Yesterday’s post, The Winnowing Transition, offers thoughts on the last several years in Whitewater, and a look ahead to the next several. The key point is that we’re in a transitional time, where many who were politically prominent a decade ago no longer are, and few who are prominent now will come through the next…
Local Government
Culture, Local Government
Attack of the Dirty Dogs
by JOHN ADAMS •
Edgerton, Wisconsin once hosted a Harry Potter Festival; the event organizers then decamped to Jefferson, Wisconsin where the festival was held this past weekend. A lengthy story in the Daily Union describes the history of the festival (“From Edgerton to Jefferson, fantasy event apparates to new home“). In that…
City, Culture, Local Government, Politics
The Same Ten People Problem (Revisited)
by JOHN ADAMS •
In a presentation from September on the state of the city (really meaning the state of Whitewater’s municipal government), City Manager Cameron Clapper tackled again the ‘Same Ten People Problem’ (STPP), where only a few people participate in municipal meetings, etc. One can find the full video presentation below; Clapper’s remarks on the STPP appear…
Babbittry, Bigotry, City, Law, Liberty, Local Government, Trump
The Somber Trio
by JOHN ADAMS •
Among the most serious harms are those to liberty and physical well-being. One can compensate adequately for many injuries, but damages at law are slight compensation for lost liberties and physical injuries. We’ve a new national environment, in which actions once impermissible are now encouraged, and redress once required is now no longer recognized. If…
City, Laws/Regulations, Local Government
Amendments, Canaries, Coal Mines
by JOHN ADAMS •
Embed from Getty Images I wrote yesterday about two proposed amendments to Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission ordinances (Items O-1 and O-2 on the 10.3.17 Council agenda). See Amendments Concerning the Landmarks Commission. Last night, Council unanimously passed O-1, and amendment O-2 died for lack of a…
Laws/Regulations, Local Government
Amendments Concerning the Landmarks Commission
by JOHN ADAMS •
Even during the most difficult national conditions, there are likely to be local conflicts. A dispute in Whitewater over the powers of the city’s Landmarks Commission is one such conflict: a purely local matter. Proposed changes to Whitewater’s Municipal Code, Title 17, Landmarks Commission, are before Common Council tonight. See Whitewater, Wisconsin, Municipal Code §…
City, Local Government, Planning, Politics
The Erosion of Political Norms (Part 2 in a Series)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater, as with other Wisconsin cities and towns, has a Planning Commission. Like some towns (but not others), Whitewater by practice places a member of one commission (let’s say, Parks & Rec) on another commission (let’s say, Planning): a representative of one commission to another. So a person might be appointed to serve on the…
America, Local Government, Open Government, Politics
The Erosion of Political Norms (Part 1 in a Series)
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the first in a series about the erosion of local political norms. In a recent essay on national politics, E.J. Dionne Jr., Norm Ornstein, and Thomas E. Mann write of How the GOP Prompted the Decay of Political Norms (adapted from their book One Nation After Trump): President Trump’s approach to governance is unlike that…
Alt-Right, America, Assault Awareness & Prevention, Babbittry, Bigotry, Conflicts of Interest, Local Government, School District, University
Priorities: Fighting Bigotry Over Babbittry
by JOHN ADAMS •
Common men and women can learn from the examples of great men and women. In this way, one can learn how to prioritize between concurrent challenges, applying lessons from a prior and intense conflict even to present but lesser conflicts. Some threats are worse than others, and so our it’s reasonable that one places more…
City, Development, Local Government, Planning
Hotel Preliminaries
by JOHN ADAMS •
Whitewater’s full-service grocery closed in 2015, and then the UW-Whitewater Foundation bought the property. (Premier Bank, successor to Commercial Bank, has a 5% interest in the property.) A developer from Minnesota, having been unsuccessful in a project near the center of town, now proposes purchasing the former grocery building & lot, and constructing a Fairfield…
America, Art, City, Culture, League of Women Voters, Liberty, Local Government
‘Fortunate’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Norman Rockwell wasn’t the finest painter of the twentieth century (to express the matter gently), but at least when he created a painting capturing the spirit of free speech as one of Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms, he understood speech as a right, not a privilege, lucky break, or favor from government. So it is with government,…
City, Local Government
One City, Two Presentations of the Same Regulation (Follow Up)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Last week I wrote about the differences between a City of Whitewater announcement and the Whitewater Banner‘s reworking of that same message. See One City, Two Presentations of the Same Regulation. A local reporter shared some thoughts with me about the relationship between the municipal government and the Banner. My main contention was that the…
Alt-Right, America, Babbittry, Bigotry, City, Culture, Liberty, Local Government, Politics
The Existential (Imagined and Real)
by JOHN ADAMS •
It was Michael Anton (writing as Publius Decius Mus) who exactly one year ago famously declared that 2016 was “The Flight 93 Election,” an existential fight for survival for state-loving conservatives: 2016 is the Flight 93 election: charge the cockpit or you die. You may die anyway. You—or the leader of your party—may make it…
Local Government, Politics, Trump
Trump’s the Failure We Always Knew He Would Be
by JOHN ADAMS •
Writing in the Journal Sentinel, Craig Gilbert finds that Donald Trump has squandered chance to broaden base, increase popularity, polls show: “He’s done nothing to expand his base and, if anything, he’s sort of where he was, or experiencing greater erosion,” says Lee Miringoff, who conducted polls this month for NBC/Marist in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania that showed Trump with…