson, is about a hoped-for program of rehabilitation for heroin addicts. The program would apply to Walworth County residents, addicted to, and charged with possession of, heroin. If…