The first part of this topic appears separately, in the preceding post. In this post, I will consider more of Whitewater City Manager Brunner’s published remarks, from a February 8th story entitled, “Whitewater Tech Park advances; panels to study second building.” A Unique Design. Here’s Brunner, remarking on the building’s supposedly unique character: “We are…
Innovation Center/Tech Park
City, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Planning, Press Release
On the Innovation Center’s Anchor Tenant, Part 2
by JOHN ADAMS •
An official’s weak arguments don’t become better or more convincing on repetition. On the contrary, stubborn repetition only reveals additional errors and mistakes, offering more opportunities for a robust critique. Last week, I wrote about the selection of CESA 2, a taxpayer-funded agency, as the anchor tenant for Whitewater’s upcoming Innovation Center, a taxpayer-funded and…
City, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Planning, Press
On the Innovation Center’s Anchor Tenant
by JOHN ADAMS •
Small-town Whitewater is spending about eleven million dollars in federal money and municipal debt for a Technology Park, with a showcase Innovation Center. The amount is more than the annual budget of the city, and it’s federal deficit spending, and municipal public debt, that will make this project possible. (Note: I will comment generally on…
City, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Planning
On Second Thought, Maybe We Do Need an Innovation Center in Town…
by JOHN ADAMS •
I have had doubts about a multi-million dollar Innovation Center and Tech Park for Whitewater, Wisconsin. The costs are certain and rising, the benefits uncertain, and the city’s planning shifts from one Big Thing to another, like a series of teenage fads. Here’s what the Innovation Center is supposed to look like: Impressive,…
City, Innovation Center/Tech Park
Whitewater’s Choice: Rock Star or Brain Surgeon?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
City, Innovation Center/Tech Park
Measuring Progress in a Small Town (or any other place)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
City, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Planning
The Next Big Thing
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
You may be sure that these days are scarcely ordinary – we are on the cusp of the extraordinary, the exceptional, and innovative. Nearly a month ago, Whitewater broke ground on a taxpayer-funded tech park, along a street renamed Innovation Drive, beside our existing business park. There was a brief ceremony, filmed for those who…
City, Innovation Center/Tech Park
A Drive By Any Other Name…
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
It’s in Romeo and Juliet that Shakespeare gave the world the observation, from Juliet’s lips, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet.” Well, it’s time to brush up your Shakespeare, because Whitewater’s renamed Corporate Drive as ‘Innovation Drive’ for the new technology park to…
City, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Planning
Whitewater at the Trough
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’m sure someone has a story to tell about how one of his Scandinavian ancestors swam across the Atlantic, hiked through the forests and prairies of America, and helped found this city with his bare hands. It’s just another version of the commonplace, “when I was a child…” stories one hears from crusty old relatives.…